Freelancer
Highly polished and very beautiful it is – but will Freelancer satisfy the masses?
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Now the control system was hyped as one of the most innovative features of Freelancer and it most certainly is that. Eschewing the standard joystick controls for the universally present mouse, Digital Anvil have taken a bold step, one that is bound to be copied and refined. This system really works. The mouse is used to move the aiming reticule about and the standard WSAD keyboard layout is used to maneuver the ship. This in effect makes the whole game like an FPS in space and will allow those who are normally frightened of space-shooters to feel right at home. The controls do take a little getting used to if you are used to playing with a stick, but soon the extra benefits from the mouse system will outweigh any reservations due to the lack of a big rod to jerk around with. A simple tap of a key will morph your mouse back into its familiar role as a pointer, allowing you to click on any of the screens that populate the HUD. Need to target an outpost? Just click on it. Need to warp to that outpost? Just click on the warp icon. This system works so well I found it hard to imagine what it would be like to return to the menu-scrolling navigational torture of old. In fact it is so simple to fly around space that the player can be left with little to do as their ship flies from one nav-point to another. Combined with the tradelanes that connect all the popular spots and the warp gates that connect each system the player can be reduced to clicking on a nav-point and hitting a key in a succession of jumps until the destination is reached. Labour-saving to a degree there is still room for more automation, but I fear any more would have led to a game that gets dull even quicker.
The pointing abilities of the mouse will quickly be replaced by the many hotkeys, which like all of the controls are fully configurable, but to fly around with a few presses of the keys and deft sweeps of the mouse is a joy. When combined with the strafing facilities of the ships you can have a real blast sliding around asteroids and bases to close in on an enemy from behind. There is a good sense of being in control of a starfighter, which is unfortunately let down by some predictable and dull AI. The enemy ships at first seem to have some real bite and gusto to their attacks but it soon becomes apparent that most of these maneuvers are nothing more then the limits of the flight model; it’s depressing that once again most dogfights will often degenerate into nothing more then space-jousting. It is possible to get on the tail of an enemy and try to have a good scrap, but too often they will either boost away to make a u-turn for a frontal assault or bounce around in front of you off of your shields. Make no mistake, when you have a large melee on your hands the combat gets very tense and exciting, but the frequent small skirmishes get rather dull rather quickly. The combat also suffers from the Diablo influence, where the shooting is very much a clicky-click affair, where the space equivalent of health potions magically restore your shield and/or armour. While this does make fighting a powerfully quick experience with minimal faffing around trying to target enemies and shuffling ship systems to keep your craft in one piece, it also eventually becomes repetitive. And dare I say it, dumbed down. At times I felt like I was playing a glorified version of something like Missile Command or Minesweeper with extremely pretty pictures. Which is a real shame because the graphics really scream out excitement which the combat model cruelly swipes from your heart. Possibly I am being too harsh however, maybe every game can’t be as fun to fight in as the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games, but dammit, why couldn’t they have gotten this bit perfect?
Perhaps it was because there are non-violent ways to make your money. The three requisites of the Elite genre of games is combat, trading and exploration. The exploration side is nicely handled. There are five different major regions of space, each with a culture modeled on a nation of old earth. So we have German, British, American, Japanese and Spanish systems each with their own spacecraft and installation designs. The political undertones mirror that of the real world - parts of this game that I played as the tension in the Gulf rose seemed eerily similar in tone and intention to the actions of world leaders playing out on my TV screen. As I said before there are many interesting regions to fly through which keeps everything from looking uniformly black and uninteresting.
Comments
Have to agree with you Sam, the game had alot of promise (especially after the extremely long wait) but was let down by very repetitive game-play. The linear storyline itself I also found a constraint as nearing the end (roughly lvl17) I found I was forced into simply following the plot and had no chance to bail out to make money for more supplies which dampened my enthusiasm. Great promise, Big Let-down.
Roll on X-Universe.
Good review, you repeated my feelings exactly about Freelancer. The quests were too linear, but if your only interested in eye candy Freelancer is your game.
That race was darned tricky, reminded me of Mafia, whihc had the same problem of a race which stopped many cold.
I dont agree it's a good game not like starlancer but good,long /bbut good.
to everyone here complaining about the racing mission: SHUT UP. it is a challenge. if you are really that bad that you give up after the 2nd try though, heres what to do. WARNING!!! KINDA SPOILER AHEAD, CARRY ON READING ONLY IF HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE RACE MISSION.
1) buy the cavalier thats for sale in the battleship wossname. it is one of the most manouvorable (?) ships in the game.
2) activate your thruster for a second or two then power up your cruise engines.
3) ALWAYS look a ring ahead of you, so you can start turning quickly.
4) it dosent matter if you dont overtake Hovis yet, cos at the last 3 or 4 rings, he will stop to activate the weapons platforms. they shouldnt give you too much trouble, so ignore them.
5) soon, Hovis will start moving again but as long as you havent missed or hit a ring sofar, you should already be at the finish line. YOU HAVE WON.
[/spoiler]
There is loads to do on this game its so cool!
amen, freelancer is one of the best space simulations ive seen... exept of course for Tachyon The Fringe by Novalogic
the game is beautifull but the controls without a possibility of being able to use a joystick is unnatural for this kind of game
this was a big waste of my money and still hope there will be space shooters coming soon like when tachyon,the fringe , starlancer or the wing commander series came out
I'm still looking for the eye candy everyone speaks of. Freelancer in my opinion fails dismally in the visual design department. (yes, with all options turned on and at 1600x1200) While stations are ugly but serviceable, the ship designs are horrid to the point of making one want to gouge out their own eyes. Suffering not only low poly models but purely amaturish design, I would have rather toured space in a short yellow bus with rocket pods. On the other hand, some of the celestial effects are wonderful and truly some of the best since Freespace. When compared to recent space titles such as Hegemonia, IWAR 2, or the stunning Eve - if Freelancer is good eye candy, I'll take a poke in the eye instead.
Freelancer has earned a good solid - meh.
This was one of the biggest waste of my time and money. I got hung up in the darn race, and have not played since. I am really in need of a good space game.
Bought the game. Had to do a little tweaking on my system ie updated driver for video card (even though system is new) to get it to play right. Certainly enjoy the play. Race scenario very challenging. Would rate highter than 75% maybe 85%. Think multiplayer would be great if any of the game zones would support. Reviewer said dogfights got a little dull and with a good ship the missions get easier once you become familar with the ship but toward the end of the game they are definitely tough and a challenge. So all in all, I believe this game is a winner!
Very good review, I totally agree that this game lacks soul. I wish to hell they'd released a mission editor so that at least the community could have built what the game sorely lacks, i.e. random missions.
Now X2, there's a game to wait for....
I think the reviewer was a bit harsh with 75%.
I've played the demo, but I couldn't get use to the controls. I look around the option for ages trying to enable my Saitek ST330 rumble force. When I did some research on the internet I found out that there was joystick support for the game. I was dumb struck to say the least I thought 'how can you make a space sim and leave out joystick support?!?'
They could have a least left it as an option i.e turn joystick support on and off, and leave the gamer to make the choice over which controls they prefer.
I hope this issue is cleared up with a patch or something because until then I won't buy this fantastic looking game.
i am really disappointed for not being able to use joystick. Microsoft tried to develop games of many different sorts lately but they have fully understood what gamers need.
i uninstalled the game once i realised the game does not support joystick.
i used to play a lot (wing commander1,2,3,4,5 and many other games)
mouse controlling of a ship is a disgrace to the game
I liked this game a lot! When is number two coming out?
Anyone else have problems with their Cruise Engines spontaneously restarting in the middle of the race with Horvis?
Just to add to some of the graphics: I think they are great. Seriously, in some of the other games, they're ships are all smooth and rounded. How in hell can mankind get those sort of ships in that time frame. Freelancers ships are kind of blocky, so what! It fits in the human time line. The alien Artifacts are not sort of believable, but what do you expect from a video game?
I have the same problem whit the race.
HOW IN HELL CAN I WIN if the friggin engines stop themselves ?????
Gettin throught the rings isnt hard at all, you just need to have a sight slighty better than a blind person and consider perspectives, but you CANT win if you stupid ship gets moody and stops cruise speed for christ sake !
Great game. I will agree with a good bit of the review. Mostly on the audio, and