Freelancer

Moby ID: 8565
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Description official descriptions

The war between the Coalition and the Alliance depicted in Starlancer had raged on and the Alliance forces were losing. A final plan was organized to punch through the Coalition attackers and send five colony ships across space to the Sirius Sector. 900 years have passed since then and the Sirius sector has been colonized by the surviving ships, dividing the area between four major nations: Liberty, Rheinland, Kusari and Bretonia. The fifth sleeper ship, Hispania, suffered a malfunction in flight, and is thought lost. In the spacelanes between these nations borders and outside of any specific jurisdiction lie undeveloped solar systems, pirate bases, corporate outposts and the neutral Freeports. One of these Freeports has come under attack and been destroyed by an unknown enemy attack. Survivors of the attack, including a freelancer Edison Trent and his business associate, Lonnigan, are evacuated to Planet Manhattan, capital city of the Liberty nation. Once there Edison hears rumors about military buildups and friction between the Sirius nations. It will be up to Trent to seek employment, rebuild his lost assets and discover the meaning behind these rumors.

Freelancer is a third person or first person space simulator and trading game, much like Elite or Wing Commander: Privateer. Players, taking the role of Edison Trent, will need to visit several locations on each planet in order to trade cargo, buy and repair equipment as well as obtain information. In space, Trent controls his spacecraft from either a first person or third person perspective and is able to use primary and secondary weapons. Destroyed enemy spacecraft often leave behind cargo which can be tractor beamed into the cargo hold.

Freelancer is a plot-driven game that slowly becomes completely open-ended. As such the player (eventually) has the freedom to fly around 150 planets across 40 solar systems looking for profit. As Trent trades cargo and undertakes missions (following an expanding story arc), he will affect the faction status of over 50 different groups (comprising of 3000 NPCs). Faction status will affect their attitudes towards Trent, including interaction planetside and in space.

Spellings

  • 星際遊俠 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 自由枪骑兵 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

177 People (157 developers, 20 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 39 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 93 ratings with 9 reviews)

If you "loved" Wing Commander: Privateer, you will "Like" Freelancer.

The Good
Freelancer shines in the area of space battle and storyline. Playing Freelancer in multiplayer is a definite rewarding experience, it's not just about the best equipment, it really does come down to who is a better pilot.

The storyline was very well done, albeit a bit short. You have to reach a certain level before the next story mission will open up, so you are forced to run missions from bar patrons, and other personalities. These missions are HIGHLY repetitious. Even the conversations seem to be on a random generator of about 20 different sayings.

The game is pretty to look at, and the ship graphics still hold up at this late date. While it's certainly no longer pushing the cutting edge of graphics, it still holds up quite nicely.

I must admit that a lot of my good will towards this game, comes from its VERY strong similarity to Wing Commander: Privateer. One of my favorite games of all time.

I always end up coming back to Freelancer though, to get my "space" on. It is my favorite game for traveling through space and blowing things up.

The Bad
The non story-line missions are highly repetitious, and the conversations in the game have little variance. Although not important to most people, this game will not work in Linux (wine or cedega), no matter how hard I try. I hope someone proves me wrong some day. As it is a Microsoft game I won't hold my breath.

The Bottom Line
A very decent space simulation, that is pretty to look at and fun to play. The drawbacks don't completely overshadow the gameplay. If you are one who sticks to the storyline you will enjoy this game immensely, but if you are playing the game for the "freelancing" you will be mildly disappointed.

Windows · by uttergentile (12) · 2007

Such a long wait for this game and all in waste....

The Good
Not much I liked about it - the storyline was pretty good if typical - government abducted by aliens and sinister plot, but I liked it anyhow. Music was up to date also, can not say same about graphics at all times, but they were at least decent....

The Bad
Horrible experience for me. I expected something like Privateer reborn, but instead got more or less shooter, and on top of it - one you dont even require joystick to play with, so it feels like one of the free windows all-mouse games. Missions are way WAY too repetitive, only 3 kind exist - kill someone, destroy ship and capture escape capsule or kill all alltogether. I am talking about the random missions of course, 13 plot missions are fine - but 13 is such short number. People in bars talk in same sentences (and voices) - there is abundance of weapons, but unlike in Privateer where you could just feel difference between shooting laser and tachyon cannons, they feel all same. Even ships are same, with only difference that larger ships are making mouse slightly more clumsy to turn around, creation illusion of bulky ships. Its an Earth and Beyond, stripped down and called Freelancer and just like Earth and Beyond it gets very boring after relatively short time.

The Bottom Line
If you are old Privateer fan like me, dont get this one, better to dig out two old Privateer games or Elite ones, or even X-tension (or what was its name) or at least decent space shooter that doesnt pretend to be Privateer reborn. No hard feelings, Microsoft, but trying appease everyone in crowd never really worked out fine.

Windows · by Marina Shoykhet (6) · 2003

Not all the free-lancing one would expect...

The Good
Graphics were very nice and very detailed. Controls were extremely polished. Simple, yet functional and fit the game very well (not too many functions to memorize makes it easy to master). Being able to fight and trade for money and buy better ships/weapons is great, and this game allows it (to some extent). The universe is big and well-crafted.

The Bad
For the kind of game it set out to be it's way too linear. Being tied to the storyline means the game chooses when to upgrade your ship (you have to travel to certain systems and planets, and can't go back. And if you don't buy a specific kind of fighter the missions become impossible to pass). All the way, even when you're set free from the storyline after completing the final mission, the game suffers from a felling of "been there, done that", only the ships and weapons change names and get more expensive. There is no "aspiring for the dream-machine" in this one, and it takes out all the magic from it. Storyline is not good, yet well executed. But character interaction is ridiculous (again, suffering from the same problems as before).

The Bottom Line
Do not confuse this one with a Privateer-clone. It is a space simulation with a "freelancing" excuse. Look for other Privateer titles or a copy of Nomad, if trading and open-ended play is what you're looking for.

Windows · by tbuteler (3021) · 2003

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
88 Flak - Awesome Mod! John Doe Apr 21, 2009

Trivia

Intro (Spoiler!)

There's a previous version of the intro video. Alike the final release version, the intro told the story of how the Alliance was losing the war to the Coalition and launched five sleeper ships to the Sirius sector. Unlike the final version, the story continues where the Alliance retreated all the way to Pluto to make their final stand. Just when they were about to engage the Coalition ships, a large alien vessel appeared... and destroyed the Solar System! There was a young Alliance general who survived the destruction and headed to warn the colonists at the Sirius sector... saying that mankind has finally found their real enemy: The Nomads.

For certain reasons this version of intro was changed into the final release.

Mods

If you have issues with how controlled the jumpgates are in relation to the plot or how pirate shields never regenerate or how you never see battleships patrolling the spacelanes... then rejoice! There are player-made mods to address all these issues. New Systems, New Ships... even options to turn off the plot and explore the galaxy like a real freelancer. See related links for mod sites

References

In Freelancer you can talk to many, many people. Most of the time in bars. And all of them have names... sooooo many names had to be invented for all those people... why not take real names from real people, might have thought the designers and gave some people in the bars vip's names like Erin Roberts and Martin Galway. - There is one planet that mimics the movie Planet of the Apes and can be found somewhere in the Fringe system, but beware of the nomads there.

  • Before Freelancer's release, Bargib, aka Christian Koerner, a site admin of Freelancer fansite The Lancers Reactor, requested to be featured in the Freelancer release. He got his wish; the bartender on Planet New Berlin is named Christian Koerner.

Awards

  • E3
    • 1999 - Best of Show
    • 1999 - Best PC Game
    • 1999 - Best Simulation
    • 1999 - Outstanding Achievement in Graphics

Information also contributed by Arvin Chandra, tsukasagoeth, Twilightseer, WildKard and Zovni

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Related Sites +

  • Freelancer
    Official Website
  • Lancer's Reactor
    A good source for Star/Freelancer information and a growing collection of player-made MODs, editors and utilities.
  • Project UberLancer
    A Freelancer community wide project to build the ultimate Freelancer mod

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 8565
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Arvin Chandra.

Additional contributors: Rebound Boy, Indra was here, Felix Knoke, Shoddyan, 梦迪 高, Patrick Bregger.

Game added March 4, 2003. Last modified August 7, 2023.