Wing Commander: Privateer

The Good
The open-ended game with a plot that you can choose to follow, plenty of combat, plenty of trade commodities, plenty of weapon upgrades, multiple ships to choose from, random contracts

The Bad
A bit TOO repetitive at times, not enough "special missions" or surprises, no multiplayer (this would have been the ULTIMATE massive online RPG!), money easy to come by once you have enough capital

The Bottom Line
Privateer is Wing Commander's interpretation of Elite, the open-ended space combat/trading game.

Start with a small scout, the Tarsus, carry commodities from port to port to build up your capital, buy low and sell high. Upgrade your ship with better equipment, weapons, engines, and shields, even replace your ship with a better one! Make your way around the sector and discover adventure you never imagined... Choose multiple career paths... Be trader, smuggler, pirate, bounty hunter, or mercenary... The choice is yours! Take on contracts from multiple sources. Go to multiple types of planets (some systems have more than one) each with different amount of certain commodities for sale and want to buy. Once you get into the plot, enjoy certain special missions.

The graphics engine is an improved version of WC2 bitmap 3D engine with higher resolution and better displays and is quite adequate, providing good frame rates while having enough details. Sound is your typical excellent for Wing Commander series. The in-between mission briefing is your Origin "talking head" briefing similar to Strike Commander's interface, complete with "fixers".

The game was probably the most fun of all the WC games to play due to the open-ended nature of the universe. You can truly decide your destiny in this game, something that wasn't possible since.

The Good
It's fun to be a mercenary on the frontier of Terran space! You have the freedom to play this game whatever way that you like, whether you want to go pirate and attack helpless merchants, or perhaps you want to be a noble and peaceful merchant... it's up to you. You start in a dinky little ship without very good shields or firepower, so you get a great feeling of accomplishment when you finally get your new ship.
It's a blast to insult your enemies while killing them, too, and I do this every chance that I get.
Another plus is the huge variety of items that you can transport... everything from grain to slaves, provided you find the right base.

The Bad
There are a couple of things that could have been better... 1st, this game can get very, very hard. Also, if you ever use one of the cheat options during one of the game missions, you fail it and screw up the game. (So have backup copies of your game!) The last thing is that I wish there had been more ships available. It takes a long time before you can afford a ship, and then you might as well save your money for the Centurion... the best ship in the game if you want to beat it.

The Bottom Line
This is one of my favorite games in my collection.... and someday I'm going to beat it! But until then, it's still fun to play... and I think that's why this game is so well liked.

The Good
The two things I loved the most was the ability to break away from the plot to explore around and run random missions, and upgrading/buying your ship. It was always nice to make a bunch for bounty hunter runs or a little pirating to gain some extra credits without sacrificing the plot; you could pick it up where you left off. Also, being able to buy better equipment, weapons, and such for your ship gave a lot of incentive for making those extra runs. It also made flying a "hunk of junk" a little more interesting in the beginning.

The Bad
There were a few silly missions you had to complete for the plot to continue. The most annoying one was the dash you made from the alien ship to a confed base with the egg chasing you through the various asteroid fields. It was obviously doable, but annoying all the same to be running full speed through asteroid field through asteroid field.

The Bottom Line
It's an excellent diversion from the Wing Commander game without leaving the universe. You can follow the plot or go off and be a merchant, pirate, and/or bounty hunter......or do any combination thereof whenever you wanted to. You still have the Kilrathi to contend with from time to time while you are working your way through the plot. I felt it was a very refreshing perspective of the WC universe.