Wing Commander: Privateer
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Superspeed
(1996)
- Gift Pak (1995)
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Wing Commander: Privateer - CD-ROM Edition
(1994)
Description official descriptions
On the fringe of Human space, near the Kilrathi border, the industrial machine is running full-tilt to feed the war effort, and there is a lot of shipping - but also a lot of pirates, Retros (religious fanatics who want to destroy technology), military, militia, merchants, mercenaries, and privateers. In the darkness, a battle between ships has woken up something ancient, powerful, and deadly.
Wing Commander: Privateer is a space trading and combat simulation. The player assumes the role of a privateer. Start with the lowly scout, and upgrade to one of the three other superior ships: Galaxy (superior cargo space), Orion (superior protection), or Centurion (superior offense). Buy optional equipment such as armor, engines, shields, weapons, launchers for torpedoes/missiles, and more. Take on missions (multiple sources, from the cheapest mission computer, to fixers who has the toughest but most rewarding missions) and earn money for upgrades. Use spare cargo room to trade commodities to further add to the account. Missions can vary from search and destroy to Fedex (i.e. delivery) to bounty hunting, and more.
The game is set in the Wing Commander universe, but is more of a free-form game similar to Elite. While there is a central plot, the player can deviate from it somewhat and can continue playing the game after completing the main story missions.
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Credits (DOS version)
58 People (44 developers, 14 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 80% (based on 16 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 83 ratings with 14 reviews)
A fine "Elite" derivative, with all the WC flavor intact
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.
DOS · by Kasey Chang (4598) · 2001
The Good
The gameplay is immersive. This is one of the few games where it's more fun to avoid the main plot and just concentrate on exploring, trading, and upgrading your ship. Getting to play blockade runner with a hold full of illegal drugs by dive-bombing a planet on full-afterburner with a half-dozen confed ships on your tail is still possibly the most fun ever offered up in a WC game. Plus the idea of being able to switch "sides" at will between several competing groups is nice - it's theoretically possible to be allied to the pirates, the Kilrathi, and Confed all at once. And the music was some of the best MIDI work they had.
The Bad
The gameplay is blatantly ripped from Elite. I'm still amazed David Brabden didn't sue Origin - every aspect of the game EXCEPT the plotline is straight out of that classic, even down to most of the specific items you can trade in. Also, it got mind-bogglingly difficult towards the end of the plotline, with missions that took more than an hour to complete and far more bad guys than was really necessary. (and the add-on mission pack took that difficulty and upped it further. I know VERY few people who managed to complete it.)
The Bottom Line
Want to play Elite 3.0? Here ya go. Skip the plotline and just explore.
DOS · by WizardX (116) · 2000
Meets or exceeds all expectations of the time.
The Good
Just about everything. The gameplay mechanics were completely unique and gave an experience which has still yet to be replicated (unfortunately even with the sequel) of free roaming havok (though I've not personally played some of the space-based MMORPGs yet).
Kill enough merchants without killing pirates? Become a pirate. Pirates don't shoot you but the militia want you for dinner.
Kill enough (I believe its pirates) without touching bounty hunters... bounty hunters don't touch you.
Kill a merchant ship -- take his cargo and sell it.
The game requires an update for handhelds -- it has a fairly light load mechanically and you can play it just for 10 minute intervals if needed -- but gradually work towards ditching your Taurus for a Centurion with Mark5 sheilds kicking Kilirathi back to the top right quadrant.
The Bad
Very unforgiving if you accidentally hit the wrong person. You also can't really run it on modern machines. It desperately needs to be brought to consoles.
The Bottom Line
An addictive space sim which allows jumping from system to system. While you can simply autopilot from nav point to nav point -- its also possible to fly manual straight through the action.
Again, its free roaming and quick to put down nature makes it a perfect game for handhelds. Here's looking at you Sony and Nintendo!
DOS · by Phopo Jijo (1) · 2005
Discussion
| Subject | By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| disk 5 | John Sheehy | Dec 17, 2007 |
Trivia
Ending
When you finish the game, your character was having a conversation with the admiral... Then all of a sudden they started talking back and forth about the game and its creators!
Hidden game
There is a hidden text adventure. Information on how to access it can be found in the hint section.
Manual
Although Privateer's player's guide was quite run-of-the-mill compared to other Origin game manuals it did come with a short story. The Frontiersman: Interview With A Privateer was the account of an interview conducted to our very own Brownhair (with all names changed to protect the innocent, of course) and which told us his story to the point were he sets sail to the Gemini sector. The story also explains his relationship with the Retros and adds a more somber tone to the game, particularly to it's add-on, Righteous Fire.
Player character
According to an early Origin press release the player character (brownhair)'s name is Grayson Burrows.
System requirements
On the box of the German disk version of privateer there was as hardware minimum requirements announced a 386 DX with 25 MHz. But on the first pages of the manual suddenly they wrote that the minimum is a 386 DX with 33 MHz. From nowadays viewpoint, when clock speed is counted at hundreds, nothing important, but in 1993 this was rather annoying when you just owned a 25 MHz machine.
Awards
- GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 12/1999 - #59 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
Information also contributed by Benjamin Dunham, Kasey Chang, xcorn1602 and Zovni
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Related Sites +
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Privateer entry on Old Skool PC - Classics Reunited
Nifty site with lots of info on Wing Commander: Privateer. Game details, overview of all the ships in the game, stats on everything from weapons to commodities, the NavMap, list of planets and bases, mission walkthrough, desktop themes... even some soundtrack files. Also has some links to patches and editors.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by IJan.
Additional contributors: Terok Nor, test test, Zeikman, Patrick Bregger.
Game added February 19, 2020. Last modified January 19, 2024.