Wing Commander: Privateer
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
Total Freedom! Choose your career. Make your own destiny.
The Good
The freedom to do what I want, when I want, the way I want, and for as long as I want to! If I want to be a pirate... I can. If I want to be a merchant... I can. If I want to be a mercenary... I can. And so on. The only thing I don't understand is why they haven't re-made this game with better graphics and why Privateer II was such a step backward. If they has stuck with this same game and just improved the graphics... they would have had a sure-fire winner.
The Bad
The graphics are very old. I think they call it a 2.5D game engine instead of a 3D flight engine like most modern games of it's genre. If you can look past this though... it has unlimited enjoyable game play.
The Bottom Line
Space Sim that puts you in the role of fortune seeker. Though there is a core story, you are free to take the life of a merchant, mercenary, smuggler, pirate, military employee and more.
DOS · by Jesse French (2) · 2001
The Good
Privateer is a Unique game when it comes to games. Rarely do we see an open ended game where the storyline, is optional! wanna go around wasting Kilrathi, or Confed Hotshots, hey, go right ahead! but, the storyline is very rewarding, revelaing lots about the WC universe you never knew.
The Bad
Well, the fact that it requires a special boot up on my machine, so, check the Tips section....
The Bottom Line
Its a Free-Form space combat game, Highly Recommended, Just, stick them infront of the Game and tell them to play, remember the keys are slightly different to WC
DOS · by Chad Henshaw (27) · 2001
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.