Privateer 2: The Darkening

The Good
The story is quite fascinating. It is also developed in an interesting way. The acting is not bad for a computer game, although it cannot be compared to real movies. Most of the motivation is caused by wanting to get money for new ships and equipment.

The Bad
The game design is not as good as in Privateer 1. There you were first in a solar system where nothing really bad could happen to you. In Privateer 2 you are in the same area all the time. That means that at the beginning you have to deal with the same amount of pirates as later and at the beginnig they are unbeatable. So you have to save your game everytime you leave a planet and hope you do not encounter any enemies. Another option would be invulnerability but it should be possible to play the game without it. In this game it is not. Always coming to the same planets all through the game also gets a bit boring. The space combat is also quite tiring sometimes. As you can only jump to the next NAV-point when there are no enemies around, you have to kill them all first. But if it takes you too long, more and more of them will arrive and attack you. I sometimes came in a situation I could not escape, because there was an unlimited number of pirates and it was not a mission but just an ordinary flight. I had one of the best ships and killed about 100 of them without being severely wounded, but after fighting this battle more than an hour I was just frustrated and I had to restore the game. And this happened to me several times!

The Bottom Line
The concept has been stolen from Elite and a story was added. It is a game from Origin's Interactive Movie period.

The Good
The CD had many uses:

-- Throw it like a frisbee (It could also be turned into one of those Chinese throwing stars with a little modification).

-- A coaster to set your coffee cup on while playing a good game.

-- If you're strapped for cash this holiday season, the CD makes a nice, shiny tree ornament.

-- If you're lost in the wilderness, you can use it as a signal mirror... it might save your life.

The Bad
CDs thrown like frisbees or throwing stars tend to shatter on impact, but there are two of them, so you'll have a replacement.

Seriously, though, this game is really, REALLY bad. The cut-scenes, although of decent cinematic quality, are cheesier than Monterey Jack. The game has absolutely nothing to do with the Wing Commander universe (the setting for the original Privateer). Instead, it's like a leech sucking up Privateer's good reputation in order to survive.

It didn't work.

The Bottom Line
In a word: crap.

The Good
For once, a full motion video game with decent actors. You've got John Hurt from Alien, Jürgen Prochnow from das Boot and even Christopher Walken. It's got a nice range of ships and weaponry (except perhaps for the Nuke'Em device which is a bit of an overkill) and an interesting plot-line.

The Bad
The game is not completely free of bugs, sometimes escort missions are virtually impossible to carry out and you run the risk of gnawing your own leg off in frustration before you manage to actually get it right. Also, the sound engineering/leveling is off the scale, it's often hard to hear what people in the game are saying because there's just too much background noise/music.

The Bottom Line
If you're into either space sims or full motion video, this game is something you should try to get hold of.