space

I've only played the demo, and I must say, I'm already hooked! At first, much like everyone else, I was apprehensive about the lack of joystick support. ("What? They want me to fly with a MOUSE? That'll never work!) But, having tried it, after my first dogfight, I was convinced. It works, and it's fun. =) By default, the game has some strange key mappings (such as Shift-W to toggle Cruise mode), but those can be re-configured.

In my mind, this game is very much the logical successor to Privateer for the title of "My Favorite Space Sim". (Don't even talk to me about the horrible sequel)

My biggest gripe is that the enemy AI is, to put it bluntly, dumb as a post. Hopefully this has been fixed by release time (or will be addressed in a patch). Enemy ships don't so much dogfight as they afterburner out of weapons range, turn about and come back straight at you, guns blazing. If you attempt to follow, their buddies will invariably line up behind you and shoot your tail off. Every fighter I've gone up against so far has followed this exact same pattern.

Also, the non-story related NPC dialogue on the bases is...well, very repetitive and dull. The conversations follow a very simple script with little variation. Some variety would be nice.

And, finally, the commodities trading system is very primitive. Each commodity has a fixed price at each station. It would be nice if there was some price fluctuation to make life interesting. On the flip side though, the Neural Net interface is really nice, since it provides you with a list of all the commodity prices for every base you've been to, and lists what the current best price is, along with which bases sell a given commodity. That makes it easy to plan your trade routes.

Interestingly enough, THIS is the first game I've seen that I think could make it as a MMORPG. (I was unimpressed by Earth and Beyond) Having a large number of human players competing online would really help alleviate the first two issues. I can't wait to try the multiplayer! =)

As my title suggests, I actually own this game, so my review does not talk about the demo, or about what a friend told me, or whatever <like so many of these reviews seems to do>.

The game does not use a joystick - all movements are with your mouse. So, only people who can use a mouse should consider buying this game. For some people, this seems to be an issue - I did not find it a problem.

Overall, this game is very fun and really drew me in with the storyline and intuitive gameplay. Freelancer mixes elements of a trading game, a space combate/sim game, and an RPG. The RPG sequences reminded me in an odd way of *real* oldies like "Burn Cycle" and "Angel Devoid", which were cinema-based sci-fi story games most people probably don't remember. Other reviewers have detailed the plot, so I won't bother - suffice to say that it did keep my interest and really added to the game.

The game has 2 places where it really shines - one is "atmosophere", which is hard to define. When playing, the user interface, game graphics and sound really create a sense of future tech and add to a suspension of disbelief that can make you forget how long you've been playing. The other area is the game's attempt to be a "jack of all trades" by combining elements of many different game genres. For me, this was a real succeess and rounded out the world-building done by the developers. Gamers looking for a hard-core space sim should avoid this game, but if you are looking for a space game experience that is broader - albeit not quite as deep - Freelancer is a really good find!

Freelancer lives up to its name. Where others have failed, some miserably, Freelancer has not only succeeded, but raised the bar much higher for those to follow in its footsteps.
Even though this game has been ranked amongst the top pioneers, it does lack in some places, namely voice-acting, and planet environments.
The voice-acting is cheezy at best: characters in Britonia space will either speak in a fluent American accent, or an extreme stereotypical Enlgish accent. The action sequences contain dialogues that belong in the B-Movies.
The environments on the planets and other platforms (cruisers, trade platforms) are robust at first, as panels slide forth to help you repair and equip your ship, dealerships thrive with salespeople to help you buy a new spacecraft, and the ever present Bar presents the many possiblities of rumors, news, stock prices, and of course job listings. However, if you take into account the massive universe that this game puts together, the same formula applied to EVERY SINGLE planet begins to get a bit monotonous.
At the risk of seeming a bit too thankless for such a good game, I would suggest a bit more dynamic planet environment. Allow for some vehicles on the planet surface where the character is free to roam, just like in the space. This of course would add an extra dimension to the game (which is already immense), hence it would probably be easier to manage this by cutting down on the already present systems.
In conclusion, this game is awesome, a must-buy for ANY pc gamer, specially those who like Space Sims...All I have to say is, this is the first space sim I TRUELY enjoyed since Decent: Freespace...its positive aspects FAR OUTWEIGH any faults it may contain, including the ones I have mentioned.