Freelancer

S

SSquared

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I was posting a reply to a question "How is the game?" in another thread, but after my reply got too long, I decided to make a separate thread for it.

I hope to do a full blown review sometime later.

A preview will be going up soon on CCGR. Now that I have the full game...WOW!!!! There is a lot more added. There is a LOT more eye candy!!! The explosions look amazing. Lots of music. The storyline missions are VERY nice. You get to have battles flying around big cruisers. Lots of enemies. Friendly AI helping you out. The missions are just what you would expect from a nice space-sim. They look great and play very well.

In between each storyline mission (which actually span several mini-missions), you need to level up by taking on other jobs. These are essentially like the demo, and so can feel a little repetitive. They are not as intense as the ones in the storyline. Part of this may just be because they are early missions and I am already used to fighting the Level 1 & 2 fighters. But they also are not as involved as the main storyline missions.

I am currently in the middle of Mission #3.

The storyline has some mystery to it. Although I have read people saying the storyline is thin, I am rather enjoying it and finding out how things slowly unravel.

I have only played MP once and got thrashed. I took on a job that was too difficult. My own fault.

The demo is definitely a good indication of whether or not you will like the game. I did, and the full game is even better.

Best Buy has it for $35 this week (March 16 - 22).
 
Sounds sick. Wish I had a dvd player
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Oh, it's not a DVD. It's a single CD-ROM.

I didn't want to say too much in my original post because I want to save some for the final review.

There are times when you have LOTS of things flying around. On one mission, it seemed like there were 10 enemies, 4 friendly AI, two transports, a spacestation, and lasers shooting everywhere. And it didn't seem cluttered. It was just really neat.

I thought this was sort of lame. When I got enough money, I bought a new ship. It just so happened to be the same exact ship this guy King has. You work alongside him. So anyway, I finish my next mission and my leader tells me, "Now you have enough money to get a new ship and upgrade some weapons. Why don't you buy something like what King has." Gulp. As a developer myself (not games), I thought that was pretty lame. Even just the fact she told me to buy a ship after I had already done so. But that is easily forgiven, as it has almost no bearing on the gameplay.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (SSquared @ Mar. 19 2003,4:31)]There are times when you have LOTS of things flying around.  On one mission, it seemed like there were 10 enemies, 4 friendly AI, two transports, a spacestation, and lasers shooting everywhere.
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LOL, just wait until you get to the final missions.
 
How on earth did they manage to fit all that stuff on one cd?! Are you sure? When I went to the order site it said "Freelancer cd dvd" or something like that.
 
I just checked the MS/Freelancer site and it says: 8x speed or faster CD-ROM.

It also needs at least a 600 MHz machine.

Ask if you can open it in the store to be sure it's CD and not DVD.
 
Check out these screenshots I took. They are two screenshots of me in the Kusari system. Here is one picture with my wings completely blown off. The other picture shows you what the full spaceship looks like. I had a VERY hard time escaping my enemy. They kept using cruise disruptors. ARRRGGGHHH!!!! But…I made it back to Kyoto station in one piece. Actually, I think this was my third attempt on this mission.

For whatever reason, these screenshots look terrible. They came out really dark and blurry, when they should be bright and crisp. I guess I should have used Photoshop instead of Paint.
 
You could use PowerStrip. Its a program that allows you to maximize brightness from dark enviroment games. Guess you could say its alittle cheating, but HEY!, I have to use it cause I'm blind and scaried without it. (Alien vs predator is scarryyy.....in the dark
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At least YOU lose a wing.
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 I was a burning candle light when I got to New York, Manhantan.
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Btw, thats a dam good ship you got there, on that screenshot.  
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Well, the strange thing is, the screenshot is MUCH darker than what it really was like. I think it was actually an almost sky blue color.

Oh well. At least you get the idea.

The ship is a Barracuda. You can see all the weapons I've got loaded. And after that mission, I had enough money for a torpedo launcher, cause it sounded like I'd need one for the next storyline mission. I'm currently up to the mission where you need to destroy the arc. I've already failed once.
 
If your doing the one I think you are doing, just blow up the four generators near the top of the arc then dock with it. Never heard anything about blowing it up.
 
You are correct. You just need to blow up the shield generators. I haven't got back to it yet. I was out of town all weekend.
 
I got the game myself a couple weeks ago. It is awesome. If fact, I liked it so much that is all I really did for the last two weeks. I've gone through what they claim are all the missions for the campaign, but I keep wondering if it is just free play afterwards, or if there is some other campaign that I cannot find yet. My friends say that Privateer was like that and I know Freelancer takes after it a lot.

The game really keeps me playing it because I never know if I have found everything yet or not.
 
The game is quite good. I am really enjoying it myself. I think there are somewhere around 13 missions. I haven't yet completed the game, so I don't know for sure. I think I just finished Mission 8.

After the last storyline mission, you are free to roam around and take on whatever missions you want. The missions do seem to have a repetitive feeling to them. But there are apparently some hidden places and ships you can search for. They will supply you with some nice weapons and shields.
 
I agree, it can get repetative. Also, there are hidden things afterwards. There is a map you can download of the galaxy, but it is missing three systems. There is one system that really has me curious. I won't go any further because I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

But I will ask, for those who have gone through the campaign, is there any way to go back to the Alaska system? I cannot remember how many times I died trying to find that path through the mine field.

The only reason I want to go there is because, for the life of me, I cannot find where you can buy the Sunslayer Torpedo Launcher. I can find the ammo anywhere, but not the launcher... <beginning to frown> its starting to tick me off. Was it only on the Order battleship during the campaign or something?
 
I'm not sure how you get back to Alaska. There was a thread over on Lancers Reactor about this, but I never read it, since I didn't want any spoilers.

I just reached Alaska last night.

Hmmm, since I'm not too much further in the campaign, perhaps I should buy the Sunslayer now so I have it for later in the game. Oh, but does it fit on the Anubis, or is it too high a class? Maybe that's why I didn't buy it.
 
Woohoo! I finished the game tonight. What a total blast. The final missions are pretty intense. I'll be writing up a review soon. But I want to continue with the random missions and multiplayer aspect so I can give that some mention in the review.

The only bummer was the game is TOO SHORT. I completed it in 23 hours, and that was because I read every news report, all of Trent's logbook, and about the commodities, weapons, etc. I just did a lot of reading that's within the game. So I'm sure it was well under 20 hours. My goal is to get at least 30 hours out of the game, and I don't think that will be a problem. I am already 2 hours into my MP character, and I am really looking forward to finding new ships/weapons.
 
So, outside of multiplayer, is it possible to just have a continuous RPG-type game going that doesn't follow a set plot? Just something kind of randomly generated as you go along?
 
Yep. Two ways. The normal way is to finish the SP storyline, then you have free reign of the place. The 2nd way is to download a MOD which removes the storyline from SP.

But YOU still make the decisions of where to go. What planets, sectors, etc. The only random part of the game are the missions, and those all take place in the current system you are flying in. So, if you land on a planet and take a mission, the mission will not have you go to Planet A, then SpaceStation Z, into star cluster LMNOP...It will just have you fly out to a place in your current system, shoot down some baddies, and then you decide where to go next.
 
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