Anyone playing it? I've always had a bit of a leaning towards this kind of space trading/combat game, but I've read mixed reports on this one. Anyone playing it? What's it like?
I've played it, and really enjoyed it for the first 20 hours or so. Basically it's like TDZK except with beautiful graphics and arcade-ish mouse-driven combat. Initially, I loved the game. There were a few flaws that I noticed right off the bat (more on that later), but the game had so much potential, and was so fun to play and explore that I was hooked. The storyline, while not epic, was enough to make me want to progress through on to the end. There were never any points during the single player campaign where I was lost, wondering why I was doing whatever I was doing. In a game like this, I put story in the same category as sound, anyway. It's there and it works good enough that it's not distracting. The main draw for me was the trading and the exploration. This is where those flaws I mentioned earlier come in. The main drawback, in my opinion, is the static economy. That's right. PRICES FOR COMMODITIES NEVER CHANGE. Ever. Never ever ever. So as you can probably imagine, exploration - or rather the will to - get's pretty limited once you've found a lucrative trade route. But wait! So what if you've found a good trade route that you can abuse for millions and millions of credits? There's still the thrill of new ships and new weapons! Yeah, well. Sort of. There really aren't that many ships in the game. And the weapons aren't all that different or exotic. They come down to different graphics, and different fire rates, etc. Point is, you'll quickly during the game find a preference for what kind of weapon you like, ie low damage/fast fire/fast speed or high damage/slow fire/slow speed. Once you've found what works for you, all that's left is to search for the "next level up" weapon of the sort your prefer. Which brings up the other great flaw in this game; The job board. In this game, there are bars where you can pick up jobs to earn some cash. You are afterall a Freelancer. The problem is, THERE'S ONLY ONE KIND OF JOB. Go out and kill something, get some money in return. No escort missions, no nothing. Just fly out to this waypoint, kill this guy, profit. The only variance I've seen is where you may have to tractor beam the dude you just shot up and return him to the station where you got the job. Oh I forgot there's a couple more things. One is the enemy AI. There's no difference betweeen enemies in the game. They all fight exactly the same, using the same tactics over and over. No matter who you're fighting, good guys, bad guys, aliens, they all went to the same flight school. The only difference is the strength of their ships, shields, and weapons. Some will turn faster than others, but they all follow the same pattern. So once you've figured out how to effectively fight, there's no reason to try new tactics. If you're getting your ass beat by spammed enemies, you just have to work jobs and get a better ship and weapons, and then continue fighting exactly the same way as you have been the whole game. The last thing is very minor, but it bugged me a little. The scale on this game is way way off. When you view your own ship, you can see yourself in the cockpit. Now comparing your size to the ship's size, you'll see that the ship is maybe a little bigger tha a car. BUT when you dock with space stations (ones complete with lounges, hangars, shipyards, tons of people, etc), you'll see that the station is at most 5 times bigger than you're ship. Like I said, it's a very minor thing, and easy to ignore after a while. Just don't go into it expecting Freespace 2 like capital ships. Now all that might make it seem like I didn't like the game. This isn't true. For the first 20 hours or so, I was completely engrossed. It wasn't until much later that I really felt the "OK, enough already! Let's get this over with!" and finished the game. So my ultimate verdict? It's worth $25, but not $50. It's a game that doesn't live up to it's potential. PS - There's a pretty big community around this game who are dedicated to modding it up to it's potential. Last I checked, they were working of adding things like the ability to fly capital ships, a dynamic economy (yay!), and more diverse mission types via the job boards. You can check out their site at lancersreactor.com
I have been playing it for about 2 days now (not 2 days straight... though that really wouldn't surprise anyone.) I got it thursday night and played it then and then I played it this afternoon. The intricate details are quite amazing, and the scale of things is just immense. I'm only on the 5th mission (of I'm not sure how many) and I enjoy it. Few things: The story has been interesting thus far. Please take into account that I'm an easily amused person. But the story is good enough that it doesn't make you think that someone deficated on the plot and then stringed letters together from it. The best thing about the story missions is that it allows you to go into new regions you couldn't before. The number of places you can go to are vast and numerous and I'm not halfway there (I think). There are planets, space bases, tradeports, naval ships, and others that you can board. Another thing that is numerous is the number of companies/groups/factions. You have a relationship rating with them all. This rating affects your possible business with them, and all around not being randomly shot while you're flying. I (like Milo) am disappointed with the space combat. All the dog fights are the same (and therefore pretty easy) unless you are massively outnumbered AND the enemies have good weapons. In conclusion, I feel this game is like Tachyon (easy but extremely fun space combat) without the very witty banter Tachyon had, and an addition to roleplaying a bit on the planets/landing posts. It's still fun for me, I suppose the novelty might die out though. I still wanna beat the game and then buy a bigass freighter to haul around.
Thanks a lot for the thoughtful info guys, I think I might check this one out. I'm on a budget these days so have to be careful. Milo, are you sure there is only one mission type? I thought I read in a review that there was a variety of missions.
I'm sure to the uber extremes of surity. Other than the single player campaign missions, there is only one type of freelance mission available. Or if you're generous, two, but they're basically the same. It's "go here, blow up this(/these) guy(s)." Depending on the mission specifics, he'll either die when you blow him up or he'll eject and you have to tractor him in.
Actually, there are some where you have to destroy installations (mainly Weapons Platforms and the occasional base) Other than that, Milo is correct. They SAY on the board that there are many different types of missions (arrest, assassination, destroy ships, retrieve cargo), but they ALL involve you shooting someone to achieve the goal.
Umm... seeing as it's a first person space shooter/trader then is it surprising? After all, it's hardly expected for you to sit there and talk your way through the game, or maybe exchange a few cunning jokes which causes your enemies to die of neural shock. Let's face it. Although the mission type may vary a bit, how many variations of shooting are there? :-? Still, it sounds like a good game and when I get my computer working again (or I build another computer) then this is one of the games I'm going to get. I've budgeted a game a month so far, and that means I've got 5 months worth of games to buy since that's how long my computer has not worked for.
Actually, I do find it surprising. Mission diversity was supposed to be something Freelancer was aiming at I think, with its mission generation engine. It doesn't appear to have even achieved the same range of types as much older games. Other types of mission in a space trader/merc game might in include escort missions, procurement of certain goods within a timeframe, making a target profit in a timeframe, locating something or someone (not to blow up) and maybe boarding a specifc ship/installation. These would often involve combat, certainly, but they are different in their execution from plain seek and destroy.
I'm 6 hours into it and having plenty of fun, although I can see Milo and Wangus were obviously right. Gameplay is simplistic, but I'm still enjoying the views and feeling of unbounded space. The story is well done, too. Unusually for a space trader, I'm spending more time on it than making money, so far. Apparently the patch addresses the mission types and static economy issues, but I don't know when it will be released.
a mate of mine has been raving about this for a while now, and i have just one question.... does his claim that it has a very strong feeling/addictiveness of ELITE from years of old have any validity?. if so i think i'm going to be spending some money on a new game very shortly.
Not sure. To be honest, I don't think so. I have done a hell of a lot of following the story (enjoyably) but not much trading. However, that may just be because I haven't got around to it. Maybe if I did, the fun would be there. The game could certainly do with more ship and weapons types, but the combat has a very "Elite" feel (ie. it is simple but fun). Something better than Elite - you don't have to dock yourself. Amazing they have invented a computer system to do it for you! Wow. Now if only there was one to deploy missile countermeasures. Their current state-of-the-art systems are limited to telling you that a missile is going to hit you; you have to press the countermeasures button yourself. Once they have a computer capable of making the "do I want to be hit by a misslile?" decision by itself, I expect space combat will be just that little bit more automated. I'm up to 10 hours and having a lot of fun still. I think I'll buy a freighter and try the trading bit.
I meant to post this a while back, but went to Mallorca instead ... 19 hrs 58 mins - finished the main plot. Was a great romp. Difficult in places. Once it was all over, the only thing stopping me from carrying on with the game elite-style, was the lack of variations in the missions and cargo runs. I may still give it a bash online, since I have a mate who plays. Nobodie - Elite feel? Yes, I really think so. If they sort out a couple of issues with the patch, I could really see myself buying a frieghter and hauling those alien orgasms¹ for their scarily short lifespans to a place where people will pay for them.² ¹Yes, juvenile I know - but how could I resist? ²Vulcan, once every 7 years
Freelancer is an all right game, but the missions and space battles get very repetitive after awhile. There is a lot of galaxy to explore and plenty of ships to buy, though you'll probably only end up buying about five or six of them throughout the game.
The inevitable expansion pack should make things a bit more interesting in the missions/AI/ships department. There WILL be one. They sure as hell aren't going to produce a full sequel, would defeat the objective of a freeform game world.
