Freelancer Preview

This is you, Edison Trent

The main character

When a game slips continuously, key staff members leave the developers and the developers get new owners, a lot of games get canned or delayed. When Freelancer was announced way back in 1998, every space combat lover thought they'd died and gone to heaven. Then the previously mentioned events happened and people started saying it was nothing but vaporware, it was cancelled, just no one said so. But, I have in my possession what appears to be and almost complete Beta version. What's more, it's fab!

Giving it some stick?

See the red cross? Shoot it, shoot the ship.

Mouse flight in combat. Shoot the red cross.

When I'd read some of the previews and seen the screenshots I got my hopes up, then I read what I thought to be the nail in it's coffin. There was no joystick control at all. Everything is controlled via the mouse. Disaster I thought, how could they do this, what a waste etc etc. Then I played it, and I have to say it really works. There are two basic modes of flight; the first (free flight) is where your fighter will move towards your cursor whenever you click the left button. This is good as it allows you to click on all the icons dotted around the screen without the ship going haywire. On the other hand, it doesn't work in combat at all, it's just not precise enough.

The second control method, called mouse flight, works far better for combat as the ship just follows your cursor wherever you put it, no clicking required. Ideally suited to fast paced battles with multiple ships (5 vs. 1 isn't really fair) it makes it very easy to overcontrol in the beginning but you get used to it quickly and the game does ease you into it.

Life goes on

Cruising disables your weapons.

When you engage your cruise engines your weapons are disabled.

The graphics of the game are very pretty and all the planets and ships look sufficiently different to create variety. Space games can only look so pretty though as there's not a lot to see. Lots of debris fields to fly through and fight in, lots of police and military bases and ships. There's a great deal going on, you never feel as if it's just you against the bad guys. Fighters fly patrol routes, transports fly from base to base, the universe goes on without you.

The game has several cut scene’s and these don't appear to have quite the polish of the main flying part of the game, Trent repeats himself as he replies to the other people that inhabit the bar, often offering information for cash or just rumors that they hear. Other people in the bar offer jobs and there's a job board that you can look at. Usually these are just fairly simple shoot these pirates, assassinate this person etc, but some are very hard.

Money makes the Universe go round

The weapon shop has almost everything a Freelancer could need.

Missiles, laser cannons, turrets, Plasma rifles in the 40 Watt range? Almost!

Of course, cash is your reward and you need it to buy new ships and get the latest weapons. The usual variety of laser cannons, missiles and mines are available but these have many different effects. Some pack a heavy punch but are slow firing; others rely on speed of fire to do the damage. The amount and type of weapons you can carry is limited by your ship and how many hard points it has. More expensive ships have more hard points and some even have turret mountings.

The combat itself is simple. Your HUD slaps a huge red target cursor around your foe and also indicates where it is if you can't see it directly with a big red arrow pointing off the screen. Once you have the coffin dodger in your sights the HUD also shows a red crosshair indicating where you should aim in order to hit your victim-to-be. Shoot the red crosshair, shoot the ship. It's a lot harder than it sounds, your target certainly doesn't hang about and shoots back…

Open all hours?

Jumpgate/Trade lane

high speed travel

There's also a trading element to the game and you can buy alloys, food, weapons, water and even electronics and ship them from place to place. Be warned however, if a passing unsavory takes a liking to your cargo he can ask politely that you give it to him. Of course, it's just another excuse to shoot something.

Once the pirate has been destroyed you can scan the area for items he's dropped, shield batteries and missiles are usually common and you can use your tractor beam to collect them. When you are docked at a particular planet or space station the game also indicates what sort of deal you're getting from the commodities dealer. This is a useful tool as it can be hard trying to remember who sells what and at what price.

Secret of my Success

Have Missile, will shoot.

No point in keeping them as ornaments! Use them!

The game also has a slight RPG element to it in that you advance through levels, giving you access to previously restricted missions and weapons as well as making you feel good about yourself. Level advancement is reliant on how much money you've earned in total so you can spend to your hearts content and still advance.

The actual scripted missions aren't often straight forward either with changes happening throughout the mission. What originally started as a straight "shoot the rogues" mission can rapidly sprawl into a 30 minute shooting fest when said rogue's buddies appear as you're flying back to the base, probably with no missiles and only two shield batteries left. That's when it starts to get hairy!

The Universe is stable

This kindly lady gives you your first ship and a few jobs to do.

She gives you a ship and a job. Awfully nice of her!

Even as a Beta it looks almost complete, it's only crashed once and I've played it quite a bit as it's really sucked me in. I was worried that the graphics and sound might not be up to scratch, after all, a lot has changed in the five years it's been in development. Happily though, I can say both the graphics and the sound are superb and the speech is also excellent. The pirates certainly tell you what they think of you before you blast them into space dust.

I couldn't find any obvious bugs during the game so hopefully that's all been sorted out. I know I'm not the only one who hates downloading a new patch every two months. Given the choice, I'd probably be playing it now instead of writing this preview!

Freelancer looks set to fulfill everything that was promised way back in '98. If they can tweak it just a little by increasing Trent's vocabulary and the quality of the cut scenes before release then we should have a cracking space shooter with RPG overtones. And that's praise indeed.