Freelancer [PC game]
Description
In the open-ended space action/adventure game Freelancer you play a ne'er-do-well with a lucky streak, one of two survivors of a space disaster. Penniless and shipless you venture around a space dock until you find a ship and a job. You'll encounter a heady mix of canned missions that follow one main quest, and a million opportunities to
make money or annoy the various factions that coexist in the universe. Like an online role-playing game, or Bethesda's Morrowind, you determine who your enemies are and who your friends are by your own actions, and, in another nod to role-playing, you can customise your ship with guns, rockets, and equipment just as you would customise a RPG character with swords,
bows,
and magic items. Best of all, you can play cooperatively with friends or fight it out with enemies online.
The back story posits a future where various countries, divided by both nationality and, seemingly, race, have boarded massive colony ships and ventured into a wormhole that appears within reach of our crude space technology. They found themselves in a galaxy far, far, away and they got stuck there when the wormhole collapsed. They quickly colonised their new home worlds and named everything with familiar locales that make navigation a breeze. In the American sectors you'll feel at home entering the New York system and landing at a spaceport called Manhattan, for example. While contrived, this device is used beautifully and it's far better than having to memorise a bunch of SF names and remembering where they are, perfect for a massive universe such as this one.
Though Freelancer is set in space, it is technically not a space simulation. The game was designed to be accessible to casual gamers. For example, Freelancer makes you use
the mouse for ship control. This is quite a shift for a setting known for requiring joystick control. But even old-school Wing Commander or X-Wing fans may find that
the sacrifice of verisimilitude is made up for with
gains in agility. The mouse controls your guns, while you use the keyboard to manoeuvre around the rich universe developer Digital Anvil has constructed. Much like a first-person shooter, you can dodge and weave while precisely blasting your enemies.
Despite its age the graphics are spectacular, as is the sound and voice
acting, and in that way, fighting and
trading with friends or alone, Freelancer proves worth the wait. Just keep in mind that it is explicitly not a hardcore space simulation, and you'll have to leave your joystick on the shelf.
System Requirement
Processor
Pentium III 900 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB graphic card, 900 MB HDD
Download | 591 MB
Mediafire Link
Download MF
