Freelancer

[Mathias Giovanni]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkP5XSgniBs

I would enjoy playing through this one again. Fun game back in the day. Has that 1990's feel. A sort of blade runner. Played with the mouse very good.

Amazing what 20 years changes doesn't it?

I think you can get the game as it is abandoned with Privateer. Though I did see you can buy Wing Commander Privateer on GOG for about 2 bucks. Though that game is a bit more dated than this one. This was very similar but modernized version of Privateer. Similar story, similar feel.

[Cy]

I remember Freelancer being super unbalanced with random, ridiculous difficulty spikes. Especially once the alien bad guys start showing up. I could never get past the second system without using cheats. But otherwise the game is really fun.

[Ihateeverybody]

I thought it was too arcady, with power ups or something (if I am recalling correctly). I admit, I bailed on the game early. Its mouse only third person play, didn't appeal to me.

Plus I mean, that first mission. I was hired to patrol a few way points, then you added additional objectives (no mention, let alone negotiating a new reward? Thats not freelancing. THATS implying I am yours to command.

That's where I called it quits. Yes, literally couldn't get past the opening credits. Like Diablo 2 I don't get "IT".

[Mathias Giovanni]

I don’t remember power ups. I believe I may have finished it twice. And I don’t use cheats. I don’t remember it being hard actually but it’s been a long time.

Looks like someone made an HD patch for it. I may try and see if I can get it to work.

I finished privateer and I believe the entire wing commander series. I honestly felt those were harder.

[John RPG]

I love Freelancer. I used to play the discovery mod on its own roleplaying server. Great community and lots of cool interactions. Plus the mod massively expanded the scope and content of the game, keeping it alive for many years.

[Tenoshii]

Yeah I have good memories of dogfighting enemies in asteroid fields. First time I got a taste of 3rd person mouse flight.

[Malloc]

Originally posted by Mathias Giovanni:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkP5XSgniBs

I would enjoy playing through this one again. Fun game back in the day. Has that 1990's feel. A sort of blade runner. Played with the mouse very good.

Amazing what 20 years changes doesn't it?

I think you can get the game as it is abandoned with Privateer. Though I did see you can buy Wing Commander Privateer on GOG for about 2 bucks. Though that game is a bit more dated than this one. This was very similar but modernized version of Privateer. Similar story, similar feel.

It had the worst ship design. Ever.
Somehow, while being a vague sequel to Starlancer, it was a design and graphics downgrade.

Just look at these things:

https://fl-guide.de/ships.php

[Malloc]

It's a shame, really, that Starlancer never got a true sequel.
A blockbuster war drama, where you get to be a rookie fighter serving on a retrofitted carrier, flying sorties against overwhelming odds.
Main actors are contemporary nations fighting for dominance in the solar system.
The template for the campaign is War in the Pacific, the missions are scripted, but very well crafted, fully voiced and have choice\consquence mechanics - miss your opportunity to take out enemy carrier because you were sloppy covering allied torpedo bombers, and that carrier will return in further missions to haunt you.
You have covert stealth missions, boarding action support, fleet assaults, escorts and at least one spectacular supercarrier showdown, the likes of which a really havent seen to this day. No exaggeration.
The main stars of the show are, of course, fighter ships themselves. Each Alliance nation got their set of light, medium and heavy ships.
Japanese fighters were lightning fast and maneuverable, Germany fielded slow, heavily armoured behemoths with ballistic weapons, British ships got the best energy weapons and US has good all-rounders with auto-targeting capability.
The combat itself is loud, bombastic and visceral - after bringing those shields down, you literally hear and see metal tearing from the hull of your target, while it's pilot yells at you via vidcom before disappearing in a fireball that was his ship a second ago.
Call of Duty in space, I say.

[UnCivilServant]

Freelander. Now there's a game I haven't thought about in a while. I actually beat that one.

Wait a minute. The Navy guy promiced me a cruiser as a reward for the last mission and he never delivered! Where's my cruiser!?

[smr1957]

Freelancer was probably my favorite space game - it had incredible graphics - and I've been waiting since then for something that comes close. Hopefully, Starfield will be it - I have great expectations for it - a sort of cross between Freelancer and Skyrim (as regards an open world gameplay) in space. But, we will all just have to wait until the game is released to know for sure.

[Bandy]

I own the Freelancer in SC since October 2012, the original KS campaign... LMAO...

My only defense? The hype train had not reached epic proportions at that point, but do admit to my shame of encouraging friends to get in at that time. Young and stupid and good clean plastic...

[Mathias Giovanni]

I got it to work.

Needed two downloads. The abandonware game with the ISO and the HD mod/patch.

Steps I had to figure out. Unzip obviously the files.
1. Mount the ISO file.
2. Run setup as admin.
3. Drop HD mod/patch files over files that were setup.
4. Play.

It's funny how slow it is compared to modern games. Has a bladerunner and privateer vibes.

Not to bad with the voices either.

[vonbleak]

Freelancer was awesome...

[Space is the Place]

No starting a fight, but I do think Freelancer is the reason why I was so skeptic for Star Citizen. Don´t know how much people know about it´s development, but again Roberts promised about everything, eventually when Microsft the company he was developing it for they force him to finish it and send it because it was taking too long and too expensive. And it was this situation that lead to Roberts not trusting publishers and tons of big publishers being aware to deal with him.

But I digress, I loved the game, and was still playing it as far as 2012 for the last time. Nowadays I see it as an awesome game but with flaws and probably has the strongest impact on the genre despite being quite obscure, probably couldn´t play it being older now and less patience, but men, I did spend an entire summer playing almost 12 hours straight making routes to get super rich. The multiplayer was my first non-FPS online experience, and my first game with tons of players rather than topped at 12, but men... good memories now, in the moment I remember unistalling the game several times, those damn pirate guilds hunting low levels were hardcore and I used to risk it too much doing longer and dangerous routes with low combat capacity ships. I even joined a german miners guild without speaking any english or german back then. Really fond memories.

[Mathias Giovanni]

Originally posted by Space is the Place:

No starting a fight, but I do think Freelancer is the reason why I was so skeptic for Star Citizen. Don´t know how much people know about it´s development, but again Roberts promised about everything, eventually when Microsft the company he was developing it for they force him to finish it and send it because it was taking too long and too expensive. And it was this situation that lead to Roberts not trusting publishers and tons of big publishers being aware to deal with him.

But I digress, I loved the game, and was still playing it as far as 2012 for the last time. Nowadays I see it as an awesome game but with flaws and probably has the strongest impact on the genre despite being quite obscure, probably couldn´t play it being older now and less patience, but men, I did spend an entire summer playing almost 12 hours straight making routes to get super rich. The multiplayer was my first non-FPS online experience, and my first game with tons of players rather than topped at 12, but men... good memories now, in the moment I remember unistalling the game several times, those damn pirate guilds hunting low levels were hardcore and I used to risk it too much doing longer and dangerous routes with low combat capacity ships. I even joined a german miners guild without speaking any english or german back then. Really fond memories.

I didn't realize he was involved at all as I don't remember it being part of the wing commander universe. I looked it up and it looks like Microsoft bought him out and had Digital Anvil finish it thought he stayed on as a consultant.

Very interesting.

[Space is the Place]

Yeah, I can´t fully remember the whole story, but I do remember reading an article on a gaming magazine (a physical one, we are talking about 1999-2003 here when the game was announced and launched) from my country detailing all the issues before launch. I remeber the magazine ending the article on the question if there was a winning side, either allowing Roberts to continue developing it, or having Microsft releasing whatever was finished at that point.

Men I still remember the Freelancer website, it had SOOOO many promised. Not many people know this, but did you know Edison Trent was just ONE of many supposed selectable characters? The asian military chick that befriends you, can´t recall her name, she was supposed to be also playable alongside others, and you would experience the single player story from different perspectives with each character representing a multiplayer archetype.

I guess that´s why I´ve never being a particularly hyped person, Freelancer took it all away when I was a teeneager lol. But the amount of features promised was insane, every few articles you would find would only keep adding more and more. I don´t know how any of us though it would be possible, but yeah, if it had happen... imagine Starfield+EVE online but on 2003.

I don´t particularly like Roberts as a character, but he´s a fascinating person and I don´t think the genre of space simulators would even exist without him. Pretty sure Starfile dev team on the initial states checked Wing Commander, Freelancer and Star Citizen, you can´t phatom space simulators any other way, and it´s because Roberts.