Hey GOG, me again asking about yet another game that I should of played but never have. So the game this time is Freelancer, I'd like to hear you're thoughts on on the game, and give me a general idea about what it is, and what it's about. I have found little gameplay on youtube, and not a lot about it on the web, there is no digital distributor as far as I know that sells it. In the GDC conference for Star Citizen (My most hyped game ever... at the moment) it was referenced a lot, which leads me to believe it's more than just a space sim. Anyway guys, thanks, and hope to hear from you.

It's been a long while since I played Freelancer, it was a fun game, basically a spiritual successor to Wing Commander: Privateer. You play a pilot that survived a disaster and basically can play how you want much like Privateer, you can be a merc, pirate trade or a mix of them. It seemed to be built to be played with the mouse so for a hardcore space sim that was a minus but if don't have a joystick, it was nice. I did find the ship progression to be strange, the German ships were pretty much better than everything else including the super secret Alien tech ships you get at the end of the story.

I played the game to death, then installed some mods and played it some more. So, I would easily recommend it. The singleplayer is mostly linear in progression, and limits where you can move, but it opens completely up after the storyline. But there isn't exactly much to do, apart from random generated missions, trading and getting better equipment. I liked exploring, since there are a lot of space stations, ship wrecks and other stuff which contains information about the game's universe. And there are a few funny easter eggs here and there. The most powerful ships belonged to the Corsairs (Titan), Outcasts (Sabre) and the Zoners (Eagle), but you couldn't get them until after the storyline.
I guess this was done for the multiplayer, since the servers are persistent.

Because the ending was so much better ;-) ?

Btw, apparently Starlancer is considered a bad game in some places. I really liked it!

Ending, story, post cold war setting, ship design, flying & combat model...It also lacked some clumsiness Freelancer had (I still hear this 'Hey, new here?' on every fscking planet or station I visited)

What? Bad game?

It's one of best space-sims I've ever played. And I still hear in my dreams "The Ion cannon is targeting us. Get out of its range!" from Starlancer. :-)

Or....
'Cobras, attack!'

Just few more quotes like this and I swear, I will take out my MS Sidewinder and install Starlancer again :-P

Freelancer is seriously flawed even if you disregard what it was supposed to be like; it was supposed to have a dynamic economy and what have you. The side missions are repetitive. Capital ships are actually quite small and hardly as powerful as they are jacked up to be, not that you're ever given one without mods. Trading is pretty pointless because you'll need a freighter (which you don't want because the story forces you to fight all the time), after which you'll see-saw between two places buying and selling stuff for a tiny profit that you'll blow on a fighter anyway. The artificial intelligence is so bad that you can kill pretty much any enemy fighter by powering straight at them and dumping your load of missiles when they are ten feet away and unable to react. This is a perfectly viable tactic until the final mission which is basically just a string of battles with no chance to resupply healing items or ordnance in between, or, to put it short, bullshit.

Apparently mods and multiplayer liven it up, but I really couldn't be bothered. The beginning's pretty good, though, it just takes a dive somewhere around the moment the fishmobile no longer cuts it.

I have to jump in here and defend Freelancer - I really liked it.

Story wasn't bad at all, graphically not bad at all, control wise very good.

Sense of place was very good - each sector / section had its own design / setting. Factions weren't done badly at all.

Multiplayer was very good in its day, (qualifier - with right mods). Some very good mods were brought out addressing a lot of balancing issues.

It wasn't a world beater by any stretch, but I had many hours fun with it.

Oh, go for it. I am pondering it for some time now, but have too many things to play that it is always high on to-play list but never on top. But Sidewinder is for pussies. I played it on keyboard and I felt like pianist virtuoso when I mastered it. :-)

Retro pussies :-P

Heh, I purchased Starlancer for $2 on promo in local market. Only after I got box in my hands I informed wife that I will need joystick to play it ($30) . She looked somehow angry :-P

I'm waiting for the new X game myself. I really enjoyed the previous ones :)
I know that it's a bit different than Freelancer or Privateer.