Freelancer (2003)
Genres:Adventure, Shooter, Simulator
Themes:Science fiction, Sandbox
Game modes:Single player, Multiplayer
Story:Eight hundred years prior to the start of our story, bitter conflict divided all of mankind. A handful of colonists struck out on their own to begin anew - far away from the Earth and its turmoil. Several ships were launched with enough equipment and supplies to give the hundreds onboard a fighting chance - but since the area around far-off Sirius had never been surveyed, no one really knew what to expect. What they found was a new frontier of free-flowing natural resources, unexplored territories, great wonders and lurking dangers. Each ship, representing the clusters of people and their earthly place of origin, settled into different parts of the galaxy pre-selected by their ship-board computer to give them the best chance of survival.
Life was hard in the beginning, but over the 800 years the different colonies prospered and expanded their territories, claiming more and more systems for their own. Survival and propagation eventually led to growth and profit as each of the colonies developed specialties and fostered commerce. As the colonies grew and time passed their connections with their roots on Earth dwindled and they lost their memories of the conflicts of the past. Soon their attention was dominated by new, more immediate conflicts. Feelings of lost ancestral connection spurred anachronism in the look of the great cities, and created a somewhat distorted image of each colony's cultural heritage. In the ever-expanding outer edge of the territories, frontier lawlessness prevailed.
The Houses: Each shipboard colony that left Earth carried some memory of its origins in its name. The Liberty carried Americans, The Bretonia flew from The United Kingdom and surrounding territory, The Kusari from Asia, and the Rheinland launched with Germanic cargo.
As each ship settled and colonies began to expand, they knew little about each other and their advancing development. Finally, little by little, the individual colonies found each other and began to set up trade routes to link their systems for commerce and solidarity.
Today, with each colony firmly rooted in its respective corner of the galaxy, the colonies rely heavily on each other for trade and industry but also compete for resources and new territories in the Border Worlds. The colonies mandate member governments in "The New Alliance" within the Sirius sector. To control conflicts, each colony has forged alliances and treaties with others as they have grown. Competition remains fierce, however. Struggles rage for supremacy in business, commerce, resources, power and control. There can be tenuous peace between colonies' political agendas, but the grabs for holdings constantly unsettle the volatile frontier.Show more
Vote to bring this game to GOG and help preserve it.69 208
@ArthurSlayDecember 18, 2024
I remember playing at my cousin's -- he always had the latest games -- and I got ADDICTED to the atmosphere. My favorite moments were when looking for jobs and chatting in the various bars. It just felt like a complete simulation of a space pirate's life in my 13-year-old mind.
@Zombiekiller5072January 29, 2025
I am a huge fan of Chris Roberts work. And this game is a cult classic that I never got the chance to experience as I was very young when it came out. It's right in between the classic Wing Commander games and Star Citizen. I've wanted to pick up a physical copy but never could find a cheap enough copy to justify buying it so seeing it on GOG would make me die in a puddle of happiness.
@valentin.istrateJanuary 10, 2025
I'm a big fan of science-fiction since I was only a child. I remember one of the first SF series I ever saw, Star Trek - Next Generation, and how I couldn't wait for the next episode and see what other adventures and challenges would the crew of Enterprise endure. Naturally, when I started to play PC games a few years later, I loved games that would take to to space. Freelancer was one of the best games of that time, since it was an excellent blend of space combat and exploration and it had an interesting story. Unfortunately, I never finished it, can't even remember why, and I would love to play it nowadays on a modern system, but it can't be found anymore on any online store, so I realy hope it will come to GOG one day. It had a great gameplay and I think that there are many gamers that would enjoy it even now, in 2025.
@YogofaJanuary 29, 2025
This is by far the best Space Sim ever released. Everspace and Everspace 2 come close though. Such an excellent game with a modding scene that is active TO THIS DATE deserves to be immortalized and aviable for anyone interested. And even without Mods the game is amazing. I lost my last CD a couple years ago and was sad that no Digital Copy was aviable and i didnt want to Pirate such a Masterpiece of a Game.
@White.979January 10, 2025
My favorite memory of this game is playing it with my brother. It was fun to upgrade the ships and I hadn't played a space game with that level of customization at the time. I was saddened when my brother lost his disk copy of the game and we couldn't play it again. I want this game on GoG so I can relive the fun I had playing the game with him.
@BolteWasTakenJanuary 29, 2025
I remember facing off against a clan of 20 or so players with just me and 3 others battling it out in space in big group fights, was so much fun. If the game comes to live here please offer the standard Vanilla experience as well as the more modern HD experience. Include the still existing modding community who still mod the game now even 20+ years later and have been around since the game released.
@Laurent_PierrardJanuary 29, 2025
this game rocks !!
I had the CD then I went for studies abroad and years later my little brother "had that game CD" that he swear he purchased and I never got it back..
I played with multiplayer mods which were giving an extra layer of interest to the game, sort of Elite online before its time.
I really wish this game can make it to GOG, but it needs DirectX and was a microsoft game so not sure they give up the licence..
@jammi93January 30, 2025
I first played Freelancer in 2006. I remember being absolutely captivated by the game, and at age 12, enthralled by the campaign. Of course, I also thought the game was punishingly hard, and eventually gave up on it after being repeatedly killed by Corsairs in Omega-41 I couldn't escape from. After a break and coming back later on, I found out I'd done this to myself, by not realising afterburners or engine kill existed. That was a real gamechanger.
What turned Freelancer from a nostalgic memory of my childhood to my all-time favourite game was the online modding community. I started playing the Discovery mod in 2007, which is basically a full scale expansion pack that massively extends the game in the aftermath of the campaign. I jumped onto their hosted multiplayer server and started looking around the dozens of new systems and ships. It was a roleplay server with 200 concurrent players online, and that immediately hooked me. The game's lore and environment were suddenly transformed from an interesting backdrop to the inspiration that drives conflict for real players and factions in this magical MMO experience.
I've been playing Discovery on and off for 18 years at this point (Jesus Christ) and the community there is still going strong, with multiple mod releases per year. If you want the 2025 Freelancer experience, I'd wholeheartedly recommend checking out the Freelancer HD Edition mod for a crisp campaign play-through, followed by the Discovery mod for a radically expanded game and multiplayer experience.
@Skess01January 11, 2025
I love life simulations, make in games wonderful things you can't do in real life, Freelancer gave me the feeling of having real jobs in space! :) ... fantastic.
It was one of my favorite games. I'd like so much to play it now, after many years, to see it with new eyes.
@thiagottJanuary 13, 2025
Freelancer is an open-world title that allows you to pilot a spaceship and be hired for all kinds of missions. It has a single-player mode and a multi-player mode that feel much funnier every time you play. I would keep playing this for a long time if I still had the CD...
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