FreeLancer Preview

Why is it that the normal day to day tasks suck so much in real life? Things like driving to the office, keying code for 8 hours and then at the end of two weeks, using your pay to provide for what you need to get by; In FreeLancer, I'm doing the exact same thing but it's much more fun. Maybe the reason I like it more is because in FreeLancer I "drive" to the office in a sleek star fighter that is loaded with energy weapons, missile launchers, mine deployment devices and anti-missile counter measures. And the "office" is the vast expanse of space, not some dreary little cubicle, in a sea of cubicles, where I'm wedged in between a 45 year old white guy that thinks he's a gang banger straight out of Compton because he has a 30 gig MP3 collection of rap and on the other side I have some woman who keeps telling me Amway will change my life. Perhaps it already has, but I digress.

FreeLancer is the unofficial sequel to the Wing Commander: Privateer series which was the brainchild of Chris Roberts. Roberts left Origin/EA to found Digital Anvil and soon afterwards announced two Space Combat titles in the works: Starlancer and Freelancer. Starlancer was greeted with glowing reviews when it was released a few years ago (it was developed by Chris' brother, Erin Roberts - Ed). Freelancer remained in development because there was so much more behind the game and the freedom it gives the player, was so much more work than the usual mission tree in other Space Combat games. The concept behind Privateer (and Freelancer) was giving the player a ship, a star map and leaving the rest up to you to decide on how you are to make money. Sure there is a main story line but if you would rather become the consummate goods trader, you can ferry items from system to system and watch as your profits increase after each sale. Or you can choose to work for any of the fifty different factions performing missions for them. Factions include the Police, Bounty Hunters, several different Corporations and a myriad of other groups who are willing to pay you in cold hard credits to do their dirty work. As you would expect, not all of these groups get along or like each other. If you take too many jobs for one single group, you can literally get on the hit list of the other groups.

Booting up the preview copy of Freelancer that Microsoft was nice enough to send us, you are rewarded with a fine intro video that gives you the back story for the game: humanity has been split into two factions and warring with each other for hundreds of years. After a time, one of the factions has finally gotten an edge over the other and the losing side creates 8 colony "sleeper" ships to flee to parts unknown and start over, vowing never to forget why they were driven away. 800 years later (yes, you did read that right: eight hundred years) the new colonies are flourishing. Enter our Hero, Edison Trent. Trent is one of a handful of survivors from Freeport Seven, a space station that is destroyed at the beginning of the game by cloaked ships. This not only leaves Trent unemployed but puts him squarely into a mystery as well, starting the player down the main story line. The player takes over control of Trent in the bar on Liberty (a planet named after one of the sleeper ships) and your first task is to find work. The person you find work with is Jun'ko Zane who represents Liberty's Security Force. The first two missions serve as a tutorial while providing you with a bit more background on the main story and the politics involved. After completing the two missions you are cut loose on your own for a time and are encouraged to do some free lance work after promising you that they will be in back in touch soon.

The first thing that I noticed after launching to space was that the default view is from behind your ship. It struck me as view that most console gamers will be familiar with but it did not seem right to me. So I switched to a more familiar cockpit view and began checking out the features on my little rust bucket I was provided with. One thing was for sure: there was only one way to go from my current position in life: up. Your new ship is bottom of the line and is pretty fragile. Poly count on the ships themselves are relatively low but there is a reason for that, and besides, as they go screaming past you firing all guns at once, you really don't concentrate on the detail that much. The publisher has mentioned that later in the game there will be huge multi-ship combats with fighters and capital ship the likes of which have only been seen Star Wars movies. From the amount of debris floating around in space in the first mission, the engine will be able to pull it off and I can't wait to mix it up in a huge dogfight. As you fly around to different objectives, there is a large amount of background noise from your radio. You will hear stations chattering with pilots and groups of fighters confirming orders with each other. It's done in such a way that adds to the game without becoming annoying. Navigation is easily accomplished from the star map that can be accessed at any time. It provides you with details about any system you highlight and you can zoom in to view places you can dock and a single click will allow you to plot your course. In keeping with the premise of Trent having to start fresh in a new galaxy, the star map you begin with is nowhere near complete. The idea is to encourage you to explore and find new areas.

Whenever you dock at a station or planet, you can visit several different areas, the commodity market, the ship dealer, and usually a bar when you can talk to people to get the latest rumors or pick up jobs. Jobs have a difficulty rating. The more difficult the job, the more credits you will receive. Too ensure that you will not get a job that is out of your league, Freelancer also has a level system for your character. You start with a certain "money point". As you earn credits for successfully completing missions, you get closer to achieving the next level. You can check how much money you have to accrue before you hit the next level by going to pilot information screen. This gives you a whole list of stats from how many kills you have, to how long you have been playing and even what your current rating is with the different in game factions.

The money you earn can be put to good use immediately when you get back to port. You can customize your ship by striping off parts and buying new more powerful components or more powerful weapons that do different types of damage. Some guns are better at deleting shields, others are better at doing damage directly to the hull. You can purchase missile launchers that can then be loaded with a wide variety of ordinance. Some missiles seek targets on their own, a true fire and forget weapon, and others forgo tracking electronics to deliver a bigger payload. If you ship has the correct type of hard point, you can also add mine deplorers, larger shield generators and nanites that can repair damage to your ship while in combat. Also you can buy extra batteries for your shields so you can recharge them when they are drained by enemy fire.

After you have reached the limit of upgradeability with your current ship and you have enough cash, you can sell your ship and get a new one. What is nice is that you can buy the type of ship that suits your style of play. Every ship has cargo space but it stands to reason that a fighter would not have as much cargo space a transport. So if you have decided to pursuer the life of a humble merchant, you can forgo the sleek fighter craft that bristle with deadly weapons and opt for a freighter that looks like an 18 wheeler in space. However, just because it looks like a whale does not mean it cannot defend itself. You can arm your lumber hulk with turrets that can turn to fire at in coming bad guys. Lots of customization makes for good replay value.

Freelancer has broken with the norm in space combat games by forgoing the joystick as controller. Instead they have opted for a system that uses the mouse and keyboard. You use the mouse to aim and fire. The keyboard is used to select weapons, control thrust and slide left and right in combat. I was a little put off at first but after playing with it for a short while, it is quite natural and I like it. A tap of the space bar allows you to go from "free flight mode" where you can maneuver your ship around, to a mode where you can use your mouse pointer to select any of the icons located around the screen. The buttons allow you to target items, dock with stations, join ship formations, recharge your shields and contact others. Of course you can use keyboard shortcuts to accomplish these same tasks but the setup the developers have come up with is very well done. Plus, this new flight model will finally give me an excuse to go buy a Belkin Nostromo controller.

Bearing in mind that game is still a beta there are a few points that I hope will be addressed before it ships. While the characters in game have been voiced by professional talent, some of the minor players sound as though they grabbed some programmer out of his office and forced him to read lines from the script. Also, some of the lip syncing was off in the first in game cut scene. The models are good with emotions showing clearly but the voices were 3 seconds behind the lip syncing. I am hoping it is something on my system.

On the positive side of things, the game looks good and plays very well. One thing can be said for the delays on shipping Freelancer and that is that it is a very stable game. I played for 4 and half hours last night without a hitch. I died about 12 times and I was able to save and load without a hitch. Oh and did I mention multiplayer? Yes they included a multiplayer option in the game as well, but I cannot do anything with it yet. We will have more on that feature when we get more than one copy of the game.

Microsoft looks like it is poised to deliver yet another top notch space combat game. I for one am looking forward to carving out my niche in the galaxy and I am not looking forward to finding something else to occupy my time until March when the game is supposed to be released.