60 Second Review of…
Freelancer
Mark's Review: Freelancer is something of a minor
gaming miracle; that it arrived at all after the sea-change that
swept over Digital Anvil amid the whisperings of financial malfeasance,
the departure of noted designer Chris Roberts, and Microsoft's takeover;
that the game discards all that is holy and sacred and phallic in
space sims, the joystick, in favor of using a mouse-driven control
scheme that works even better; and finally that despite all this
the game is one of the best PC titles released this year and will
probably be on a lot of top ten lists at the end of the year. What
will propel you through the game's repetitive, bland missions and
repetitve, canned chatter is so simple and so well done that it's
amazing it hasn't been done since Privateer (ok, Hardwars too).
You're just gonna want to fly missions and make cash and improve
your ship. It's that RPG hook that doesn't exist in the Wing Commanders
and Freespaces. Add to that a universe that, while not dynamic,
is much more alive with movement and purpose than we see in most
games, and Freelancer is a game that can take its place beside a
classic like Privateer. It's about time. Oh yeah, fun co-op multiplayer
too.
Tom's Review: There's a point when you're playing
Freelancer -- maybe during the down time when you're cruising through
a jumplane or sitting through another one of those docking cutscenes
-- when you start to think of all the missed potential here. Freelancer
is full of unfulfilled 'wouldn't it have been cool if...?' things.
But most of the time you're soaring easily through space, blowing
up shit, trying new missiles and lasers, watching traffic, appreciating
the stuffed-full aesthetic of Digital Anvil's take on outer space.
It takes quite a game to leap so handily over its own faults, but
this is exactly what Freelancer manages to do.
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: post-Roberts Digital Anvil
Genre: Diablo-esque space action
Requirements: get over your joystick
March 6, 2003
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