The entire stellar environment is interactive, too - planets and stars are no longer distant 2D sprites, but are instead 3D spheres that you can orbit and interact with. It's also expansive - I was absolutely wowed by vast asteroid and debris fields. but it's all balanced to the point that it seems natural, albeit amazing. There are bright and beautiful starfields, nebulae, laser effects and so forth. Freelancer bucks that trent - the graphics are absolutely stunning and I can't say enough about the color balance. Since developers collectively decided in 1998 that space shouldn't be a big black starfield, every combat game has been either too dark (StarLancer), too bright (Wing Commander Prophecy) or just plain ugly (Freespace). I spent a good hour wandering around a single system looking in on bases: things like Military Academies and shipyards that are producing battleships. but on a much larger scale.Īnd exploring is fun! They've stocked space with enough interesting artifacts and locations to make just wandering around in your fighter. You can get involved and build your reputation and alliances, or you can sit back and watch the fireworks. Just flying around randomly you see scores of other ships interacting with eachother - completely separate from your own story. The game has essentially taken everything that's great about Privateer and either duplicated it or enhanced it to a massive scale: there's a vibrant living universe with dozens of factions all of which interact with eachother. There's commerce, piracy, mercenary work, variable alliances. It honestly seems like the developers took a look at one of those "what's wrong with Privateer 2" lists and then made damn sure not to repeat any of those mistakes. Where StarLancer failed to immitate its famous cousin in various important areas (use of characters, for instance), FreeLancer shines. and now I have to complement Freelancer for almost the exact same reason: it's literally Privateer for the 21st century. Essentially, it boils down to this: the gameplay was a lot more fun than I'd anticipated.įour years ago I blasted StarLancer for being 'Wing Commander in space'. a whole bunch of things, all with only the mouse. Actually, the VDUs are for the most part a lot more interactive - you can scan other ships to see what weapons and cargo they have, you can activate all your maps while flying, you can see what the name of the enemy pilot is. You can minimize and enlarge VDUs, select targets, arm weapons, use your comms and more all in a very simple manner (Your keyboard, mind you, still plays an important role - you use it just like you would in Wing Commander. The cooler aspect, though, is that you get a cursor to control your cockpit as though it were the latest interation of Windows. So what's the advantage, aside from being able to sell the game to a larger audience? For one, it's easy to learn - I had it down in about two minutes, and I'm used to playing 'Wing with a three piece throttle/stick/pedals setup. Flying and shooting still requires the same skills we've honed for twelve years in the Wing Commander universe - you twist and turn and lead your targets just like you had your hands on a Thrustmaster. No, it's not a Diablo-style point and click interface. Wait, don't stop reading here - they've replaced our familiar control scheme with something that's a whole lot more impressive than any previews to date have implied. Let me answer the question that's foremost in your minds: no, there is no joystick support. LOAF was given the opportunity to visit Digital Anvil in Texas for a preview of Freelancer. The opening intro of FreeSpace hooks you in such a huge way.Freelancer Report Wing Commander CIC Freelancer Report They're properly difficult (scaling with selected difficulty level of course), and the story is good. If you were actually required to do evasive maneuvering? And if your strafe thrusters actually did something? Then the game would probably be great.įreeSpace and FreeSpace 2, are, by contrast, the greatest mission based space sims ever made. It plays more like Rebel Assault than a space sim. So fighting comes down to "turn, point at enemy, click, boom, ignore return fire because it can't hurt you anyway". It has wierd RPG-like progression, as well.which doesn't make sense when you're comparing superpower militaries. The game is so unbalanced in terms of relative ship power that a SINGLE super-heavy fighter could take down what is expressed as the most powerful military in the game. And if something happens to, it has Diablo 1 style potions (nanobot repairs, whatever), of which you'll have like 80 hojillion. Seriously, towards the endgame? Nothing can hurt you. Ultimately Freelancer isn't let down by the controls, but by the difficulty.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |