Wednesday, March 30, 2011

On Freelancer

I started writing a blog comment over on KiaSA, but it started turning into a blogpost, so I figured I'd move it here. I'd mentioned Freelancer in a comment on KiaSA's post on Black Prophecy: http://www.kiasa.org/2011/03/29/black-prophecy-first-impressions/

So here's my review, if you will, on Microsoft Freelancer:

Personally, I'd vote it as worth picking up. The storyline is an interesting combination of "on rails" and not. You have to start with the storyline in single player, but it will have you do a couple of storyline missions and then send you out to wander till you level, at which point you'll be contacted to continue the storyline. Most of the time, it's up to you to decide whether to go run rejoin the storyline now or earn some more credits and upgrades before continuing. If you want to delay it, just don't visit the planet your contact is waiting on. Sooner or later, you have to come back to the storyline, because it progressively unlocks new areas through the storyline. Once the storyline is done, you have a whole universe to explore on your own.

However, you also have the option to start up the server component that comes with the game, and enter a multiplayer mode solo. This has a "living world" with all the pirates and merchants going about their usual lives, the bounty task boards, etc. Everything but the storyline missions is basically there, and no jumpgate locks. You start off with your little ship and wander at will. I've spent many hours in this mode. You can even run it over a LAN and fight against or alongside each other. Or both run around your own part of the same universe ignoring each other, if you want. When you log out, it will remember where you were and what you had, and next time you fire up the server and log into the same character, it will continue where you left off.

I really love the reputation system in FL. Factions have allies, enemies, and neutrals. Kill a pirate, and that pirate's faction will begin to hate you. But the faction's allied factions will also begin to hate you, though more slowly, and it's enemy factions will begin to like you a little more. If you really badly want a faction that hates you to like you now, visit a faction that is allied to them but doesn't hate you, and enter the bar looking for a patron with a $ over his head, who wants to fix your rep for a little fee. Keep trying till you find an offer for the faction you want to like you. Even your worst enemy will become your best friend if you spread around 150K credits or so to smoothe over past differences.

Probably the biggest weakness is planetside, in FL. Major locations have their own unique graphics, but the run of the mill planets and stations reuse a modest set of regional graphics. Of course, the station that looks like every other station is a pretty steady trope of sci fi, so this may not bother you. :> It's worth talking to everyone, because you can learn about locations you haven't been to yet, little known wrecks to salvage, and combat strategies from some NPC conversations. You can also gain missions from NPCs in addition to the mission board. Mostly, all the conversational NPCs hang out in the bar, though a few worlds have 1 or 2 in the trade office. If a trade office does have them, it always has them, so if they are not there on your first visit, you don't have to check again. The NPCs in the bar are randomly generated each visit, so you can go in and out to get a new set. The exception is the bartender, who only has something new to say if you launch from the planet and land again.

There's no RPG-style conversation trees here. You can accept or deny offers, but that's about it. The NPC and your character will say a couple of random selections from their voice-over list, and then you'll get the text screens of the actual info. I find it worth reading the little text screens, and the news boards in each bar as well, just because I like the little backstory elements. There are a few places I've seen where an NPC conversation in one place will relate to an NPC conversation in another place. There are, for instance, at least two NPCs who tell you different sides of a story of forbidden love with a girl from a pirate family, if you happen to visit the right two locations. :>

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