Freelancer is considered one of the last classic, open spacefaring games before the genre went dormant for roughly a decade. It was released in 2003 to critical fanfare and lackluster sales, which essentially killed any hopes for a sequel. It was developed as the sequel to Starlancer, but takes place far enough in the future that playing its predecessor is optional, since both stories are self-contained. The game's main features include a single-player story-based campaign, as well as a completely open multiplayer environment, thus staying true to the game's title.

One way the game broke from genre conventions was that it focused on mouse-based movement and combat, instead of the joystick design that had been a staple of PC gaming until the mouse essentially replaced it. During the golden age of open space simulators, a joystick was basically a requirement, and part of the reason was that a mouse was not yet a completely standard piece of equipment. By the time Freelancer was released, the roles had reversed, with the joystick becoming an accessory, and every computer essentially requiring a mouse to operate the base user interface.




The single-player story is likely where new players to Freelancer will want to start. In the story, players take on the role of Edison Trent, a freelancing survivor of a recent attack that left Freeport 7 as free floating scrap. To get back on his feet, Trent goes to the bar to find good contracts to take for work; this is where he meets his main contact in the American-themed faction of the game. Trent takes a basic supply run job for Jun'ko Zane and makes a good flying friend, King, in the process. The story starts off as a slow burn, but quickly ramps up the pace, arguably too much. Just when the mysteries of this sector of space start to unfold, Trent finds himself more than knee deep in the events that the destruction of Freeport 7 set off. While the purpose of these story missions is mostly to give the players a tour of the space the game inhabits, as well as the faction relation systems, it also manages to tell a rather compelling story.


Freelancer is essentially an open-world space RPG, where Trent's total net worth is calculated as his experience. Reaching certain thresholds of worth will see Trent gain a level. Doing the side missions for factions in the various stations and planets scattered around the world gives Trent the raw money he needs to buy new and better ships. The quality of the ships determines what weapons and accessories can be used on the ship, so leveling up is the only way to get the best gear. These ships are locked in different parts of the Sirius sector the game takes place in. Liberty has the weakest ships, Bretonia is the first step up, and Kusari is the next step up. The top tier of ships can be found in Rheinland, the Independent, and Pirate worlds. The actual strength of individual ship types may be different at the highest tiers.

Trent's reputation with various factions shifts during the events of the main story, which serves to lock the players out of higher or lower level space in some cases. Because of this, missions should be taken rather sparingly, and players should fully explore the systems they currently inhabit in order to get the best ships and weapons they possibly can. Players can only pilot two different ship types, fighters and freighters. Fighters are seperated into three different classes, light fighters, heavy fighters, and very heavy fighters. Freighters only have one type of ship, and are not that useful in battle. While fighters can weave and be actively piloted during dogfights, Freighters are best turned into auto pilot while the player takes direct control of weapons by using the game's Turret Mode if they find themselves under attack.


Graphically, Freelancer looks dated, even for its 2003 release date. It was notably made on older design technology, and delays in its production only made the graphics look further and further behind by the time of its release. The actual style of the graphics is quite well done. Each of the main factions is based on a period of history from its mother culture, with Liberty taking on the feel of Roaring 20's America, Bretonia is based on the Victorian United Kingdom, Kusari is modeled after Sengoku Japan, and Rheinland on Industrial Germany. Given the backstory of how the Sirius Sector was colonized, these sectors of space must have felt the desire to take on what they believed to the be the most representative era of their mother cultures. The sound design of each of the areas reflects this, and is quite fitting for the game. It makes stopping for supplies and missions something to look forward to.

Freelancer is a game which is still rather fun to play. The mouse controls make it easy to pick up and play with any modern computer, and its old enough to run on anything you can grab off the shelf today. There are some graphics mods to update the look, but there seem to be a lot of dead links and dead ends for some mods that are only a few years old. The implementation of The Freelancer Mod Manager is a good way to install and keep track of these mods. It's not required for some of the graphics mods, but it does give messages when trying to load incompatible mods.

There's little to do beyond leveling up after beating the main storyline, but there are still some Freelancer servers that are up and running, with some population scattered across the Sirius Sector. If you just want a quick space game that tells a good story, Freelancer might be rather hard to beat in that category, as Trent's story is a fun ride that is quite thought-provoking in the later missions. Unfortunately, Freelancer is not available to purchase digitally on any of the various storefronts that currently exist. The only options for modern players to get hold of the game is to find an actual physical copy, or find yourself flying off to the sectors of space occupied by pirates.

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