Freelancer: Space Combat RPG

[Jeff_the_Thriller]

I recently got back into older PC games from my days as a wee tardlet. One of which was Freelancer. A space combat RPG from acclaimed vaporware developer Chris Roberts. Unlike his recent projects this actually released.

Like most older games run off of an ISO it was a bit of a bitch to get running. Once I got it running with proper compatibility setting the memories came flooding back. The space dogfights. Interstellar commerce. Warring factions. Bounty hunting. Unskippable cutscenes featuring androids with rubber skin stretched over them to attempt pass as human. This game was the shit when it released in 2003.

The stuff mentioned before was just the single player. It had an online component as well. Me and my chums used to play the shit out of this game. My buddy ran a server in the background on his dad's office computer. We would do illicit cargo runs with one piloting a freighter and the other 2 or 3 escorting the freighter. After a couple runs we had the best ships in the game. This was just one example of the stuff you could do in the online open universe. There was PvP on some servers with guilds, typical online RPG stuff.

There seems to be a still fairly active modding community. Within this modding community there seems to be an emphasis on recreating the multiplayer experience as well as expanding on the single player campaign.

I was kind of surprised there wasn't already a thread about this classic but thought I would throw this out there for old PC game speds, people who can recommend good mods, or users interested in setting up a server for the Kiwiverse of space adventures.

 

[NerdShamer]

So EVE, but without the PvP element screwing everyone over.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Freelancer Alpha One Dash One.

You're cleared for dock. Safe flying!

This is a fun game, I replayed it last year. The multiplayer is also a blast if some of you Kiwis want to be gay in space for a while. This will require a patcher to reestablish a connection to the new fan made servers though. Problem is that you can more or less get the best stuff and finish the game quickly, especially in multiplayer.

I have an old PC gaming magazine from back in the day that had an interview with Chris Roberts talking about all the stuff he hoped this game would be. Clearly his vision never panned out because Chris Roberts is a sperg. But the game we did get is still okay.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

I remember the mod scene for this was nuts. People were modding in all sorts of shit, like the Enterprise or B5 ships. Good times.

It really wasn't a bad game, but it was clear why Chris Roberts had been kicked off it. Way too ambitious.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Against all odds it looks like The Lancers Reactor is still alive: http://www.lancersreactor.com/

I could have sworn they closed down over a decade ago. Maybe someone brought it back. This used to be the place to find all kinds of content for Freelancer.

 

[Irrelevant]

What made Freelancer fun was the mini-MMO multiplayer and the lack of copy protection meaning it was easy to get servers going with 5-10 friends at any given time.

On the other hand everything else (especially the combat) sucked compared to Freespace, Starlancer, etc. I'm not sure why anyone would play single player.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

I'm not sure why anyone would play single player.

To get into Jun'ko's trun'ko. And the body horror. Can't forget the body horror.

 

[Snekposter]

What made Freelancer fun was the mini-MMO multiplayer and the lack of copy protection meaning it was easy to get servers going with 5-10 friends at any given time.

On the other hand everything else (especially the combat) sucked compared to Freespace, Starlancer, etc. I'm not sure why anyone would play single player.

Considering both FreeSpace and Starlancer are dedicated space combat games without an open world or the rest of what Freelancer has, that's not shocking. That said, because it is so simplistic you don't need to run spreadsheets or manage interstellar trade empires like in the X games and can actually just focus on you and your ship personally without worrying about how much money the absolutely dogshit combat AI will cost you the minute one of your ships goes into combat, and unlike Eve you don't need to worry about getting ganked the second you undock. Yes, it is casual as shit compared to those two games, but considering what those two games are like Freelancer is still enough to send your average gaming journo these days into a complete psychotic breakdown, complete with frothy mouth and spasms on the floor.

 

[TFT-A9]

Just keep in mind that the only reason Freelancer was as good as it was and still shipped is because Roberts had someone tardwrangling him.

You leave Roberts to his own devices, he becomes a Feature Creep Elemental and consummate Ideas Guy.

 

[Snekposter]

Oh, I'm aware. I snagged an LTI Aurora and the alpha access when Star Citizen was first announced and I consider that money flushed down the crapper. Still enjoyable to hear stories of the salt and idiots that keep coming out though, so even without there being a game I still have my money's worth.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Oh, I'm aware. I snagged an LTI Aurora and the alpha access when Star Citizen was first announced and I consider that money flushed down the crapper. Still enjoyable to hear stories of the salt and idiots that keep coming out though, so even without there being a game I still have my money's worth.

SOMEDAY, MAN.

SOMEDAY.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Just keep in mind that the only reason Freelancer was as good as it was and still shipped is because Roberts had someone tardwrangling him.

You leave Roberts to his own devices, he becomes a Feature Creep Elemental and consummate Ideas Guy.

The old and maybe not true story(people were already making fun of Roberts) behind that is funny. He left as part of the buyout and MS let him "consult" from a safe distance, his name still had some value I guess but they obviously didn't want him. It's maybe a bit similar to how Ubisoft brought in Mechner on PoP Sands of Time for publicity reasons except he actually turned out to be both competent and useful. Or maybe it's more like when Shiny got bought and part of the deal was that Jaffe didn't come with the company.

I think Roberts was really salty over Freelancer after that but I might be misremembering.

The controls in Freelancer was really good, it wasn't the stiff mouse steering like in other games, it was more like Halo's vehicles.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

The old and maybe not true story(people were already making fun of Roberts) behind that is funny. He left as part of the buyout and MS let him "consult" from a safe distance, his name still had some value I guess but they obviously didn't want him. It's maybe a bit similar to how Ubisoft brought in Mechner on PoP Sands of Time for publicity reasons except he actually turned out to be both competent and useful. Or maybe it's more like when Shiny got bought and part of the deal was that Jaffe didn't come with the company.

I think Roberts was really salty over Freelancer after that but I might be misremembering.

The controls in Freelancer was really good, it wasn't the stiff mouse steering like in other games, it was more like Halo's vehicles.

Unfortunately, I suspect the story to be true based on (a) Freelancer itself, which very obviously looked like it had been pared back in places, and (b) Roberts' own behavior later on, ESPECIALLY with Star Citizen.

 

[Maude Snew]

Freelance only released after Microsoft had enough and kicked Chris Roberts out. So wouldn't even call it a Chris Roberts game. Still was solid and pretty fun and if they have a mod that makes ships not just get better as you progress in the game from faction to faction but somehow balances them so that they can all sort of compete just with different strengths and shit that would be pretty great.

The only mod I remember playing back then was one where you had a jillion components you all needed to individually buy and install and the planet I was on had ships but not engines so I was stuck there.

 

[TFT-A9]

Also if you like Freelancer and similar, try Tachyon: the Fringe sometime. Not quite as crazy expansive and off-rails as *lancer stuff but still very fun. Also Bruce Campbell as VA for the MC.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Chris Roberts general?

Chris Roberts general.

 

[Jeff_the_Thriller]

This is a fun game, I replayed it last year. The multiplayer is also a blast if some of you Kiwis want to be gay in space for a while. This will require a patcher to reestablish a connection to the new fan made servers though. Problem is that you can more or less get the best stuff and finish the game quickly, especially in multiplayer.

I didn't look into it too much but on ModDB there is still multiplayer mods active this as of this year. I've only been playing the single player at the moment. The side missions get repetitive (go here, kill them, get duckets). The real fun is the exploration and trading.

To get into Jun'ko's trun'ko.

Juni's blocky polygonal ass don't quit.

 

[Miller]

Thoughts on the BSG mod "Diaspora" for Freelancer?

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Thoughts on the BSG mod "Diaspora" for Freelancer?

That looks fantastic.

 

[Snekposter]

That's because its FreeSpace, not Freelancer. Totally different game, as much as the name sounds similar. Its also not using FreeSpace 2 itself, but an engine that's been rebuilt almost entirely from the ground up after the devs dropped the source code in the early 00's with a very neat license. Looks pretty good for an engine that has its origins in 1999, and is certainly much less buggy than Paradox's Clausewitz or whatever Bethesda is calling their one engine these days.