Somewhere along the lines of its development, Freelancer got bad press coverage. Development time was dragging on for years. The progeny behind the whole idea, Chris Roberts, had left to focus on other endeavors. A sister product called Starlancer, which became the complete opposite of what Freelancer would represent, fared poorly amongst critics and fans alike. It’s a testament to the development crew and their faith in the Freelancer model, which has changed wildly through the years, that allows Freelancer to become the product it is today.

So many stories have been written about Freelancer that it’s difficult to know what the product actually is. I had come to mistakenly think it’s the MMORPG version of something like Privateer. Apparently, it’s not.

You come to assume the role of Trent in the single player game. Through a series of set missions, complete with cinematic sequences, you are forced from the very beginning into campaign-style play. If you remember the transition scenes of Wing Commander and Starlancer, you’ll find those familiar devices here. Trademark to titles by Digital Anvil developers, Trent still moves to a place, say a bar, scans around for awhile before the game lets you do anything. Communiqué during missions also help flesh out the story, and while many of the missions are straightforward to begin with, not a single story mission I’ve played yet has gone by the book.

The important thing about the factions is the fact that they are all dynamic. Being aligned with one will give you perks. Arms specific to military factions will be more powerful than if you aligned yourself with some civilian outfit. Your reputation will also influence which areas you operate. Destroying a trade lane, for example, might promote crime. And it’s this living universe motif that drives much of Freelancer.

Besides that, the single player campaign will drive you to service others. But what if you don’t want to? That’s also an option too. Instead of forcing you on a linear campaign like Starlancer, Freelancer pays homage to its namesake by letting you forego the main story line (provided you finish the first tutorial segment) altogether. Instead of contacting significant plotline characters for jobs, you can scroll through the job boards located at each bar. You can also make your own job by becoming a trader or a public menace. These too will tap into the reputation system used earlier. Cash and experience earned in these missions will also contribute to the development of Trent’s character as well as his ship.

Many of the commands used in Freelancer are now displayed on screen and can be accessed with the mouse. Things like choosing the closest target are now intuitive. One particular innovation I liked was the ability to automatically fly in formation and a docking computer that attaches to everything from trade lanes, jumpgates to space installations.

Suffice to say, Freelancer plays and feels like a premier space simulation, rivalling even modern titles like the recent Earth & Beyond and the impending EVE Online. It’s utterly baseless to think that the long development time has left the Freelancer engine in the dust. On the contrary, this is a beautiful looking product.

Online titles often leave the impression of vapidity simply because there’s a lot of space (excuse my pun) and not a lot of material to fill in. Characters in Freelancer make the utmost to react to you. If they haven’t seen you, they’ll say so. If you’ve done good work for them, they’ll reward you. It’s that level of customization that helps Freelancer feel livelier than your average online space game. Voiceovers help immensely with this, and it’s something I wonder why online titles don’t employ more often. The voice talent in this game is simply superb, not only for the main campaign, where every word of speech is done by professional voice actors, but also for the people you see with great frequency; shop vendors, space police, etc. Even during dynamic missions or content from minor characters, they at least make the attempt to voice their content, similar to Privateer, Strike Commander, so on and so forth before the text dialogue appears. Film and cinema has clearly influenced the development of Freelancer. It’s a little thing to script ten, fifteen lines for a guy moping around in a bar selling “kill everyone” missions, but it goes a long way to making an immersive universe. And as far as the written content goes, especially in the news terminals in the bars, it’s all picture perfect prose.

With so many references to online titles, you’re most likely to ask what online play will be like with Freelancer. Rather than going with a centralized server, it will give the ability for players to set up their own servers. Trent’s single player campaign will be disabled, but you will still be able to play in a virtual universe, create unique characters and play competitively or co-operatively with others. I hadn’t had a chance to test this personally, but it sounds eerily like Microsoft’s first (and most underrated) foray into this genre: Allegiance. If it executes in any way shape or form better than the flawed ones in Starfleet Command, I can foresee a great many Freelancer universes starting.