FREELANCER (PC)
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The Holy-Grail of space sims arriveth

By WILL BARKER

Freelancer has been a long time coming, and for me, things were getting very panicky.

Remember Daikatana? Yeah, it was that game by some bloke called Romero, which cost $30 million and took almost four years to make. It was going to be huge; the biggest, baddest, built-like-a-brick-shithouse, mean 'mofo of first person shooter you've ever seen….

The end result was a sloppy and somewhat regurgitated dogs breakfast, so you can understand my apprehension when it came time to install the Freelancer Beta.

The game, coded by the lovely people at Digital Anvil, has had quite a tumultuous development, taking more than three years and losing its designer and producer -- renowned movie-director wannabe, Chris Roberts.

While his filmic talents are yet to proven (let's all try to forget the Wing Commander movie, Mark Hamill or not) his game production skills are second to none.

Though he quit the project before it was finished due to development differences, he did leave his mark, and seeing as he was one of the main men behind Privateer 2, he knows quite a bit about the vagaries of a non-linear universe.

Instead of leaving you hanging, though chances are you've probably already read a preview - natch - I'm gonna lay my cards on the table: This is the mother load.

I was always hoping for a top-shelf game, and though the hype died down thanks to the overly extended development cycle, I'm absolutely chuffed that this has come off, seemingly without a hitch.

In fact, I'd be willing to call this a defining moment in the history of gaming, such is its scope, epic scale and high production values. The chances of another game like this appearing in the near future are slim, which in a way is a testament to the extremely arduous and time-consuming coding jobs that such a game entails.

Interestingly, the beta that we played through had very few bugs and holes, which is bloody impressive considering the grand scale of the game.

The best way to get an understanding of what Freelancer is, and how it functions, is simple - just think Grand Theft Auto 3: Vice City, but with spaceships, political factions and wormholes instead of cars, gangs and highways.

While there is a plot - which we'll get to later - you have the freedom to do as you will. So, while it is hypothetically like you're trying to take down another gang and get to the bottom of who's syphoning off your high-octane fuel, you can put such objectives on hold while you see how many pimps you can wipe out with one clip.

Technically, there is only one single-player mode - campaign - though it is possible to set up your own server and just play on that, sort of like a free-form game.

Either way, you start the off with a crappy ship hooked up to weak weapons and rice paper-like shields. Still, the chance to do what the hell you want in what is arguably one of the biggest artificial gameworlds ever created is hard to pass up.

One of the first things that is notably different in this space-sim is the control method. Rather than using the joystick (which is an option), the controls are set out just like that of a modern first person shooter.

The default control method uses the WASD keys for velocity, and yes - you can strafe, though it's usefulness is diminished the faster you go. As such, the best way to use strafing is to come to a complete halt in the dark vacuum of space, and just let a bogey come towards you as you strafe while firing.

Anyway, back to the control method, and you'll notice that I didn't say innovative. That's because a game called Space Rogue by Origin systems (circa 1989) first pioneered the mouse-based navigation method.

First understand this: laser, tachyon, particle (etc) weapons aren't fixed in place to shoot straight forward - they actually follow the targeting reticle on screen, controlled by mouse inputs. This also controls your direction and Combined with the WASD keys, makes taking down bogeys amazingly enjoyable.

So, in laymans terms, if you position the targeting reticle in the top left-hand corner of the screen, you'll not only move in that direction, but you're guns will fire at where the reticle is pointed too.

You may be thinking this sounds like a cock n' bull story and, hey, even I was sceptical at first. But at the end of the day, this new and, dare I say it improved, control method is… oh wait, I just said improved.

The act of dog-fighting is made all the more interesting with limited amounts of strafing on offer, and punching the X on the keyboard also violently shifts your thrusters into reverse, so if you've got a mob of Corsair scum on your six, they'll fly straight by you.

In theory it doesn't always work like that, but is an excellent evasive tool to have at your disposal nonetheless. Combat is fairly conventional, involving hull, shield (recharges), and weapon energy reserves. Fire your guns too much, and you'll have to wait for them to recharge - or you could just buy a ship with a better power rating.

The same goes for the shields and hull, though you can purchase nano bots (hull) and batteries (shield), which come in handy during tougher battles by recharging them to full capacity respectively.

The enemy AI is also rather nifty, and while starting off as pretty easy to deal with, as the game progresses, so does the ferocity of your opponents, and enjoyably so.

Getting around in Freelancer is easy, even fun, and involves quite a few locomotion protocols, or rather, a number of ways you can get from point A to point B. Firstly, there's afterburner - just push TAB.

Next are your cruise engines, these babies take about 8 seconds to charge up. They divert weapons energy to the thrusters, so you can't shoot while cruising.

The second fastest way to travel is via the trade lanes, which usually connect the half-dozen or so planets in most systems. You can't shoot or turn in these babies, but seeing as they're straight, there's no need to. You also get the cool 'tunnel' effects.

Lastly are the jump gates and worm holes, which allow you to travel from system to system, and have the fanciest 'tunnel' effects, likely to provoke photosensitive seizures, such are their intensity.

And while we're on the subject of retina-frying effects, it must be said that Digital Anvil has done an exemplary job with the visuals. With all the detail cranked up and all the visual effects on, the game looks a treat in resolutions 1024 and up. That said, the game even ran smoothly (25fps) on an ageing Athlon running at 650Mhz with only 128Mb RAM.

While object complexity isn't as high as you'd want it, with some of the ships looking a little dated, it comes as no surprise, since the game entered production back in 1999. Texturing is more dependent on your videocard than anything else, but is more than adequate on the whole.

While there are no Descent Freespace-style mega-ships, the planets and space stations on offer more than make up for this. The draw in distance on priority objects, such as planets, stars, asteroid fields, nebulae and jump gates, is simply astronomical.

The feeling of being a tiny spec of insignificance in a massive universe is made all the more real by the way you can just click on a planet during flight, which may be a red spec only a 50 pixels wide. Up pops a little info bar, indicating "Unknown planet: 105km distance".

The particle rendering system is also a thing of beauty, with entities such as the fiery exhaust of your rocket engines looking extraordinary. Weapons fire also looks great, with plenty of fancy aurora effects going on.

I don't want to sound all gushy and stuff, but even the FreeLancer plot is above par. With more political intrigue and double-crossing than most games offer today, it's obvious that someone with a bit of scripting nous was in charge here.

The opening credits show the Freeport 7 space station being blown to smithereens, and you play Trent Edison, one of the dozen survivors. The game starts off with you knowing nothing about the events that led to the destruction of the station, but mid-way through the campaign, you are the only Freeport 7 survivor left alive.

Without giving too much away, as this is champagne sci-fi, the discovery of ancient alien artefacts, the likes of which have never been seen before in the Sirius system, tie-in with the ultimate outcome - an outcome that, predictably, involves the player.

As far as the games layout is concerned, you are bound by a few rules in the campaign game, which disappear once you've beaten it. Alternatively, as mentioned above, you can create your own password protected server and play a free-form game without the campaign.

The rules revolve around your ability to level up. Just like an RPG, you have to level up, giving you access to better weapons, both offensive and defensive.

In the free-form games, gaining specific amounts of money advances levels, such as $20,000, $50,000 and so on.

During the campaign, however, you must complete specific missions, missions that continue the story, to advance in levels. New star systems are also locked out until you pass specific mission to gain the access codes.

So, while you can do your own thing, GTA3-style, it must be done within the bounds of the campaign.

You wanna do your own thing and screw the story missions? Sure, why not, but consider this: No kick-ass weapons, no military grade ships, no unlocking of new systems and no sexy space babes. Well, the space babes was a stretch of the truth, but the patches will come, in time… Hopefully…

Still, it really is a petty little gripe, one that you soon forget about after realising that the story runs quite the marathon, and the levels of intrigue and multi-layered conspiracies offered up are deliciously engrossing.

Furthermore, when you finish the campaign, the game continues like the free-form server, so you can just land on a planet, or a space station and sign on with the Liberty Navy for a variety of missions, or join the Bounty Hunters guild and do some serious skull cracking.

You could also upgrade to a freighter and just cruise the trade lanes, buying water at 30 credits a pop and selling it 55 down the road. Not bad when you can carry 60,000 units….

You can go mining in the debris fields for metals, or even be a drug runner. In fact, if you have no respect for authority, you can simply start firing on a Police outpost, and get in the Corsair's good books; the token pirates of the Freelancer universe.

An important issue of the game I've neglected to touch upon is reputation. As you explore further and further into the dark recesses of the FreeLancer universe, which we'll dissect in more detail in the review, you will discover new companies, committees, groups, parties, guilds and unions.

And for each of these, you have a reputation. Your rep is displayed as a simple horizontal graph in the player-attributes menu, and if fully red, stretching to the left, any member of that organisation will try to kill you, and then revive you so they can kill you again.

If they like you, the graph will be green, filling up the right-side, and reputations are largely governed by your own actions as a Freelancer. Carry out a whole load of missions for the Bounty Hunters Guild and they'll love you so much they'll want to drink your bathwater.

Take out a Liberty Navy shipyard (not an easy proposition, either) and you'll be totally screwed as the navy shifts good old Trent Edison to Public Enemy No.1, shuts down trade lanes, jump points and seeks to capture, then torture you with Roseanne re-runs.

While I think I've already written way too much for a simple preview, that's just it - this game is far from simple, and almost deserves the extra attention. I shudder to think how long the review's going to take...

I've already spent more than 200 gaming hours (it displays game time) playing Freespace in the two weeks I've had it, probably to the detriment of my sanity, yet I'm still looking forward to the retail release.

While the hype died down a few years ago, I personally hope it well and truly flares up again. This game is already a monumental success in my humble opinion, and with a few more months of development, this is going to be one very special and unique game.