One of, if not the greatest space sim up to date.
It has a great, interesting storyline which takes about 9 hours to finish. It has some of the technically most complex missions I've seen in a game. The story revolves around a conspiracy in the human government caused by aliens called nomads who infiltrate human bodies. You take on the role of a survivor from a destroyed space station, who, with a couple of very interesting characters. sets on a mission to save humankind.
Graphics are (today) solid. Explosions are believable, textures are good, let's sum up by saying they are both visually and technically proficient. Many old games repel players with old and weird graphics, in Freelancer, this is not the case.
There are many factions, a variety of ships, weapons, armors, trading goods, trade routes, systems. bases, planets, wrecks... There's enough to explore for months.
Aside from the singleplayer, multiplayer offers a player to enter the same world and play on through side quests with other players. Microsoft had shut down the main server a few years ago, but there are dozens of private servers.
Side Quests are, however, repetitive. There are 5 types of side quests (1. Kill all enemy ships (2. Kill a certain enemy pilot (3. Destroy an enemy base (4. Recover enemy cargo (by killing an enemy pilot) (5. Arrest an enemy pilot and bring him to base)))). Unfortunately, they soon get boring because basically it's all the same. Kill enemy ships.
Combat is so-so. Its interesting, there's a plenty of weapons and the crosshair is simple, but the enemy heavily focuses on shooting you and their evasiveness can get pretty annoying. Nevertheless, its fun.
There's a solid economy system, many trade routes, ships and weapons costs are balanced with the payoffs. However, it feels like some beginner missions are underpriced while later ones are overpriced.
To sum up, Freelancer is an excellent game, with a great story, characters, plenty of things to do, a good combat and economy system. It generally has an epic feel and it is definitely the best Space sim I have ever played. Highly recommended.