Developer: Digital Anvil
Publisher: Microsoft
Estimated release date: Fall
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What's so high-tech about it: Its complex engine allows for a massive, intricate persistent universe.
In what looks like a merging of elements from his Wing Commander and Privateer creations, Chris Roberts will redefine the space combat sim once again later this year with Freelancer. The game's narrative is set in the early 30th century, when humans are traveling the stars and life on Earth no longer exists. Humanity is divided into four factions based on the cultures of the old Earth nations. It's an age of exploration and exploitation for humanity in the universe.
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The engine powering Freelancer conjures up a large-scale, richly detailed science-fiction universe revolving around space trading and commerce. You start the game by picking out a cargo space ship from a selection for sale by a dealer. After you buy and outfit your craft, it's time to hang out at a space station bar, where you pick up leads on freelance assignments, which usually entail shipping cargo to and from planets. Other available jobs have you working as a mercenary to protect ships. Or you can go to the shady side of the law and engage in piracy or transport contraband.
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The most impressive feature of Freelancer is how much goes on in the universe, even if you're not directly involved in things. When trade routes open up and there's money to be made, you'll see ships traveling between planets. This isn't mere window dressing; each computer-controlled ship really is transporting items. Their actions, as well as your involvement (or lack thereof), affect the overall economy unfolding throughout the Freelancer universe. The reputation you gain during play can be an asset or setback for you. Engaging in piracy or taking on mercenary missions for undesirable clientele can lead to much bigger payments but also cause a price to be put on your head. You could find yourself with scores of bounty hunters looking to cash in on you. Being a good, honest trader can yield a more steady flow of assignments, but if you're too much of a pushover, you could wind up as pirate fodder. This detailed level of persistence is meant to make you feel as if you're actively taking part in the universe of Freelancer and not just being entertained by the computer.
Freelancer's real-time graphics approach the quality of prerendered CG effects seen in a modern science-fiction TV series. But the things you see here are more than just superficial: Debris gets blown away from the body of a spacecraft being attacked by the enemy's weapons. Beautiful gaseous clouds can muck up your ship's control panel readouts and weapons, but going through them can also help in evading a pursuer.
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A surprising innovation is how this space combat game is meant to be controlled--the interface has been designed with a mouse in mind. It works much like the way it does in a first-person shooter, where you move the mouse to direct where you want to look. Most functions of your ship can be operated with it, including targeting your weapons. The mouse was chosen as the primary means of control so that learning to play Freelancer would be easier compared with previous space combat games, like Wing Commander, which had complex interfaces and steeper learning curves.
What Freelancer looks like is a concept that would be a natural for multiplayer mode. While the initial release will be single-player (with a cooperative network play mode thrown in), an online version is already in the work--one that Roberts suggests will be as massive in scale as the Freelancer universe.
