A great game in its own right, though its technical aspects are not as revolutionary as promised, the game still is fun.
Freelancer lives up, for the most part, to these. It most definitely has an excellently put together single-player, and plenty of sandboxing to do after that offline or online (some mods are tons of fun). As for space battles, though not as spectacular as I would have imagined. And as for the character interaction, that ideas are great, but I feel a little more effort into character interaction with the economy and other characters would have made this game revolutionary for its genre.
The gameplay as a whole is entirely immersive and addictive. After playing this game for about a half an hour, I was hooked. All the way until the end, and beyond. The interface is very simple, the flight module is unique and frankly, I liked the mouse scheme better than a joystick. As for the economy, a fluctuating economy would have been better, and, this ties in with sound, more emotion and variety between factions and characters would have made this game PERFECT. Yet, it is still an extremely fun game to play.
The graphics are great, though not superb nor revolutionary. They still hold their own in the long run. One thing that should be considered for future space genre sims, make the capital ships "CAPITAL" (BIG). Thats just a minor thing though.
Sound, this is the weakest part of the game, though it is put together well, and the environment sounds are well done, the voice acting is mundane and repetative. It gets really old really quick. Simple enough.
Overall, this game is worth a shot for those space junkies out there looking for good storyline and extended gameplay after the single-play campaign; and to those space junkies who are obsessed with the joy and glory of blasting thine sworn enemies in oblivion in the deep black.
Neural Net Addition 16 November, 2005: 1419 Hours.
I have just downloaded the Tekagi's Treasure mod and it adds sooo much depth, and sooo much replay value that I am worried for my life. If you don't wonder why I say so. Last night I transported 25,000 Koala Bears from a new system to Planet Manhatten in my Interdictor Star Destroyer. That is all I feel I need to say. WOOOOO, so my new score is based off using the mod, which is lame, but it kicks like a mofo.
Neural Net Log Entry End....