March 4th, 2003 marked the release of a space sim that would remain unrivaled for decades to come. That space sim is Freelancer, a game that aged like a fine wine and is still worth delving into 20 years later. Normally, I’m not one of those people who goes around praising retro games while dunking on modern titles just because I typically like the newer ones more. However, there are a handful of old games that I just can’t get enough of and view as being the pinnacle of their respective genres. Freelancer is one of these games.
Freelancer was the first space sim I ever played, and it left a strong impression on me from the get-go. While I wasn’t particularly impressed by the story, the universe immediately hooked me in and compelled me to explore its every nook and cranny. And let me tell you, there’s a lot to explore in the Sirius Sector!
The game features dozens of different star systems, and in my early 20s, I took it upon myself to fully explore all of them and uncover their mysteries. In a time when game guides and wikis were pretty much non-existent, that little venture robbed months away from my life, but it was time well spent. By the end of it, I became a master explorer and was just about ready to put my freelancing days behind me when I made a hugediscovery.
Freelancer Discoveryis a mod that enhances the game in every way imaginable, and it’s what got me into the multiplayer. I’ve played a myriad of online games over the years, but I have yet to encounter another community that takes roleplaying as seriously as the people who play Freelancer Discovery. While in vanilla Freelancer you can merely pretend to be a full-fledged pirate, a miner, or a cop, in Discovery you can actually be all those things and so much more.
Discovery features a number of systems that support immersive roleplaying, and you’re unlikely to get very far if you break the written or unwritten rules created by the community. you may think of it asEve Online, but with forced roleplaying. I learned that the hard way when I was wandering around aimlessly trying to explore the new systems introduced by the mod only to be stopped by someone role-playing as a space cop who proceeded to scan my cargo bay and scolded me for flying without a license. Luckily, the officer let me go with just a warning and advised me to get a license before I ventured into the fringe systems again, lest I got shot on sight by pirates or other cops.
I wasn’t much for role-playing myself, but the fact that people were taking things so seriously intrigued me, so I went ahead and bought myself a small freighter along with a mining license and headed for the nearest asteroid field. Mining in most video games is snooze-worthy, but that wasn’t the case here. A few minutes into my first mining session, I got accosted by someone roleplaying as a pirate, who threatened to blow up my ship if I didn’t hand over all my credits. My freighter wouldn’t have stood a chance against the pirate’s ship, so I submitted, and the player went on their way, several tens of thousands of credits richer.
It was only days later that I learned you’re supposed to join a miner’s guild and hire escorts before venturing into asteroid fields because that’s usually where pirates and outlaws like to hang out. I also learned that you’re able to place a bounty on someone’s head, which is something I would have done if only I didn’t forget the name of the knave who mugged me.
The reason I bring up Discovery is because the mod is still very much alive to this day, as are many others. Despite being an ancient game by today’s standards, Freelancer still receives a lot of support from the community, which is something that can’t be said about its publisher, Microsoft. It’s somewhat ironic that Microsoft has been struggling for years to put out worthwhile exclusives when the company owns the rights to fantastic IPs like Freelancer, yet refuses to do anything with them. If there’s a game out there that deserves a sequel or a remake, it’s definitely this one. That said, it doesn’t necessarily need one.
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In order to celebrate Freelancer’s 20th birthday, I recently jumped back into the game and can confirm that it continues to be as enjoyable as ever. The single-player experience is pretty straightforward but very satisfying once you are given the freedom to do pretty much everything you want in between story missions. This includes completing odd jobs for various factions, mining and hauling goods for profit, exploring asteroid fields and other dangerous areas in search of long-lost treasure and unique weapons, and more.
The name of the game here is freedom. As is often the case with older titles, there’s essentially no hand-holding, so you’ll have to figure out how everything works in this world all on your own. That may seem scary at first given the size of the Sirius Sector, but it’s a breath of fresh air after playing modern titles that constantly interrupt you to explain every little minutia of the gameplay. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help players figure out some of the more complex mechanics, but I feel like tutorials are a bit excessive these days, and I wish every game would give you the option to skip them entirely.
As far as the multiplayer is concerned, that’s where the game truly shines even without mods like Discovery. Sure, you may need to bring some buddies along because very few people are still playing it these days, but you can have tons of fun in solo play. Since there’s no free-roaming mode, playing on an empty server or creating your own is the only way to bypass the story and focus exclusively on the exploration, which is easily the best part of the game. More recent games like Everspace 2 attempt to achieve the same vibe, but they rarely manage to capture the same sense of awe, and sometimes dread, you get while exploring the Sirius Sector.
In an effort to make space exploration fun and action-packed, modern space sims only manage to make it predictable and dull. Even the infamousStar Citizen, the brainchild of the same Chris Roberts who designed Freelancer, feels too much like a Hollywood action movie and desperately tries to incorporate as many modern sci-fi tropes as possible. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I miss retro sci-fi games from the age when everything used to be bleaker and more mysterious. Maybe it was just because of the technical limitations of the time. Or maybe I’m just getting old here, but these flashy new space games are hurting my eyes, and I would rather spend some more time in the Sirius Sector.
Freelancer isn’t currently available on any marketplace (Microsoft, please) but you can get it for free from a bunch of abandonware websites. That’s right; one of the best space sims ever made was neglected to the point that you can’t even get it through conventional means. Some would call that a hidden gem. I call it disgraceful, and Freelancer deserves so much better.
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