- Mar 28, 2006
- 234
- 0
- 18,680
I just bought this game on Saturday, and I can't put it down! I love it! Any fans of space flight sims definately have to try this! It combines the best elements of Freelancer, I-War 2, and Privateer, and adds a lot of its own in there. Not to mention it looks farging sweet with all the graphics turned up full.
It has its little problems, the voice acting is laughably bad, and they need to improve their joystic support, but there's so much good as well!
The missons are really varied, from the typical pirate hunting, to transporting crates, to taking photos of a solar system for a calendar competition. If you accidentally snap a pic of a military installation, you get in trouble
Trading is a viable choice, if you know what you're doing, you can pick up a cargo for 10000 credits, fly to the next system, and sell it for 25000. Considering most missions go for 12000 credits or so, you make about the same trading as you can on a mission.
The other great thing: Bounties. Get tired of those missions where more and more ships seem to come in, and there's no end in sight, and you just want to finish so you can get your money and go home? Now each extra ship will give you a little glee, as you can get a bountie for every pirate ship destroyed, with each bounty between a few hundred or a thousand credits, depending on the system.
There's little side missions as well, if you read the news, and here mention of a pirate gang causing trouble in a system, you can go there, hunt for them, and if you find and defeat them, not only do you get their bounties and a rich reward, but also a secret service weapon.
There really are career paths, one of six, killer, smuggler, pirate, merchant, mercenary, and bounty hunter. Do enough of a certain type, and you get labelled as that, with bonuses that come with it. I'm currently a mercenary/bounty hunter, and I'm almost a merchant as well. *spoiler* Merc means I get more cash for doing missions from the terminals, and bounty hunter means in rebel systems, I'm more likely to get attacked by pirates, and hence get their bounties.
Oh, and another thing, no more long travelling times, or jump gates/lagrange points. For between systems you have a jump drive that you can activate any time, anywhere. There are lump gates to determine where you enter a system, but you don't have to find one when you want to leave. For in-system travelling, you have time acceleration, where it'll speed up time for you, with some interesting visual effects.
Now the big thing they go on about is your upgradeable ship. You canh collect artifacts through two ways, liberating a system held by pirates (lots of fun Very Happy), or finding them hidden in asteroids. Now, your ship tels you which systems artifacts can be found in, and even puts them on your target list when in that system. When I first got the game, they made it sound like you just had t blow up a small floating asteroid to pick up the artifact in it. Not so. Picture in X-Wing alliance, fluing through the Death Star. There are these giant asteroids many kilometers across that have ben hollowed out for mining. You have to fly through all the narrow tunnels to find the cavern with the artifact to collect it.
When you collect enough for an upgrade, you ca choose to upgrade your hull, wings, or engines. These do things like add front firing weapon slots, add turret slots, increase power, speed, agility, etc.
Once you pick which area to upgrade, you then get to upgrade your plasma cannon. this is a unique weapon to your ship, that does lots of multiple things all at once. Picture a skill tree like from diablo 2. Now, picture pushing one button, and having every skill act at once. That's how the plasma cannon works. Each ability has five levels, and there are things like recharging your weapons or shield a lot faster, firing a plasma bolt at an enemy cockpit to disabl their shields, firing an EMP to disable their weapons, freezing them in time, and several others.
There's a lot more to the game as well, it's just a whole heap of fun. I love it.
It has its little problems, the voice acting is laughably bad, and they need to improve their joystic support, but there's so much good as well!
The missons are really varied, from the typical pirate hunting, to transporting crates, to taking photos of a solar system for a calendar competition. If you accidentally snap a pic of a military installation, you get in trouble
Trading is a viable choice, if you know what you're doing, you can pick up a cargo for 10000 credits, fly to the next system, and sell it for 25000. Considering most missions go for 12000 credits or so, you make about the same trading as you can on a mission.
The other great thing: Bounties. Get tired of those missions where more and more ships seem to come in, and there's no end in sight, and you just want to finish so you can get your money and go home? Now each extra ship will give you a little glee, as you can get a bountie for every pirate ship destroyed, with each bounty between a few hundred or a thousand credits, depending on the system.
There's little side missions as well, if you read the news, and here mention of a pirate gang causing trouble in a system, you can go there, hunt for them, and if you find and defeat them, not only do you get their bounties and a rich reward, but also a secret service weapon.
There really are career paths, one of six, killer, smuggler, pirate, merchant, mercenary, and bounty hunter. Do enough of a certain type, and you get labelled as that, with bonuses that come with it. I'm currently a mercenary/bounty hunter, and I'm almost a merchant as well. *spoiler* Merc means I get more cash for doing missions from the terminals, and bounty hunter means in rebel systems, I'm more likely to get attacked by pirates, and hence get their bounties.
Oh, and another thing, no more long travelling times, or jump gates/lagrange points. For between systems you have a jump drive that you can activate any time, anywhere. There are lump gates to determine where you enter a system, but you don't have to find one when you want to leave. For in-system travelling, you have time acceleration, where it'll speed up time for you, with some interesting visual effects.
Now the big thing they go on about is your upgradeable ship. You canh collect artifacts through two ways, liberating a system held by pirates (lots of fun Very Happy), or finding them hidden in asteroids. Now, your ship tels you which systems artifacts can be found in, and even puts them on your target list when in that system. When I first got the game, they made it sound like you just had t blow up a small floating asteroid to pick up the artifact in it. Not so. Picture in X-Wing alliance, fluing through the Death Star. There are these giant asteroids many kilometers across that have ben hollowed out for mining. You have to fly through all the narrow tunnels to find the cavern with the artifact to collect it.
When you collect enough for an upgrade, you ca choose to upgrade your hull, wings, or engines. These do things like add front firing weapon slots, add turret slots, increase power, speed, agility, etc.
Once you pick which area to upgrade, you then get to upgrade your plasma cannon. this is a unique weapon to your ship, that does lots of multiple things all at once. Picture a skill tree like from diablo 2. Now, picture pushing one button, and having every skill act at once. That's how the plasma cannon works. Each ability has five levels, and there are things like recharging your weapons or shield a lot faster, firing a plasma bolt at an enemy cockpit to disabl their shields, firing an EMP to disable their weapons, freezing them in time, and several others.
There's a lot more to the game as well, it's just a whole heap of fun. I love it.
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