Fri Apr 11, 2003 4:00 am
Essay on "What is Lacking"
First of all, Freelancer is an excellent, albeit seemingly unfinished game. The story is quite well done, and although it appears that the developers didn't have time to finish the game entirely, they certainly put a lot of effort into the backstories of the game. There are over 2 novels worth of text in the game, after all. The freedom and massive universe in which to explore add to the excitement and overall entertainment value of the game.
That said, there are definetely some disappointing aspects of Freelancer. To begin with, Freelancer is most definetely a "lite sim." All ships have the same speed limitations, regardless of equipment or size, and some of the basic forces of the physical world are just ignored. Gravity is completely neglected, as planets and stars seem to have to gravitational effect on you whatsoever. Intertia is almost absolutely ignored, with the exception of the "engine kill" function which represents the force wrongfully. For instance, when you are moving at "cruise speed" your engines are constantly on. Given that there is no air resistance in space, thus no terminal velocity, if you had sustained engine power like it appears when you engage your cruise engines, you would continue to accelerate at a fixed rate indefinetely. Another unrealistic factor: the distances between planets and stars is preposterous. The distance from our sun to Earth is 96,000,000 miles. The average distance between planets and suns in Freelancer: about 60 kilometers. While I understand how this is necessary to do to make the game run like it does (if it was realistic distances, and the cruise speeds were proportioned so that travel time would be the same, you would fly past other ships so fast that nothing could get done), it should still be pointed out as quite unrealistic.
Since Freelancer is, after all, a game, the aformentioned points about realism don't really matter if you're talking about gameplay value. While the additions of realistic intertial and gravitational forces would be nice, making distances realistic just wouldn't work in a game with such adventure and exploration as Freelancer (it did work it Freespace, for those of you who have played that, but since Freespace was mission based, you only had to be in one small sector at a time so it could work).
However, the other component lacking in Freelancer is the ability to BECOME Bounty Hunters or Red Hessians or Naval Officers, etc. If you have ever seen advertisments or previews for the game, it makes it seem like that is exactly what you do. You look at ads, and "hey, look I can be a Bounty Hunter!," or "hey, look I can become a Kusari Naval Officer!," so you go sign up. Well, the reality of things is that you never actually do any of that stuff. All you can do is complete the same mundane tasks for each faction as little errands for them. What faction you do these jobs for really makes no difference, it isn't different experience regardless. This annoys me mainly because the advertisments are so incredibley misleading. They basically say that that is exactly what you do, when you really only do jobs, identical jobs, for those people. Here is a sample from an ad for Freelancer:
----------------------------------------
COWARDS NEED NOT APPLY
BECOME A BOUNTY HUNTER
New Berlin System. A beleaguered police force and rapidly multiplying crime sectors have made Bounty Hunters some of the highest paid people in the solar system. It is a job of extreme danger; your abilities must be superior.
----------------------------------------
Right from the start, it is misleading. "Become a Bounty Hunter." NO! You never see ANYTHING like that in the game. Its more like "be the errand boy for 1 of many factions! Don't worry, though, the jobs are ALL THE SAME you won't need to learn a lot if you want to work for multiple factions!"
Anyone else who has noticed this, or knows of a future expansion/sequal that may be in the works that should actually include this stuff, or just feels inclined to respond anyway, please do so!
--DucusDei
Edited by - DucusDei on 11-04-2003 05:05:42
Edited by - DucusDei on 11-04-2003 05:06:24
Edited by - DucusDei on 11-04-2003 05:08:50
That said, there are definetely some disappointing aspects of Freelancer. To begin with, Freelancer is most definetely a "lite sim." All ships have the same speed limitations, regardless of equipment or size, and some of the basic forces of the physical world are just ignored. Gravity is completely neglected, as planets and stars seem to have to gravitational effect on you whatsoever. Intertia is almost absolutely ignored, with the exception of the "engine kill" function which represents the force wrongfully. For instance, when you are moving at "cruise speed" your engines are constantly on. Given that there is no air resistance in space, thus no terminal velocity, if you had sustained engine power like it appears when you engage your cruise engines, you would continue to accelerate at a fixed rate indefinetely. Another unrealistic factor: the distances between planets and stars is preposterous. The distance from our sun to Earth is 96,000,000 miles. The average distance between planets and suns in Freelancer: about 60 kilometers. While I understand how this is necessary to do to make the game run like it does (if it was realistic distances, and the cruise speeds were proportioned so that travel time would be the same, you would fly past other ships so fast that nothing could get done), it should still be pointed out as quite unrealistic.
Since Freelancer is, after all, a game, the aformentioned points about realism don't really matter if you're talking about gameplay value. While the additions of realistic intertial and gravitational forces would be nice, making distances realistic just wouldn't work in a game with such adventure and exploration as Freelancer (it did work it Freespace, for those of you who have played that, but since Freespace was mission based, you only had to be in one small sector at a time so it could work).
However, the other component lacking in Freelancer is the ability to BECOME Bounty Hunters or Red Hessians or Naval Officers, etc. If you have ever seen advertisments or previews for the game, it makes it seem like that is exactly what you do. You look at ads, and "hey, look I can be a Bounty Hunter!," or "hey, look I can become a Kusari Naval Officer!," so you go sign up. Well, the reality of things is that you never actually do any of that stuff. All you can do is complete the same mundane tasks for each faction as little errands for them. What faction you do these jobs for really makes no difference, it isn't different experience regardless. This annoys me mainly because the advertisments are so incredibley misleading. They basically say that that is exactly what you do, when you really only do jobs, identical jobs, for those people. Here is a sample from an ad for Freelancer:
----------------------------------------
COWARDS NEED NOT APPLY
BECOME A BOUNTY HUNTER
New Berlin System. A beleaguered police force and rapidly multiplying crime sectors have made Bounty Hunters some of the highest paid people in the solar system. It is a job of extreme danger; your abilities must be superior.
----------------------------------------
Right from the start, it is misleading. "Become a Bounty Hunter." NO! You never see ANYTHING like that in the game. Its more like "be the errand boy for 1 of many factions! Don't worry, though, the jobs are ALL THE SAME you won't need to learn a lot if you want to work for multiple factions!"
Anyone else who has noticed this, or knows of a future expansion/sequal that may be in the works that should actually include this stuff, or just feels inclined to respond anyway, please do so!
--DucusDei
Edited by - DucusDei on 11-04-2003 05:05:42
Edited by - DucusDei on 11-04-2003 05:06:24
Edited by - DucusDei on 11-04-2003 05:08:50
