Freelancer (video game)

Freelancer
Developer(s)	Digital Anvil
Publisher(s)	Microsoft
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	March 3, 2003
Genre(s)	Space simulation
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Freelancer is a space simulation computer game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft. It was released on March 3, 2003 for Microsoft Windows. The primary distinguishing feature of the game is that it does not end when the last in-game story mission is completed. At that time the player has only explored a small part of the game universe, and is then free to continue to explore the rest of the region.

Story

The player character is Edison Trent, survivor of a space station disaster. The player begins with few resources, and must find a ship and a job. Lonnigan, a debtor to Edison Trent, owes him a million credits.

He and his fellow survivors are brought to Planet Manhattan. The player then begins searching for a job, and finds a Liberty Security Force (LSF) officer, Jun’ko (Juni) Zane, who needs some help from a freelancer. She provides the player with a very basic ship and some credits.

After launching, the player joins the mission with CO, Michael King. While the player is in space outside Manhattan, the Rheinland cruiser RNC Donau, carrying Admiral Schultzky, is about to dock with Newark Station for a meeting with the President of Liberty. Five fighters appear out of nowhere and demolish the cruiser, killing Schultzky. There are no survivors. The player helps fight the enemy fighters, and returns to the mission. They escort two convoys with supplies to Planet Pittsburgh, and was later revealed that it was a ruse to draw pirates.

The player launches once more and joins a squad of LSF fighters. A prison ship is attacked. After the player defeats the pirates, they continue their search for a possible pirate base. With the help of another LSF ship, they find out coordinates that may be near the base. The base is destroyed, and the freelancer's first mission is completed.

Now owning a ship, a few credits, and some experience, the player has taken their first steps into the game. Between missions the player is free to explore the system as a freelancer until their net worth reaches a certain level.

In the next segment, the player captures an artifact smuggler named Sean Ashcroft, escorts another convoy to Willard research station, encounters Lonnigan, who gets sedated by a security team, answers a mayday from Willard research station, and Jun'ko reveals that people around her are disappearing. Arrests have quadrupled within the LSF. Jun'ko says she will try to find out more. After a while, the player returns to Manhattan to find Lonnigan, who warns Trent to get out of Liberty before running off.

When the player goes to meet up with Jun'ko again, a thief appears to speak to Trent. They are the only left survivors of the attack. He shows Trent a strange alien artifact, claiming it's what the attackers were after. Suddenly, the thief is shot. The shooter, an LSF officer, threatens to do the same to Trent. Jun’ko arrives, asserting the officer to arrest Trent as he gets the right to a free trial. The officer tries to shoot Jun’ko, but she kills him first. Murder is a capital offense and she doubts the government will believe them when they say it was self-defense. They launch to space but are intercepted by what seems to be the entirety of New York's navy contingent. Just as the player and Jun'ko are about to lose hope, Walker, a cruiser captain met earlier, and King, destroy one of the battleships and allow the player to escape. Jun'ko and Trent go through the Magellan jump gate. After that, they get attacked by Bounty Hunters, and stranger still, they get help from the Lane Hackers, a criminal organization. After killing the Bounty Hunters, they go to the Hackers base. They get attacked by Rheinlanders, again. With help from the Lane Hackers, Jun'ko and Trent destroy them. Jun'ko and Trent split up after that. Trent goes to Leeds to talk to his old friend Richard Tobias.

About this time, the colonies are at the brink of war, sparked by the Rheinlanders. In the search to find out just what the artifact is, the player finds Sinclair, the assistant to a Xenoarchaeologist, Quintaine. She cannot analyze the artifact without Quintaine's help. Upon finding him, the player is intercepted by Rheinlanders numerous times and forced to abandon Leeds with the artifact, Jun'ko, Sinclair, and Quintaine himself. More base-hopping ensues as the player runs from his or her pursuers and eventually ends up in Kusari.

Trent falls in with the Blood Dragons, a pirate group determined to restore their honor and return control of Kusari to its rightful owners; them. The player retrieves the Proteus Tome, an alien scroll required to analyze the artifact, from Kusari Governor Tekagi, who has been acting oddly and possesses a remote planetoid in the very remote system, Tohoku, which only one Jump Hole leads to from Chūgoku.

The player finds out that the Chancellor that was attacked to get it has been infected by a creature called a Nomad, who have the ability to possess humans and give them super-strength and abilities. The Nomads had already possessed leaders or key authorities in each system, so there is little hope left at this point. It is revealed that the terrorist organization, the Order, who destroyed the Donau, was actually a group founded to protect the colonies from Nomads. The Nomads plan to infiltrate the colonies and have them go to war with one another until the colonies are weakened enough for the Nomads to take over. Rheinland has been almost completely taken over by Nomad-infected leaders who have imposed martial law: the Order knew that the meeting with Jacobi and Schultzky was only a means to infect the president of Liberty, so she may too become a Nomad. This is why they destroyed the Donau.

Trent then travels to Rheinland to extract an Order operative named Herr von Claussen. While in Rheinland, Trent aids von Claussen in destroying several Nomad battleships being built by Rheinland. An Order battleship, the Osiris helps them in a very large fight with the Rheinland Military while attempting to leave. After landing, Trent meets with Jun'ko, King, and the leader of the Order, a former Liberty operative named Kaspar Orillion.

Trent joins the Order and battles the Nomads for some time, gaining a Nomad power cell needed to activate the artifact. Sinclair and Quintaine made a discovery: the artifact is actually a star map of the empire of the alien Dom'Kavosh. Their empire stretched to many galaxies and had Hypergates, which are very powerful Jump Gates that can send any ship instantaneously to another galaxy. Gaining a plan, Trent and the Order stage an attack on the Nomad home world in an unknown and distant system, where they discover a Nomad city encapsulated within a Dyson sphere. The artifact, in Trent's possession, starts making a shield-like barrier around his ship. He goes near the city, and the Hypergate is activated. The Nomads are unable to take the transfer of power from them to the Hypergate, and are sucked in, devoid of engine power to resist. They are apparently not gone; they have merely been sent to another galaxy. The Order vows to watch the Hypergate to make sure they never return.

Trent and Jun’ko both end up receiving the Lone Star award upon their arrival.

After this last mission the player is free to explore all the other systems in Sirius space with few limitations on what can be done. The player is free to take on missions, become a trader, a pirate, a smuggler, or a hero, and do as he or she pleases. The game never truly ends.

Characters

The following characters are found in Freelancer.

Character	Voiced by
Edison Trent	Ian Ziering (known from Beverly Hills 90210)
Commander Jun'ko Zane ('Juni')	Jennifer Hale
Richard Winston Tobias, Esq. ('Tobias')	John Rhys-Davies (known from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Lord of the Rings)
Orillion	Michael T. Weiss (known from The Pretender)
Lord Hakkera	George Takei (known from Star Trek and Heroes)

Gameplay

File:Freelancer.jpg

The player's ship, a Rheinland Valkyrie Heavy Fighter, engages another ship amidst asteroids and the explosions of ordnance.

There are two distinct game environments; either the player is in space or landed on a planet or station.

The space environment is visually rich, with immense backgrounds created from sources such as images from the Hubble Space Telescope. The space around the player is populated with planets, stations, nebulas, Trade Lane rings and many other objects. Computer-generated ships (police and other patrols, cargo convoys and so on) move around on whatever business the relevant faction would be involved in. The space around many planets is a veritable hive of activity, with orbital stations and trade lane terminuses often in orbit, generating considerable traffic. The environment is rendered very realistically (within the rules of the game universe). The player can switch between various viewpoints.

In space, the player is in control of a ship and is generally trying to get from one place to another without that ship being destroyed. Control is through a mouse and keyboard; the game does not support a joystick interface. Maximum speed in normal flight is 80 of the in-game velocity units, but a thruster can also be used to boost speed for a period. ("Kill Engine" allows the player to drift at high speed, while forward, backward and side Thrusters allow the player to stay at KE). In cruise mode the speed increases to 300 units but in this mode all weapons are disabled. Any ship in cruise mode is usually difficult to hit but special "cruise disruptor" missiles (which, rather obviously, disrupt a target's cruise engines for five seconds during which the target can be attacked or destroyed) are available on the market. Trade Lanes allow a player to move across a system very quickly (2500 units/s). Ships have four flight modes - free flight, go to (a kind of autopilot that will fly a ship to a selected point avoiding obstacles), dock (used to land on planets and stations and to travel along Trade Lanes and through Jump Gates), and formation (in which a player can join a convoy and will automatically adjust position to match the convoy's Speed/orientation).

While landed, a player can trade weapons and ammunition, commodities and even buy a new ship. Players can also visit the bar to pick up gossip, have their reputation "hacked" (see Factions and Reputation) or select a mission from the job board to pick up a little money.

There are several ways to make a living. A ship can be flown to take on missions from the job board to gain money, or the player can move cargo around, ideally buying low and selling high. Some asteroid fields can also be mined by firing on small free-floating asteroids, garnering commodities to sell. However, mining takes great amounts of time to fill even the smallest fighter's cargo hold, and is therefore considered by many to be dull and uneconomic.

Ships and equipment

File:Freelancer-Stiletto heavy fighter.jpg

A Sabre-class Border Worlds Very Heavy Fighter lands on planet Crete, located in the Omicron Gamma System

There are many ships to choose from. There are two basic types: fighters and freighters. Fighters are further subdivided into Light Fighters, Heavy Fighters and Very Heavy Fighters.

Fighters are more maneuverable, have more energy for weapons, and are the most commonly flown. Freighters, however, are used almost exclusively by traders (You are only allowed to have one ship at a time). They generally have more weapon hardpoints and are far more heavily armoured, but cannot use high class weapons and are unable to support as much fire power as a fighter. Although they are less maneuverable, they can attain the same speed as the fighters. Like the names suggest, fighters have limited cargo capacity (The largest is 70), while freighters have much larger holds (The largest capacity being 275).

Ships can be equipped with a shield and a thruster. These are technically optional and can be upgraded, but the player would be extremely foolish to take to space without these items. The shield protects the hull from weapons fire but each hit knocks the shield capacity down; if the shield is disabled, enemy gunfire will cause damage to the hull until the shields reactivate - this usually takes about twenty seconds. The shield regenerates over time. Shield batteries, which can be bought when landed or often tractored in from destroyed ships, can be used to recharge the shield instantly. Similarly, hull damage can be repaired using nanobots, which again can be bought or salvaged.

The thruster gives ships a boost to a top speed of 200 for a short period of time. There are four types of thrusters, only differing in the amount of power drain. Like the shield, the thruster regenerates over a period of a minute or so.

In addition to guns and turrets, the player can also mount missile and torpedo launchers, countermeasure and mine droppers and a cruise disruptor, a specialized high-speed missile designed to temporarily disable an enemy's cruise engines. All weapons and shields are separated by classes 1 through 10. Most Liberty Ships hold up to class 3 weapons while most Very Heavy fighters can hold up to class 10, though class 10 weapons must be found by the player, as they are unavailable through conventional means.

There are also various wrecks in space, containing small stockpiles (known as "loot" in the game) of weapons (including the coveted class 10 weapons), equipment or commodities. Typically, the more valuable the loot is, the more difficult it is to reach the wreck that contains it, often being located in dangerous radiation pockets.

Third party modifications often contain additional ship types, equipment, and/or altered specifications or physics which can affect game play.

Character status

Character status is based on "worth" - the sum of the value of a player's ship, weapons, cargo and cash reserves. As a player's worth reaches certain thresholds, the character level goes up. Higher-level characters are able to buy more powerful ships. The highest level attainable in single player is thirty-eight (38), while some multiplayer modifications can extend this to eighty-nine (89) or three hundred(300). This level usually means more than $950,000,000 worth. A player's cash cannot exceed $999,999,999, unless the game is modded it can reach to any value.

Factions and reputation

As one progresses, he or she will meet other characters, each of whom belong to one faction or another. There are dozens of factions; the police and naval forces on one side, the pirate factions such as the Outcasts and the Corsairs on the other, and many commercial entities such as Bretonia Mining and Metals and the Gas Miner's Guild in-between.

How these factions treat a player depends on the player's reputation with them, influenced by actions against them. They may be friendly, neutral or hostile based on a sliding scale. Neutral factions may scan a player's ship and order him or her to give up cargo or fight for it. Hostile factions won't bother scanning or warning - they'll attack on sight. Friendly factions will leave the player alone and (if the player's reputation is good enough) may help out in a fight. Players can't land on hostile bases/planets and may not be able to buy certain high-powered weapons unless their reputation with the seller is good enough.

Reputation with any faction changes every time a player interacts with another character. If a player destroys a Corsair fighter, for instance, his or her reputation with the Corsairs will suffer accordingly. Attack their enemies and it will improve again.

Factions are interlinked and have allies and enemies. Destroying an Outcast ship affects a player's reputation with the Outcasts, of course, but also makes enemies of the Outcast allies, the Liberty Rogues. At the same time the player's reputation with the Liberty Police will improve.

Reputation hacking is something that a player can often do in bars on planets and stations. For a fee (a bribe, really), a player can have his or her reputation with one faction or another significantly improved; this usually incurs a reduction in reputation with enemy factions.

Some factions, such as the Blood Dragons, play an integral part in the game's storyline. Blood Dragons, who are descendants from royal guards that protected a deposed shogunate, operate in a hollowed-out asteroid called Kyoto base. Towards the latter stages of the game, they assist Trent in dealing with the Nomad threat. At the storyline's end, Trent's reputation with factions will be restored to the level they were before Trent escaped from Liberty, except the Blood Dragons, who will remain friendly with Trent.

Trade Lanes

Trade Lanes are a network of free-floating satellites that allow for extremely fast travel within the confines of a star system, allowing the player to travel between system features (planets and stations usually) in less than a minute, instead of having to traverse the area using the comparatively slow "cruise speed."

Trade Lanes are susceptible to being disrupted by concentrated weapons fire aimed at the satellites, although the Trade Lane rings themselves are technically immune to damage, only having a shield rating. When the Trade Lane is disabled, any ships in transit not yet beyond that section of the lane instantly decelerate to normal speeds. In addition, they are generally required to fend off the attacking pirates who caused the disruption until the Lane recharges itself again, at which point they can escape.

Trade Lane rings are equipped with light turret weaponry designed to assist any friendly vessels that are ambushed in this fashion, though they are somewhat ineffectual compared to ship fire.

Multiplayer

To play in this mode, a player must connect to a server (the server program is installed with the game so that one can play on a LAN). There are a few basic differences between multiplayer and single player modes:

• When saving a game in single-player, the game is stored locally. In multiplayer a character, ship, location and so on are saved on the server when a player disconnects.
• In multiplayer, new characters normally start on Planet Manhattan in Liberty Space with a basic spaceship. The single-player missions are not available.
• Certain Jump Gates, Holes and other features in the single player are not normally accessible in the multiplayer game.
• If a character is killed in a multiplayer game, the player can restart on the last planet or base he or she landed on. The player normally loses any cargo and unattached equipment that he or she may have been carrying.

Universe

The Sirius Sector contains 51 star systems divided into seven political regions: Liberty, Bretonia, Kusari, Rheinland, the Independent Worlds, the Border Worlds, and the mysterious Edge Worlds.

Each system contains a diverse mix of planets (many of which can be landed upon), space stations, Trade Lanes (for rapid travel within systems), asteroid and debris fields, dust and ice clouds, and many other stellar miscellany. Many of the planets and systems are named after places on Earth. For instance, the capital of Liberty is named Manhattan, and the system Manhattan inhabits is known as New York. This is presumably because the colonists do not want to forget their original home (a war-torn Earth). (This is supported by the intro movie: "We have grown, we have prospered, we have flourished. But we will never forget..."). Other notable planets include New Berlin (capital of Rheinland), Crete (home planet of the Corsairs), Malta (home planet of the Outcasts), Houston, Leeds (a polluted yet densely populated planet), New London (capital of Bretonia), Pittsburgh (a desert planet with mines), Stuttgart and New Tokyo (capital of Kusari).

The government systems of the four houses are generally taken from their original nations' histories. For example, Liberty is a democratic state with an elected President, while Kusari returned to a feudal system with the Shogun as the ruler of all Kusari and minor lords overseeing their own territories. Bretonia appears to be a constitutional monarchy, ruled currently by a Queen. Rheinland displays the militaristic tendencies associated with the old European state of Prussia and has a Chancellor as head of state.

Travel within each system is fairly simple — there are many ways to get around over long distances. The first is to use the onboard cruise engines, a powerful inter-planetary drive that propels the player at fairly high speed, at the cost of the ability to use weaponry. The second method is to use Trade Lanes, high-velocity shipping lanes that propel a ship at extreme speeds. The disadvantage to this is that pirates always know where the player is in a Trade Lane, as Trade Lanes are static, unlike the usually random courses that cruise engines are used for. A pirate group can disable a Trade Lane ring segment in front of the player, dumping the ship out of the channel and in range of the pirate's weapons. The third is Jump Gates and Jump Holes. A Jump Gate/Hole is the only way to move from one system to another. Jump Gates are normally found near Trade Lanes, while Jump Holes are usually hidden a good distance away, inside an asteroid field or nebula, mainly used by criminals. Jump Gates are man-made technology, while Jump Holes are a natural phenomenon, similar to a wormhole. Liberty Space is in the center of the Sector and is the "safest" area to be in as the local villains don't have ships with any great firepower. Life gets harder as the player travels farther from Liberty; wandering into one of the border systems in a basic ship or with basic weaponry is a certain way to get the player character killed very quickly. The rough level of difficulty, in order from least dangerous to most dangerous, is as follows: Liberty, Bretonia, Kusari, Independent Worlds, Rheinland, Border Worlds, Edge Worlds.

Background

The Exodus

A war between two major factions, the Coalition and the Alliance, has been waged in the Earth's solar system for decades (see Starlancer for the video game based on this conflict). Eventually, the Coalition gains the upper hand and the Alliance, sensing defeat, builds a group of five sleeper ships in secret. Each ship represents one of the major members in The Alliance: the Kusari (Japan), the Rheinland (Germany), the Liberty (America), the Bretonia (Britain), and the Hispania (Spain). Fortunately, all five escape the Coalition blockade and head toward the Sirius sector carrying thousands of colonists.

The original introductory video to the game, which was not included in the finished product, implies that Earth was destroyed by an alien power not long after the Exodus. The video also states that a single ship survived the nova and went after the sleeper ships to warn them of the aliens. The fact that someone is narrating the events implies that the ship made it. In this version of the video, the phrase "We will never forget" has a completely different meaning. It is important to note however, this video may have been cut from the game for a reason- it could be that the developers decided against revealing the fate of the solar system and so in the final story of the game the solar system may be intact, though probably under Coalition control. But, if the player talks to certain NPCs, he may hear the rumor that the Sol System was destroyed. However, the fact that The Order only makes the headlines near to the beginning of the story suggests that the original storyline was scrapped, that the Nomad threat was only learned of at the beginning of the game's storyline. The most likely conclusion is that there was conflict in the Sol System, but the Nomads only arrived in Sirius after a long time.

The sleeper ships arrive at different times, in different locations. The Sirius Sector is a region of space with many star systems surrounded by four distinct landmarks. In the 'north' is the gas, oxygen, and hydrogen rich Crow Nebula. In the 'south' is the volatile, yet mineral rich Walker Nebula. To the 'west' is the rocky Barrier, a massive and long asteroid-filled region rich in useful metals. And finally, to the 'east' is the mysterious Edge Nebula (in which part of the singleplayer mission campaign is located, fighting the Nomads)

Liberty

Of the five sleeper ships, the Liberty arrives first. This allowed the colonists to choose a centralized location with a mix of resources and habitable worlds.

In time, Liberty became the most powerful House militarily because of the size of their navy (even though in-game their ships are actually the weakest), and developed the lowest crime rate. (This can also be explained from a story progression. Liberty corporations Ageira Technologies and Deep Space Engineering discovered ancient alien artifacts, and from them, developed the underlying technology behind Jump Gates and Trade Lanes, to which they hold exclusive rights.)

Rheinland

Arriving after the Liberty, the Rheinland selected the region adjacent to the Walker Nebula for its resources, specifically diamonds.

In time, Rheinland grew to have the second most powerful navy (although in fact with the strongest mainstream ships in the game), with a corresponding crime/terrorism rate. However, after the 80 Year War with the Gas Miners Guild and the exploitation of Rheinland's military by the Nomads, Rheinland's economy collapsed and the fleet was reduced to a single battleship.

Kusari

The Kusari arrived next, and selected the region near the Crow Nebula. Much to the surprise of the colonists (who were hoping for planets with considerable landmass), the bulk of the planets in the area were very similar to their old lands: little land, abundant water. This was a blessing in disguise, however, as the Kusari quickly created businesses to farm seafood and hydrogen gas.

Kusari has the least powerful navy (although second strongest mainstream military) because of the lack of metals in the region; almost all metal used in Kusari is imported from Bretonia or Rheinland.

Bretonia

Bretonia arrived a full 20 years after the Liberty, due to the fact that the starboard engine was disabled during the Exodus. Bretonia chose a region in the Barrier because of the abundance of usable metal.

Bretonia has a slightly smaller navy (the third strongest in game) than Rheinland, but is the most economically powerful House. For example, Bretonia was the first House to pay off the debts incurred by building the Jump Gates and Trade Lanes.

Bretonia retains the royal family and aristocracy that the current United Kingdom supports, along with corresponding grievances such as fierce contest over the independence of Dublin and severe pollution of entire systems by industrial waste. It is headed by Queen Carina, who is 37 years old.

Hispania

File:Freelancer-Hispania.png

The remains of the lost sleeper ship Hispania, located near the planet Malta in the Omicron Alpha system.

En route to the Sirius Sector, the Hispania suffered major damage. Some suspected a Coalition spy, but nothing was confirmed. As a result of internal fractioning, half of the colonists decided to abandon the wreckage by the use of the Hispania's shuttles. The descendants of these colonists became the Corsairs.

Those that decided to take their chances with the drifting wreck arrived in a system with a habitable planet. The Hispania was unable to take the colonists to the planet, and therefore they used the escape pods to land. These became the Outcasts.

While both the Corsairs and Outcasts have since evolved into powerful criminal empires, it is interesting to note that these two factions are bitter enemies, despite (or, perhaps because of) their common ancestry: both factions believe the other group was the one responsible for the damage to the Hispania. Outcasts and Corsairs are the fiercest warriors and have some of the best equipment in Sirius.

The game takes place 800 years after the Sirius system has been settled. The Alliance is almost a forgotten concept and the four houses of Liberty, Rheinland, Bretonia, and Kusari compete against each other while pirate activity continues to grow on the frontiers.

Systems and Houses

In the game, there are four houses. Each house has systems, similar to states/cities. Each system has at least one planet, and a few bases. Information about forbidden systems is below. Some connecting systems that are not under a house, are classified as Border World systems or Independent. These include the Taus(Tau-21, Tau-23, etc.), the Omegas(Omega-7, Omega-3, etc.), the Sigmas(Sigma-13, Sigma-17, etc.) the Galileo and Kepler systems, the Bering and Hudson systems, and the Magellan and Cortez systems.

Liberty - Systems include the forbidden Alaska system, New York, California, Colorado and Texas system. The New York system is the main system of Liberty, with its "capital" Planet Manhattan. They have average ships and weapons do minimal damage.

Kusari - Systems include the forbidden Tohoku system, Shikoku, New Tokyo, Kyūshū, Honshu, Hokkaidō and Chūgoku. The capital of Kusari is New Tokyo, in the New Tokyo system. They have fast ships, fast weapons, but do mid damage.

Rheinland - Systems include Hamburg, New Berlin, Stuttgart, Dresden and Frankfurt. The Rheinland capital is New Berlin, in the New Berlin system. Slow ships, powerful armor, powerful weapons.

Bretonia - Systems include Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, New London, Dublin and Cambridge. Bretonnia's capital is New London, in the New London system. Good armor, and weapons.

Independent Worlds - Systems include Cortez, Magellan, Galileo, Kepler, Bering and Hudson. They are all located on the Liberty border.

The Border Worlds - These include the Sigma, Omega and Tau systems (except Omega 41 and Tau 37).

The Edge Worlds - These include ALL the Omicron systems, Omega 41 and Tau 37. They have the best weapons and ships.

Unknown Systems - These are the easter egg systems in Freelancer, They are the only place after the storyline that players may find Nomad ships and Nomad weapons. They are located in the middle of the Corsairs and Outcasts burial nebula. This is the hardest system to access due to the nomads (in fact the nomad NPCs are the most powerful even though they have no shields)and enemy factions patrolling in this area.

Similarities to Real Cities/Landmarks

These four houses are based on the countries they represent. A main distinguishing feature of Freelancer is that all of the systems, planets, bases, etc are named after real life cities or countries. A good example is House of Rheinland which is based on Germany (a section of Germany is called Rheinland because it is situated on the Rhein). In the Single-player mode, Admiral Scholtzky arrives from Rheinland in the New York system in a ship named the "Donau". 'Donau' is the German name for the Danube, also a river in Germany. Every system, base or area is named after (most commonly) a real location on Earth (eg; New York, Dresden, Manchester, Shikoku) or to a lesser extent, an explorer or astronomer (eg; Magellan, Gallileo).

Forbidden Systems

Alaska

This system is solely used by the Liberty Navy and only high-ranking officials have access. The Jump Gate has been locked so no one can get in to the system. The Jump Gate is deep within Zone 21, a minefield that has the capability to destroy your ship if you stray too close to them (there is a safe path through the minefield, however it is hidden).

This system is also used much for research and its security and secrecy are based on Area 51. Nobody in the Sirius Sector really knows what happens in there, but as the player progresses through the storyline, it is revealed to contain only one functioning base - Prison Station Mitchell (the only other station is the non-dockable Juneau Shipyard).

Some player made modifications unlock the system so that the player can go through the jump gate. However, entering the system is considered pointless as there is nothing of value in there. Many Freelancer server administrators send online players to this system as a punishment because of its lack of value.

Tohoku

Tohoku is a system that is also denied access to all others except the Governor of Kusari. In this system, there is a planetoid known as the "Heaven's Gate" which is the home base of the Kusari Governor, Tekagi. It is surrounded by Weapons platforms and many turrets are installed on it. It has very high level security and can only be accessed using a jump hole. This System is a 'mission-only' system like Alaska as it is only accessible in one mission.

This system is also commonly 'unlocked' through the use of player made modifications.

Awards

• E3 1999 Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best PC Game, Best Simulation Game, Outstanding Achievement in Graphics

Soundtrack

File:FreelancerSoundtrack.jpg

The Freelancer Soundtrack

On November 18, 2003, Microsoft released a soundtrack of the game, including in-game music

The disc also offers exclusive content, included on a bonus DVD, not in the game. The disc includes alternate scenes and intros to the game, the making of Freelancer, and exclusive tracks. Many fans mutually agree that the bonus DVD is the main reason for the soundtrack's success.

Modifications

Freelancer supports a thriving modding community, mainly due to the fact that almost all of the architecture of the in-game universe (solar systems, economy, factions, etc.) is contained within editable .INI files. Many mods have been released, from simple mods adding ships or changing speeds, to slightly more ranged mods that add to the Freelancer universe, up to total conversions. One of the most popular modding sites for Freelancer is The Lancer's Reactor, which contains most mods ever created for Freelancer, as well as a wealth of tutorials and utilities for creating mods. Another thing that can be attributed to Freelancer's modding community is Freelancer Mod Manager (FLMM), a program that makes installing and uninstalling mods incredibly easy, thus reducing the risk of damage to the game files requiring a reinstall.

Related games

• There are similarities between Freelancer and a much older game, Elite, which was available for the BBC Microcomputer in the early 1980s, as well as its two sequels, Frontier: Elite 2 and Frontier: First Encounters (particularly the in-game bulletin boards at each base where the player can find jobs to carry out).
• There are also similarities with Descent: FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2 (in fact, one source shows a screenshot with an alternative design of the Freelancer flight displays in which the layout is very similar to that of Freespace and X: Beyond the Frontier and its sequels.
• The game Darkstar One has many similarities to Freelancer as well. It was made after Freelancer.
• Freelancer was designed as the spiritual successor to Wing Commander: Privateer, also has close ties (in the continued storyline) with another Digital Anvil game, Starlancer.
• Spaceforce was also based off Freelancer. A new game recently released in 2007, by Provox Games.

External links

• Official Website
• The Lancers Reactor - Largest and most popular fansite hosting many downloadable mods