The universe itself has greatly expanded, and there’s over 160 new stations and planets to visit, owned by various new factions and races. Still, there’s a lot of new stuff added on top of the original game. There’s also a lot more activity in the universe in general, and more randomly generated side-missions to undertake in search of cash for more gear. Still not quite modern, but it could pass for a higher-budget indie title these days.Īll the original content of the game is still intact and functioning the same as ever, although slightly smarter enemy AI and better equipment on enemy craft means that there’s a bit more challenge to be found. Our luckless protagonist now has clothes so detailed, you can count the individual cracks in his long-worn leather jacket. Almost every single texture in the game has been replaced with much higher-resolution equivalents.
The game now boasts full dynamic lighting and various shader effects such as HDR lighting, bloom effects and all those other things that we take for granted now, but the game would look rather flat and lifeless without. In addition to native widescreen support, the rendering engine has been given a pretty major overhaul. The game has been given a serious lick of paint.
While that final, massive release is still a while off, version 1.9 contains no shortage of stuff to get your teeth into, and it’s almost certain that the handily included auto-updater should patch up the mod once the final build lands.Īt first, it’s not hard to see where all that data went. Yep, it’s a full-blown fan-sequel in the making. Currently at Version 1.9, there’s a looming ‘V2.0′ release planned which will conclude the new storyline, and officially change the title to ‘ Freelancer 2: Crossfire‘. Considering that the game itself is only around 800mb when fully installed, that’s a rather mindboggling figure. Unpacked, it weighs in at over 4gb of new content.
Addictive stuff for many.Ĭrossfireis almost certainly the largest Freelancer mod to date. At first glance, it looks more like Elite than anything, but any in-depth play reveals that it had more than a little in common with action-RPGs such as Diablo, with simple mouse-friendly combat, plentiful loot and shield/hull restoration ‘potions’ to chug your way through in every fight.
For those who never played the original game, it billed itself as a space-combat sandbox with a hefty single-player campaign. Released in 2003, it was loved by critics, by fans and by a still-enduring modding scene, but it didn’t sell well enough to keep the studio afloat. Freelancerwas one of those cult hits that never really went anywhere.