I don't know if any of you guys have played or hear about (url="http://"http://www.microsoft.com/games/freelancer/")Freelancer(/url), a new game due out soon from Digital Anvil, but I had a taste of the demo at a friend's house and I have some concerns.
Namely, Freelancer appears to be, at leat conceptually, a very close relative of EV.
Striking similarities follow:
In Freelancer, a planet contains the following options once you land:
-Bar
-Commodites Trader
-Repair ship (repairing is not free, and this basically equates to "refuel")
-Job Board (mission bbs)
-Equipment Dealer (outfitter)
-Ship Seller or something like that (shipyard)
Your ship stats are virtually identical, too, only there are weapon classes, armor is replaced with "nanobots" and shields with, well, something very smilar yet not quite the same. The whole idea of the game echoes that of EV with hauntig accuracy. There, though, the similarities basically end. Everything else is, more or less, where EV could go in the future, if the developer budget were insanely large and the final was a full retail product.
For instance, everything is realtime-3D rendered, and space combat is reminiscent of Descent: Freespace. Even the port environments are 3D, and the characters are all deformation-animated and very high-polygon (which is sort of rediculous considering how much you see of them in the game). You can fly between star systems without jumping, but it literally takes you hours to do so. If you're of a good rating, you can use the trade routes, which are accellerated flight paths. Hypergates take you between, well, I don't know as I only saw the demo.
Having played both, I must say that Freelancer is quite fun, but the high overhead on the realtime 3D stuff means they skimped on writers and scenario designers. The story, so far, is incredibly cliché, as is the universe they've built. The gameplay also lacks the playfulness and whimsy of the EV engine, which can probably be attributed to the change from 2D to 3D.
I'd like a second opinion, though. Is this indeed an EV ripoff, or is the form it takes merely representational of the ideal free-roaming space sim? Moreover, do I have reason enough to be miffed at the creators for capitalizing blatantly unoriginal ideas? I think I do, personally.
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(url="http://"http://mailto:mk381@stu.aii.edu") - () () / }{ - (/url)
(url="http://"http://www.pacifier.com/~kkey/shipyard/index.html")Onyx's EV Shipyard(/url)
