I played Freelancer for a long time and found it amazing and well tuned and after reading the reviews for this game I see it sounds like Freelancer but bigger ? I am most likey getting the trial but just want to hear what a few others think of it and what its generaly like.
Comments
Hmm. There are far more differences that similarities between Rise and Freelancer. I'll cover the ones that immediately come to mind.
Similarities:
Both have a Sci-Fi theme.
You can be a trader in both games.
Starter missions are for getting you used to the controls.
Differences:
One difference is that Freelancer is a mission driven game. Rise is a big sandbox game. There are no "missions" so to speak (unless you consider making money a mission).
In Freelancer, combat is a big part of the game (I hate those nomad ships). In Rise, there isn't combat per se, but the game is moving in a "wild west frontier" direction that will eventually include more direct conflict. I haven't played Rise long enough to comment on this further.
Freelancer takes place in the Sirius system (IIRC). You start in the Liberty system and slowly gain access to the other four systems of the game, each with various space stations, planets, and colonies. Rise takes place on the planet of Vieneo, a moon of Iomere in the Yonmarran system. You start in the city of Deois and slowly gain access to the surrounding colonies and eventually the three space stations orbiting Vieneo.
You have access to different types of spaceships in Freelancer (4 or 5 per system IIRC). In Rise, you currently have access to 3 ground vehicle types (the car, a flatbed truck, and a construction truck), 1 aircraft type (the A-4 cargo plane), and 2 spacecraft types (a fighter type and a cargo ship type).
In Freelancer, you start the game with a Starflier and an escort mission. In Rise, you start the game with a car and 7000 credits in debt.
In Freelancer, you make money by taking on missions, salvaging derelict ships, mining (for what it's worth), and trading. In Rise, you have to take a more proactive approach to making money. You can run a taxi service in the city, gamble at the casino, trade goods with outlying colonies, haul passengers back and forth to the space stations, and buy or sell commodities on the exchange market. Once you pay off the initial loan on the car, you can take out other loans at the bank. In future patches, there will be more dubious ways to make money.
In Freelancer, the preferred control scheme is mouse and keyboard. In Rise, you can get away with keyboard control in the ground vehicles, but the aircraft and spacecraft practically demand the use of a joystick of some sort.
In Freelancer, the economy is set by the program. Prices may fluctuate based on your activity (I can't remember right now), but those fluctuations are based only on your activity. In Rise, the economy is dynamic, so prices fluctuate based on the cargo you haul and the cargo hauled by other players. Prices rise and fall, so you always have to keep an eye out for the good deals.
In Freelancer, you trade in your current ship to buy another ship. In essence, you only own one ship and the weapons and other gadgets that go with it. In the end (single player game only), once you buy the "best ship" in the game, there isn't much point to credits anymore except for buying repairs and replenshing ammo (IMHO of course). In Rise, you can own as many vehicles as you want - naturally you can only drive one at a time. In addition, you can also purchase parcels of land and set up your own colonies. So, if I want to fly out into the middle of the wasteland and purchase some land to build "Casa de Scorch", I can.
Last, but certainly not least. Freelancer is a "relatively easy" game to learn and eventually master. That is not knocking on the game, but simply pointing out the computer handles much of the "physics issues" that you would encounter when piloting a spacecraft. Rise has a very steep learning curve, especially once you get an aircraft or spacecraft. Imagine if you will that robot in Freelancer that lands your craft on planet Manhattan is no longer there and you have to land the craft yourself. You have to take into account your speed, angle of descent, distance from target, number of G's your craft is pulling, etc. Heck, I just have a plane and have found it difficult to master (getting better at it though). However, I see other players that have the large cargo spacecraft (fully loaded E-10) navigate between the buildings in the major city of Deois and set the craft down gently at it's destination.
The best advice I can give you is to give the 14 day trial a go. You don't have to put in any credit card info or anything, so there is no committment. Spend a couple days getting used to the controls (especially the waypoint menu) by running some of the taxi missions with your car. If you want to see more, check with some of the veteran players. No matter what, don't be afraid to ask questions. Also, you might want to check the rise forums. There is some really good info there, including a tutorial for the first few hours you play the game.
{(RIP)} SWG