Freelancer 2003

Is it still worth playing?

Digital Anvil's 2003 space trading and combat simulation for Windows, set in the year 2960 in the Sirius sector. Four houses share rule of the sector, each with a culture modeled on a real world era. In single player you follow the pilot Edison Trent through missions to save it from a mysterious alien force. Ships are controlled mainly with the mouse, which points the ship and fires weapons at the cursor, and you can cut the engines to drift and keep your momentum. There is no radar, so pointers at the screen edges show objects that are off screen. You can also trade commodities, hunt bounties, mine resources and smuggle contraband past police, and your reputation with factions changes with whom you attack. Flying with the mouse, and a trade you can start whenever you like, still make it easy to jump in and fly.