Wing Commander: Privateer
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| Wing Commander: Privateer | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Origin Systems, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Designer(s) | Erin Roberts |
| Platform(s) | DOS |
| Release date | NA September 22, 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure, Flight simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single Player |
| Rating(s) | N/A |
| Input methods | Mouse, Joystick (analog), Keyboard |
Wing Commander: Privateer is an adventure space flight simulation computer game released by Origin Systems in 1993. Privateer and its storyline is part of the Wing Commander series. Privateer had an add-on titled Righteous Fire (1994) that continues the story and adds additional purchasable equipment to the game.
The software features a pseudo-3D world in plain raster graphics at 320x200 with 256 colors.
The player takes the role of Grayson Burrows, a "privateer" who travels through the Gemini Sector, one of many sectors in the Wing Commander universe. Unlike Wing Commander, the player is no longer a navy pilot, but a freelancer who can choose to be a pirate, a merchant, a mercenary or any of the above in some combination. The player may follow the built-in plot but is free to adventure on his own, even after the plot has been completed.
Burrows' name was unknown to the general public for many years. During that period he was known as "Brownhair", by reference to "Bluehair", the Wing Commander I and II protagonist later known as Christopher Blair.
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[edit] Gameplay
Basic gameplay consists of flying and fighting with the ship in a star system, jumping from system to system via jump points, landing on bases or planets, interacting with people (mainly talking) and buying or selling equipment or commodities. The Gemini sector is divided into quadrants, each contains several star systems, most of them with planets or bases that may be visited. Unlike other games in the series, the gameplay is primarily in the sandbox style of play.
When flying, the main view is a first-person-look from inside the cockpit onto the cockpit screens (HUDs) and the space before the ship. Space combat simulation is similar to the style of other Wing Commander games of its time. On planets and bases a static overview / first-person-view is used to show the rooms and interact with people. When buying or selling and taking missions from the mission computer, in-game menus are used.
The Gemini sector is frequented by seven factions: merchants, bounty hunters, retros, pirates, militia, the Terran Confederation and the Kilrathi. Some of them attack the player on sight, some are allies of the player. How the members of the factions react is not only pre-set but depends also on the player's actions.
The player may conduct his own business as a merchant or fight in combat for non-plot missions provided by the above factions. If playing as a merchant, the player must make a profit from price differences of commodities on different planets or stations. Alternatively, the player may choose from randomly generated non-plot missions from a mission computer. Successful completion of missions results in monetary award, which allows better ship weapons and equipment to be purchased.
During the plot, the player meets fixers, often representing one of the factions above, who assign the player missions in their interest in exchange for money or helpful information. The missions usually consist of plain combat, escorting other ships while combating enemies or commodity delivery including smuggling while combating / escaping enemies. The plot itself can only be played straight, one mission after another in a pre-set line. But between plot missions or even while being on a mission the player can follow his own interests.
[edit] Plot
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The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. |
The game begins when Burrows, the protagonist, lands on the planet New Detroit looking for work. A man named Sandoval gives him a job and a mysterious artifact. Upon completion of the job, Burrows finds that Sandoval is dead. His search for information about the artifact leads him to a pirate, a mob boss, the Oxford Library, and ultimately, to Dr. Monkhouse, a Xenoarchaeologist residing on the planet Palan.
The planet is in the middle of a war between two rival corporations, and Dr. Monkhouse does not feel safe on Palan. After getting him off the planet, Dr. Monkhouse explains that the artifact was made by an ancient race known as the Steltek, who once controlled a technologically advanced empire. The artifact is part of a map, and Dr. Monkhouse has the other part. Burrows agrees to go where the map leads and inform him of any discoveries in exchange for any wealth that he may be able to find.
Burrows travels to the location on the map, where he finds a ruined base that once belonged to the Steltek. All he finds on the base that interests him is a weapon on an abandoned Steltek ship, which he mounts on his own ship. After he leaves, a Steltek drone begins to follow him, destroying everything it sees. The Confederation asks him to lure the drone into an ambush, so the Confederate fleet can destroy it.
On the way to the ambush point, Burrows is met by a Steltek scout, who is looking for the last traces of his technology, so he can destroy it. He offers to energize the Steltek weapon for Burrows in exchange for the location of the base that Burrows found it on. At the ambush point, the Confederacy attacks the drone, but the Confederate weapons have no effect. The Steltek weapon, however, is able to destroy the drone, and Burrows is thanked by the Confederate government.
[edit] Righteous Fire Expansion
While Burrows enjoys some leisure time, the Steltek weapon is stolen from Burrows’ ship. In an effort to find out what happened to his gun, he travels to Oxford, where he learns of a contact who will help him if he flies some missions against the Retros, a group of religious extremists who adhere to the “Church of Man.”
The contact, Monte, tells Burrows about the Retros. They are currently under the rule of a man named Mordecai Jones, whose leadership has made the Retros a threat in the system. He also tells Burrows about a man named Menesch, who sells weapons and ships to the Retros and pirates. Monte thinks that Menesch stole Burrows’ gun. Burrows travels to the Troy sector, where Menesch usually hides. When he finds Menesch, Menesch reveals that he sold the gun to the Retros.
Later, Burrows meets an informant, who is a member of the Church of Man. Fearful of the direction that Mordecai Jones is taking the church, he informs Burrows of the secret location of the church’s headquarters, with the request that he kill Jones. At the headquarters, he finds that Jones has been making copies of the gun, and that he intends to use them to wipe out all who aren’t members of the church. Burrows manages to destroy Jones ship, and the informant promises to destroy all remaining copies of the gun.
[edit] Expansions, sequels, and spinoffs
Two expansion packs were released for Privateer: the Wing Commander Privateer Speech Pack (1993), which added digitized speech voice-overs to the entire game; and the aforementioned Righteous Fire (1994) expansion pack, which continues the story.
Wing Commander: Privateer was also released in a CD-ROM Classics edition that included the Righteous Fire expansion and full speech throughout the game, more than what the Speech Pack alone provides. The actor voicing the main character also changes between the Speech Pack and CD-ROM edition of the game.
Another Privateer game known as Privateer 2: The Darkening was released in late 1996, helmed by Erin Roberts, the brother of Chris Roberts. However, The Darkening is not a storyline sequel, but a spin-off. The naming of the game as "Privateer 2" was not decided until rather late in its development. The Darkening' sets a century after the original Privateer and in a different region of space. This setting and the storyline of The Darkening is not mentioned in any other Wing Commander game, but since it was released as a Wing Commander game and does not necessarily contradict the established story, its story is considered by many to be part of the Wing Commander universe. Privateer 2 was most notable for its live action sequences featuring such talents as Clive Owen, John Hurt, and Christopher Walken amongst many others. After Electronic Arts shut down Origin, Chris Roberts created the game Freelancer which featured similar art and story to Privateer, but was set in a new universe.
[edit] Remakes
Privateer was originally a game for the DOS operating system. Playing it on modern PCs with new operating systems is usually not possible. Therefore fans of the game have programmed versions of the game that can be played under the new systems or they use an emulator to simulate a DOS environment for the game to run on the new computer.
[edit] Vega Strike modifications
Vega Strike is a space flight simulation computer game. Its code is Open-source software, allowing to make modifications. In 2005, fans of the original Privateer have created remakes based on the Vega Strike engine. The game engine allows all space simulation graphics to be shown in 3D while keeping the original plot storyline.
Currently, there are two remakes, both available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. The first has a more liberal approach and the second one is more purist to the original game:
- Wing Commander: Privateer Remake: Known as Remake, this fan-made version has new additions not present in the original game, including fancier graphics (especially the ship models) and more gameplay-related features. The first version 1.0 of Remake was released for download on the project's website on March 6, 2005. The latest version is 1.2 and was released in the same way on July 15, 2005. After completing the plot and losing the steltek gun, the player can go on with the Righteous Fire missions.
- Privateer: Parallel Universe is an stand-alone game based on the VS engine and Privateer Remake metioned above. Despite of the original Privateer content, the project adds some new ships, fan campaign missions, ship equipment and revamped graphics to the game. The project had a major release in January 2008 and is now under constant development.
- Wing Commander: Privateer Gemini Gold: In contrast to the above version, Privateer Gemini Gold strives to be as true to the original Privateer as possible. Originally devised as a purist modification of Remake, Privateer Gemini Gold developed into its own project, which since then has shared resources with Remake. Version 1.0 of Privateer Gemini Gold was released on July 23, 2005 for download on the project's website, followed by the first patch 1.01 on November 15, 2005. 1.02b2 was released in April, 2007. The game also includes the Righteous Fire missions. Current ongoing developments include remodeling 2D graphics of bases in the original game into high resolution.
The Remake itself has spawned an add-on called Wing Commander: Universe. It should include not only the Gemini sector and ships of Privateer but the whole known universe and additional ships of the Wing Commander series. In 2005 there were files of the playable beta version available for download.
[edit] DOSBox version
The Wing Commander: Privateer self-installing archive project is another fan project that made a Privateer version mainly for Windows XP using the DOSBox emulator. The latest version v0.2 comes complete with DOSBox 0.63 and was released on July 15, 2005 for download. It should also include the Righteous Fire story-line and uses the original in-game menus and game options, whereas Remake and Privateer Gemini Gold have no options to select and only the latter uses original menus.
[edit] External links
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