Privateer 2: The Darkening

I was ecstatic when I found out this game came out! However, after playing for some time now, I have to admit that this game is faulty at best. Frame rate deteriorates when a planet is onscreen, and even getting more advanced weaponry will slow it down. If you take storyline escort missions, then they will glitch and fail on you for no reason. And scan lines! The cinematics look horrible! Aren't we passed such nonsense these days? If you've never played this game before, then don't. Otherwise, it's a nice attempt at revisiting the old memories. But like all nostalgia, it is never as good as it once was.

I'm seeing a lot of ppl having technical issues with this game. i always check out pcgamingwiki especially if its an older game. https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Privateer_2:_The_Darkening I didn't even try playing the game until I installed the Privateer 2 Unofficial Patch. Im running on W7 64bit. I think my game crashed at most throughout the whole game a total of around 10 times which isn't that bad at all Also playing on a Thrustmaster t.16000 non-HOTAS that i bought for around $50-$60 USD. No way would i play a space sim or flight sim on a gamepad or mouse/KB, and $50 is a small investment since i play quite a few space sim games. The game felt modern even though this game came out in the late 90's which to me is amazing. its great seeing Clive Owen in action, before he was a big hollywood star. Christopher Walken, and other big name actors that you have seen in film, but maybe not know the name. They speak in a british accent which makes it a bit difficult to understand what they are saying. i don't think there is an option to turn on subtitles. Space combat feels good, but kinda "floaty". the AI could definitely wreck you if you go head to head against them; once you get behind them though its easy, but if you're dealing with multiple bogeys you're gonna have to juke their guns. you take on missions, you upgrade your ship, or buy a better ship, etc.. stats on the ship doesn't show one important factor though; the spacing of your guns. some of the guns on the ships are spaced out pretty wide so that when you are in close range, only 1 or your shots will connect, etc.. so i'd recommend saving the game before you buy a ship, load up all the guns with cheap lasers, and see how much or little the guns are spaced apart. anyways, this game worked perfect for me. just remember to download the Privateer 2 Unofficial Patch; its a little less than 500KB zip file. and for gods sake, play it on a flightstick.

Does not live up to the first Privateer (or any of the real Wing Commander games). FMV on modern systems is a disaster (lines!) and requires beta patch from wcnews.com (look in /chatzone/threads/new-privateer-2-patch-adds-deinterlace-feature-makes-numerous-improvements-october-1-2013.27100/). Once this is installed the horrible lines resolve, FMV is viewable and play is smoother. Since foes capabilites improve as the ship is enhanced, combat gets tiresome. Story is not bad. Puzzled at the 5 star reviews - did we play the same game? I would have given 3 stars if the horrible lines problem was resolved in the GOG version.

If you really like to enjoy the game without any hustle, means hit play and go: You can increase (and decrease) performance in DosBox with CTRL + F12 / CTRL + F11 Keep in mind this is a standard DosBox Feature you often HAVE to use with DosBox for many games, has nothing to do with GoG. Of course the GoG-port itself could be way better but it is so sad most people could not enjoy a game like Privateer 2 (and DosBox in general) because they just don't know about CPU-cycles etc. How many stars should I vote now? 5 stars for the game, 1 star for the lazy DosBox-Port (after 10 years without changes) so I give 4 stars and hope you guys will enjoy the game straight! CTRL + F12 if ANY DosBox game runs too slow (and CTRL + F11 if too fast), just burn that into your mind my friends :)

A lot of grief "The Darkening" gets is for having nothing in common with the first game, "Wing Commander: Privateer." This stems from the fact that during development "The Darkening" was going to be its own thing set in its own universe. However during last minute marketing, EA got cold feet and decided to slap a successful franchise onto it and that's how "The Darkening" got its name changed to "Privateer 2: The Darkening." With that out of the way I have to say I really liked this game back in the day and replaying it now there are things I think it did better than other games of a similar ilk. I really appreciate the world building and ambiance the development team created here, I find it hard to describe it but the FMV sequences are downright quirky and interesting to watch as is the writing in the booths system, travel guides and other written info can be rather hilarious. As for game play, what can I say? One thing that's for sure is that it can be downright unfair in its difficulty. In general keep your trips short and safe, long trips often end in tragedy so save before every spaceflight. One of it's criticisms was that you needed to hire a cargo ship in order to haul cargo. Personally I think this was one of its better ideas as the larger cargo vessels also carry a lot of firepower and can make some missions easier. However it runs choppy on Dosbox having unstable frame rates. Luckily you can run the Windows version by applying the DARKFIX patch, see forum post for links and info because it doesn't run out of the box and needs some editing from your side. DARKFIX adds non interlaced FMV's and a stable 30 fps frame rate. Downside is that the Windows version never was 100% stable, so save often and expect the game to crash every now and then. Anyway, this was one of the better games during the '90, comparable with Archimedean Dynasty in terms of world building and now I'm going back playing for another few hours.