Edited on: September 19, 2025
Posted on: December 10, 2020
Det_Bullock
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An updated Privateer.
There is a lot to say about retro revivals, some just go full retro because their genre was tied to the tech used at the time like most 2D platformers. Some like spacesims chafed under the reduced resolution and the compromises of running on a 286 CPU. Privateer was one of those games, while it fared incredibly well to the point I find it fun even if I didn't grow up with it (X-wing kid here) it still had a lot of limitations. In many ways this feels like a full 3D engine remake of Wing Commander Privateer, the look is intentionally grungy and colorful to emulate that particular look of the old Wing Commander engine but without the limitations. The basic gameplay is very similar but improved in basically everything: money-making activities are more varied, combat is more in line with Freespace or X-wing, some weird limitations and jankiness are gone. There are also a few more basic ship types compared to WCP with some variants unlockable through a sidequest (listen to the GTA-style in-game radio, there's an ad to guide you to it). The game has also more options for controls, while mouse and keyboard controls are apparently iffy (note: I can't play a spacesim M+K to save my life in general so I can't really judge those) the game makes extensive use of radial menus to allow for a gamepad but has also a more than decent HOTAS support with plenty of optional bindings to bypass most menus. Note that the game can be unabashedly retro in many aspects, the difficulty only influences the availability of control aids (third person camera, auto-pursuit and autoaim) and the starting equipment (will your starter radar have color coded friends or foe indicators? Not at the highest difficulties for sure!). The indie nature of the title is only betrayed by a few things here and there like the small cast of voice actors, overall this is a really polished game that set out to do its thing without losing sight of the goal and succeeds: if you grew up with these games in the 90s give it a try, if you didn't it's still a nice romp through retrofuture space USA that can be over in about 45 hours if you do everything.
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