Privateer 2: The Darkening

Man, I loved this game. It came out during the time I'd gone back to graduate school in my 30s, and it just about ruined one semester because all I wanted to do was play the game. Incredibly addictive, but the previous poster is right -- the game crashed all the time. The company finally got pretty free with cheat codes just so you could get through certain segments that were especially gnarly. I wouldn't have used the cheats except that without them the game would overload your CPU and you'd lose all your work! I finally finished the game, and it was pretty mind-blowing in terms of the ending. Also, the cast was outrageously impressive -- Christopher Walken, Clive Owen, John Hurt! Tremendous fun. Even after I finished it, I played it some more, until CPU speed finally made it obsolete. After I had seen the whole plot, I basically just became a pirate, blowing up as many cop-ships as I could, sacrificing my cargo pilot and ship to other pirates, etc. I can't believe how much fun that game was. Nothing like it these days, and though I tried one of those CPU-slowdown programs to try to make it work, it really didn't. Gone but not forgotten.

The first time I heard of this game the title was only 'The Darkening' and the preview of it interested me. When it got the Privateer label I thought it would be even better, but I was confused because the preview described a game that took place in a different universe than that of the Wing Commander series, which is where the first game is set.

Regardless, this game has an interesting and stylish flight engine which I thought was really cool--except the fact that you can't hyper-jump when enemies are around, forcing you to fight them (very annoying). Not to mention some of the cool landing cutscenes and interesting computer interfaces in port.

However, the video scenes are pretty bad and have poorly mixed audio--half the time I couldn't understand what anyone was saying.

Privateer 2 broken down into it's movie parts could, with better audio, have been a cult classic if it was made into a full movie. Visually, pure genius. The characters; vibrant and charismatic each in their own unique avenue of personal expression. The comedy and style of the movie combined with amazing acting, direction, cinematography as well as the natural interaction between the characters and the portrayed technology was genius...nothing less. The high quality of actors really showed their stripes; Jurgen Prochnow, Christopher Walkin, Clive Owen, David Warner, John Hurt...just to name a few of some of the most professionally respected actors in the world. If someone actually rescues that footage and makes a full movie out of this, not only would I watch that movie in the theater, I'd buy the video as well...and you would find it in the 'cult classic' area of your local video store. So I'd give the movie portion of this production a 9.5 out of 10...it would have been a perfect 10 except the audio is a little sloppy.

The game portion of this production has a couple of really good points and a couple of really bad points. I like the idea of a lot of different styles of ships to choose from...each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses. Of course the more expensive the ship, generally speaking, the better it is likely going to be. The interface was incredible...very visually creative and appealing. The enemy pilots looked like they were cut and pasted together from old 'National Geographic' magazines ... really sloppy. They always said the same thing, which, after hearing it for the 300th time gets a little stale. The flight engine makes it look and feel like you are going quite slow, regardless of how fast it says you are going and can freely bounce off of most ships without any difficulties. It feels more like 3D bumper cars with guns than what I imagine space combat to be like.

It almost seems like this production was put together like a patchwork quilt made up of silk and burlap.

Even though the game is 6 years old, it's gameplay is on par with (or even above) some more recent space games. As Lev Arris, you awake in a hospital, with amnesia, and you must pilot your way around a Tri-system of planets, space stations, pirates, babes and bozos in search of anything that will lead you to a clue about your past. The game is native to DOS, however, there is a Deluxe version native to Windows, though I would gladly give up the availability of Windows XP for good ol'fasioned Win98 to play Privateer 2. All in all, I give this game a 9.5 out of 10, but since I can't choose.5's, I'll just give a good hardy 10/10.

privateer 2 is a dang good game, and definitely a worthy addition to any wing commander or space sim fan's collection. However, it is a bit too easy, and sometimes the dogfights can get a little boring.

Then again, after you have finished the main game you can continue playing on as long as you like. There are some fine actors involved and although some of the video is quite long and annoying, there are some great effects.

It isn't another wing commander game, but it is nonetheless fun and similar in many ways. So if you see it on the discount shelf of your local video game shop, snap it up and you should be pleasantly surprised.