Privateer 2: The Darkening

Video Game
1996

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Action Adventure Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller

Arris wakes up in a hospital after surviving the crash of the spaceship Canera. He can't remember who he is or what he was doing on the ship, when a group of assassins break in and try to ki... Read allArris wakes up in a hospital after surviving the crash of the spaceship Canera. He can't remember who he is or what he was doing on the ship, when a group of assassins break in and try to kill him.Arris wakes up in a hospital after surviving the crash of the spaceship Canera. He can't remember who he is or what he was doing on the ship, when a group of assassins break in and try to kill him.

Directors
- Steve Hilliker
- Erin Roberts
Writers
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.3/10

332

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Steve Hilliker
- Erin Roberts
Writers
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

More like this

7.4

Ripper

8.6

Privateer

8.0

Wing Commander: Prophecy

7.3

Privateer: Righteous Fire

8.4

Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror

8.9

Broken Sword: Circle of Blood

8.8

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom

8.8

Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Jürgen Prochnow and David Warner appeared in Wing Commander (1999), the movie adaptation of the Wing Commander games also produced by Origin (the first Privateer game was set in the Wing Commander universe).

Goofs
In the public records, the entries for the minor planets each have the wrong background as their photo (except for Petra).

Quotes
[Lev Arris meets the CIS Commander Hassan on the prison planet Hades]
Lev Arris: This is not a place I ever wanted to see the inside of.
Hassan: Why should you see the inside of Hades? Unless you're guilty of a crime.
Lev Arris: Am I being accused of something here?
Hassan: Not necessarily.
Lev Arris: Now look, I saved your life, I chose to follow you down here, now if you don't quit playing the Man of Mystery, I'm going to get back on my ship and I'll take my own chances with whoever's trying to nail me.
Hassan: There's a lot to tell you, Arris. I don't know how much you know, I don't know how much you're involved, right now I don't care. You could be the biggest cutthroat this side of New Bedlam as long as you help me get the Kindred.
Lev Arris: The Kindred? Isn't that some kind of organized crime group?
Hassan: It's THE organised crime group. Over the past 40 years, they've infiltrated every aspect of society. Commerce, government, law enforcement, on every planet known to man. They manipulate stock markets, planetary economies, politics. And anyone who tries to stop them, anyone who tries to get in their way, they're eliminated.
Lev Arris: That puts you in the firing line, Hassan.
Hassan: It's my job.
Lev Arris: That's all it is, a job?
Hassan: The man who runs the organization has stayed in the shadows for some time. But you tell me, Arris, you tell me about the man who runs the Kindred.
Lev Arris: What am I supposed to know?
Hassan: He's clever. Ruthless. Brilliant by all accounts. Lavish with rewards to his faithful servants, brutal to those who aren't.
Lev Arris: Yeah, I think we've established that he's a powerful bastard, what's that got to do with me?
Hassan: In the Kindred organization his name is Kronos.
[staring out of the window into the storm, Lev has a sudden flash of recognition]
Hassan: The CIS is at war with the Kindred. It's a war you've found yourself in the middle of.
Lev Arris: I don't want any part of it. I've got my own problems.
Hassan: You haven't begun to have problems. You cross me, you'll have problems. You're gonna have to choose sides, Arris.

Connections
Featured in Bad Influence!: Episode #4.8 (1995)

User reviews10

Review

Featured review

7/10

Ok game, but not a worthy sequel

The first Privateer game was one of the greatest flight sims ever made. Not only did it include the excellent flight combat system that the influential Wing Commander games made famous, it had an intriguing story-line that took you through numerous systems and to interesting planets. It was also one of the most enjoyable games to play because of the fact that you could choose your own ships and missions, increasing the variety in an already vast and open-ended game.

However, for some reason, Privateer 2 failed to continue the trend of innovation that Origin had been known for. There were many problems with the game. First off, it was behind the times in that it was a DOS-only game. Windows 95 had been out for a very long before this game was released, giving the developers ample time to convert whatever they needed to to make it a Windows game. I was especially perturbed at this because the game was delayed for several months, and the developers STILL did not decide to convert it. Second, the game had a high degree of instability. Often I would try to land at a planet or a star base and the game would crash. This would make me very upset because there was no in-mission saving, and if it was an especially difficult mission, then you would have to start over completely.

Other problems were that it did not have the engrossing story-line that the first one had. The story was too short, and not very in-depth. While I enjoyed Christopher Walken's cameo, the story was just too confusing to follow completely, and then it abruptly came to an end. The missions also did not have the variety of the first game, so while you were trying to get to the next part of the story, you would not be having as much fun as in the first game.

As a whole, the game was simply "all right." It wasn't horrible, and it was sufficiently similar to the first Privateer, but it was definitely not a worthy sequel...