Arguably the best Wing Commander game is the original Privateer, a break away title from the pure military aspect of the main Wing Commander series of games. Just after the success with Wing Commander II, Origin created a number of spin-off titles in the Wing Commander universe, primarily dealing with other aspects of the Terran-Kilrathi war. Most of the titles were mediocre at best, and proved to be worthwhile only for die-hard Wing Commander fans. Wing Commander: Academy was released, followed by Privateer, finally ending with Wing Commander: Armada which only briefly showed the major 3D engine jump coming in Wing Commander III: The Heart of the Tiger. Privateer stood out because of its element of freedom. There was a main plot, like all the other Wing Commander games, but you could speed it along when you felt like doing so.

The first disappointment I experienced with Privateer 2 is its misleading title. Although it is much like the original Privateer in terms of game play, it has nothing to do at all with the Wing Commander universe that many would expect. A raider and profiteer game about post-war life following the destruction of Kilrah could hold a massive amount of interesting storylines and deal with a large area of space, but the area of space in Privateer 2 is limited to about 5 planets. You can judge for yourself if the title is misleading, but I think a sequel should feature a minor plot connection to it's predecessor.

The plot begins with a transport ship carrying you, Lev Arris, in a cryo tube under stasis, being attacked and crashing into the side of a building in a large city. The captain, a pointlessly cast and out of place David McCallum, is forced to afterburn to escape a pair of attacking fighters. The opening is impressive, to say the least, but is a bit too mysterious with its odd camera shots. You are saved from the wreckage and hospitalized with extensive amnesia. One fine day, two pairs of strange looking people decide to pay you an unannounced visit. They blow up a large window with the thrusters of their ship in an attempt to kill, but you escape on the ship to begin an investigation into your past.

From this point, you are on your own for the most part. You meet a friendly bartender, played by John Hurt, who seems to have been meant to play more of an important part in the game, but is cut down to being a very minor character. You have enough money to buy a really cheap ship and fend for yourself. There are about 120 missions that are possible to play through, most being very simple and not taking very much time. You can charter a cargo ship and take goods to other planets to make a profit, but the police and pirates are always ready to attack you.

The 3D graphics are impressive for a non-accelerated game, including nice lens flare touches that make looking at the sun pretty cool. The ships are well textured and have good control, but the enemies' ships are very repetitive and seem computer controlled, rather than having a decent AI behind the controls.

An almost laughable part of the game are the insults that foes yell at you during the 3D battles. Two very dumb and downright pathetic insults used over and over again by every enemy ship make you wonder where all the "feature film production costs" went. Perhaps it went towards hiring semi-well known actors for cameos, but that sure doesn't make the game fun, since all the main characters are pretty poorly acted.

On many planets, you will visit one or two locations to visit, most of which are bars. Each location or bar in the game seems to have it's own mood and spirit. For example, the Sinners Inn bar has loud techno music on one planet, while another planet has a serene and almost restful lounge. The locations in the game have a strange way of making the game seem artsy or part of a David Lynch movie, but without any value or originality.

There are many ways to take this game. It is definitely not a perfect title. Far from it. For the few out there who stick with the plot, you will be in for a huge disappointment at the story's conclusion. Many red herrings and misleading clues are used and then tossed aside for a completely superficial and quick completion to the game. Many elements of the game that should have been worked on are ignored (enemies' insults and AI design), while other pointless elements seem to have been perfected (the Booth System used to buy and sell ships, commodities, etc.). The designers forgot the elements that are a given in this type of game, and opted for more emphasis on the full motion video and little things that make a good game better. Unfortunately, they forgot to make it a good game.

I really cannot recommend Privateer 2 to anyone, even die-hard Wing Commander fans. The plot of this game destroys the fun. The ending itself probably will have most players wondering why they even played it through in the first place. Origin really needs to learn that even big budget games like Privateer 2 can come off as being incomplete.

System Requirements: Pentium 75, 8 MB RAM, 2X CD-ROM, 40 MB of disk space, Digital Sound Card, 100% Microsoft-compatible Mouse, Local Bus Video Card supporting VESA 1.2, and MS-DOS 5.0 or higher

Tested on a: Intel Pentium 75, 16 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM, Sound Blaster 16, ATI Mach 64 video card, a Microsoft mouse, and Windows 95.