This is easily one of my top ten favorite games for any platform. It is an excellent space sim with interplanet trading and missions similar to Freelancer with less pretty graphics but better (in some ways) gameplay.
The real highlight for this game is the high quality acting and cinematics with Clive Owen, Christopher Walken and others.
Je n'ai jamais réussi à finir le premier Privateer que j'ai toujours trouvé d'une difficulté innommable. Avec cette suite j'y suis arrivé... rien que pour ça, il a retenu toute mon attention... il fallait un PC puissant pour en profiter (une habitude chez Origin) mais les graphismes étaient impressionnants (3D texturée en SVGA, rien que ça ! sous DOS évidemment mais le jeu fonctionnait très bien sous Win98).
Comme les Wing Commander 3 & 4, la part belle est faite aux vidéos avec de vrais acteurs (et un casting excellent comprenant Clive Owen, John Hurt, Christopher Walken, Jürgen Prochnow), le tout doublé par de vrais pros en VF ! La musique n'est pas en reste... et encore mieux si on a une carte gérant le General Midi.
The Darkening, c'est un peu un jeu d'aventure (choix des dialogues) égaré dans une simulation de combat spatial plus action que les X-Wing/TIE Fighter mais pas arcade pour autant. Une déclinaison plus libre que les Wing Commander dans une ambiance plus sombre. On a jamais fait mieux depuis.
This game was a cinematic masterpiece for its day with cutscenes played during pivotal points in the game along with awesome mini-cutscenes that are played everytime you dock on a major planet. Gameplay wise, the game was fun too allowing you to explore several star systems and taking on many missions - all staples of the space trading sim genre. This was the first time I became aware of Clive Owen as an actor but he was in good company with veteran actors John Hurt and Christopher Walken. The only thing I can criticise are the graphics as they appear a bit dated now but they were pretty good for its time.
Despite the rather well done cinematics, the game failed miserably in the gameplay department and rife with bugs. The gameplay problems start with silly design decisions such as to make your own ship unable to move cargo itself, requiring you to hire cargo ships, turning every cargo run into an escort mission. Enemy pilots repeat the same phrase over and over again and again, simultaneously if there are more than one. I guess my main gripe with the game was it's lack of scale, for a space sim, it felt very claustrophobic, with few planets to visit. This is a shadow of the original Privateer, a game with scale, scope and immersion I had never seen before, it really drew you in. It gets points for it's exquisite art direction, acting talent and visuals.