Relive Privateer's Ending (April 14, 2018)

[ChrisReid]

Privateer's been making the headlines recently not just as a memorable Wing Commander game but also a milestone in PC and space sim gaming as a whole. Everyone who plays has stories about upgrading their Tarsus and saving up for an Orion, Galaxy or Centurion. The actual campaign was completely optional, and occasionally you hear about fans who never made it through to the end. It's easy to find a list of the major fixers and their locations online, but it could be time consuming for someone playing in a vacuum. ytdlder is here to help with a recording of the final showdown between the Steltek Drone and Commodore Reismann's fleet (and your Steltek Gun). As a special bonus, he's also included the ending conversation with Admiral Terrell. It's a little anti-climactic compared to the epic conclusions to the main Wing Commander games, but it has a really clever presentation of the end credits. And I love Terrell's office!

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Original update published on April 14, 2018

 

[Wedge009]

I also enjoyed the unique way of presenting the credits, rather than have it as an off-line option accessed from the main menu.

 

[Quarto]

Yes, it sure was a neat thing to do. Although I did think it was something of a waste of assets that afterwards, when you visited Terrell, all you'd get is the credits again and again. It would have been nifty if Terrell could become a fixer for really special-yet-random military missions after the end credits.

But in general, the really great thing about Privateer's ending is that the game's storyline was really appropriate for an open-world game. Unlike Privateer 2, unlike Freelancer, unlike many other games of this type, Privateer was all about restoring a balance of power to the world, without achieving some sort of overwhelming victory. You never became a hero, and you never became overpowered. Consequently, when you continued to play afterwards, you never felt that strange dissonance that you feel in those other games, that you're this big hero with all this power, yet here's a random mission fixer telling you to sweep the floor for 5 credits.

 

[Wedge009]

It always disappointed me how, once the main story/campaign in Freelancer was over, you never got to revisit all those characters you got to know along the way (those who were still alive/friendly anyway). At least having that connection might have helped - saving the galaxy (or at least the Sirius sector) and then all of a sudden going back to the generic Freelancer universe felt... off.

 

[ChrisReid]

They didn't own the place, but they had an understanding with the people who did.

 

[Wedge009]

You're new here, aren't you?

Uh huh.