HomeLAN - What other gameplay features are unique to Freelancer?

Phil Wattenbarger - The living universe. Part of what makes the open ended gameplay work so well is the living universe. The world does not revolve around the player. Each ship in space has its own agenda and it traveling a particular route based on the pilot’s purpose. The cops are on patrol along the tradelanes looking for criminals. The criminals are usually coming from the asteroid fields to disrupt tradelanes in hope of looting some unsuspecting transport. And the transports are using the tradelanes to haul their goods from one base to another. The important part from the player’s perspective is the universe feels like a very busy place. There’s activity all around and the player can choose how he wants to interact with it. You can join formation with a police patrol and follow them around the system on their tour of duty. Or, hail a transport to hear what he’s hauling. Or, you can just go about your own business and hope there are cops around to help you when the criminals disrupt the tradelane.