Your player character’s name in Freelancer’s storyline is Trent (who looks a little like the actor who handles the character’s voice, Beverly Hills 90210’s Ian Ziering), an out and out mercenary who seems at first only to be out for himself. As the game opens, his ship has been destroyed and he’s looking for payment from a person who just happens to be in intensive care following the attack on his ship. He quickly finds a new job and a new ship to keep himself in business. If you follow the game’s linear storyline you will have Trent hired by a number of interested parties to join up in a variety of missions. You head out to the planet’s local bar to get some assignments. These scenes are portrayed in a combo of a quasi 3D adventure interface (where you see Trent interacting with the various people he needs to talk to) and in a 2D interface where you actually trade or acquire goods and gain your missions, either through people or through the game’s job board.