Unique, simple, entertaining, and challenging, with good music--but somewhat unrefined--Frantic Freighter reminds me of FTL, and other games where you have to act quickly and manage your resources. Unlike FTL, you cannot pause FRFR--you simply have to be fast.
PLEASE NOTE: Some of these issues have been fixed in the most recent version of the game.
I've now won FRFR perhaps 20 or 30 times, on computer with WASD and mouse rather than VR. As I've played, I've found that much of the game works pretty well, but at the same time there are a number of glaring issues. And with a game this simple, with so few features, there's really nowhere to hide: what would be a very minor quibble in a larger game becomes quite a mountain of annoyance in FRFR--particulary when it's a result of artificial restraints imposed on the player by the developer, of which there are several.
In FRFR gameplay is very simple, but pretty immersive, with everything taking place from a first-person viewpoint--like Gordon Freeman as pilot of a small space freighter. Your task: deliver a "core" to the planet Xax. Unfortunately, starcharts in the area are down, but you do know your DISTANCE to Xax, and this allows you to triangulate the approximate direction for your FTL jumps. This guesswork makes it entertaining, as on most jumps you'll need to be paying close attention to your distance from Xax before and after the jump, to give you a better idea of where to set your next jump coordinates.
That's not the only challenge: you have to make quick decisions--bring up your shields if you're facing an enemy, quickly request parts or info, or attempt to trade. And, possibly the most entertaining part of the whole thing: replace the burnt-out fuses that power your ship's systems. On every jump there's about a 50/50 chance of a burnt out fuse, and six possible systems that can burn out. Initially you'll have one replacement part for each of those six systems; but soon, you will likely have none. If a vital system--warp drive, map radar, or life support--burns out when you don't have a replacement part, it's game over.
With all this said, the gameplay can definitely be very fun, and it's absolutely "frantic" at times. I soon learned to organize my replacement parts in front of each respective system, and more recently I started putting the replacement parts closer to me, roughly in line with the map.
But the are some issues with this game, and many of them are artificial restraints that a person would not actually have to face if they were doing all this on a freighter.
ARTIFICIAL RESTRAINTS
1. The act of simply picking up the replacement parts is annoying. A hand cursor appears in the center of the screen to show when you can pick up a fuse. This is very bad idea--the cursor ought to be visible all the time, so you don't have to go fumbling to pick up those fuses or to press buttons. THIS HAS BEEN FIXED in the beta. You now have a small hand cursor available at all times, which helps a lot picking up items and making selections
2. Another issue picking up fuses: it's annoying having to click and hold. Take a page from Half Life 2: click picks up a fuse, and you don't have to continue holding the button; click again throws the fuse 3 or 4 feet, making it easier to quickly get fuses close to their systems, particularly when you're given 3 or 4 fuses at once.
3. The player's movement speed is a bit slow. Again, take a page from Half Life: let the player run by holding down shift. This is simply an artficial limitation on the game--a human being piloting a freighter would definitely be able to run--or walk--as desired.
I think all of these issues would make the game more immersive and enjoyable to play, and I think they'd all be very easy fixes to make. Like I said, in other games they'd be minor, but in this game so much is dependent on the player's movement and kinesthetics that they become rather glaring when you're forced to deal with them over and over. I'd probably give the game a thumbs up just if these artificial problems were fixed.
But there are a few other quick and easy changes that could be made to improve the game in other ways.
4. High scores/stats. How many times have I played? How many times have I died, and how, and how many times have I won?
5. Give the player the option to select the other game modes.
6. Give the player a PDA, or a wrist-mounted control system. The PDA would simply have 3 buttons on it, for warp, cloak, and shields (or possibly 5 buttons, giving them radio control as well). Then the player could press 1, 2, or 3 on the keyboard and instantly activate that system from anywhere on the ship.
7. The radar map works by clicking where you want to go next, but it's a little fiddly to use. Let the player click and drag to move the cursor instead, to give a little more precise control.
8. What's the cloaking device for? Enemies can shoot you when it's on. I've read dozens of tips from ships, planets, and stations, but it doesn't seem to do anything except make friendlies turn hostile toward you.
And now a few slightly more robust ideas.
9. I found that almost the whole game I stood in front of the map, my back to the main window. Not seeing the ships, stations, planets, and asteroids most of the time doesn't make sense. THIS WAS UPDATED in the beta--you can now easily read the map from behind.
10. Perhaps make asteroids and ships more useful somehow. After getting the hang of the game, I found myself mostly moving as fast as I could toward Xax, ignoring asteroids and ships and only stopping at planets, stations and caches. Perhaps some ships would be willing to trade 2 items for 1 of yours.
11. Rethink the fuses system. Give the player a console detailing the power use for ship systems showing how much power is going through a system and how long it's been on. The higher these values are, the greater chance of that system breaking. Allow any system to break at any time while power is running through it, but be something like 20x more likely to break during a jump. Cloaking, shields, and warp drive would probably use a lot of power while on, but they're only used briefly most of the time, and would only break while they're in use.
12. Give the freighter armor, so it can take 5 shots from enemy ships before dying, even while shields are off. Make repairs possible at planets and stations.
And now a couple pie in the sky kind of ideas:
13. Significantly broaden the scope of the game. Add a bunch of new and interesting content to the game and sell it as Frantic Freighter 2 or something. With the other changes above, I can see FRFR as a very good foundation for a larger game. Give the player a bunch of options for buying, selling and trading, a real story and some actual characters, weapons and upgradable systems, more stuff to repair, and even give the player the option to hire some crew members, including an engineer and an engineering station, where HE'S the one that continually fixes the broken fuses. In effect, the current gameplay of FRFR would simply become one element of a larger game.
14. Graphical overhaul. The game just doesn't look that realistic. Better looking planets, ships, etc, would increase immersiveness.
Conclusion: FRFR is very entertaining, if a bit small and unrefined. If you're looking for a unique and exciting experience that's not your typical shoot fest, check out FRFR--especially if you're a VR player.
