Privateer 2: The Darkening (1996)

Ser Lev Arris wakes up in a hospital on the planet Crius and has no idea who he is and where he is coming from. He is told by a doctor that he had been frozen 10 or more years ago because ... See full summary »

Directors:

Steve Hilliker, Erin Roberts

Writers:

Diane Duane, Nick Elms (story),

Stars:

Clive Owen, John Hurt, Jürgen Prochnow

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clive Owen	...	Lev Arris
John Hurt	...	Joe Kane
Jürgen Prochnow	...	Xavier Shondi
David Warner	...	Rhinehart
Amanda Pays	...	Assassin #3
Mathilda May	...	Melissa Banks
David McCallum	...	Canera Captain
Brian Blessed	...	Uncle Kashumai
Christopher Walken	...	David Hassan
John Rowe	...	Alberto Fossa
Jonathan Chesterman	...	Angus Santana
Mary Tamm	...	Auntie Maria Gabriel
Ade Sapara	...	Assassin #1
Fairmang Singhateh	...	Assassin #2
Su Lin Looi	...	Assassin #4

Storyline

Ser Lev Arris wakes up in a hospital on the planet Crius and has no idea who he is and where he is coming from. He is told by a doctor that he had been frozen 10 or more years ago because he had a disease which was not curable then and that his starship crashed shortly before arriving at Crius star port. As he recovers in the hospital still without any memory he is hijacked by two men in dark uniforms and put in a starship where he looses consciousness. When he wakes up again, he finds himself to be on the planet Hermes. An adventure to find out about his roots begins...

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Plot Keywords:

interactive | sequel | spacecraft

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Origin Systems Inc.

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was originally intended to be an adventure-type game made in Britain. When the budget for this game and one other active project began to spiral higher and higher the two projects were merged.

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Quotes

[Lev Arris enters the notorious Sinner's Inn and walks up to the bar]
Joe: You're a hungry man.
Lev Arris: Yeah, I guess I could eat.
Joe: You are starving, don't deny it. A barman nowadays, he has to have a sixth sense about his customers. And I'm nothing if I'm not a barman. Your credit's sweet enough. So we have stew, we have lizard guts... oh, and we have Space Bug Gumbo!
Lev Arris: I'll have the stew, please.
Joe: I could have told you that. And you prefer your being lukewarm, right?
Lev Arris: No. No, actually I prefer it...
[...]

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Connections

References Blade Runner (1982)

User Reviews

Interesting engine, poor streaming video

The first time I heard of this game the title was only 'The Darkening' and the preview of it interested me. When it got the Privateer label I thought it would be even better, but I was confused because the preview described a game that took place in a different universe than that of the Wing Commander series, which is where the first game is set.

Regardless, this game has an interesting and stylish flight engine which I thought was really cool--except the fact that you can't hyper-jump when enemies are around, forcing you to fight them (very annoying). Not to mention some of the cool landing cutscenes and interesting computer interfaces in port.

However, the video scenes are pretty bad and have poorly mixed audio--half the time I couldn't understand what anyone was saying.