Privateer 2: The Darkening (1996)

Arris wakes up in a hospital after surviving the crash of the spaceship Canera. He can't remember who he is or what he was doing on the ship, when a group of assassins break in and try to kill him.

Directors:

Steve Hilliker, Erin Roberts

Writers:

Diane Duane (screenplay), Nick Elms (story)

Stars:

John Rowe, Clive Owen, John Hurt

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clive Owen	...	Lev Arris
John Hurt	...	Joe Kane
Jürgen Prochnow	...	Xavier Shondi (as Jurgen Prochnow)
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 (Clive Owen) wakes up in a hospital on the planet Crius and has no idea who he is and from where he is coming. He is told by a doctor that he had been frozen ten 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 loses 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:

outer space | single player | microsoft windows | dos game | second part | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The gameplay is open-ended. The player can progress through the main story in their own time, or just play side missions, trade goods between planets, make money, upgrade their ship, or explore the game map. The player can carry on doing these things for as long as they want after the main story is completed. The only things that are unlocked by playing the main story are the cockpit gun sights lighting up when targets are lined up correctly and a return-to-sender missile avoidance function (these features are added to the player's ship after they meet David Hassan) and a few locations on some of the planets, but there is nothing to do at these places once the people there have been spoken to. Otherwise, the player may go wherever they like and do whatever they like from the start.

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Goofs

In the public records, the entries for the minor planets each have the wrong background as their photo (except for Petra).

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Quotes

Rhinehart: But think, if you hadn't been frozen you would have been part of our war against the CIS. There wouldn't have been quite such buddy love between you then, huh?
Lev Arris: Whoever I was, I've changed.
Rhinehart: People don't change that much. Some are born wolves, some are sheep. You might be wearing sheep's clothing but your fangs are showing through.
Lev Arris: Yeah, well, maybe losing my memory was the best thing that could've happened to me. It's given me a chance to choose who I am.
Rhinehart: God, this is becoming dangerously close to ...
[...]

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Connections

References Blade Runner (1982)

User Reviews

Privateer 2 was fantastic

Man, I loved this game. It came out during the time I'd gone back to graduate school in my 30s, and it just about ruined one semester because all I wanted to do was play the game. Incredibly addictive, but the previous poster is right -- the game crashed all the time. The company finally got pretty free with cheat codes just so you could get through certain segments that were especially gnarly. I wouldn't have used the cheats except that without them the game would overload your CPU and you'd lose all your work! I finally finished the game, and it was pretty mind-blowing in terms of the ending. Also, the cast was outrageously impressive -- Christopher Walken, Clive Owen, John Hurt! Tremendous fun. Even after I finished it, I played it some more, until CPU speed finally made it obsolete. After I had seen the whole plot, I basically just became a pirate, blowing up as many cop-ships as I could, sacrificing my cargo pilot and ship to other pirates, etc. I can't believe how much fun that game was. Nothing like it these days, and though I tried one of those CPU-slowdown programs to try to make it work, it really didn't. Gone but not forgotten.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 November 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Privateer 2: The Darkening

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Origin Systems Inc.

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color