My first port of call today is Sinners where I get my metal container opened up. The container was packed with enough explosive to take out the whole port.

It does contain the memory solid. It’s not hugely useful – there is mention of Larn Regis who was Malachite as well as Vell Ricaud and Ricaud Interplanetary neither of whom are in the database. There are a load of financial codes too. None of this is all that helpful and I’ve hit a dead end so I go back to flying cargo runs for a while.

After a bit, I get an email from a friend of my fathers who wants me to meet him near Leviatha.

He’s gone when I get there and I now have to go all the way to Petra.

I decide its time for a new ship before I fly all the way there and blow all my remaining money on a Crius 2 – this cost about 140,000. I can’t really say its all that big an improvement. The shields are a bit better and the extra laser turret takes ships out ludicrously quickly but you are better off spending money on extras in this game rather than the new ships.

I get to Petra and he’s gone again! I don’t even get another lead this time. On the bright side this place has really cheap minerals so I fill up and go back to my standard cargo run.

Another email arrives from David Hassan who wants to see me.

The CIS have captured the guy who has been emailing me. They thought it was Malachite but it can’t be since hes dead. I ask to see him but Hassan discovers some fake orders have been sent and he is already being transferred. We fly out to protect the transfer ship.

This is an epic battle with loads of Kindred fighters and a couple of cruisers thrown in. My new ship is easily up to the fighters – the real problem are the cruisers. The only way I can take them out is with loads of short attack runs and then breaking off before I get hit too much. With the last one down our prisoner is safe and Hassan asks me to meet him at the prison.

This is the best scene of the game. The prisoner is played by David Warner who can play the evil villain better than pretty much anyone. He comes across as being in complete control of the situation despite being the prisoner here. He is another of Kronos lieutenants and in return for a protection deal from the CIS fills in the backstory of the game. Kronos’s real name was Vel Ricaud – I am Vel Ricaud II. My father founded Ricaud Interplanetary which later became the Kindred. I have a twin brother Saar, who was born second who has taken over the Kindred since my fathers death. He has been using anti-aging drugs which in the end make you age faster and turn the brain to jelly which is whats happening to my brother. When I got ill 20 years ago, I was frozen by my father. With Saar running the company into the ground Malachite was sent to revive me and put me in charge instead (with me being the older twin). Saar got wind of this which is why the Canera was shot down. The first two guys in the hospital were sent to fetch me (they were not supposed to shoot up the place). The two women were sent by Saar to kill me. My father was wise enough to seal all the company account codes with me in the pod which is what the information is in the memory solid. At the end of the meeting he tells us that Saar is attacking the CIS head and we have to run out to try to save him.

This final mission is another big battle but it’s easier than the previous one with no cruisers to take out and I finish the mission in a couple of minutes with no difficulty at all.

I fly in and dock with Kronos’s ship. My memory is back by now and I intend to take over the company. Since my fathers death Saar has taken our fathers name and is pretending to be him by taking his name. The ship in a mess and everyone is leaving. My brother is even more of a mess and the makeup is less than convincing. In a fairly gruesome scene we struggle with a ludicrously sized gun, my brother is shot and I finish him off by standing on some sort of internal organ that seems to be hanging out of him. I get to take over the company now and be Kronos myself. I don’t especially like the way this scene was done and it’s not an entirely satisfactory ending to the game. It’s certainly strange and in keeping with everything else in that sense but its poor compared to the scene before it.

The endgame has been surprisingly brief and the final missions are a lot easier than I was expecting. I’d have been wasting my time getting the best ship. There is still some FMV in this game that I’ve not seen which I expect I’d get to see by being offered new missions in my email if I kept playing the game. I never even got to meet Brian Blessed. All the scenes are available in better quality on wcnews.com though. I’ve just been looking through them. It’s strange how the better quality video actually shows up the cheap sets, poor fx and bad camerawork and if anything the scenes come across better in the game. There is no point in wasting money on stuff you can’t appreciate in the game so I don’t have a problem with that especially but the difference with WC4 is apparent where the DVD version really brings out the quality of the FMV. A DVD version of P2 would have been a really bad idea from the looks of those clips.

I have enjoyed playing this in the end. Take away the FMV and what’s left wouldn’t be great but the plot provides enough drive to make it all worthwhile. Privateer 2 is a very quirky game and it should have been so much better than it ended up. It’s so nearly a great sequel but Privateer is undoubtedly the better game of the two. Where Privateer 2 has the edge is the way that the story is woven into the privateering part of the game and not just an extra after you get the best ship and this makes it still worth a look despite the flaws.

Next: AH-64D Longbow