YMMV / Wing Commander: Privateer

• Broken Base: Privateer 2: The Darkening. It was for many people a glitched-up mess, but the cutscenes were done really well, and there were elements that obviously tried to iterate on some of the criticisms of Priv 1 (hireable wingmen, a (vastly) broader ship selection, much wider enemy variety, etc.)
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: The gameplay in The Darkening is mediocre at best, but the story is good and the FMVs are some of the best ever put into a video game with strong performances by Clive Owen, David Warner, and BRIAN BLESSED!!!!!.
• Game-Breaker: In Wing Commander: Privateer, Money Grinding via Save Scumming.
  • Via trading: You don't even have to leave your starting location for this (in fact, you shouldn't; since mines are best suited for this). If you save the game while on the landing platform screen, every time you reload, the inventory of the trading concourse (prices and availability of goods) is reset. Since the prices are fluctuating to a notable extent even in the same location (for example, on the mining stations in the starting system, iron goes from 25 to 50 credits, tungsten from 50 to 100 credits, uranium from 400 to 500 credits and diamonds from 900 to 1000 credits), you can make a decent cut simply by buying, saving, reloading and then selling - all done within a few seconds of playtime; rinse repeat until you can afford your Centurion. And even if the Save Scumming doesn't work for whatever reason, you can simply leave the planet and immediately return to force a reset (this takes notably longer, though).
  • Alternatively you can run easy patrol missions for the mercenary guild. You can be on up to three missions at once, and being on multiple patrol missions doesn't really make the task much more difficult - so saving and reloading until your quest log is full of those is the way to go. All you need to have it work out is a medium-sized system (preferably with a ship dealer but without asteroid fields in it) and enough FF-missiles to get rid of 5 to 10 Talons - something that is doable even with the Tarsis.
• Low-Tier Letdown: The Orion. It is supposedly a "gunship" but what it really is does not live up to its moniker. It can mount the highest levels of shields and engine mountings but its amount of weaponry leaves something to be desired: it has only two gun mountings at the front section, a turret mounting in the rear, and a single launcher. It's rather disappointing when considering the other three ships you can pilot have better capacities for weapon mountings than the Orion. Even the Tarsus freighter, your starting ship, is able to equip two launchers at once! One wonders why the developers of Origin Systems chose to construct the Orion in this manner as it is a novel curiosity in the game. (If you could hire a gunner for your aft turret, the overall design would begin to make more sense, but you're solo for the whole game.)
  • The trick to the Orion is that its best offense is actually in ramming enemies. In a sort of Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards sense, if you save up and purchase its incredibly powerful shielding, it's capable of simply afterburning right through smaller enemies, using its considerable bulk to great effect. Since you'll be shooting the enemy as you ram them, you'll take pretty minimal damage from slamming into smaller ships (obviously don't try this on a large capital ship). The Orion is also very durable when it comes to fighting in an asteroid field, whereas a Centurion will take severe damage from stray asteroids that connect with your ship.
• Narm Charm: The otherwise excellent scene with Reinhart in Privateer 2 can be this every time Christopher Walken opens his mouth. Especially that "bra-vo" at the beginning. On the other hand, he generally does his job well. Especially near the end when he freaks out. When Christopher Walken freaks out, you believe it.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • BRIAN BLESSED!!!!!, Christopher Walken and Mathilda May all are quite memorable in their respective cameo roles in Privateer 2.
  • Reinhart (David Warner) in Privateer 2. A captured Faux Affably Evil Kindred leader who gives a spectacular Expo Speak concerning the game's amnesiac protagonist's identity. Behold one of the greatest performances in video game acting.
  Lev: Whoever I was, I've changed.
  Reinhart: People don't change that much. Some are born wolf. Some are sheep. You might be wearing sheep's clothing, but your fangs are showing through.
  Lev: 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.
  Reinhart: My god, this is almost becoming like a religious experience. Forget it. As soon as your old memories returns, you will get back to what you used to be; Your father's son.
• Once Original, Now Overdone: Privateer 1 actually runs into this fairly hard in the 21st century; while it was really different compared to other Wing Commander games and offered a different look at that setting, and far more importantly allowed you to get out of your ship and made full use of the WC setting, the overall gameplay is fairly simple (pick from patrol, hunting or cargo missions - no mining, no exploration outside of the plot, no surveying, no planetary flight), the storylines which add some spice to the game are honestly surprisingly short (you can, with a good ship, complete each one in five to six hours, each) and the ship selection is absolutely dire, with a grand total of three purchasable vessels and one junker you can't get back when you upgrade. Elite had more available player ships in 1984. In truth, you can see pretty much all the game has to offer in a couple of dedicated weekends, and modern players will likely struggle to understand how people played it for months on end. But in 1993, Privateer was something special - no other "space trading" game married the open gameplay of an Elite-like to a setting that felt this fleshed out and convincing, and for many 90s gamers, it was endlessly compelling.
• Scrappy Mechanic: In The Darkening having hostiles anywhere near you will prevent you from initiating a jump. This coupled with the high enemy spawning rate (or jumping-in rate) makes even casual travel from point A to B an exercise in frustration. This is even worse if you are escorting another ship. A common occurrence is that an enemy jumps in half a second after the ship you are escorting has jumped out, leaving you unable to follow while they are being attacked in the next sector over.
• Sequelitis: Zig-zagged. The Darkening is widely considered to be an awful game and inferior to the well-loved original Privateer but the cutscenes are a surprisingly enjoyable science-fiction movie all on its own.
• Squick: Kronos is absolutely disgusting, looking like Emperor Palpatine with his brain in his spine hanging out from his ass. Which is, honestly, pretty close to what he actually is.
• Vindicated by History: The Darkening, to some extent. At launch it was universally criticized and derided, because while it tried to make some improvements on the original Privateer's gameplay, it was kind of a buggy mess and it didn't play anything like the other Wing Commander games, and what the hell, what is this setting, where's Gemini, where's Confed, what's all this weird stuff? As time has gone on, however, not only has appreciation developed for the conditions the team was working under (Darkening wasn't even supposed to be a Priv game originally) and how they did try to address a lot of the common criticisms of Priv 1, but the quality of the acting and story came to be more appreciated (including a young Clive Owen as the protagonist) and fans developed a greater appreciation for Erin Roberts' vision of uncontrolled, nigh-absurd futurism and how it creates an aesthetic unlike anything else in the genre.