The game was initially announced by Chris Roberts in 1999, and following many production schedule mishaps and a buyout of Digital Anvil by Microsoft, it was eventually released in March 2003.

The single-player mode puts the player in the role of Edison Trent, who goes through a series of missions to save the Sirius sector from a mysterious alien force.

Players take up the roles of pilots who fly single-seat spacecraft, trading with merchants on space stations and planets, and engaging in combat against other vessels.

Each system provides opportunities to increase the pilot's wealth; aside from taking on jobs to ferry goods and hunting for bounties, the player character can engage in trade.

Freelancer's spacecraft follow simplistic flight dynamics;[5] however, a dash of realism is implemented by allowing the vessels to cut power to their engines and turn to face any direction while drifting along their original path—conservation of momentum.

The player moves the pilot to different locations and interacts with certain objects, such as reading a bulletin board and talking to other characters, by clicking on their graphical representations.

[11] The fifth sleeper ship, Hispania, suffered a malfunction en route and was abandoned in deep space (in the Omicron Alpha system).

Asteroid and debris fields populate some of the systems,[3] and secret hideouts and derelicts with valuable items exist in deep space.

[11] Throughout the story, Trent meets several NPCs, such as Liberty Security Force (LSF) commander Jun'ko Zane, xenoarchaeologist Professor Roland Quintaine, and head of a secret organization, Casper Orillion.

Most stages have no time limits for their completion, and players can put the main story on hold while taking on missions (jobs) not crucial to it.

[10] On starting single-player mode, a cutscene shows the destruction of space station Freeport 7 by unknown forces, leaving Trent without money or ship on the planet Manhattan.

While waiting for his debtor, Lonnigan, to regain consciousness, Trent takes up employment with the LSF under Jun'ko Zane, who provides him with a small ship.

While finding additional materials for their research, they discover the existence of the Nomad alien race, who are the caretakers of an empire that belonged to the previous inhabitants of the Sirius sector, the Dom'Kavosh.

[25] Trent joins the Order, a secret organization formed to combat the Nomads, and helps to rescue the Liberty president from the aliens.

He wanted to realize a virtual galaxy, whose systems execute their own programs regardless of the players' presence; cities would be bustling with transports and each world's weather changes on its own time.

Commodity prices in each star system would fluctuate, according to the activities of the computer controlled traders, who import and export goods.

Roberts envisioned thousands of players simultaneously interacting with and influencing this world through a unique and intuitive user interface never seen before in other games.

There were concerns about the state of the graphics and uncertainties over the promise of a dynamic economy, but gaming site GameSpot gave Roberts and his company, Digital Anvil, the benefit of their doubts.

[40] Microsoft instructed Digital Anvil to scale down the ambitions of the project and focus on finishing the game based on what was possible and the team's strengths.

[5][13] The Freelancer team kept a low profile throughout 2001 before displaying a demo of their latest work at International Games Festival 2002, drawing large crowds.

[45] Digital Anvil's role on Freelancer ended on June 6, 2003, with their delivery of a software patch to resolve issues on the server and cheating; the staff were redeployed to other departments in Microsoft.

"[52] Chris Roberts is highly regarded in the field of spaceflight combat simulators due to his successful Wing Commander franchise.

[38][58] Delays in the schedule and Microsoft's take over of Digital Anvil gave rise to speculation that Roberts' most promised feature—the dynamic world—would be cut.

[59] The concerns were partially realized; the features, although not cut, were reduced, leaving Freelancer with a virtual world that did not live up to the industry's expectations.

It presented a static galaxy, where territories of various factions never change despite the groups' frequent raids and attacks on each other,[10] and commodity prices remain fixed.

[6][60][62] On the story side, reviewers agreed the professional actors, such as Ian Ziering, did a good job in bringing their respective characters to life.

[3] Other reviewers expressed their own frustrations with the story, such as being forced to move to another star system at undesired times,[7] or leaving them without an objective after the campaign abruptly ended.

[33] FiringSquad said Freelancer's multiplayer mode encapsulated the "best and worst of [the game] in a nutshell": although players can move their characters anywhere, group with others for missions, and trade ships and equipment, they have very little else to do in the unchanging virtual galaxy.

[17] Overall, reviewers acknowledged Freelancer fell short of the promises initially made by Roberts; however, it demonstrated a high quality of work in its implemented features.

They wrote, "Freelancer dazzled us with its immersive interstellar world, wild combat, and ambitiously open-ended design, but it can't compete with the cinematic spectacle of Europe at war.