DarkOrbit
DarkOrbit is one of the best Free-to-Play Space Exploration and MMO video game similar to Freelancer that lets you suit up as a Spaceship pilot. With a huge Community and fantastic game-play, DarkOrbit allows you to be part of a community having millions of online players, select and customize your online avatar, get into the game world and start exploring, engage yourself into epic real-time Combats, participate in the massive game economy and enjoy trading for goods by using both real and game currency. Combat element in DarkOrbit allows you to go against the pirating enemies, destroy their fleets of ships, recover the goods and trade them for earnings. You can always use the available resources to buy upgrades that will help you modify your ships like mounting more weapons on the Hull or installing some metal piercing laser beams etc. Eliminating the NPC Ships and defeating the enemies rewards you with various rewards and that rewards are a way to show your supremacy over the enemies. Multiplayer feature of the game allows you to interact with online players, forge alliances and go hunting the enemies as a combined force. DarkOrbit is one of the best alternatives to Freelancer, do try it out.
#1 DarkStar One
DarkStar One is another great Space Exploration, Trading and Combat Simulation similar to Freelancer. The game is actually a remake of the super popular DarkStar One: Broken Alliance and offers a similar game-play, enhanced visuals and mechanics and takes you to the same Universe as its predecessor. As the main character of the game Kayron Jarvis, your tasks are to control the Ship named As DarkStar One, passed to you after the death of your father in a sabotage. You must accept the ship, go on hunting the ones who sabotaged the station and killed your father. As a mercenary by nature, you’ll have to explore various planets, gather resources, trade for items and make your ship more powerful in order to eliminate the enemies, and to earn respect among other pilots. DarkStar One offers a number of different paths to choose and allows you to either be Pirate, a Bounty hunter or a Trader by choice, act accordingly and enjoy a marvelously immersive game-play. DarkStar One, with all the wonderful elements such as beautiful visuals, engaging game-play and a well-written story-line, is one of the best alternative to Freelancer.
#2 Flotilla
Flotilla is a 3D Turn-based Co-Op Multiplayer Space Exploration and Combat video game by Blendo Games. Set in a Randomly generated Galaxy environment, Flotila allows you and your opponents (Both Online and NPCs) to control a whole fleet of Spaceships, issue orders to engage in real-time combat and keep on repeating the process until any of the sides is defeated. With a turn-based environment, Flotilla allows you to have one of the best Co-op experiences and enjoy the game-play. Flotilla lets you issue three man types of orders (Attack Move, Flank Move and Focus Fire) to your fleets and reverse the enemy attacks by engaging at the right time and attacking at the right place. In the start, Flotilla allows you to have only two ships, but as the time passes, you can have more ships in your fleet by simply visiting the game shop and upgrading to a number of desired ships while remaining in the limit to spend your resources and rewards. Single player mode of the game allows you to go exploring the world, engage in epic enemy encounters and enjoy the game-play even more. With a brilliant setting, a unique combat oriented game-play and brilliant 3D visuals, Flotilla is an immersive game to play and enjoy.