Play Privateer: Righteous Fire Online

Privateer: Righteous Fire came out in 1994 as an expansion to the original Privateer, developed by ORIGIN Systems for MS-DOS. It was part of that wave of space sims where you could really lose yourself in a universe that felt open and reactive, not just a series of missions. The game built on what made the first one compelling, adding new star systems, ships, and a storyline that branched based on your choices.

You pilot a spacecraft, taking on contracts, trading goods, and engaging in dogfights across several sectors. Your main goal involves uncovering a conspiracy tied to a fanatical religious group, which means balancing combat, exploration, and dialogue with various factions. Key mechanics include upgrading your ship's weapons and components, managing your reputation with different groups, and navigating using a jump drive between systems. The pacing is deliberate; you spend time hauling cargo or scanning anomalies between bursts of intense space combat. It feels like carving out your own path in a rough, lived-in corner of the Wing Commander universe.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".