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GAME · 1996 · USA

Privateer 2: The Darkening

10 archived facts 4 topics

Privateer 2: The Darkening is a 1996 video game.

10 Interesting Facts About Privateer 2: The Darkening

Interesting Facts (6)

  1. #001

    In 2024, the game's original cinematics director located the complete Source Master tapes; these were digitized and re-edited frame by frame, restoring more than 100 FMV scenes.

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  2. #002

    Cockpit communications in this game rely on still images instead of video when other pilots address the player, a departure from Origin's other spaceflight sims. A few of the pictures are retouched so the pilots look like mutants, and the Kindred pilots' faces are blurred out.

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  3. #003

    The game is a sequel to Privateer (1993) in name only and takes place outside the Wing Commander universe. Ships, characters, worlds, culture, history, government and military are all new, and there are no Kilrathi. In Wing Commander, Earth remains humanity's homeworld; the Privateer 2 setting is the Tri-System, made up of the Hom, Isaac and Irrulan systems, where Anhur is called the "cradle of humanity" and given a diameter of 8,398 miles (Earth's is 7,918 miles). Law and order are upheld by the C.I.S. (Central Intelligence Service) rather than a Terran Confederation. A confederation gets a few mentions in the in-game public information database but is never referred to in the cinematic cutscenes.

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  4. #004

    The 30th Anniversary Edition includes the Privateer 2 Enhancement Patch from the Wing Commander community, which delivers smoother framerates, higher-resolution FMVs and better controller and joystick support.

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  5. #005

    The Papagod pirate clan's fighters Ashearer and Ecantona are named after footballers Alan Shearer and Éric Cantona.

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  6. #006

    The game's public records database lists several characters as considerably younger than the actors playing them were at the time. Nelson Ramirez is 43, while Nadim Sawalha turned 61 the year the game was released. Xavier Shondi is 43; Jürgen Prochnow was 55. Dimitri Avignoni is 37; Kevork Malikyan was 53. Auntie Maria Gabriel is 36; Mary Tamm was 46. Dr. Janna Frevel is 29; Hetty Baynes was 40. David Hassan is 36; Christopher Walken was 53 (a glitch keeps Hassan's entry from appearing in the database after you meet him, but all the entries can be viewed on wcnews.com, since one of the programmers sent the site the game's internal text).

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Production Story (1)

  1. #007

    The game was originally planned as an adventure title to be made in Britain. When the budgets for it and one other active project kept climbing, the two were merged.

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Characters & Cast (1)

  1. #008
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Stuntman Derek Lea plays the chief villain, Kronos, but the character's voice is supplied by Clive Owen, who also plays the protagonist Lev Arris, Kronos' twin brother. Apart from stunt work, Lea has appeared mostly in bit parts, so this is likely his biggest acting role.

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Deeper Meaning (2)

  1. #009

    Six of the Tri-System's eight main planets—Anhur, Crius, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus and Janus IV—take their names from deities of ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian myth. Karatikus is named for Caratacus, leader of a British tribe that resisted the Roman invasion. Bex, which produces Bex Beer, was probably named after the German beer brand Beck's.

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  2. #010

    An optional upscaled release of the FMVs was also made, using AI to increase the resolution and framerate of the master full-motion video source material.

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