Freelancer felt a lot like the Wing Commander movie. Maybe it was visually what the makers of Wing Commander wished they could pull off? It's funny, Freelancer looks better than the
movie did back then
I didn't like how there were little spurts of grind to get your next ship and then you were stuck until you completed the next story mission. And how the ships and guns get better and better as you travel around, not necessarily away from the middle of civilization. It's the typical JRPG "this town has better swords!" sort of thing that I'd expect has a Trope listing already.
I liked the procedural dialogue but it desperately needed more variety. I got so tired of hearing the script.
It also had raiders showing up so much more often if you had worthwhile cargo, which I call the "Hardwar Problem". If there are pirates, fine, but have the pirates hang out all the time not just when I have a cargo hold full of rare and valuable Abraham Lincoln fan fiction.
Finally the game really is intensely linear. You do a story mission, then you can run around grinding randomized side missions for money and reputation, then you cap out and have to run the next story mission. I don't recall many divergent paths (actually I can't remember any but it's been a while) and I couldn't find any alternatives in the end of the game. GTA is less linear, but of course you still don't have many choices to make at all (my experience is in GTA 3-4 and Vice City, don't blame me if Rockstar changed their games since then because I have no idea).
That said, it was fun and totally worth $10 or whatever it costs on Steam.