Privateer 2: The Darkening

Privateer 2: The Darkening, a space flight simulation game, hit MS-DOS in 1993 under the Origin Systems label from Electronic Arts. It follows up on Wing Commander: Privateer. The game is packed with live-action video clips, written by Diane Duane and directed by Steve Hilliker, that players uncover as the story unfolds. The cast includes Clive Owen, Mathilda May, John Hurt, Christopher Walken, Brian Blessed, and Amanda Pays. The onboard computer, named Dani, was voiced by Dani Behr. David Warner and Jürgen Prochnow also appear; Prochnow later played Commander Paul Gerald, and Warner played Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, in the Wing Commander movie. Filming took place at Pinewood Studios in England. In 2013, GOG.com released a Windows emulated version of Privateer 2.

The story unfolds in a distant corner of the Wing Commander universe, inside the Tri-System Confederation—a three-system government with nearly three thousand years of its own history, running parallel to the Terran Confederation. At the start, the cargo ship Canera gets attacked while landing and crashes into Mendra City on the planet Crius in the year 2790 of the Tri-System calendar (where months last about 40 days, making the year longer than a Terran one). The sole survivor, Ser Lev Arris (played by Clive Owen), wakes from cryo-sleep in a fugue state, with no memory of who he is and no record of his existence before two weeks prior to the crash. He must become a privateer in the Tri-System, piecing together his past along the way.

A critic from Next Generation felt Privateer 2 "has rejuvenated the genre." Though they knocked the game for leaning on live-action video to push the plot forward—similar to the main Wing Commander series—they noted players can at least skip the story if they want. They praised the graphics, frame rate, flight mechanics, support for most flight sticks and throttles, and the ability to upgrade ships, but pointed out several glitches and the lack of Windows 95 support. Greg Kasavin of GameSpot was harsher on those two issues, calling them signs of a rushed product. He also criticized the game as a Wing Commander title in name only, with no real link to the rest of the series.