Never played Freelancer. Hmm, describing Eve....
Eve has many different types of game play all revolving around your ship. You have to train various skills to do certain things and like any RP game you are born with certain skills depending on what path you take. You can be a miner, trader, PvP fighter,NpC fighter, mission runner, drug smuggler, Station owner, scientist, builder or any combination of the above. You are only limited by the skills you train.
Combat, PvP(player v player) this requires the highest levels of weapons training and specialization to be successfull since your dealing with a human opponent. Basically though you will travel in space to the location of your chosing and lock on the other players ship or they may lock you 1st. Then it is really a matter of who is better equipped. If your offensive items is stronger than his defensive items then you will win. You have all kinds of "modules" to consider when outfitting your ship: 16 or more types of guns, even more types of ammo, shield boosters, energy boosters, armor hardners, energy drains that you use on other ships, the list goes on.
Search the net for a free demo, there are several out there. Read the forums at
www.eve-online.com before deciding on setting up your character. 6 hrs of research will save you many wasted days having to redo a character.
I feel you actaully have 4 career paths to think about: Miner,Fighter, Trader, builder/scientist.
Everyone starts out doing mining to get some money but that changes quickly as your skilll improve.
Hope this helps.
Buck
