I first played Freelancer in 2006. I remember being absolutely captivated by the game, and at age 12, enthralled by the campaign. Of course, I also thought the game was punishingly hard, and eventually gave up on it after being repeatedly killed by Corsairs in Omega-41 I couldn't escape from. After a break and coming back later on, I found out I'd done this to myself, by not realising afterburners or engine kill existed. That was a real gamechanger.
What turned Freelancer from a nostalgic memory of my childhood to my all-time favourite game was the online modding community. I started playing the Discovery mod in 2007, which is basically a full scale expansion pack that massively extends the game in the aftermath of the campaign. I jumped onto their hosted multiplayer server and started looking around the dozens of new systems and ships. It was a roleplay server with 200 concurrent players online, and that immediately hooked me. The game's lore and environment were suddenly transformed from an interesting backdrop to the inspiration that drives conflict for real players and factions in this magical MMO experience.
I've been playing Discovery on and off for 18 years at this point (Jesus Christ) and the community there is still going strong, with multiple mod releases per year. If you want the 2025 Freelancer experience, I'd wholeheartedly recommend checking out the Freelancer HD Edition mod for a crisp campaign play-through, followed by the Discovery mod for a radically expanded game and multiplayer experience.