Freedom Fighters
“liberate” my arse… damn communist b*st*rd!
Tags: Freedom Fighters Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Andrew on Oct 13th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Freedom Fighters (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| No | |||
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Freedom fighters is a an interesting mix of genre’s between a Dead to Rights (action) and a Ghost Recon (shooter). In the game, IO Interactive manages to bring their Hitman 2 physics and engines, and introduce an intricate storyline, focused around a Russian occupation of New York city in a parallel universe – where the cold war was basically non-existent and the Russian military has managed to take “liberate” (think what the US did to Iraq) North and South America.
You play a plumber, named Chris Stone, who just happens to unluckily find himself working in a leading revolutionaries apartment on the day of the Russian invasion. From there you manage to get yourself entangled in the city’s liberation movement, and lead troops throughout this virtual New York.
The basic gameplay of Freedom Fighters is a basic third person shooter with a twist. the game, which takes place in various districts which have multiple related goals that can be defeated in any order, but that must all be completed before you can move on to the next barrio. The feel starts as a run’n'gun standard third person shooter, but quickly changes once you start to add “freedom fighters” which act as a strategic squad based team that you are in command of.
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Throughout the game, you pick up charisma points by completing tasks, helping wounded soldiers or talking or interacting with certain situations throughout the game. As your charisma goes up, you start to be able to lead more and more troops, this adds more complex gameplay, with changes to strategy and adding a bit of a RPG element to an established genre.
The graphics are crisp and efficient, but do not redefine the action genre by any means. The game is loaded with various reminders of the political situation, the cut scenes are effectively done and the “news” reports add a great bit of humor to an intense game. The various damage and effects thought the city quickly get old though, and the overall game is almost identical to Hitman 2 in its basic world physics.
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The controls, on the PS2, are a major sticking point though. The reliance on the L3 and R3 buttons make the player focus way too much time on their dexterity and too little on the game on the screen. The other consoles do not suffer from anywhere near this problem. The controls were easy to pick up, with a little customization, but overall quite easy to handle. When leading your squad, there are only 3 commands, and to get you troop to an exact spot, the reliance on looking in first person mode was annoying.
One of the major issues with the game is the AI of your squad mates, who apparently did not get their manual on not being 6 foot tall bullet collectors. While the game offered easy controls for the squad, sometimes the lack of more in depth commands made it harder to specify an attack or hold a position. A recon option would have been nice and also alternate routes to locations may have kept a few of the troops from losing parts of their face.
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The different “freedom fighters” do behave as though they are actual fighters, sometimes running off when you do not give them an order, and intelligently using the various physical elements, such as cover and mounted weapons, when they are near them. I highlight the word intelligently, because just like most humans, there are differing levels of intelligence, and apparently at times the ability to stand BEHIND a weapon or a wall was too complicated for these monkeys. The enemy AI is superb, with them dealing with different situations on the fly, holding ground or defending areas when necessary, or calling for additional support if outgunned. The enemy AI definitely keeps the game interesting.
The sound elements are nothing special, but do not detract from the game. The voice acting is decent, even if the Russian accents were really bad, but no where near as annoying as other games (see Midtown Madness 3). The different explosions and the distance effects on hearing did make the game feel more intense. A few well timed quips would have especially been nice while throwing Molotov cocktails on large groups of massed soldiers.
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Freedom fighters is a hard game to access. It takes so many things from other genres, while not really doing anything original except maybe incorporating them into one game. It offers exciting gameplay, there is little multi-player excitement, and the game has little replay value. The multi-player, which allows players to act as teams on mission to “steal the bacon” basically little different than the game, its raise your flag and hold the fort. The AI is good, but can get in the way at times, especially for your remedial minded troops. The controls and graphics are good, but not excellent. While this game has many good aspects, we will wait to see what other companies offer with Full Spectrum Warrior and Kill.Switch on the horizon.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
Enemy AI Cutscenes (especially the news broadcasts) Consistant detail to including effects to show the story. |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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Troop AI PS2 controls |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This will hold us over until Kill.Switch comes out. Not that bad, just mediocre. | |
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Tags: Freedom Fighters
Posted by Andrew on Oct 13th, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
