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| Freedom Fighters |
| Newsflash: A Gamecube war game that doesn't suck. |
| Positive: Simple controls, effective story Negative: Brainless enemy A.I. The Perfect Substitute For: SOCOM II |
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| · Tip: Recruiting allies will make your life easier. |
| The latest trend of video gaming seems to be about war, whether it is World War 2, Vietnam, or the War on Terrorism. There have been successful war games, just plain crappy ones, and a few average. Currently, Freedom Fighters is the new blood, attempting to place a mark on the war gaming industry. The developers, IO Interactive, have come up with this idea. Obviously, when EA promotes a third person experience like this, there is no doubt that it will be of high quality. The game takes place sometime after World War 2, and initiates you as a modest plumber named Christopher Stone. You and your brother, Troy, are heading downtown to repair an ordinary plumbing quandary. However, the resident is not home, which causes the brothers to barge inside. The worst only begins to happen: Russians storm the apartment, and eventually seize Troy. The game starts here, when a member of a resistance group rescues you, and brings you to their underground base. There are 19 total missions in the game that are grouped into 8 chapters. Every mission involves you and your team arriving to the top of a building and hoisting the American Flag. On the way, you will be rescuing hostages, blowing up diverse objects, and of course, killing Russians. Freedom Fighters rarely gets tedious, even though every mission engages in completing a similar objective. The controls are solid and respond very nicely. In addition, they do not take long to adjust to, either. The only large gripe I have about the gameplay is that the enemy A.I. is extremely lousy. Your team can effortlessly destroy a group of enemy soldiers without much help. Luckily, later in the game, the Russians are more of a challenge. Though the graphics are not beautiful, they are close enough. The usage of color and brightness is perfect, and really gives a sense of what New York battlegrounds would be like. As the framerate goes, it performs smoothly. Although, on the Gamecube version, the graphics have a tendency to glitch up. For example, bodies can go through walls, and miscellaneous objects flicker now and then. Little flaws like these do not take a lot away from the graphic presentation. Next, one of the best aspects of this game is the sound. Most of the music is opera, and uses it effectively. The guns sound incredibly authentic, whether it is a rifle shot or a grenade blasting open. The voice acting, which I was a bit skeptical about, surprised me greatly. The acting is well done, and creates an athmosphere that makes you feel and think like Chris. Not much else could have been done to make these two categories greater. Lastly, I will admit, Freedom Fighters does not have a great value. As I mentioned before, there are a total of 19 missions, which take around 10-15 minutes each to end. You also get a choice of what missions to do first. Freedom Fighters is fun, but simply too short. Now, there is also multiplayer. I was optimistic, knowing that it had one thing SOCOM did not. Yet, I felt let down, because there is only one type of multiplayer mode: Hold the Flag. With only three small maps, it gets boring too quickly, and does not afford much staying power. Overall, the single player is worth the experience much more than the multiplayer. If only online for this game was enabled... For a war game, I am very impressed. Even a simple warfare game can be as successful as a technical game like SOCOM. If a few pieces were changed around or added, this could possibly be the greatest war game ever created. Problem is, the major flaws keep it from being one step better. If you do not have a Playstation 2, and want an excellent war game, look no further. Freedom Fighters will not disappoint you. Final Score: 90/100 (Gold) |