Based on the classic artwork and style of the age of comic books, Freedom Force is homage to Jack Kirby style drawings and over the top characters. It begins with the making of a legend of one of the central heroes, Minuteman. To say it was cheesy is to take understatement to criminal levels!
Set in the sixties when the Communist threat was all too real, the game recreates the period when the American public gave vent to their fears through tales of alien invasion and body snatching beings. In keeping with that tradition, the aliens here are turning people into wicked beings with Energy X. So this tactical RPG, as it has been referred to, gives you the ability to recruit and create your own super heroes to battle the menace.
In the mission tutorial, you wander about as the Minuteman clubbing people with the staff of freedom uttering such gems as “For Freedom”. You learn the basic skills of movement and manipulation of the environment and thrash a few bad guys along the way.
From there the missions diversify into areas that show the capabilities of the various characters you can choose from. Eventually you can train civilians into being super heroes and command a team. And this is where the real game play begins. Against various foes and their minions, you command your team in a semi-turn based style. When the fighting begins, you can click the characters and pause the action to issue orders. These then take place in more or less real time and the various capabilities and super powers are exercised for the protection of the free world.
The environments are to be marvelled at. Want to take out a horde of no good-nics? Then simply take up a street lamp and wave it about as if it were a daisy. Or take the automotive route and throw a car. This is an interesting and well-executed innovation. The landscape and features are deformed. This makes for many comedy opportunities, but remember, throw that car too hard, and it will hit a building. Do that, and it may fall down. Then you are in for some chagrin from the locals, which neatly introduces the next nice feature.
Friendly fire, or collateral damage is no good here. Your hard earned experience points will dwindle if you go carelessly about fighting the likes of Nuclear Winter and Mr. Mechanical and their minions without regard for the life and property of the citizens of New York. This works well through the game as you must often protect the citizenry from these dastardly villains to the detriment of a secondary mission goal.
Often though, incidental damage is the least of your problems. Sometimes the huge egos of your own hearty team are so swelled as to make one refuse to work with another. You must carefully manage the personalities as well as the capabilities of your heroes. This is where the RPG aspects come to the fore. As each character evolves, they develop distinct personality traits that may often clash with others.
The multi-player game does away with the pause/order format of the single player game and allows full real time battles against opponents. Given the scope for character creation and development, this should provide for some great battles online as some truly bizarre heroes are pitted against each other. Old favourites like ‘capture the flag’ are warped slightly into ‘capture the hostage,’ but most of the expected options for multi-player games have been incorporated.
To be honest, there is nothing new here. This style of combat was seen in Baldur’s Gate, while Freedom Force’s squad based action can be seen in everything from Commandoes to variants from the X-Com series.
The character development has also been seen in various guises before. But the combination of these various features does make for an intriguing prospect when wrapped up in the guise of the pulp comic, pop art world.
However, the bright and poppy atmosphere does not indicate at whether characters of real depth can be developed such as the troubled soul of Batman, or the self deprecating Wolverine. Such characters are the deep and neurotic stuff of modern heroes rather than the two-dimensional likes of Captain America and the older comic book ilk.
In the wake of recent events, with certain country’s nationalism running at fever pitch, this game will probably do very well. For me, it was a prospect that was intriguing but in the end did what it set out to all too well. It faithfully re-creates the two dimensional heroes of the past. As such, the game is a bit flat and lacks the possibility to create a Crow, or a Sandman. It is interesting, but ultimately not a strong enough draw. That said, RPGs have come a long way.
Specs
- Freedom Force
- Rating: 60%
- Requirements: Pentium II 450 MHz, 64Mbyte of RAM, 16Mbyte 3D hardware graphics card, 500Mbyte of free hard disk space, 8x CD ROM and a 56k modem for online play.
- Price €50
- Game +353 (0)1-677 3755
Ltd
