For Freedom
In an alternate version of history, the Soviet Union ends World War II by dropping an atomic bomb on Berlin. With the Soviet Union seen as the world's superpower, the Iron Curtain spreads across Europe, with Britain becoming the last country to join adopt the communist regime. Now, in the modern day, the Soviet Union decides to invade America, the main threat to the communist superpower. New York plumber Christopher Stone gets stuck in the middle of the conflict when his supposedly routine plumbing job ends up being at the house of an outspoken anti-communist movement leader. With the Russians steadily assimilating New York, it's up to Chris and a rag tag band of rebels to save America.
Freedom Fries
Freedom Fighters resembles the more action packed parts of IO Interactive's Hitman series, due to the fact that games share similar technology. The crux of the gameplay involves you controlling Chris, and recruiting freedom fighters in order to accomplish a series of objectives to help the American rebellion effort. The missions are semi linear - they have to be done in order, but the way the objectives are completed is entirely up to you. For instance, you may have to destroy a Russian stronghold, but you're pinned down by snipers. You can either dash into the stronghold, and pray that you don't get hit, or you can travel through the sewer system to the location of the snipers, take them out, and then storm the stronghold.
Chris cannot accomplish these missions on his own, so he must recruit fighters to take part in missions with him. Chris' charisma is the main factor in how many fighters he can command at one time. Completing missions, and helping out fellow freedom fighters during the course of missions will help Chris earn additional charisma, and therefore allow him to command a larger squad of fighters, up to 12 at any time. Issuing commands to your teammates is quite simple - each of the face buttons (excusing the action button) corresponds to a command. There are three main commands at your disposal - scout/attack, defend and return. The AI of your freedom fighters is very good - they will do exactly what you tell them without getting stuck, running into walls, though they may run into places you don't want them to enter yet, which will result in you having to cover their sorry arses.
The enemy AI is just as good as that of your teammates - they will attack in squads, cover each other, man mounted machine guns, and so on. Storming into enemy bases usually isn't a good idea due to the level of reinforcements the enemy can command, not to mention the fact that they usually have far superior defenses, and you have limited ammunition, so sensible tactics and a good plan of attack will help you throughout the course of the game. The only real problem presented in the course of the action in Freedom Fighters is the annoying control mechanics. While the method of ordering your teammates is very intuitive, the aiming and jumping controls are quite screwy, with jumping and climbing handled by the left trigger, and manual aiming mode handled by pressing the left stick. In a game that requires precision aiming at many points (the auto aim can be questionable at times), Freedom Fighters has a very annoying method of manual aiming. The worst part of the controls is the inability to remap them, so you're stuck with these minor nuisances.
The other offensive part of Freedom Fighters is the length of the game, as the main quest will most likely last a decent player a mere 8-10 hours - of course, that's depending on the difficulty level selected. The multiplayer game mimics the single player experience, with teams of freedom fighters competing for territory. Unfortunately, this mode seems like more of an afterthought than a solid concept. The lack of longevity is probably the most disappointing part of the overall experience.
The Sights and Sounds of New York
Freedom Fighters does an excellent job of recreating a modern day New York, complete with massive buildings, seasonal weather, and other things you'd expect to see in the Big Apple. Environments are absolutely massive, and the best part is that you can access most of the things you see, such as balconies, rubbish bins and so on. On top of this, Freedom Fighters provides some excellent lighting and shadowing effects. The best part of this is that the effects don't go over the top, so you still get the feeling that you're in New York City. The characters and enemies in Freedom Fighters are well modeled and animated, and boast the same sort of rag doll effects that we've seen in the Hitman games. The camera is surprisingly well behaved, given the way it was in IO Interactive's previous efforts. Finally, Freedom Fighters supports 60 Hz play (for the Xbox only) - one of the first EA published titles to do so. Come on EA - you can do it for all of your titles from now on!
The soundtrack of Freedom Fighters is dominated by Russian classical music, including a track that sounds very similar to their national anthem. All of the musical composition was handled by the same composer as the Hitman series. The voice work consists of more stereotypical plays on the Russian accent, and while we would have preferred genuine accents, the work that has been provided is more than satisfactory. American voices are well above average, too. Sound effects are crystal clear, very accurate and further enhanced by the game's surround sound support, even if it is in a limited quantities.
Unobtrusive Patriotism
Freedom Fighters is one of those titles that comes out to little to no fanfare, and manages to catch us all unawares with its engrossing story and gameplay. The only real problem that Freedom Fighters suffers is its distinct lack of substantial length, which will lower it to a rental on any budget conscious gamer's list. Give it a try and see if you like it - this one is highly recommended, even if it only lasts a weekend.
Loading...
