"Worthy every penny"

I've been wanting this game for a while, and I went to my local Wal-Mart and saw it was only $20. I immediately bought and installed it. I don't think that I was disappointed at all. This is probably the best and only truly good comic book game on PC, a sign of good things to come?

Graphics:

The graphics in this game are exceptional. I ran them on their highest details on my TNT2. Yes, they're that good to your computer. You can zoom in or out (I was zoomed way out the entire game mostly, so I could see more), and the character models are very impressive from close up. There are also the everyday stuff that is in digital bliss of graphics. Trees, lightposts, etc..the lighting is pretty good too.

Sound:

Well, the music is very true to the situation, the voice acting is incredibly superior to most games because the voices fit the game. Also, there are plenty of grunts and groans, plenty of them. And they, of course, fit the situation. Back to the voice acting. The whole raising your voice every 3 words that comic characters seem to do is present in Minuteman (the hero of the game), El Diablo sounds hispanic, Man Bot has that robotic touch to his voice, etc. I give a thumbs up to Irrational Games for the excellent voice acting, because you'll be hearing it a lot.

Controls:

Point. Click. A few hotkeys. Easy. But my favorite part of the controls was being able to stop the gameplay. A lot of other games to this, but it really is essential in this game. There is a lot of chaos in this game, and being able to stop it, think a strategy and tell your people to do it is very good. I even found myself pressing space bar in other games that didn't have the option to stop the game...

Story:

It follows true to the comic book roots. You try to stop basic thugs, then a mob boss, then some aliens, then the master of time. You work your way up a bit, wouldn't you think? Each character also has an excellent backstory to how they got their powers.

Gameplay:

Incredible gameplay. My favorite part was that you can interact with everything. See a lightpost? Let's yank it out of the ground and hit that thug with it (trust me, he'll fly). Very fun. And also, there is a great character development, but it could definantly be better. I just found myself later on making a character (Captain Flash, an obese superhero) that had beefed up stats and a move that will literally send a person flying 100 feet through the air (seriously). And I cleared the game quite easily on Hard with that. So, it can be a bit unbalanced. I also like that you can download tons of mods for this game. Freedom Force has one of the largest amount of mods for RPGs, which is very good.

Rent/Buy?:

Or should I say borrow or buy. It can be a buy, the game is quite short though. If you want to mod, then buy. If you want to just beat, then borrow.

+Interactive Environment
+Create your own superheros
+Voice Acting
-Kinda short
-Weak Mulitplay
-Unbalanced character creation

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/02, Updated 10/21/02