Freedom Fighters

"It's good at what it does, but nothing spectacular."

Prior to playing this I had no interest whatsoever in this title. My dad got me this game about a year ago as a gift for getting good grades (or...something) and I had no idea what to expect. I've heard of the game before and saw only brief glimpses of it in mags and online. I decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised. It's not exactly innovative or a breakthrough in terms of action games, but it served it's purpose: To provide a fun, mindless few hours of blasting commies :D

Graphics - 7/10

The graphics look somewhat dated, but are still quite crisp and vibrant. Lots of details went into things like the individual soldier's uniform and the large, open New York City environments. Movement is very nicely animated and there is quite a bit of nice rag doll physics going on when you start lobbing the explosives into the many crowded groups of ruskies you'll be running into. There is a bit of slowdown when the resolution gets turned up high, but nothing to worry about if you have a powerful graphics card. The cinemas are average and nothing to be amazed at, but they serve the purpose of moving along the story. Overall the war torn New York city is presented well and the game is pleasant to look at.

Sound - 7/10

The voice acting is well done and there is alot of detail in the way individual Russian soldiers will yell and bark orders and other things in their respective native tongues. The music is your typical "epic" sounding war anthems that set the mood of battle perfectly fine. Gunfire and explosions sometimes sound a bit weak though, and take away from the many intense fire fights you'll get yourself into. "The Kid" can get annoying from time to time with his ghetto ebonic speak, and everyone else sounds bearable enough with their Yorker accents.

Controls - 8/10

Pretty much the same as every single other PC action/shooter. Arrow keys to move and mouse to aim and shoot. Obviously nothing wrong here since it's the tried and true standard and works just as well as in any other game. Switching guns is a matter of using the scroll wheel, and issuing commands to your squad mates is as simple as pushing 1, 2, or 3. Can't really get any simpler, this game is easy to handle even for action shooter newbies.

Story - 8/10

This is actually pretty interesting. This game takes place in an alternate history where Russia developed the Hydrogen bomb in WW2 and used it to win the war. Now Russia is the dominant superpower and they're poised to invade the United States. You as Chris Stone must lead a militia of Freedom Fighters to fight back against the invading Russians and help liberate America. Story wise, some nice plot twists and an uncertain ending keep this game from being a bland, cookie cutter action game.

Game Play - 7/10

The standard run and gun play is here. You choose from your standard assortment of AK-47s, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Machine guns and more. The game is heavily squad based, meaning through the majority of the game, you won't be able to make it very far without some team mates. You can tell them to hold their position and provide cover fire, you can have them lead an offensive, or you can just have them follow you around as personal body guards. Operating fixed machine gun emplacements (and going up against them) adds an extra touch to the intense fire fights. Your missions vary from Liberating an area by raising the American Flag, Rescuing hostages, and even Assassination missions. You even get to set plastic explosives to destroy strategic enemy emplacements such as Helicopter pads and artillery sites. Enemies range from your normal grunts to special forces to deadly enemy helicopters. But most of the time will be spent exchanging heaps of lead with the enemy, so the core focus of the game is to shoot, shoot and shoot some more. Not bad by any means, but not terribly fresh or inventive.

Overall, I'd recommend this to anybody in need of a fun, short game full of action and gun play. Also for any patriots out there... This game is for you. I'll even admit that seeing the American flag being raised like that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside... So with that, I recommend this title.

Final score: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/05/05