"An Amazing Gaming Experience"

This is a review for the GameCube version of the game Freedom Fighters, Freedom Fighters in set in an alternate reality, where the Soviets beat the Americans to creating the A-Bomb, The soviets dropped it on Germany and ended the war in Europe giving the Russians an advantage, the Russians continued to take control of the world and had seized Mexico when they invaded the land of the red, white and blue. (There was no mention of Canada, so I'm assuming it wasn't attacked or controlled by the Russians). Now, you, an average joe plumber named Chris get thrown into the role of 'Freedom Fighter' and you must defend your country or at least New York, from the Russian invasion. But don't worry, you don't have to face them all alone, you ain't James Bond after all, your just one average plumber, so you get to order around your fellow Freedom Fighters, you can command up to 12 Freedom Fighters in battle, which is what sets this game apart from most other 1st Person and 3rd Person shooters.

Story: 10/10 - Great job by EA bringing this storyline together, for me to be able to explain the story would be a spoiler, which isn't allowed in reviews so for a quick, brief story overview, read the paragraph above.

Graphics: 9/10 - The graphics are great, from the buildings of New York, to the snow softly falling upon the ground, to the soldiers and Freedom Fighters battle stances and actions. The Freedom Fighters and Soviets all look great and move fluidly, when they are killed have realistic death actions. (an example: If you shoot a soviet who's standing on a ledge, he could fly off the ledge or he could flop down on the ledge depending on the angle you shoot him from.) Meanwhile in the James Bond games also made by EA the deaths seemed more choreographed than a Backstreet Boys dance routine. the terrain of New York looks great, and the different seasons of the year are represented well, in the winter, there's snow, in fall, there's brown leaves on the ground, etc. Explosions are done well, Vehicles look like vehicles and not just big chunks of hollowed metal in the shape of vehicles, you cannot actually drive any vehicles, but its nice to have them look real anyway. The only problem I see in the graphics is that civilians look awful at best, they have barely any face and look like they came from a Nintendo 64 game. but for how often you actually stop and look at the civilians (which is very seldom) than this little flaw is easily overlooked.

Sound: 10/10 - The sound was done exceptionally well, from the sounds of the blasting guns, to an overhead chopper slowly approaching to the Freedom Fighters talking to you, its all done very well.

Music: 8/10 - Almost if not all the music is Russian music, I guess its Russian opera music, I'm not entirely sure. It suits the game great, but for some levels I think a fast paced Heavy Metal beat would be more suitable.

Controls: 9/10 - Great job on the controls, The A, Y and X buttons are used to command your Freedom Fighter troops, B is used to jump, climb over fences/short walls etc. R is to use your weapon, L is to zoom in and give you an over the shoulder perspective, the C-Stick is to move the camera, the down button on the d-pad is to crouch, Z is to change your weapons. Its a good layout and its easy to control everything. The one problem with the control is that you always have to be moving the C-Stick to keep the camera from wandering away from the line of sight, but its not hard to get that down path, only took me about a half an hour to get that under control, now its like second nature to me.

Game Play: 10/10 - The Game play is what really sets this game apart, when you command your troops they respond well, if Russians try to attack you, your Freedom Fighters won't just stand by and watch, they'll help you out, even if you don't command them to, you don't even have to recruit them, if your being chased by a horde of Russians just find some Freedom Fighters to help you out.
You can recruit up to 12 Freedom Fighters to join you in the heated battles on the streets of New York, You can command your troops to attack an object, defend a spot, or follow behind you, and they act like humans would, they won't stand idly by and watch you get killed, they'll defend you, without command, which is an excellent thing, you can plan a tactical, stealthy attack, or a downright assault on the Russians, depending on how many Freedom Fighters you have and depending on what the situation calls for.

Rent or Buy?
- If you can find it, buy it, I got it new for $29.99 in Canadian dollars so its even cheaper in American money, the game is hard to come by and you have search for it, you'll have to go to Video Game stores like Electronics Boutique tto find it. You probably won't find this in department stores like Wal-Mart.

Overall Conclusion: Amazing game that I won't be trading in for a long, long time, if it all. Its a 9 out of 10 in my opinion.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/15/04