Freedom Fighters

"Your freedom, or your life."

I had never really paid much attention to it. I believed I was safe from the impending danger that lurked right around the corner. Oh sure people talked about it, they talked about it with urgency in their voices and fear in their hearts. But I never heeded their warnings, no, I simply went about my daily life like the problem didn't even exist. Maybe I was in denial, but I think it was more about apathy than anything else.

So on that fateful sunny morning I drove to her house like I drove to everybody else's house, nothing out of the ordinary really, just another day working in sweet old New York, New York. So it came as a bit of a surprise when I entered her apartment to find it empty. "Hello," I said, "it's the plumbers, we're here to fix your toilet, hello?" Nothing. Just that eerie and uncomfortable silence. I waited for a few minutes in that readied state mixed with paranoia and curiosity. I had talked to her just yesterday and she assured me that she would be here from nine to eleven, and here we were right on time. Something wasn't right, it didn't make sense.

A loud noise in the distance woke me from my inquisitive state of mind. It became louder and louder, it sort of reminded me of am obnoxiously glaring lawnmower of some type. At first I didn't pay it any attention, my mind merely passed over it like so many other things. But it became louder and more prominent, and I could feel something wasn't right, something was happening, and I couldn't help but feel like it was of great importance. I guess you could call it a premonition, or maybe a precursor of things to come, bad things.

If you haven't already left your computer screen with a rabid, foaming mouth screaming "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" as you run down your street to a local video game store, than I have failed as I descriptive storyteller. Nevertheless, by the end of this review you'll see why there's no reason not own this wonderful and fantastic game (short of the possibility that Soviet soldiers may break down your door and apprehend your freedom ridden existence in an attempt to take over our sweet land of liberty, but the likely hood of that happening isn't high enough for you not to buy his game).

Your alter ego in Freedom Fighters is Chris Stone, your average work-a-day plumber who just wants to live his life like every other citizen. Unfortunately he's thrown into a war against those damn Soviet freedom haters and is now in a battle for his life and the lives of his fellow American brothers and sisters. You see, in Freedom Fighters the cold war never really ended and it has instead been growing to dangerous proportions. The Soviets were the first to strike in an attempt to take over our beloved America. Chris and a bunch of other people band together to form an underground resistance movement known as the Freedom Fighters, which try and combat the constantly advancing ruskies who are hell-bent on the overtaking of our precious homeland. It's more or less like a second revolutionary war, and by golly, we're not going to give up so easily like last time... wait I'm thinking of the British.

Freedom Fighters follows a pretty standard third person shooter formula, but for some reason it's executed exceedingly well and before you know it, you'll be fighting for freedom like a pro. It gets innovative when you add the element of squad-based gameplay. You can recruit people just by walking up to them and pressing 'X' and afterwards they'll follow and obey your somewhat simple, yet effective commands without question.

Unfortunately your simply commands are really, really simple. I'm talking Algebra 1 mathematics simple. Your three options include: follow, guard, and attack. Later in the game when you accumulate a bevy of companions it becomes imperative to use these directions with the most tactical frame of mind. Your teammates A.I. isn't anything to brag about and one false order can send your little legion of followers to their doom. Luckily they aren't completely brain dead and usually take on a fair share of the work themselves.

Once you get accustomed to fighting and simultaneously governing your troops, the game becomes an all out war. You'll be dug in deep in the trenches as helicopters and tanks blows chunks out of your surroundings. Men will be flying everywhere and it will rain gunfire. The Gods themselves will marvel in the sheer ferocity of it all. Put in Algebra 1 terms: the game is extraordinarily fun and intense.

The missions are broken up into sections within sections. A typical scenario will have you infiltrating a post office the Soviets have taken over. Throughout the level you can chose to do parts of that mission, or simply go for the gold and take the post office back over altogether. But what's nice about the level design is that you can revisit any location and finish the side tasks later which will help you in other missions as well. Take for instance a mission in which you have to take back over a broadcast station, but an annoying Soviet helicopter keeps engulfing you and your company in a hail of machine-gun fire. No problem, simply go back to a previous mission and blow up the helicopter pad. When you go back to the broadcast station there will be no helicopter foiling your plans. An ingenious design and very original as well.

Chris himself is a capable Freedom Fighter. He can rally his comrades behind him like the leader he is, and kill his fair share of ruskies too. Unfortunately he lacks some basic movements that are standard in third person shooters these days. Most notably, he can't crawl or hug walls, which would have helped tremendously in some of the tougher levels. He also can carry only one weapon at a time (besides his pistol) which, while realistic, eventually just becomes somewhat of a burden. There are times when you wont know which weapon to take into a certain situation, and if you don't pick the right assault rifle, bazooka, sniper rifle etc., then you'll probably run into trouble later on in the level.

The game isn't terribly long, but let me assure you that your first time through Freedom Fighters will be similar to your first time engaging in sexual intercourse; you wont know what the hell you're doing, and just when you're figuring it all out and things seem to being well, the game throws another curve ball your way. All the while your still having fun, but your surprised as hell about everything nonetheless. If you haven't had coitus yet than don't live vicariously through your friends with Freedom Fighters as you assuredly do with sex, go out and buy it today.

Still not convinced? Then you are one stubborn virgin, don't worry I can sympathize, I too was skeptical at first. "Freedom Fighters," I thought to myself, "what a terrible name, I bet that game sucks." After playing it for about three minutes I wanted to slap myself for being the closed-minded fool I had been before. Just a mere glance at its luscious visuals sent my corneas into a seizure like state where they convulsed repeatedly. I tried to turn away from the TV screen but I couldn't, my eyes were fixated on the lavish environments, detailed character models, plush special effects, and downright orgasmic explosions. The game is beautiful no doubt, but the rag-doll physics engine really shines through and makes the flying bodies fly that much more realistically. One look at this game an you'll be salivating at the thought of actually playing it.

If there was one thing that brought Freedom Fighters to life on an subconscious level, it was the inspiring music score. Never in my life have I felt so liberated as I flanked Soviet strongholds. Every inch of land we took back was backed up by orchestrated nirvana. As I raised the good old red, white and blue at the end of the final mission, a surge of patriotism ran through me like electricity. My teammates cheered and all was well. But out of the corner of my eye I saw a lone rusky bent on ruining my moment of glory. "FOR SOVIET RUSSIA," cried the soldier, "WE MUST NOT GIVE UP THE MOTHER LAND." He ran at my small battalion with the fiery passion I had just felt while killing his comrades. Quickly I grabbed my carbine and unloaded the searing hot lead into him that I was so familiar with. The smoking shells fell to the floor and the gunshots reverberated throughout the land. My eyes were saturated with little dots as I had stared into the blinding muzzle fire of my carbine too closely. I stumbled a bit as my followers tried to keep me up, but I hit the snowy ground. The iridescent silence that white powder brings to the night was unearthly. I lay there bleeding from my wounds, the rusky was quick, but my mission was over, he had lost, they had lost, we had won.

Okay so maybe it didn't happen quite like that, but that little ranting story isn't so far from that actual feelings this game stirs. It really is one of the most enthralling games I've played to date. From the graphics to the gameplay and even to the shallow yet addictive multi-player, I couldn't put this game down for months. If there is one complaint that I think anyone who has or is going to play Freedom Fighters can identify with, its the difficulty. I had trouble beating this game on normal, and my second run through on hard was no picnic, it's just a tough game. But it's not cheap, the enemy A.I. abides to the same rules that you yourself have to follow. And in the end, isn't that all you can ask from a video game?

...

I really shouldn't have left off on such a philosophical note, but in the end isn't that all you can ask from a modest man such as myself...?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/10/04