Freedom Fighters

"A "Seriously" Underground Game"

Intro
"Red Dawn," as a video game, but much cooler. That sentence alone describes the plot and the idea behind the gameplay itself. However, this game deserves much more than just once sentence for a declaration of how cool it is.

Story
The Russians win the arms race and develop nuclear weapons first. This makes them the greatest world power, and pretty much invites them to take over the US. We of course don't take too kindly to invasion and fight back. Enter the main character, a plumber (perhaps the first game to take a realistic look at Mario?) and his brother who are almost literally dragged into the middle of the conflict as the Russians come knocking and do away with anyone in the way. Thus it's up to you, the player and plumber, to kick the Russians out of the States and prove that plumbers really do "get" the girl at the end, and that they like to shoot lots Russians.

Gameplay
One of the few squad games I've played, but that's fortunate because I doubt that most squad based games function as well as this one does. As a "Freedom Fighter," you move from mission to mission, objective to objective, assembling points of morale, which, in true rpg fashion, level you up in a sense. See, once you have earned enough points in morale you'll be able to enlist the aid of fellow Freedom Fighters. When you begin the game you're given two goons to assist you, or as I like to prefer them Satellites as a reference to ye old Gradius. Then as you progress you're able to have a great deal more follow you around and essentially and faithfully function as a death squad. You may command them to heel and hover around you purely, order them to a specific location, which is done by pointing at the area with your cursor (as are all the other squad commands besides heel,) or just switch it to God mode and keep kicking butt (okay bad Cheat reference.) The best part of it all is that they do exactly what you tell them. If you tell them to stand in place and take on a full brigade of Russian soldiers till death comes knocking, they will.

The aiming system and camera are a third person style which works perfectly. Especially with the need to use cover, which would be when you send in the ol' firing squad to do its thing. However, your drones aren't that smart, so it's left solely up to you, the hive mind, to do the heavy work: such as healing, you're given med packs which you can pick up similarly to ammo, planting explosives, and recruiting more meat shields.

And rarely, thankfully, are there opportunities to just run into a battle guns a blazing. Sure guns will blaze anyway, but, you have be smart about how, when and from where those guns blaze.

Visual
Not the prettiest game, but it's completely acceptable. In fact, it has a kind of cartoony, comic book edge to the character designs, albeit still mature. Explosions are sensational and muzzle flashes look cool. The environments also look great, as they are all bombed out cities, or Liberty Island etc.

Music
Epic, no techno, metal, or pop here folks, these are quality instrumental scores that belong in the movies. When you do something right, the wonderful chorus that seems to sit in your back pocket lets you know. And of course, when you do something wrong, well, you'll hear a bunch of Russian being slung at you.

Replay
There's always, as is in any game, the "victory lap," as a good friend of mine says, which entails the higher difficulty settings and in game codes. There is also, which is very nice, a hidden level that's accessible after one completion. A nice game to go back to here and there thanks to its simple, fun and able bodied programming.

Conclusion
With as old as it is, you won't have to plead with your wallet for an allowance to acquire this title, and you should. If you're a fan of action games snatch up a copy of this game or steal a friend's, if they're a true friend they'll understand you're need to pilfer.

Extra
It really is kinda similar to the old movie, "Red Dawn," honest.

There's supposed to be some kind of sequel in the works, or atleast used to be...it would be sad if there wasn't.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/06