Freedom Fighters

"Think 'Red Dawn' only more believable with bigger guns and no Swayze"

If alternate history is your cup of soup then this games storyline is just for you. Set in a modern-day world where the Soviets became the lone world power after WWII (they dropped the bomb on Berlin) America finds itself the sole democratic nation left after all European, Asian, and South American countries "allied" with the might of Mother Russia. The story starts with one New York City plumber and his brother at the beginning of the proletarian liberation of American citizens from the capitalist elite (i.e., the invasion of North America).

You play as Christopher Stone (the plumber) through the early stages of the invasion until the climatic partisan counter-offensive. Throughout the game you will earn Charisma points through various good deeds or strategic actions. These events could be the healing of a non-fighting citizen, rescuing key figures of the game, blowing up buildings (or other structures), or simply completing a mission. These points are awarded in leveled increments and as you level-up your Charisma, the number of other Freedom Fighters you can add to your group increases. The entire storyline takes place within the Borough of Manhattan and missions are accessed by viewing maps at the various rebel bases.

The game plays fairly well. You do not have a wide-open feeling as you do in the GTA or Elder Scrolls series but some of the missions are in vast areas, with a few different completion options presented to you. You may also have to complete one mission on the map in order to gain valuable weapons for another mission on the map.

The biggest shortcoming is the group-based system. The AI Freedom Fighters you control do not have specialized tasks or skills and sometimes act very idiotically. You can individually order fellow partisans to complete simple actions (Attack, Defend, Follow) but sometimes they will simply go charging at five clustered fixed machine gun nests. And even though you can individually order partisans to do actions they usually are ineffective do to certain events.

Either you 1) Out run them and finish the objective you wanted them to do; 2) They die (actually they usually are just knocked unconscious and one med kit will fix that); 3) You can kill more enemies by yourself much easier then three fellow partisans can (they never aim).

Yet for all of these faults you have to sometimes rely on your group of partisans as going it solo rarely works and you die quite quickly in the later missions.

The shooting system adds a pick-up and play mentality to the game. Aiming is not essential as the game automatically selects targets when you are not sighting down the barrel of the various guns.

For all of the drawbacks the storyline keeps the game interesting. Watching the Red Menace cope with occupation duty (and keeping your group under control) makes you want to blow up some more Commies just for fun.

Overall a good game, but not as great as it could be.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/07

Game Release: Freedom Fighters (US, 10/01/03)