Freedom Fighters

"Coulda be incredible, now its just great!"

Graphics

The graphics in this game are pretty good, smooth frame rate, good lighting, semi detailed characters, and good animation for the most part combine to make a complete package. It’s not amazing, nor does it take advantage of the Xbox, but it by no means looks bad. The biggest problem can be the camera, is not as smooth as it should be, and in tight areas it can make aiming hard because it gets stuck in the top corner of the screen, this can be easily overlooked but it is a problem that could have been fixed.

Sound

Incredible, I/O Interactive amazes once again, 1st with the Hitman series, and now here in Freedom Fighters. The score is perfect and fits the overall mood of the game. While IM playing I almost feel like IM watching a movie it’s just that good. The basic sound effects are also present, some sounding better then others but again nothing bad here. Voice acting however is a mixed bag, some of it is decent, some of it isn’t, I cant really say its bad because its not, but its isn’t great either.

Game play

Ill start by saying this should have been a FPS, if it was it would be in the top tier with Halo, possibly even surpassing it in many ways, but as a 3rd person action/shooter the combat and immersion gets taken down a notch leaving you feeling the game is missing that one thing to make it perfect.

Mission structure is well planned, what you do in one area directly affects another. If you go into combat at say the Hotel, but find it’s too hard you can choose a different locale which might provide clues and items on how to get past where you’re stuck.

The friendly AI is also decent, I/O did a great job of simplify commands for the console world, at times its even more accurate that games like Ghost Recon. You can issue vague commands, or direct them to defend and exact spot, or kill a single guard. It does have some flaws however. Since AI isn’t reactive in the same way as a human you will still encounter them doing stupid things like standing in the open while 50 Russian’s are shooting at them behind sand bags, this doesn’t always happen, your squad will take cover and try to flank their position but it does creep up from time to time and can lead to their quick deaths.

Control

Control is decent, its good enough to get you through but I would have liked it to be a little smoother and tighter, and again this is a problem inherent in a lot of 3rd person shooters. The control layout is mostly like Halo in terms of combat buttons, you command your AI Squad via B, Y, and X buttons.

Overall
Id have to say buy this one even if you’re just a slight fan of action games. The level of immersion is good, you can really get into the story, and the music just sucks you right into the world I/O has created. A little more polish, and a FPS mode would have made this an incredible game, as it stands its just great.

Graphics-8
Sound-8
Control-7
Gameplay-9

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/03