Freedom Fighters

"Will you fight for freedom?"

INTRODUCTION
Freedom Fighters. The title is basically what you are doing. Fighting for the United State's freedom. In a interesting take on things the Soviet's have invaded our soil. How will you take them out? Made by the makers of the Hitman series, this game doesn't disappoint.

GAME PLAY 9/10
You as a freedom fighter kill the Soviet's anyway you can. You will use pistols, rifles, shotguns moltov's and grenades. However, you aren't going in alone. The more points you get the closer you are to leveling up. when you level up you get to recruit a freedom fighter. You tell them what to do with commands like attack, defend, return and so forth. There AI leaves a little to be desired, they charge at their enemies and don't use any stealth at all. If a huge machine gun is in-front of you and you tell them to attack, they will take the most direct route. Right if front of the machine guns line of fire! Although, I do admit they make good meat shields. Freedom Fighters is a tactical game though. You will not survive running and gunning. One part I like is that as you complete levels your base keeps getting built and you can choose what weapons you want to take to the next level. You decide where you want to attack. There is usually a huge city and three levels inside it. The interesting part is that if you want to cut out reinforcements, or air support or get equipment you can choose which level you want to first. For example if you destroy the train yard reinforcements will quit coming in. This makes the game non-linear. Game play is very good in most areas.

STORY 10/10
This is an interesting concept. During the Cold-War the Soviets invaded our Allies and soon invaded the United States. During the course of the game you rise from a lowly rebel to the leader of the "resistance". The "cut scenes" are actually news broadcasts that the Soviet's reporters do to show how you are doing. I thought the story was very well done.

GRAPHICS 8/10
Character models are rendered well, and cut scenes are sharp and clear. But where the graphics are really ugly in the levels. Most textures are blocky like the cars and trees. They could have been much better. What shocked me is how good the special effects are, for instance, when being shot at by bullets. If they hit the ground beside you pieces of the bullet fly everywhere and a convincing bullet hole is made. In summary, textures could be better but special effects stand out.

SOUND 9/10
I can tell they spent a lot of time with the guns and vehicles. AK-47 fire, or any gun for that matter, sounds so real. Opera and Orchestra is played and is very well done, very fast paced music. The one problem I have in the sound department is the character voices. So terrible, I'm not expecting the leader of the resistance to sound like Solid Snake but come on. He sounds like a 13 year old. Only a few voices sound decent, if they would have done a better job on voice overs this would have shined.

PLAY TIME and RE-PLAYABILITY 6/10
You will get about 12 hours out of this game on normal difficulty. It could have been an average of 15 hours if some more time would have been taken to polish and add levels. On a harder difficulty setting it will take you a little longer not too much. Maybe add an hour or two.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION
This is your standard week end rental. Too short and not enough polish around the ruff edges. No doubt you will have a blast playing Freedom Fighters, I know I did. Suit up and go rent it at your local game store to lead a memorable revolution.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/04