I have just finished replaying Freedom Fighters, a third person squad based shooter from 2002. By the makers of the popular Hitman game franchise, IOI interactive. Its a darn good game. Some may consider the story cliched, I did too when I first saw it on the shelves. This shows that actively generating hype and aggressive marketing and advertising is an important factor in selling games too. For Freedom fighters didn't sell well despite universal acclaim by game critics. Hell, I initially thought it sucked when I saw the cliche sounding title and crappy box art of a few people wearing tattered and torn clothes and posing with some Kalashnikov assault rifles. I tried playing in only after seeing its 9.3 out of 10 rating on Gamespot and boy was I impressed.
Taking place circa the late 90s where the Soviet Union is still going strong and have invaded an apparently unprepared America. Playing a plumber turned freedom fighter, to fight the Reds and gather fellow fighters under your command and repel the Red invasion. Sounds like serious fun BUT there is no blood and gore( surprisingly) and the graphics resemble more of an animated movie than the more real life graphics of the Hitman series. It is a minor gripe though for the game play is superb.
There is something about such games that appeals to me, its the illusion of you, the player, overcoming seemingly overwhelming odds not through run and gun shooting (especially on harder difficulties) but via tactics and planning, which is easier to do than it sounds in this game, thus making it superior to other more technically complex squad combat games in the genre like Ghost Recon and Swat. Recruited fighters follow you around till you specify a location for them to scout ahead or defend. Its that simple, the rest is up to the AI, which is fairly competent at firing at enemies and retreating to cover when suppressed by enemy fire.
As you perform heroic deeds like rescuing injured civilians and destroying Soviet heavy weapons and equipment to cripple their war machine, more people start to believe in your fight. This is reflected by a Charisma meter, that represents your commanding presence and increases as you perform heroic deeds. Oddly enough, the rebel base is in the sewers of New York city and apparently, its so damn huge that the Soviets don't even bother to go down there to root you out, which of course isn't entirely true.
The Reds are no pushovers too, having superior firepower and numbers forces you to think strategically. IOI makes games that encourages you to think hard, not necessarily out of the box but in a realistic manner similar to real life and solving such puzzles are rewards on their own. Many a times i have faced in-game puzzles that are so other worldly that i have to rely on online walkthroughs that reveal to me the absurd method gamers have to implement to solve said puzzle(s). For example: If there is a attack helicopter blasting you to smithereens, its time to head back to the sewers for cover (and to save your game) and crawling all the way to the helicopter refueling station (usually located elsewhere on the combat map) and blowing it up, ending the threat of the flying menace. Tons of soldiers guarding key points? Either take the high ground and rain hot lead, grenades and my personal favourite, molotov cocktails down on them or flank(attacking the sides or rear of an enemy) them and gun them down. Like real life,unless you have superior firepower and numbers, head on assaults are deadly.
When I first played it 3 years ago in 2006 at the normal difficulty level, it was fairly easy, for enemies are less alert and I could 'Rambo' my way through annoying choke points albeit incurring massive casualties. Recently, having played on the toughest difficulty, I was rudely surprised by a sudden burst of fire that left me dead right at the start of one of the game's early missions that required some stealth to complete. The toughest, "Revolutionary" difficulty plays more like a squad combat and tactics game than the easier difficulty levels, which allows more brainless trigger happy game play. This was also a pleasant surprise for me as my computer is not too hi-tech to play many of the latest graphic intensive games. Moreover, many games nowadays seem more like bits of various good games combined together. Not that its a bad thing but they somehow lack the imagination and brilliant execution of prior games.
No doubt that the premise of Freedom Fighters is a tad dated ( the Cold War ended like 20 plus years ago and with it, the threat of a Soviet world wide invasion) but, it captured the feel of fighting a desperate fight with your fellow freedom fighters. At its core, it is something we all may feel at some point in our lives when we encounter difficult situations and feel despair and fear proceeding with our lives despite knowing that its do or die, either we make it or break it. However, when we persevere and work hard and smart to overcome our problems, we emerge stronger and feel immense satisfaction for a job well done. Freedom Fighters captures this aspect of life spot on. Furthermore, I have come to realise that with human civilization becoming so advanced not only technologically but also in the literary arts, it can be said that all modern story tellers merely borrow the stuff made great by the authors of the classics and many are contemptuously labeled as cliched and unimaginative. However, history always repeats itself, so stories will also repeat. It is how the story is told and how its creators weave a believable and immersive world that draws the readers/gamers into it and Freedom Fighters does just that. A clear story which focuses on people fighting a desperate fight to survive. There are occasional twists but they only serve to enhance the plot plus, providing you with some Metal Gear Solid and Rambo moments of stealth and gun play.
Yes you will' die' many times in the game till you condition yourself to think strategically, using the soldiers under your command to scout ahead and defend key vantage points when the Soviets counter attack a recently captured position. But once you realise how to move from cover to cover, to send soldiers ahead to clear enemy infested areas, rather than blindly charging in guns blazing, you will not only survive but live to fight another day. Indeed, once I figured out that this is no ordinary action game where the protagonist is the most bad-ass guy around who can take a million bullets without flinching, I became more appreciative of such a game play style.
You are human, a normal guy in the game, a man who becomes a legendary urban guerrilla fighter not because you are tough as nails or deadly accurate with guns but because you have to think and act like one. To attack where the enemy is weak and divide his strength when he is strong, or die trying till you figure it out. This makes your character all the more extraordinarily superhuman, for he is human (i.e. you can take as much damage as just about all the other characters in the game) and by accomplishing so much (i.e. destroying a larger, tyrannical force) in his shoes only serves to heighten ones sense of personal satisfaction and self worth.
Taking place circa the late 90s where the Soviet Union is still going strong and have invaded an apparently unprepared America. Playing a plumber turned freedom fighter, to fight the Reds and gather fellow fighters under your command and repel the Red invasion. Sounds like serious fun BUT there is no blood and gore( surprisingly) and the graphics resemble more of an animated movie than the more real life graphics of the Hitman series. It is a minor gripe though for the game play is superb.
There is something about such games that appeals to me, its the illusion of you, the player, overcoming seemingly overwhelming odds not through run and gun shooting (especially on harder difficulties) but via tactics and planning, which is easier to do than it sounds in this game, thus making it superior to other more technically complex squad combat games in the genre like Ghost Recon and Swat. Recruited fighters follow you around till you specify a location for them to scout ahead or defend. Its that simple, the rest is up to the AI, which is fairly competent at firing at enemies and retreating to cover when suppressed by enemy fire.
As you perform heroic deeds like rescuing injured civilians and destroying Soviet heavy weapons and equipment to cripple their war machine, more people start to believe in your fight. This is reflected by a Charisma meter, that represents your commanding presence and increases as you perform heroic deeds. Oddly enough, the rebel base is in the sewers of New York city and apparently, its so damn huge that the Soviets don't even bother to go down there to root you out, which of course isn't entirely true.
The Reds are no pushovers too, having superior firepower and numbers forces you to think strategically. IOI makes games that encourages you to think hard, not necessarily out of the box but in a realistic manner similar to real life and solving such puzzles are rewards on their own. Many a times i have faced in-game puzzles that are so other worldly that i have to rely on online walkthroughs that reveal to me the absurd method gamers have to implement to solve said puzzle(s). For example: If there is a attack helicopter blasting you to smithereens, its time to head back to the sewers for cover (and to save your game) and crawling all the way to the helicopter refueling station (usually located elsewhere on the combat map) and blowing it up, ending the threat of the flying menace. Tons of soldiers guarding key points? Either take the high ground and rain hot lead, grenades and my personal favourite, molotov cocktails down on them or flank(attacking the sides or rear of an enemy) them and gun them down. Like real life,unless you have superior firepower and numbers, head on assaults are deadly.
When I first played it 3 years ago in 2006 at the normal difficulty level, it was fairly easy, for enemies are less alert and I could 'Rambo' my way through annoying choke points albeit incurring massive casualties. Recently, having played on the toughest difficulty, I was rudely surprised by a sudden burst of fire that left me dead right at the start of one of the game's early missions that required some stealth to complete. The toughest, "Revolutionary" difficulty plays more like a squad combat and tactics game than the easier difficulty levels, which allows more brainless trigger happy game play. This was also a pleasant surprise for me as my computer is not too hi-tech to play many of the latest graphic intensive games. Moreover, many games nowadays seem more like bits of various good games combined together. Not that its a bad thing but they somehow lack the imagination and brilliant execution of prior games.
No doubt that the premise of Freedom Fighters is a tad dated ( the Cold War ended like 20 plus years ago and with it, the threat of a Soviet world wide invasion) but, it captured the feel of fighting a desperate fight with your fellow freedom fighters. At its core, it is something we all may feel at some point in our lives when we encounter difficult situations and feel despair and fear proceeding with our lives despite knowing that its do or die, either we make it or break it. However, when we persevere and work hard and smart to overcome our problems, we emerge stronger and feel immense satisfaction for a job well done. Freedom Fighters captures this aspect of life spot on. Furthermore, I have come to realise that with human civilization becoming so advanced not only technologically but also in the literary arts, it can be said that all modern story tellers merely borrow the stuff made great by the authors of the classics and many are contemptuously labeled as cliched and unimaginative. However, history always repeats itself, so stories will also repeat. It is how the story is told and how its creators weave a believable and immersive world that draws the readers/gamers into it and Freedom Fighters does just that. A clear story which focuses on people fighting a desperate fight to survive. There are occasional twists but they only serve to enhance the plot plus, providing you with some Metal Gear Solid and Rambo moments of stealth and gun play.
Yes you will' die' many times in the game till you condition yourself to think strategically, using the soldiers under your command to scout ahead and defend key vantage points when the Soviets counter attack a recently captured position. But once you realise how to move from cover to cover, to send soldiers ahead to clear enemy infested areas, rather than blindly charging in guns blazing, you will not only survive but live to fight another day. Indeed, once I figured out that this is no ordinary action game where the protagonist is the most bad-ass guy around who can take a million bullets without flinching, I became more appreciative of such a game play style.
You are human, a normal guy in the game, a man who becomes a legendary urban guerrilla fighter not because you are tough as nails or deadly accurate with guns but because you have to think and act like one. To attack where the enemy is weak and divide his strength when he is strong, or die trying till you figure it out. This makes your character all the more extraordinarily superhuman, for he is human (i.e. you can take as much damage as just about all the other characters in the game) and by accomplishing so much (i.e. destroying a larger, tyrannical force) in his shoes only serves to heighten ones sense of personal satisfaction and self worth.
