Characters in Freedom Force!
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STOKED ABOUT: Dungeon Siege - Freedom Force - Mini-Reviews
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Along with
every other hungry gamer waiting for a decent superhero game to
be launched upon the market, I snatched Freedom Force on the 26th of
March. I knew I held gaming goodness in my hands. The CD radiated it.
And when I saw that the official web site (located at the somewhat odd
www.myfreedomforce.com)
had a web kit, my stokitude was again pushed to the point of web site
creation. Oh, and I think I'll review it, too - sure, I've only
finished about six levels, but that's not the fucking point. This is a
Stoked... review, not a real review. The point is to get you
stoked.
I was stoked about this game before it came out,
to be sure - it's coming out of Irrational Games, the madballs
responsible for one of my favorite games ever, the incredibly
underpurchased System Shock 2 (now available in a bargain bin
near you for less money than a Saigon whore), and 60's comic books
kicked ass. But it wasn't until I booted it up for the first time and
watched the absolutely (and hopefully intentionally) wretched intro
movie that I was truly a convert.
This game is by far the corniest,
cheesiest, most cliché and trite piece of shit I have ever seen. The
voice acting is campy, the graphics are simple, and the RPG elements
almost laughable. But it's still the best goddamned game I've played
all year because of all those things. Freedom Force is a game
that doesn't take itself too seriously, and it probably would have
been considered the very epitome of coolness in the 60's. And it's
still pretty cool.
Right from the setup, you're presented with
Minute Man, heroic Captain America-esque figure of American
perfection. He gets carved up in an effort to stop a Communist plot
(damn those Rooskies), but a magical statue imbued with alien
energy makes him younger and gives him super-stre
 ngth.
No, I'm not kidding... Frank "Minute Man" Stiles proceeds to whip
communist ass, and for the first couple of missions he's all by his
lonesome and the game plays freakishly like a much slower Diablo.
But soon he meets up with the likes of the
telepathic Mentor, the flying flamer El Diablo, and the lumbering
Manbot, and the action takes a turn for the turn-based strategic. Yes,
the game is in real time - but you'll find yourself slamming the space
bar (pause) very often just to keep your wits about the action. There
can be absolute masses of enemies on the screen - in one of the
missions I've been through, I faced at least a dozen footsoldiers, two
"commanding" units, and one supervillain at the same time. All
the pows and zings flying about really gave the effect of an epic
battle, and sometimes it's difficult to even keep track of what's
happening because of all the bubbles floating about. And by hitting
the - key, you can slow down the action to Matrix-esque bullet time -
truly a sight to behold as you and your crack team throw a whole
plethora of projectiles at the villainous inhabitants of Liberty City.
It was supposed to be set in New York, and it's
too bad they changed it, assumedly because of the big tragedy thing.
The characters are charming - each one of them
comes with a short movie ("The Secret Origins Of...") and a whole
bunch of neat moves and animations. It's like a much better version of
G.I. Joe.
Unfortunately, it's hard to keep track of your
characters during some battles - I was at one point looking
frantically for El Diablo, only to find that he was surrounded by
about a dozen Ice Queens launching their ice-bullets at him. Needless
to say, poor Renaldo got shafted. Then by the time I scrolled back to
see Minute Man, Mentor, and Manbot, they had all taken a severe
beating. This is why I want a radar or a mini-map, and I want it bad -
looking for a lone character can be a real pain, and I usually just
end up clicking on his portrait and instructing him to join the rest
of the troupe.
Still, the game is a load of fun to play, and -
while hard - it's never god-I'm-pissed hard - there's always that
motivation to go for one more try, and eighty tries later you finished
the damn thing.
The box is cute, too - it's in one of those
little tiny boxes pioneered by EA. I love them, and I hope they become
the standard.
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[ this page and all media therein is copyright © 2002 by matt mongrain. all rights reserved. reproduction prohibited without express, written permission of the author. ]