Freedom Force Review -- By John Lynch

Publisher: Crave / EA Games
Developer: Irrational Games
Primary Genre: Action/RPG

The Facts

Freedom Force is an RPG in which you control the movements of one to several super heroes at a time with various goals in mind. During the course of the game your Heroes' powers will grow and eventually you will even meet new Super Heroes to induct into your "Freedom Force."

The game is presented in a 3D based top-down view that has full zoom support. This allows you to watch your heroes powers take effect either from the heights above the cities & trees or to zoom in close and see the details of each animation in all its glory. Irrational games clearly spent a great deal of time perfecting small details in this game.

As is becoming increasingly popular, Irrational games also has included support for Skinning, Modeling and Mesh editing with the game. They also have a level/campaign editor in the works for public release. Several websites have begun posting skins of your favorite comic book heroes so that you can import them in and live the dream you've always had (or one you've never had but should have). The intention here is to no doubt increase the replayability of the game as fans create new content. Multiplayer Support has been included to keep your interest while you wait for the already announced sequel and the soon to come gaming community campaigns.

Commentary & Grades

Instant Fun: B+

After the quick installation which took up an insanely low 35 MB (though the full install would hit around the 550 MB area) I was in this game in no time. I would almost give this section an A except for the learning curve each new hero brings to the table. The campy, cheesy intros with circa-1960s art done in a flash-esque (macromedia) sort of style add greatly to the atmosphere and really help the game along. Right from the beginning the story line grabs you and doesn't let go until its over.

Replayability: A- There is an endless amount of tweaking you can do to custom characters and no end to the group combos possible in Freedom Force. Don't like the characters they throw at you? That's ok.. just make the Justice League (complete with about every power you could think of) and see how the game plays using them! Don't like the Justice League? Well just throw the X-Men in or any combination of super heroes you can think of and find a skin for. Obviously not every power you can think of is in the game, but more than likely there is a close substitute. This game could be played through ten times and each time be a different feel. Irrational Game's Looking Glass Technologies heritage is pretty clear in this regard, and is a major plus to the title.

The only reason this game didn't get an A+ for replayability is because of what I perceived to be lackluster out-of-the-box multiplayer. Freedom Force multiplayer is entirely head to head action and on top of that, seems to lack balance between the wide range of superpower options. Multiplayer gets very old very quickly. Fortunately the single player game more than makes up for this. Do it right, or not at all I say!

Given time, it is possible that the fact that this game is mod-friendly might eventually allow for high-quality fan-created multiplayer mods to spring up. I don't know enough about the technology to know to what extent this is possible, however.

Candy Rating: B+

The models and animations are superb, but the textures are somewhat flat. I get the impression that they could have made the textures far more detailed if they had wanted to, but it might have compromised the campy 1970's super hero comic feel if they had. This is of course, for the most part, made up for by the amazing power effects and hero animations. If someone throws a right hook at your Captain America he will more than likely dodge it.. and you will see the dodge on screen. If you zoom in on large fights, you will see evidence of truly outstanding attention to detail. While not the best graphics out, there are very few games that comes close to Freedom Force in terms of character development and plot detail.

Charm: A

This game has come out of nowhere and will set precedents for Super Hero games in the future. If you give this game twenty minutes of your time you will be hooked. It's THAT appealing. In addition, the comic-book feel really DOES have a lot of charm. Between these things, you really find yourself first wanting to like the game, and then having a great time.

Overall Score (not an average): A Under normal circumstances I would not post an A on anything that wasn't ground breaking. Freedom force meets this criteria, as it has brought superhero games back from the dead AND in a new incarnation. In doing so has opened a lot of doors, which I very much look forward to seeing explored down the road. The sequel to Freedom Force has been announced to be a little more rugged with more of today's comic book plot depth and character, but this first chapter of Irrational's product lacks for very little. On another note, this is the first title I know of that Irrational purely did on its own (System Shock 2 was done, to some extent, collaboratively with Looking Glass Technologies), and it is good to see that Irrational Studios will no doubt produce more high quality games in the future. Well done!

Recommendations

Zileas.com recommends this game to you if: you are either a fan of RPGs or are a Comic Book lover.

Zileas.com believes you might like it or should try the demo if: you liked the Baldur's Gate series or would like to try out a completely new concept.

Zileas.com does not recommend this to you if: you are solely a multiplayer gamer or are not into RPGs for single player.

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