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Freedom Fighters
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Xbox - Electronic Arts - Action/Shooter - T - 4 Players
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| Ah the Cold War. How we miss thee. For those of you too young to remember, America and Russia, at one time, duked it out for world domination. And now thanks to Freedom Fighters, we all get to experience a parallel world where the evil Russians invade our beloved shores trying to spread the disease of communism/socialism through our beloved United States of America. Only you and a ragtag group of underground resistance fighters can hope to liberate New York City from the nefarious clutches of the USSR. This title could have been easily called Red Dawn 2 Electric Boogaloo, but thankfully we are spared the dynamic duo of Grey and Swayze. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| As the protagonist, you are given a number of objectives to fulfill on a level, be it from attaining C4 explosives to freeing prisoners, but all that really matters is replacing the red flag emblazoned with the hammer and the sickle with the beloved stars and stripes. In fact, you can bypass many lesser objectives and conquer a level simply by heading straight for the flag poles. Playing this way will decrease your play time as well as keeping you from attaining much needed Charisma points. The more Charisma you have, the more people you can recruit to help you take out the bad guys. Nothing quite like telling eight armed accomplices to jump into a high school gym and shoot anything that moves. The player will discover that giving your squad three basic commands, follow, defend area, attack area, is simple but effective for this game play. The command system flows intuitively from the X, Y and B buttons and thankfully the AI on your squad responds very well and with very little problems to your orders. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Level designs can range from a simple to a moderately difficult layout and you will discover that looking at your map is actually a very useful thing in this sprawling, urban landscape. Though the story does take place in NYC, I didn’t find the textures of the world to be reminiscent of the city on which it is based. The graphics are just passable, the characters all look a little cartoonish, but they do die quite nicely thanks to the rag doll physics. A few minor collision detection problems where your see rifle noses magically passing through a wall or closed door. There are also more than a few invisible walls that seem to curse games such as this. The controls for movement and camera control are a little clunky. Also awkward is the third person zoom-in function, which is suppose to help with aiming, as seen in Splinter Cell. Controlling your avatar from this point is sloppy at best and down right frustrating at worst. Shooting from normal third person is easy thanks to autoaim, but try throwing a grenade or Molotov cocktail bomb and you just might throw your controller out the window. Though the game play does have its draw backs, you’ll find some compelling play here as you mow down, snipe and blow up those dirty Russkies. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Spliced between the completion of levels are short cut scenes of a Russian news reporter spouting out party propaganda in a partial attempt to create a story. The main characters, both protagonists and antagonists, are flat as cardboard and lack emotion. With just a little retooling of the script, players may have grown more attached to the characters. The voice over work is solid with what they have to work with and you’ll just dig those cliché Russian accents. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Overall, I can suggest this game only as a rental. It’s simply too short and having completed it in about 5 hours, I don’t see myself going back anytime soon. Despite the problems the game has, I did have fun playing through all of it. It may not be unique and it may not be a ground breaking game, but you’ll definitely have a solid afternoon’s worth of enjoyment. And just about half way through the game, players will defiantly notice a certain flow, a certain energy that makes you want to push on till the very end...when at last, America has driven off the Red invader. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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