My First Attempt At Game Review: Freedom Fighters

lung · Dec 5, 2003

Rise of the Red Army

The second World War ended when the Soviet Union dropped the atomic bomb on Berlin, the capital of Germany. Years later, almost all of the European countries have absorbed the practice of a communism government, including the reluctant United Kingdom. Fast forward to present day, the Soviet Union is about to launch an all-out invasion on one of the few remaining democratic power in the world - The United States of America.

That was the alternate history on which the background of Freedom Fighters was built on. The game starts with the brothers of Chris and Troy Stone, both plumbers, on their way to work. When armies of the Soviet Union started appearing everywhere, the elder brother Troy was captured and that left the younger brother Chris to save him and ultimately... To liberate the freedom of the USA. Hence the title of Freedom Fighters. As the player, you will, of course, play the hero, Chris.

The game is basically played out in a 3rd person perspective, just like most other action games these days. The keyboard controls most the character movement and actions, whilst the mouse controls the camera angle view (ala mouse-look in first person games). The mouse primary mouse button function as the 'fire weapon' command. The secoundary mouse button, on the other hand, functions as a zoom mode. Unlike other games where the zoom mode is only available for the sniper rifle, this game allows you to use zoom mode with all your weapons (except your melee weapon, of course). Speaking of weapons...

Team, Fire!

In Freedom Fighters, there are only a standard arsenal of weapons available for you to use. Not too many, not too less. Basically the game allows you to use four types of weapon, a melee weapon, a handgun, a rifle, and a grenade-type of weapon. There is also a fifth type of inventory, which is the medkit. You will start with the standard and only melee weapon in the game, the wrench (with Chris being a plumber and all), which can also be used to open manholes (the use of these manholes will be explained later in this review). For handgun weapons, there are two types available, either the semi-automatic pistol, or the magnum revolver. For rifle type weapons, there are more options available - the shotgun, the submachine gun, the assault rifle, the sniper rifle, the machine gun, and the rocket launcher. For grenade-type weapons, there are only the standard grenade and the molotov cocktails to choose from.

There is also another type of weapon that can be used, which is basically a fixed position machine gun. These have unlimited ammo, but they cannot be carried and they cannot turn 360 degrees. Still, they make a fine weapon when it comes to defending your position, which also means that it can be quite a pain when the enemy is using it.

Although there are quite a number of weapons to choose from, the game only allows you to carry one type of handgun and one type of rifle at any given time (similar to Halo). However, you will still able to carry the two types of grenades simultaneously. This makes for more fun and realistic gameplay where at most times you will have to drop your current weapon and pick up another type of weapon, depending on the situation. For instance, when you reach the rooftop of a building where you have just taken out an enemy sniper, it may be wise to drop your assault rifle and pick up his sniper rifle instead and start sniping all those enemies below. Another example is where you will have to switch to a rocket launcher in order to destroy tanks and helicopters. Of course, once you are done, you can always pick up your assault rifle again since you are definitely not going to charge into an enemy building holding a rocket launcher, right?

Basically all the weapons are handled nicely by the game engine, with one exception. Other than the sniper rifle and the rocket launcher, your weapon will never fire directly at where your crosshair is pointing at. Not even in zoom mode, and not even with your magnum revolver. Maybe the developers wanted to make the game more realistic, but in my opinion it makes the game quite frustrating when you've unloaded all your ammo on a particular target to find that most of your shots have missed and your target still standing and shooting at you.

Another item to take note here is the use of grenades. Here the game uses a system where the longer you hold your left mouse button, the farther your grenade will be thrown. This is shown by a bar near the bottom of the screen where the meter will increase the longer the left mouse button is pressed. It takes quite some time to practice before you can finally throw a grenade precisely at where you wanted it to land, or maybe it was just me, since I never really get to throw a grenade precisely even after I finished the entire game. Heh.

Yes, Sir!

The ability of having squadmates to accompany you on your missions is where Freedom Fighters really shines. Unlike other action games on which you are mostly solo on your missions, Freedom Fighters allow you to command up to 12 squadmates on a mission, which can make you feel like as if you are really in a battle, especially on the last mission. And unlike other games where your squadmates are practically useless and will be easily disposed of by the enemy, the squadmates in Freedom Fighters really do take care of themselves pretty well. They are easy to command to, with only three options available - defend, regroup (or follow me), and attack. Commands can be issued to individual squadmates or to the entire squad. But most of the time you will find yourself doing the latter as I find that to be more effective.

The actions of squadmates in this game are also very convincing. They will dodge, run, and even hide behind covers (eg. crates) when they need to. They will also automatically use any fixed-position machine gun nearby. Too bad they do not know how to do one of the most important thing by themselves - to treat their injury (heal), even if tonnes of medkits are lying around. If one of your squadmates are injured too heavily, he will be knocked unconscious, and it will be up to you then to decide whether you want to heal him at the expense of one of your medkit, or to recruit a new one. Of course, your squadmate can also be killed, but this is quite seldom since as I mentioned earlier, they take care of themselves pretty well.

The number of squadmates you can command in a mission is depending on the charisma level of your character. Your charisma points will increase whenever you complete a mission objective, or whenever you heal a wounded person (which can be found in almost every mission). Basically, whenever your charisma points reach a certain amount, you will increase your charisma level and be able to command an additional squadmate. Try to think of these charisma points as experience points of RPGs.

This & That

Freedom Fighters, as good as it may be, however, still lacks one important component of a PC game - the ability to quicksave. Although Freedom Fighters do have a quicksave function, it acts more like checkpoints, and does not involve invoking a key on the keyboard. This is where the manholes come into play. Basically, since the rebel base is located in the sewers, manholes serve as the entry points to a mission. There are a limited number of them available on each mission, and when you find one, you can use your wrench to open them. Then you have the option of whether to quicksave, or to return to the rebel base and choose another mission. The latter is true if you find out that you are missing a certain ingredient to complete the current mission - for example, you may require C4, which can only be found in another mission.

If you decided to quicksave at a manhole, then later in the mission should you die, you will restart from this manhole position. Also the game has only one quicksave slot, so if there's any data corruption during the quicksave (not that I have encounter any), you will have to restart the entire mission. At the end of each mission your game will be autosaved, and just like the quicksave, there is only one autosave slot.

Mission loading times are mediocre, not too long, not too short. Graphical wise, it can be considered as quite good, and not so dated. The amazing thing about this game is that it runs very smoothly even on a mid-end machine. You do not need to have a state of the art machine to run this game with all its details turned on in order to churn out an acceptable FPS rate. Sound effects wise, it can be considered as good, with 5.1 support and all. However I do notice that there are not much diversity in all the sound effects. The music is good as well; most of them has the Soviet military theme to it. Think back to Command & Conquers: Red Alert and you will get what I mean.

Conclusion

The game is a must-try for all action gamers out there. Although the game is quite short (finishes in about 10 missions or so), it will still be a very much enjoyable and memorable ride.

Rating:
Gameplay - 4/5 stars
Graphics - 4/5 stars
Sound - 3/5 stars
Overall - 4/5 stars

The Good:
Fast-paced action-packed game - you will definitely not feel bored playing this game. The squadmates are terrific. Impressive FPS rate even for a mid-end machine makes the game a pleasurable experience.

The Bad:
Checkpoint quicksave system. A manual quicksave method is always preferred.

The Ugly:
Mouse sensitivity is not synchronised at the menu screen and in the game. Mouse control can be over-sensitive in the game, but too insensitive at the menu screen. Minor issue that won't impact the gameplay directly, but still an annoying flaw.
Click to expand...

Please tell me how is it! Planning to work as a freelancer game reviewer (maybe for PC Gamer Malaysia ) if my review is okay!
Or maybe ARP!

I will try to add in some pictures with captions later!

Btw... First attempt... So please don't flame me if you find anything wrong with the review...

EDIT: Added a couple of screenshots from the official site... And added my own captions to it

lung · Dec 6, 2003

Wow... No reply? Is my review so bad that no one dare to post a comment...

Dashken · Dec 6, 2003

It is fine. But on some part, too detail. Congrats lung!

Falcone · Dec 7, 2003

Good start, keep it up

Yup maybe too much detail....got a bit monotonous along the way.

Galadorn · Jan 23, 2004

It is a rather good review. But :
1) The lack of precision is in fact part of the game. You probably noticed enemies also missed often. Remember, you're a plumber in this game, not a super trained SEAL
2) The review is quite detailed regarding the game. Maybe even a bit too much. Yet you forgot to mention the fun TV coverage, and you say nothing about the makers of the game.
3) You forgot a 1st paragraph in your article. You start right with the story. Thats a no no You gotta "introduce" your subject.

Other than that, it's fairly good. I only mention those points as you say you wanna do that as semi-pro. If ya need any help/advice, tell me, maybe I know, as I studied journalism (even wrote some papers and did some radio, only a little bit but heh).

TungstenBoy · Jan 23, 2004

heiiii......nice review.......why dun u ask rojakpot post in rojakpot site?????.......mebbe u can become rojakpot game reviewer?????

lung · Feb 18, 2004

Hi Galadorn. This was my first review. Check out my later reviews and tell me if I've improvised

These days I don't really have time to write reviews cause there's a project on my hands that's reaching the dateline... Burning midnight oil now

Anyway, since you have a review site... Maybe you can post some of my reviews there as well

playahata123789 · Feb 27, 2004

maybe some humor? nice review, im looking to get a new game.... should it be this??

lung · Feb 28, 2004

Well, I won't consider this a new game, but if you like arcade-style games, this is definitely a good buy

Btw, wut happened to the 2nd screenshot?

Dashken · Feb 29, 2004

LOL! Weird...

TungstenBoy · Mar 2, 2004

yaaaaa.........why the 2nd picture become picture of casings???????

Log in or Sign up

My First Attempt At Game Review: Freedom Fighters

Please rate my review!

1 Star

2 Stars

3 Stars

4 Stars

5 Stars

lung Just Started

Attached Files:

1.jpg

2.jpg

lung Just Started

Dashken Administrator!

Falcone Official Mascot Creator

Galadorn Newbie

TungstenBoy Newbie

lung Just Started

playahata123789 Newbie

lung Just Started

Dashken Administrator!

TungstenBoy Newbie

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

My First Attempt At Game Review: Freedom Fighters

Please rate my review!

1 Star

2 Stars

3 Stars

4 Stars

5 Stars

lung Just Started

Attached Files:

1.jpg

2.jpg

lung Just Started

Dashken Administrator!

Falcone Official Mascot Creator

Galadorn Newbie

TungstenBoy Newbie

lung Just Started

playahata123789 Newbie

lung Just Started

Dashken Administrator!

TungstenBoy Newbie

Share This Page

Useful Searches