Let me tell you a little story of how I came upon this awesome title. I was at a video game renting place. And I obviously was looking for a game to rent. Now, I have rented just about everything there. Except for Freedom Fighters. I looked at the case and read the description. And on the cover it said, From the makers of Hit-man 2. Sold.
I went back to my place and was instantly floored by the music on the menu screen. Not sure why, but I was. I'd spend a long time just simply listening to it. Jesper Kyd does a phenomenal job as almost always. Freedom Fighters was the game that got me paying more closely to music in games than ever before.
Freedom Fighters has you in the role Chris Stone. Not the most original of names. But no biggie. Anyway, you are suddenly thrust into conflict as the Soviets begin their invasion. The idea of their invasion is, Take New York and you take the entire country. It kinda backfires. Instead of the US falling to its knees. The entire country rallies around the New York rebellion and your actions. But all the action takes place in New York City.
Your actions in some areas can affect other areas. You will notice this on your first mission. You have to get C4 in one area, go to the other and blow up the snipers so you can get into the police station. This sort of thing is repeated throughout the game. One of the more common goals is to destroy a helipad to stop attack/transport choppers or destroying bridges to prevent further reinforcements. Doing both of those vastly decreases the difficulty of the area you are on. It does get a little tiresome though having to do it all the time. And I understand why they have the player do it because I would imagine the Reds have more than just one helicopter pad. They also try to mix it up a bit by having you rescue POWs and some civilians caught in the middle. And that is fine. You complete the level or area by raising the flag in a particular building or spot. Some see this as some political thing. I see it as just a way to end the level and move on.
Another neat thing about Freedom Fighters is the squad commands. They are fairly simple. You have 3 commands: attack, defend, and follow. Just tapping the keys will tell one rebel what you want him to do. Holding it tells your entire platoon or squad. I usually put these guys to work around heavy machine gun emplacements and have them cut down any unfortunate Soviet Sap who feels a bit more brave than the rest. But every now and then I get creative and have each of my squad-mates line up single file along the side of a car to maximize the firepower a bit. Some may see this command thing as something rushed or far too simple. But when you need to clear a room on a hard difficulty setting they are your healthiest bet.
There really isn't a diversity of weapons. Americans don't have their own stuff with the exception of the Spas-12, pipe wrench, Molotov, and the revolver. Everything else is acquired from the Soviets. In a war zone such as this. I would expect a little more than that.
There is no blood. I reckon that's another flaw. It brings a little cartoon feel to the game. I know its not meant to be the most ultra realistic looking game ever. But from the makers of Hit-man 2. I expect to see some blood at least.
No lip animations or hardly any at all. May not seem like a big deal but a lot of times you get to see the characters faces clearly and its just plain weird having them talk and not seeing anything moving.
Overall its a exceptional game. I've played it on the PS2, Xbox, and my PC. Each time was still a good experience.
