Games – Freedom Force!

It has been a long, long time since I’ve had so much fun with any one game.

What is Freedom Force? Take a stack of silver age comics(Batman circa the TV show era, superman around the time of his movies, times memorial) and squish them all into a CD. That approximates Freedom Force.

When you first start up the game, the theme of the intro screen alerts you to the comic quality of the game. That this is not the gritty world if DC heroes and the X-Men. First place you should go is to start a new Campaign, because that will give you the full treatment.

What does it start with? The origins of Minuteman, the gratuitously star spangled protagonist of the game. The graphics aren’t spectacular. They’re exactly what you’d expect in comics. and the action is the same, from the narrator’s intro to the firm, pompous voice of the MinuteMan himself once he becomes his heroic self.

That is what this game is about. Embracing the fun of playing a silver age hero. In a world where people rarely ever die, where a few strong punches can take down a building. Where characters were real characters, not just walking attitudes with powers to back it up. A world where we can have a little fun with the gross stereotypes that pester our real selves on a day to day basis.

The interface to the game is clean and easy to deal with. You can pause the game in mid action with a tap of the spacebar. You left click to move, left click to interact. A right click will bring up a menu with your powers and other actions, as much as pertain to the item right clicked on. You can use the mouse or arrow keys to move the view around.

At the bottom is a combo-box that has your powers in it as current. The one selected it is your default left click attack. Above that are up to four pics of your current super team. Hitting a number button will selected one from among them. A double tap on the number will send you to where the hero is on the map. There’s not too much to the basics of the game beyond that. Click and bash with up to four talented supers at a time.

The graphics are quite good. They’re not too detailed, but match the comic appeal of the game’s theme. Not only the characters, but the world itself is a four color universe that looks like a 3-D representation of a comic book. The music only adds to the feel.

From a stereotypical ‘ruskie’ dirge when going after the frosty villain Nuclear Winter to the mix almost reminiscent to 60s disco(I think), when running around the city, battling raptors that were brought through a time portal.

And the enemies. I’ve not even finished the game and I’ve already battled your common street thugs, Pinstripe and his gangsters, homicidal clones of everyday citizens, flying cop clones, Deja-Vu the crazy Rhyming Replicator, raptors, a T Rex, giant ants, disfigured dark minions and their shadowy mistress and giant robots, bent on destroying the city. And there is more to come, before the true source behind the Earth’s recent troubles rears its ugly head.

And when you finally best the single player game? You can go toe to toe in the Danger Room with a myriad of battle scenarios, selecting yourself a team of heroes(and villains) to take it to the nasties that are tossed at you in relentless waves. Tired of battling he computer? Get hooked up with a friend and battle in multiplay, hero to hero. May the best hero win!

If you can laugh at the corny comic action and get excited with the fight against true comic book style evil, then this is the game for you. If you will relentlessly coordinate the powers of your super team, trading in and out new recruits to attack each mission with a finely honed pack of four do-gooders and laugh in triumph as the evil is smote down by the might of your righteous justice… this game is for you!

For Freedom! For PC and Mac. 😉