“Those Reds might have killed Frank Styles, but they’re about to meet… The Minuteman!”
So ends the opening cutscene for Freedom Force, a superhero RPG from Irrational served with a large side of cheese, but while plenty of games are cheesy Freedom Force is singular in acknowledging, and being comfortably secure in just how silly it is. It’s hard not to like a game which contains a Soviet Spy who gains cold based powers and immediately dubs himself ‘Nuclear Winter’ or a Southern Belle turned Mystic who goes by ‘Alchemiss’. Freedom Force is a love letter to classic comic book superhero tales, but with a streak of knowing, affectionate parody that makes it all the sweeter.
The mechanics are relative simple, you pick four superheroes and take them on a mission to thwart villainy, between missions you can spend accumulated experience and prestige to recruit new heroes and upgrade old ones. Early on you’ll be relying on good old fashioned fisticuffs later on you’ll get spectacular and powerful attacks, such as El Diablo’s explosive Inferno attack.
It’s these heroes which really form the heart of the game’s appeal. Each one comes with their own origin story, and each has a unique character. The aforementioned Minuteman hams up his patriotism to hilarious amounts, storm powered sailor Man O’ War sounds like a Sean Connery impersonator, former gang kid El Diablo is a hot headed Casanova and his interactions with the staunchly feminist Alchemiss are a treat.
However, thought every hero is entertaining in their own way, not all of them are terribly useful. Anyone who doesn’t have a flying or jumping power will slow the team down and be useless against elevated enemies. This failure to balance correctly is a glaring problem, especially when some missions mandate you take a slow or underpowered hero with you, while El Diablo, who combines high damage powers with the ability to fly, will be an ever present. Also, for such a fun loving game, Freedom Force’s difficulty curve is decidedly unforgiving, and you’ll find yourself dying often before getting a full stable of heroes. Even later on the game habitually throws in extremely tough boss fights, the final battle especially amounts to little more than a slog to gradually wear down a villain’s huge health bar.
Several features also remain underdeveloped, with the multiplayer mode little more than an afterthought, and the ‘create a hero’ feature a fairly basic affair, of no real interest to anyone but powergamers. In truth it would probably be better if Irrational had cut these features altogether, rather than offering them up in such an unfinished form.
Still, Freedom Force’s truly unique conceit and entertaining cast makes it a game well worth a few hours of anyone’s time.
80%
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I’m a huge fan of Freedom Force and I remember buying it in its bright yellow box years and years ago. I gifted the Freedom Force pack to two of my friends just last weekend even though I’m positive that they’ll never get through the tutorial level.
Also, the Create a Hero was pretty damn robust. You could download custom meshes (models) and skins and make all sorts of copyrighted stuff. I added a bastardized version of Deadpool to my party for single player use. Good times.
Ooooh yes, Freedom Force! I’ve yet to finish it.
A fun game. I really love the look.
It’s worth mentioning here that I’ve only played the start of the sequel ‘Freedom Force vs The Third Reich’ but it improves on the original on every level.