Freedom Force

Moby ID: 6047
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Freedom Force is a real-time tactical role-playing game which allows you to create and customize your own superheroes.

Along with the ability to create your own skins, names and super power attributes, you can take your team of superheroes out in the town to defeat countless enemies, improving the experience points of your character. All of the buildings and items in each city are destructible and you can throw most items at your enemy.

The single player campaign starts with you taking control of Frank Stiles. Frank overhears a conversation between two scientists about a secret experiment. The scientists discover Frank and leave him to die by a glowing statue. Luckily for Frank, the statue turns him into Minuteman, and now you must stop the scientists from getting away.

As you dive deeper into the story, you will gain teammates, each with their own special powers, and even more deadly enemies to defeat.

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Credits (Windows version)

211 People (160 developers, 51 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 38 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 71 ratings with 5 reviews)

If Jack Kirby had been a programmer, this would be his game...

The Good
The game is incredibly true to its subject matter, featuring Jack Kirbyesque art and graphics throughout. The environments are fully destructible, and the single-player game feels VERY much like one is playing through a series of 1960s Marvel-style comic adventures!

The Bad
If you AREN'T a fan of Jack Kirby style 1960s comics, you may not like this game. It doesn't have much to offer the Spawn generation, and its "campy" feel may cross over to "oghod this is so corny" in the hands of players who can't get into the proper mood. The FFEditor and patch is an excellent tool for modifying the game; it introduces a "danger room" mod that lets you play heroes and villains from the game in any environment from the game, and allows the use of custom heroes and villains as well. Unfortunately, this terrific tool is only available online; it didn't ship with the game sigh... Multiplayer is weak, weak, weak, being largely a matter of who can point and click fastest; the "pause and plan" feature that makes the single-player game so appealing just isn't there in multiplayer.

The Bottom Line
It's a great "classic superhero comic" romp, and loads of fun. You can't really beat the price. The patch and Editor tool are available online. If you like your comics Kirby flavored, dive in!

Windows · by Dr.Bedlam (55) · 2002

Best interactive comic game ever!

The Good
Let me be honest, I'm not a comic book fan. I might have bought a comic book or two back when I was a kid/teenager, but I honestly never cared much for comics of any kind, especially superhero comics. This game, however, made what was to me a rather silly medium (superhero comics) into something completely and utterly awesome.

From the start of the game with the 'secret origins' of various superheroes, to the finale, the game provides what is the single finest atmosphere of any game made in the early 2000's. You don't just feel like you're playing a superhero game, oh no, you really do feel like you've stepped into a world of Silver Age comics with all it's cheesy, over-the-top glory!

The dialogue is deliciously corny, the heroes's one-liners and motifs are so stereotypical of what they're supposed to be representing that it's just awesome. El Diablo is an ex-Mexican gang member who's imbued with fire based superpowers, and he never lets you forget that he’d Spanish. It reeks of typical 60s and 70s comics and cartoons that its hilarious. The action is riveting and the colorfully named super powers just reek of creativity and lets you feel like you’re wreaking some serious havok on the villain’s mooks as they come your way and attempt to prevent you from stopping their wickedly over-the-top plan to take over Patroit city.

The villains are very colorful and so is the city and environment, everything looks like it was ripped directly from those old marvel or DC comics of the past. I heard that there are a lot of jokes and easter eggs in the game that reference the Silver and Golden Age of comics, but seeing that I’m not much of a fan of comics, I unfortunately have not been able to spot much of them. The fact that I still enjoyed this game immensely is proof that you don’t need to be a comic fan to enjoy it.

The Bad
The only negative things I can think of about this game is that sometimes the combat can be very chaotic as you try to control your heroes and cycle through the somewhat power selection. Having to wait for their energy recharge mid-battle can be quite hectic at times. Other than that, I can’t think of anything else wrong with it.

The Bottom Line
This game is one of the best, most atmospheric superhero games ever created. It is really one of the most perfect interactive comics ever. For gamers who like riveting action in over-the-top settings and colorful characters/adversaries, or for comic book fans who love superheroes, there's something for everyone here.

Windows · by Salim Farhat (69) · 2013

An action-packed romp through a 1960's comic book world.

The Good
There is so much to like about Freedom Force that it is hard to know where to begin. The graphics are outstanding. The characters and settings are colorful and detailed and the animation is well done for the most part. You can easily zoom in and out which makes for some spectacular looking screenshots, especially with the added "action balloons" that say "Zap!", "Whoosh!", "Krak!", etc. just like you were in an animated comic book.

The sound is very well done too, with a good variety of interesting music and sound effects. The voice acting is generally excellent -- it sounds like it is straight out of those old Adam West Batman TV shows.

The gameplay is where Freedom Force really shines, though. The hot keys allow you to pause the game or play in slow motion, and most attacks and movement can be done entirely with the mouse. The enemies are varied enough so you don't get tired of fighting the same foe, and there are a wide variety of strategies that can be used to defeat your enemies, especially since on most missions you can select the heroes (or build your own) that you want to use. Even if you don't use a variety of powers it is still fun to fight just with found objects such as thrown park benches or uprooted lamp posts.

Character development is pretty well done. The built-in heroes are well-balanced and have a variety of powers to play with and customize, and if you get bored or frustrated with the built-in heroes you can make your own with the easy to use character creator. If you really want to customize your hero you can download additional hero meshes and skins from web sites and use them for your characters or even design your own if you have the proper tools.

The Bad
There are a wide variety of ways you can build your heroes, but some abilities are a lot more effective for the character point cost than others. For example, you can complete almost all of the scenario missions with a high-speed guy with a medium damage extreme stun attack. Some statistics are not very useful in comparison to others. Because the hero abilities are not well balanced in some cases (especially the Agility stat vs. Speed or Energy) the most effective characters all tend to kill the same way - by stunning.

Another problem with the game is multiplayer. You can only do deathmatch style play, and it is difficult to control a team of players since you cannot pause as effectively as you can in single player. The worst problem with multiplayer is that there aren't enough point restrictions -- you should be able to restrict the point costs of powers and ability scores as well as the total cost of the hero to keep people from designing boring one-dimensional heroes just to win multiplayer. It is also dissapointing that some of the more interesting powers like Cloning and Cloak of Shadows do not work in multiplayer.

The other problems with the game are minor gameplay issues such as only being able to use melee attacks when on the ground, and not being able to jump or fly when carrying objects, no matter what the strength of the character or weight of the object you are carrying.

The Bottom Line
Freedom Force is an action packed romp through a 1960's comic book. The gameplay is similar to other 3rd person squad-based games such as Fallout Tactics or the combat portions of Baldur's Gate 2, but a lot more refined, especially because the camera can move and the graphics are rendered in 3D not 2D. The environment is fully destructable and usable, so if you are surrounded by a circle of bat-wielding thugs, just pull up the nearest lamp post and bash away. The game features a single-player mode with a wonderfully campy plot and well designed heroes and bad guys. The multiplayer mode allows you to battle with premade or custom heroes in a variety of settings.

Windows · by Droog (460) · 2002

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Awards

  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2003 (Issue #148) - #9 overall in the "10 Best Games of 2002" list
  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2003 (Issue #225) – Strategy Game of the Year
    • April 2003 (Issue #225) – Best Story of the Year
    • April 2003 (Issue #225) – Best Art Direction of the Year
    • September 2006 (Issue #266) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • GameSpy
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2005 - #50 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Macintosh added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Sciere, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger.

Game added March 27, 2002. Last modified March 7, 2024.