a masterpiece among the third-person tactical squad shooters

User Rating: 9 | Freedom Fighters PC
Almost six years (2003) passed since the release of Freedom Fighters and this game can still claim the top spot when it comes to the third-person tactical squad shooters.

The game runs with no problems on Vista (and of course on XP). Widescreens are supported up to 1680x1050. If it's not for aging graphics (that are still OK) a few people would recognize this as an *old* game. This just tells you about the high quality work IO Interactive did on this game. Sadly, it also speak volumes about a serious lack of progress in most of the gaming industry today -- except for graphics improvement there is simply not much progress being made in the general quality area.

Unfortunately, this game didn't get as much attention as it deserved at the time of release -- very few people knew about this game outside the circle of serious gamers. Yet the game could be seen as a pioneering (and successful) effort at the tactical squad branch. Gameplay is excellent, especially considering that the game is 6 years old now. If the story has some weaknesses, then the combo of a superb gameplay and Jesper Kyd's music score tend to cover it very well. Talk about the music score -- Jesper Kyd is excellent here -- how can you go wrong with Jesper Kyd (Hitman series, Assassins Creed, Messiah, concept for GoW, etc)?

The story is OK, sort of an alternate history where the Soviets are the dominant force. Things could have gone wrong here with the story, but IOI managed to put some nice touches and not mess up like the developer of the Turning Point did (with Nazis being the dominant force).

Anyways, the game is a masterpiece among the third-person tactical squad shooters. It's a bit harder to find it today in stores, but I think you'd be able to find it on Amazon. Overall score: 8.8/10.