Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich Exclusive Q&A

The original Freedom Force was a tactical role-playing game released for the PC in 2002. While the phrase "tactical role-playing game" might suggest that the game involved lots of boring number-crunching and rolling 20-sided dice, the actual game was fast-paced, colorful, and engaging. Freedom Force let you control a stable of superheroes based on classic comic-book characters, complete with shouted catchphrases, garish costumes, and flamboyant patriotism--and a corresponding hatred of communism. It was also loads of fun.

Nuclear Winter? What's he doing here?!

The original game included a mission-based single-player campaign in which you'd join up with new heroes and attempt to stop a dastardly villain's plot. It also included an editor that let you create your own custom superheroes by changing their appearances and customizing their special powers. The editor went on to inspire the player community to create countless custom hero skins based on their own favorite comic characters. Finally, the game was powered by a 3D engine that allowed for extremely interactive environments, including objects that could be used as weapons. For instance, the engine let you pick up cars and hurl them at your enemies, or tear lampposts out of the ground and use them like clubs to swat thugs. The engine also allowed for fully destructible buildings.

Irrational Games has finally taken the wraps off its upcoming sequel, Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich. In the new game, the Freedom Force team must travel back in time to World War II to battle a new supervillain named Blitzkrieg, who is the defender of the Reich. The heroes will also encounter all-new supervillains, including Red October, and new superheroes, such as Tombstone and Sky King. They'll also have access to new hero abilities, like dancing dead, Aztec mercy, and whirlwind tour. The new game includes an enhanced 3D-rendering engine, as well as improved artificial intelligence. For more information on this intriguing sequel, we were graciously joined by Jonathan Chey, project lead at Irrational Games' Canberra studio in Australia.

GameSpot: We understand that Freedom Force 2 will be "an ongoing story." Can we expect to see all our old favorite superheroes from the original game? Will the sequel, in fact, move over to a different style and era of comics as preliminary talks about the games suggested? For instance, can we expect to see darker, more-brooding 1970s-comics versions of the heroes of Freedom Force rather than the upbeat Silver Age versions from the original game?

Jonathan Chey: Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich features all the original characters from Freedom Force. Time has moved on, but it's not the '70s yet in the Freedom Force universe. Instead, we're a few years on from the events of the first game and are still dealing with some of the fallout from those happenings.

We'll also be going back in time, so you can expect to see some radically new Golden Age characters making an appearance, as well as some brand-new Silver Age ones.

Green Genie, one of the new characters in the next Freedom Force game.

GS: How will the game be structured?We expect to see a single-player campaign, like in the original game, but will there be any new gameplay modes? For instance, are there any plans to include single-mission skirmishes? Any plans to incorporate any of the multiplayer modes that were developed by hobbyist modmakers?

JC: We'll be fully supporting the danger room mode that we added to the original game as a patch. And we're completely overhauling the multiplayer component. There will be more game modes, better matchmaking, scoring, and so on. I can't go into any detail yet, but we're very excited about this aspect of the new game.