This game recycles the gameplay of its predecessor, but an interesting story and expansions to game modes provide value.

User Rating: 8 | Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich PC

The original Freedom Force was known for making a surprisingly good game out of themes that seemed unlikely to be popular during its time, at least not to anyone that is not already a fan of the Silver or Bronze eras of comic books. It has very effective game mechanisms that made controlling otherwise campy comic book heroes quite a joy, and perhaps instilled some appreciation of sorts for when comic book heroes and villains were more idealistic and simpler.

However, Freedom Force VS The Third Reich would have no such reception, because it appears to do little more than ride the wake of its predecessor. It does have more content and customization options for characters, but many of its gameplay designs have been recycled from the first game, thus giving it the impression of a rehash. On the other hand, it does not break every design that works (except perhaps one, which will be described later), so fans of the previous game may be delighted to have more of the same that they love.

Anyway, once the player has started the game, he/she would notice that the user interface has not changed much since the previous game. The main menu is still a cluster of simple outlined yellow boxes, a la the style used for in-laid text in comic books during the 1960s to early 1980s. There is also a brief but satisfactory tutorial for the gameplay when the player launches a mission or a match, though the tutorials for character creation are sparse. Speaking of character creation, the tools for this activity returns, unchanged in terms of features, though there are more options for superpowers now.

If there is a technical improvement that Irrational Games has made, it is that the multiplayer mode has been expanded. There are team-based matches that can be played with different match objectives. There are also options to use only the stock characters (which are characters from the story mode, but with restricted and balanced designs), customized characters or completely imbalanced characters for outrageous battles. However, one can argue that this should have been in the first game.

There is also an additional single-player mode, simply called "skirmish", which has the player controlling a team of characters to defeat waves of enemies that the player can customize or just randomize for varying degrees of challenge. However, considering the depth and intrigue of the overarching plot in the story mode (which is called "Campaign" mode, oddly enough), skirmish mode has less appeal than the story mode. Also, it can be argued that this should have been in the previous game.

Speaking of the story mode, this is the main appeal of the game. The story is a direct continuation of the events in the first game. The arch-villain in the first game may have been subdued, but there are still unscrupulous types after his near-god-like power, including a certain Nazi-sympathizer that would instigate events that give this game its name.

Familiar faces from the previous game return, and unlike the story mode of the previous game, they start at higher levels of power, which is perhaps appropriate considering that they are veterans of the events in the first game. There are also other changes that are associated with the narrative of the game, such as Alchemiss no longer having the "Timid" attribute, after having gone through what she has experienced. Some of the existing characters also sport a few new powers, which improve their versatility. Using the Alchemiss as an example again, she has a new power in the form of Arcane Blast, which is an area-of-effect variant of her signature Arcane Bolt.

There has been some renaming of powers, such as "Levitate", as it is known in the previous game, having been renamed as "Flier". This is more appropriate as a character with such a power can fly, whereas "Levitate" would have suggested telekinetic powers.

In the previous game, almost all powers except characters' most basic form of attack (which are usually regular melee attacks) consume energy; this limited the gameplay of the predecessor, and does not make for good presentation of the themes of the game, especially when a character that is better known for ranged attacks has to resort to punches when the player wants to conserve his/her/its energy.

In the sequel, the energy system has been revamped, though not necessarily for the better. The better aspect of this re-design is that signature powers of characters no longer need energy, namely the weakest but most reliable of powers that they have.

For example, El Diablo no longer needs energy to fire off regular-strength fireballs (though he still unilaterally powers them up on a whim). Speaking of El Diablo, flight-capable characters also recharge energy while they are flying, though at a reduced rate compared to when they are resting themselves while standing around. These changes make using characters' super-powers much more convenient.

However, the energy system has also been simplified such that some sophistication has been taken away from the game. The energy usage of all powers and the energy capacity of characters are now represented using discrete bars instead of a continuous bar, and each and every character has a maximum capacity of three bars.

This prevents powers from having subtle differences compared to each other in terms of energy expenditure, as well as differences among characters in terms of energy capacity; the only difference that they have now in the aspect of energy is how fast they regain energy bars. This would have consequences in character creation, where a player could be trying to squeeze in a few more points into a character or shaving a few off him/her/it to fulfill a limit on points.

By extension, Energy-X canisters that affect energy has also been revamped, such that they are perhaps more overpowered than before. In the previous game, it gave characters a tremendous boost to energy recharge, but otherwise prevented characters from being able to spam high-cost powers over and over as they are still limited by a finite energy recharge rate. In the sequel, these canisters fully recharge a character's energy reserves, and temporarily disable any energy consumption, thus allowing the character to spam powers repeatedly in that period of time. This can cause some gameplay imbalance.

In contrast, the system for the health of characters has not been changed, which is perhaps fortunate. However, a slight change has been effected on the Energy-X canisters that affect health: health canisters not only refill health now, but they also confer a short period of time in which the character that retrieved them would regenerate health as well. This can cause some gameplay imbalance, but it also makes it easier for a fleeing character to survive the attention of pursuers after having obtained a health canister.

Returning to the story mode, the game's utilization of Nazis as antagonists can seem like a tiresome trope to players that have played many games that feature them as villains. The Nazi soldiers in the game hurl praise after praise of the (fictional) Fuhrer of their time-altered regime and have stereotypical German accents, and each one is not much more different from the last. The Communist soldiers in the game are not much better either. Gameplay-wise, both kinds of soldiers are the usual chaff that the player has to go through before actually meeting the more interesting enemies.

Of course, one can argue that they act as the build-up to greater challenges, but they would have been worth the time if there were more rewards for dealing with them. Like in the previous game, defeated enemies only yield prestige points, and not the much prized experience points that are used to improve the capabilities of the superheroes of Freedom Force. Experience points still can only be obtained by completing objectives and collecting Energy-X canisters that affect experience (and as in the previous game, these only affect the characters that retrieved them).

At least the more interesting enemies are challenges that offer more fun. Interestingly, not all of these are overtly champions of the Soviets or Nazis, e.g. some powered-up military officers. These characters are amusingly campy, as are to be expected of comic book characters, and more importantly, offer boss fights that are worth the player's time (largely because they are associated with objectives that grant experience when completed).

For example, there is Red October, who is associated with the Soviets and is loyal to Mother Russia, but is a magic-working witch that is certainly far removed from the usual Soviet villains with ushankas on their heads. Another example is the Red Sun, which happens to be an Imperial Japanese ambassador of sorts that is a guest of the Nazi regime, and who happens to have abilities akin to a ninja of outrageous fiction.

As in the previous game, prestige points are needed to recruit heroes other than the core characters of the superhero group Freedom Force. Unlike the optional heroes in the previous game, some of those in Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich have animated slideshows that show their backstory; this is in addition to the backstories for the main characters in the first game.

There are also new primary characters, such as certain remarkable individuals that are fighting the good fight against the Third Reich but who belong to the World War II era. They do add some more flavour to a story with an otherwise stale theme of fighting against Nazis.

However, the true appeal of the story in this game only comes up in the second half, which is the half that would delight the fans of the Bronze Age of comics. To describe this half any more than this would be to invite spoilers, but it should suffice to say that the player would see the otherwise campy characters in the story and the canon of Freedom Force itself in a very different light.

Gameplay-wise, the second half contains the more challenging and bizarre of scenarios in the game, with plenty of the rules in the previous game thrown out the window, such as the need to minimize collateral damage as much as possible. This somewhat alleviates complaints about the previous game, namely those that concern restrictions on the player's playstyles (especially those who prefer explosively expedient solutions to problems).

On the other hand, the second half of the story mode imposes other kinds of restrictions, such as specific characters being only usable for certain missions; these had been in the previous game, but they appear to be even more numerous in this one. The player's reward for putting up with this is more dialogue and character development for these characters, which are certainly far from being boring, but for players who prefer unfettered playstyles, this can be disappointing.

Like the fundamentals of the gameplay, the graphics have been recycled from the previous game, though this is perhaps understandable as the game uses the same engine and this game only came a year after the release of the first game. Dialogue and monologue for the characters are still performed using sets of sparsely animated head models, and the textures in the game still consist of bold strokes with sharply contrasting colors. Animations also appear to have been recycled, at least for characters and objects from the previous game.

Of course, there are new content such as new characters and objects (namely those associated with the Nazis, though the swastika is not portrayed in its entirety); therefore, there are new models and perhaps new animations too. However, the particle effects that are used for them and their powers are still recycled from the previous game.

Sound effects have also been mostly recycled, and these are even used for the new characters and objects. Fortunately, the soundtracks are not recycled as much, though the new ones can seem a bit typical. For example, there are tracks with drumming that are appropriate for goose-stepping in missions that are associated with struggles against the Third Reich. Fortunately, the ones for the latter half of the game are more refreshing to listen to. However, to describe these further would be to invite spoilers, so it should suffice to say that they are appropriate for the occasions in the latter half (though they can still be considered amusingly campy).

The voice-acting is the most expanded aspect of the game's audio designs, understandably. A significant number of characters do not return in this game, especially the villains, so the player can expect the heroes to be the only familiar voices around. Of course, they already have exemplary (and appropriately campy) voice-acting and lines in the previous game, and they are definitely still as splendid in this one. However, the Nazis can be tiresome to listen to, especially for people that have already played many games that feature Nazis as villains.

In conclusion, a harsh player can consider this game to be little more than recycling of the previous game, that it is new only in terms of content, that some of its redesigns reduced the sophistication of the game a bit and that its multiplayer modes should have been in the previous game. However, it is undeniable that Freedom Force vs The Third Reich has a package of higher value than the one for the previous game, though Irrational Games could have done much better by offering it as an update for the latter instead of a standalone product.