The gameplay of Freedom Force is simple and fun. The first few missions explain all the basics of what's going on and give you plenty of practice with the controls and using your characters' different powers. Since you'll control no more than four superheroes per mission, the action never gets overwhelming; instead you're able to focus on micromanaging your mighty squad's abilities. Some enhancements to the mouse-driven interface and friendly artificial intelligence help make this sequel somewhat more intuitive to play than its predecessor, but there was already a very strong interface and combat system in place. It's still as exciting as ever to do such things as pick up and throw cars at your foes, knock down entire buildings as you fight, and smack thugs around far and wide. The game lets you pause the action (or slow it down, alternatively) whenever you want. But you'll definitely spend more time executing different attacks and watching as they pan out instead of just sitting there staring at a static screen and wondering how to proceed. Overall, the combat system is easy to get into, but it's quite deep, meaning that characters can have dramatically different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

The tactical combat at the heart of the game is easy to get into and a lot of fun.

You'll face a variety of different, new enemies. Goose-stepping, semi-incompetent Nazi stormtroopers, floating brain things, and killer gorilla experiments are just some of the fodder you can look forward to beating up on. These aren't necessarily intended to be the shrewdest of foes, but their AI is still noticeably lacking in some cases, as you'll sometimes be able to mosey right on up to your enemies without them so much as noticing. Nevertheless, once triggered, your foes will use a variety of different attacks to try to stop you. Managing your forces' powers and positioning while keeping a sharp eye out for health power-ups tends to be the order of the day.

Apart from the action RPG-style gameplay, the only real role-playing elements come in the form of the character-customization system. Characters gain experience points between missions and you can buy new abilities or upgrade existing ones with these points. It's a good system that lets you make meaningful decisions without miring you down in too much minutia. You can also slightly influence the story depending on which characters you bring into a mission. But, in the spirit of telling you a good story, the game doesn't ever prompt you to make decisions or otherwise take part in an open-ended gaming experience like you'd get from a more-traditional computer RPG.

Though Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich recycles a lot of the same graphics from the first game, it includes a whole bunch of new environments for you to explore, fight in, and accidentally (accidentally!) destroy. From communist-controlled Cuba to the heart of the German war machine in World War II, you'll get to see plenty of larger-than-life locations that can be torn down piece by piece if you so choose. A number of the game's missions are races against time or other such endurance tests, which help break up the action while adding some suspense. The game doesn't get frustrating, though, thanks partly to the ability to quickly save your progress at any time.

Freedom Force's visuals have held up surprisingly well for this installment, thanks largely to the game's cohesive art style and a variety of new bells and whistles. It's too bad that the close-ups of the characters talking aren't lip-synched during the game's numerous dialogue sequences, though. It also would have been nice if the 3D characters you'll see during missions better resembled the hand-drawn counterparts you'll see during the game's entertaining storyboard-style cutscenes. However, the animation, realistic physics, and colorful look still shine through, making for a great-looking game overall. The cutscenes and other little presentational frills enrich the entire experience.

A great presentation helps draw you into the game's unique world.

The audio contributes even more heavily to establishing the game's mood and tone. The same talented voice actors who gave their characters so much personality in the first Freedom Force reprise their roles here, and they once again deliver their lines with the sort of unfaltering conviction you'd hope for. As well, the dialogue itself is sharply written, packing in plenty of amusing one-liners and witty banter, while almost never stooping to using irony to poke fun at what's going on. Meanwhile, a rousing musical score blares during many of the missions, and the sound effects, which are unchanged, still complement the action and fit perfectly. Some of the characters' speech repeats a bit too often during gameplay, but overall, it's difficult to fault Freedom Force's audio on any level since it's so key to what makes the game as likable as it is.

Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich is absolutely worth playing if only for the story. Fortunately, the action itself is plenty entertaining, too, and there's lots of it. And while the game's technical aspects haven't been radically revised since the original, they've aged almost as gracefully as the comic books that inspired it. This is all great news for Freedom Force fans, whose ranks probably consist of the vast majority of people who played that game. Yet, possibly the best news of all is that the satisfying conclusion of this second Freedom Force installment suggests that there will still be more where this came from.