User Rating: 9 | Freedom Fighters XBOX
The gameplay is phenominal, the graphics are stylized, and the sound is superb. The only things Freedom Fighters has working against it is its extremely short length and spotty enemy AI. The story of Freedom Fighters places you in an alternate ending to the Cold War. The Soviets have conquered most of the globe, including the United States. Their military might is intimidating, with soldiers and turrets on every corner. A small group of rebels has taken it upon themselves to rid New York City of the Soviet presence, and this where you come in. You will be assigned on many missions throughout the course of the game, but unfortunately they don't offer much variety. You'll find yourself repeatedly raising the American flag over certain landmarks such as schools and movie theatres that the Soviets are using to house their soldiers or store supplies. And you'll spend a lot of time blowing up helicopter landing pads and power towers. That's about it for the objectives, but there is a bit of strategy involved. At the beginning of each level you'll be presented with a map that displays all the different objectives you need to accomplish in that area. The order that you complete the tasks in is up to you, though if you do them in the most strategic order you'll find that the game becomes substantially easier. For example, if you choose to blow up a heli-pad used for dispatching troops, then in all the other parts of this given level the troop numbers will be considerably lower. The enemy AI is probably the worst aspect of the game. Sometimes you'll see the Soviets use cunning techniques, but most of the time they will just sit around and let you pummel them with bullets. At one part of the game I jumped on top of the roof of a small shack directly above at least 30 different soldiers, none of whom could ever figure out where I was shooting from. The graphics during the actual game are very nice. The only place that they could use a bit of work is during the cut-scenes, which typically look blocky and awkward. It's a minor point since the cut-scenes are low in number, but it's noticeable nevertheless. The sound is astonishing, especially the musical score. It establishes the mood very well and makes you feel the magnitude of what you're doing on-screen. The voice acting is almost always well done, and the Russians sound...Russian, which of course is nice. To play the game successfully, you'll have to have good command of your troops. Fortunately, they respond to commands very well and there were very few instances where they did something terribly dumb. The controls are mapped well. The auto-aim feature works just fine, though you'll usually be firing body or limb shots which take numerous hits to kill. If you use this method too often you'll most likely find yourself scrambling for ammo. For more precision you can fire manually, which requires you to hold down the left thumbstick. It is a bit awkward and takes some time to get the hang of, but once you get it it works very well. The story is more than a little appropriate in this day in age, and deserves at least a bit of praise for putting some things in perspective. For fighting against the Soviets you are labeled a terrorist. Putting this in perspective with the way that people in Baghdad who fight against the US Army are labeled terrorists, it doesn't take a lot of mental work to make the connection. It's a fine political statement to say the least. Unfortunately the game is extremely short, you should have no problem finishing it in 7-9 hours on the hardest difficultly setting. I started the game on Saturday afternoon on the hardest difficulty setting. Seven hours later the game was finished, before I had even eaten my dinner. It was a great seven hours though, I just wish there were more.