One Of The Few Games Where They Seem to Have Tried
I had heard nothing about the game; I had simply read the back of the cover and was intrigued and thought to myself, "Why not?"
I was impressed from the start.
The two biggest features of this third-person strategy shooter include:
1.) Squad Commands and
2.) Actions Carrying Over to Other Levels (I have no idea if there's a simpler word/phrase for that)
First of all, the squad commands, though simply, were impressive. Throughout the game, by completing certain (optional) objectives and levels, you'll unlock the ability to gather more AI to fight along side you. In this day and age, team AI is usually sluggish, incompetent, and...well, down right stupid. However, Freedom Fighters brought to the table (and the sewers) a group of AI that seem to have an idea of what to do, and they could do it well. Sadly enough, the AI in this strategy game beats out much of the next-gen AI, such as from R6:V2.
Second, your actions in one location affect others. If, in one part of the city, you're running into heavy troop movement, simply travel to another location and plant C4 on a nearby bridge, causing the enemy to re-route its troop movement to a different location (and away from your squad). The majority of these objectives are totally optional (I said majority), but are enough to make the game feel like you have more control to strategize as you please. Should you rescue the captives first or eliminate the troop movement in the area first?
One new thing that I have rarely seen before is the ability to take action in one place, leave BEFORE beating the complete mission, and come back later, without having to re-do the said action. So, if I blew up that bridge and then immediately beat the other locations first, I don't have to blow up that bridge again.
I must say, overall, Freedom Fighters is a definite must buy, considering it can be picked up at any local used-game store for under $15.