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One of the Best Games of 2003!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: March 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

There are few games that I'd use the term "great" while describing them. Freedom Fighters is such a game. Though released to critical acclaim in the fall of 2003, the game became a "sleeper" with higher profile titles being released around the same time. That critical acclaim was well deserved, because this is one game that has managed to surpass every one of my expectations.

Freedom Fighters takes place in what is described as an "alternate reality". In this timeline, the Soviet Union was the first to develop the Atom Bomb and bring and end to World War II. The game is prefaced by a brief rundown of events leading up to the present day. When the game begins, you find the game's hero, a New York plumber by the name of Chris Stone, is going about his daily route. When he and his brother stop to fix a clogged sink of a prominent anti-Soviet activist, he finds himself smack in the middle of the Red Army invasion. He's then thrust into the role of guerilla fighter.

The gameplay is what makes Freedom Fighters such an outstanding game. The game is a third person shooter. As you progress in the game and accomplish certain objectives, you gain "Charisma Points" which elevates your status eventually to where you can command fellow soldiers. You can recruit and command up to twelve freedom fighters with a very basic command interface, using the controller buttons, that works surprisingly well. Your troops will take cover and fight independantly when they need to, so you won't have to worry about them getting picked off one by one. The enemy A.I. is also very sophisticated. The Red Army will fight just as fiercely as your troops and will often try to pull and "end around", trying to sneak up on you and take you by surprise. The only thing that I didn't like about the controls was the precise aiming. It tended to be a bit of a pain to hold down the L3 button. The gameplay is structured so that whatever you accomplish in one mission ultimately affects another. For instance, if you blow up a helipad there will be no attack helicopters in another level. There is also an off-line multiplayer mode, which players engage in split screen action and co-op mode.

The graphics on this game are excellent, while other games may boast more photo realistic character models, the emphasis here placed on making the player feel like he was actually fighting on the streets of New York. Streets, street lights, snow, and even elevated train platforms have a very "New York" feel to them. One of the more intersting graphical features is what's called "rag doll" physics. When a parked car explodes it sends whoever is standing next to it flying into the air. Which makes for some pretty cool visuals. The sounds are also exceptional. Soldiers speak Russian, explosions rock the dual shock controller, tanks rumble through the streets. This game sounds as great as it looks and plays.

The story is moved along through the use of fake newscasts from the Soviet Armed Forces Network. This is a technique that was used in another game, Splinter Cell, earlier in 2003. But here the newscasts do a much better job at moving the story along. The obvious difference is that in Splinter Cell, the hero was operation covertly, but the newscasts did little to shed any light on the story and often felt like they were not interwoven into the fabric of the game. Here the newsbroadcasts feel like they are part of the game and help to immerse you further into the game.

Freedom Fighters is without a doubt one of the best games of 2003. If you're not playing it, you're really missing out on one of those really special games that makes you glad you own a Playstation 2. I HIGHLY recomend this game!

Awesome game! Equal to the Medal of Honor series!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: November 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

At first I was skeptical of this game, but I decided to pick it up based on some things I'd heard about it from other people who'd played it. I'm really glad I did! I just bought it a couple days ago and played it for 10 hrs. straight yesterday, it's that addictive!
The story line is great, in fact even though the Soviet Union hasn't existed since 1990-91 and hasn't been a military threat to the US for decades, this story line is carried so well in the game it's downright believable sometimes.
The graphics are simply awesome. Everything in every level looks very real, including the "cut" video scenes at the end of every level. The two main characters, Chris (who's the guy you play as in single player mode) and his brother are designed to look as what Mario and Luigi would look like if they were real people instead of cartoonish characters. The only drawback to the graphics I've seen so far is that while there's several different levels dependent on what you've done before in the game, the levels take place in different areas of the same places. There's two levels (that I've seen so far) on the docks area. Rather than this being IO/EA Games being cheap on the design, I think it's just because the whole story line takes place in NY City, so the designers are pretty much stuck with certain areas of NY for any levels that take place at the docks.
There's a multitude of weapons to use in the game, you choose which weapon you wish to use because you're not only able to pick up additional ammunition but on occasion drop the current weapon you have and pick up the weapon of somebody you or your team has just killed. This is especially useful in tougher levels where finding ammunition isn't as easy.
The team aspect of a single player mission is very SOCOM like. You're the team leader and can issue orders to your fighters. One additional fun thing is you've got to recruit fighters to join your anti-Soviet fight. If you've got enough "charisma" which you earn by freeing POWs, healing civilian wounded and other (mostly) non-killing things during the game, people will join your cause. If you don't, people will refuse your recruitment. It also seems that the designers have made each CPU character you can recruit have different fighting abilities. So far, I've had teams of recruited fighters that seemed to fight and follow orders better than others.
Even on the easiest setting, the AI does present a challenge in most levels, they don't just walk in blindly to your fire and almost willingly get killed. There are also soldiers with full body armor on in the game in certain places. These guys take a lot of strategy and smarts to deal with because unless you shoot them in the face, everything else just bounces off. It also even takes multiple grenades or molitovs to kill the guy. I think it's great because it requires you to use stealth sneaking as well as use your weapons wisely.
I also think as a bonus for players who don't play this type of game very much the levels on the easiest setting aren't TOO difficult and shouldn't cause a player to give up in frustration after just a couple levels.
I really hope this isn't just a one-time game from IO/EA Games. This game I think is of such good quality that it's worthy of a series of games that come out yearly, just like the Medal of Honor series. Perhaps the next game could be about terrorism in NYC and not the Soviets.

This is a classic, must-own for the PS2.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: October 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This one is a dark horse surprise. I had not heard much about this game until the day it came out and received some impressive ratings. So I picked it up on a whim, and I cannot put it down.

The controls take a little while to get used to, much like GTA, but once you do its fine. The graphics are ok, not great. But the game is fun enough to overtake that. It is very difficult in spots, although a different strategy or route is usually available to avoid the difficult areas. Course, I usually don't figure that out until I've spent an hour trying to make it through an area. The story has a nice mix of corniness and dark ambience. It like the cut-scene crew wasn't really in tune with the gameplay developers.

My one knock on the team control is that it is very difficult to assign any one particular team member to one location. Because they all carry different guns, sometimes you want the guy with the AK to guard a spot. That is difficult to do. However, it never was much of a problem.

The team interaction is nearly flawless. Sometimes the A.I. is too aggressive and team members will run out and get shot up before you are ready to attack, but overall it is well done. That's good because your team does the vast majority of the fighting late in the game.

The only bad thing is I find myself AT WORK thinking about this game or planning strategies to move past a level or obstacle. Not good for concentration.

One Of The Best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: November 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is absolutly incredible! I just love it. The whole story of underground (literally, your base is in the sewers) guerilla fighting is a premise for a great story line. The controls are very good and they are easy to get used to. You can lead up to twelve other "Freedom Fighters" into battle with 3 simple commands: attack/scout, defend, and fall back. I like the simplicity of it, unlike in Conflict: Desert Storm, which I found confusing. The weapons are very realistic. Unlike the Bond games from N64, where you can carry pretty much 20 guns, in this you can only hold one rifle and one pistol. Also, you really have to watch your ammo, because again, they don't give you much. My one complaint is that the game is too short. I hope they make a second one.

A PERFECT GEM

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: October 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It's seems that nowadays some games are made sloppy or just plain rushed to meet the deadline. Thank god for such talented developers like lo interactive. as you can see they've made a fanstactic job with hitman 2, and now freedom fighters. This game is hard, and i mean hard. but, well worth spending $50 to kick to commie ass right in the comfort of your living room. This game is so well balanced with action, stealth, alternate routes, graphics and sound. The "squad based" gimmick kinda scared me a little bit, due to some other games with the same gimmick, that were very unresponsive. after a few levels(and a few charisma level up's) I started sending my troops out to defend the north and scoutings troops to the west. MY GOD!!!!! this "recruit and command" system actually works, works very well. after seing how my troops responded to my commands. I figured out, this is not a one man army!. You'll need to recruit members and use them to your advantage. This game has everything for the hard core war gamer. Only have one problem. I, like other gamers out there, like my games realistic. This games has no blood, in my opinion, the only draw back. Aside from my little issue, this game kicks serious ass, I'm just hoping lo interactive makes a sequel to this gem.

The most fun you'll ever have shooting stuff.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: April 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Who did we fear in the 50's? Who has a vast arsenal of nukes? Who are stereotyped as an altogether ruthless and bloodthirsty people? That's right: the Soviet Union. Now, most of these stereotypes are completely exaggerated and hold almost no shred of truth. But does that stop IO Interactive from making a game about them? Hell no. Freedom Fighters asks another one of those classic "what if" questions. What if the USSR won the cold war? What would happen to the world? Well, according to the developers of Freedom Fighters, they would slowly conquer most of the eastern hemisphere and then invade the US in an attempt to overthrow the last country that holds out against them. This is where Freedom Fighters begins. You play as a plumber who becomes an urban guerilla soldier fighting the Soviets. Yeah, I'm being serious. Though it may sound a bit out there, this is actually an incredible game, even if it is politically incorrect. You start off with a wimpy little pistol, but can soon obtain weapons such as shotguns, assault rifles, and even rpg's. You can pick these up wherever you find them during gameplay, allowing you to chose the best weapon for whatever job you have to accomplish. One of the features that makes this game so much fun is the ability to control a squad of up to 12 ragtag soldiers to do your dirty work for you. You can order them to attack, defend, or follow you like bodyguards. Yes, they can die, but you can heal them so they can rejoin the battle. If you get really good ordering your men, you can blow through an entire level without ever firing a shot. The third-person view gives you an excellent perspective of your environment, and the auto-target feature really helps with your shooting. After finishing the game, you have the freedom to replay any level in the game, including one bonus level on Liberty Island. This gives the game a great replay value, ensuring that this game will keep you entertained for months, if not years. Buy this game, you won't regret it.

Awesome....just awesome....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When I first got this game I had my doubts for some of the same reasons others may have had doubts. The way the game was described to me it sounded alot like State of Emergency with the whole fighting for freedom in a active urban atmosphere. Sounds great but State was very disappointing due to the overall impersonal feel of the game. Freedom Fighters is the game State should have been. Everything about this game is incredible to me. The major plus is the one key squad commands you give to your "freedom fighters". Also what impressed me was the fact that the fighters had respectable a.i. once you send them out on their orders, because for me it is ultimatly frustrating to see one of my men shot down when they could have ducked behind something. In addition the game gives the combat a very "freestyle" feeling in that you can run through an area fire quickly, reload very quickly and never really break stride. Plus you never get stuck firing on a dead body. They maintain the pace of the game by having many targets and by facilitating your rapid change of focus so that one minute you are firing in front of yourself then you can quickly spin an fire on another target in one fluid motion with no jerky lag time. This game is simply fun to look at and play. Overall a pleasure to play over and over and over....

ONE HELL OF A GOOD GAME!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

"Freedom Fighters"--what's that? Only one of the greatest games ever made, that's what! I've owned it for about two weeks now and I haven't played anything else. It just doesn't get old. The "ragdoll effects" that made Hitman 2 such a joy are even better in Freedom Fighters (bodies fly out of explosions, bounce off walls, flop down stairs--beautiful!) There are only 9 missions, including one unlockable bonus mission, but most of those 9 are looooong missions, boy. The last mission alone takes a minimum of two hours to beat! And you won't believe the action. I've played war games like SOCOM and MOH Frontline, but they don't come close to the intensity of Freedom Fighters, especially when you're able to command twelve (count 'em--TWELVE!) gung-ho rebel soldiers. Woo!

Controlling your crew is incredibly simple. Triangle button=attack, square button=regroup, x button=recruit and circle button=hold position. That's it. And they actually obey you! If you want a couple of them to run kamikaze into a machine-gun nest, they'll do it, no questions asked! In addition to being the team leader, you're also the team medic. After the gunfire has faded, it's up to you to find and heal your wounded. Or not--it's your choice. You can also be a Good Samaritan and heal the enemy's wounded. They'll be so thankful that they'll join you and take up arms against their own army!

I love this game. I love everything about it: the story, the graphics, the sound, the voice-acting, the cut-scenes, the dialogue, the fast load times and the steady frame-rate--I can't find a flaw anywhere. And best of all, there's room for plenty of sequels! I raise a glass of hijacked Vodka to the folks at IO Interactive and may Freedom Fighters 2 (and Hitman 3) be just as good as the originals. Dasvidanya!

This game ROCKS!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I rented this game and I just could not stop playing it. Its first player is cool. I like how you start off as a plumber and move to the top Freedom Fighter. I also like it because you can recrute people and you can send them happily off to thier deaths. I like that he reloads and aims by himself, unless you go on the aiming mode which is mostly for getting people from distances.
The multiplayer is cool too. All the levels are kind of like king of the hill except with flags. But if you don't want to do that, you can just play around and capture the other teams base. It is one of the funnest multiplayers I have ever played. It will keep you and your friend ocupied for at least a day.
Over all. This game is the best game you can get for under $20. It will keep you entertained for months

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I rented this, and i fell in love as soon as i mastered the controls and got the two fighters wtih me. its great, from the idea to the story to the gameplay. the only major disadvantage is the shortness of the whole thing.i started playing thursday night, and my friday midday i was done. but i had so much fun i had to do it again, so i did, but this time instead of easy i put one up, and now, the game has turned into one hard game. before i breezed through the missions, rearly dying, and now, its a mystery if i don't die. its not that bad, its just more of a challenege to use tactics and your guys instead of simply running in, killing everyone and having your guys take out whoever is left behind you. while the game may be short, if you put it on a hard enough level, you'll spend plenty of time playing it.

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