Freedom Fighters review

Being on fire doesn't slow down the Russian army.

Freedom Fighters is a third person squad-based shooter set in an alternate America where the Soviets won the Cold War. The game starts out with the Russians invading America with a huge army. You are a plumber who is working at the home of the leader of a Russian resistance movement when the Ruskies arrive. This throws you uncomfortably into the role of a freedom fighter as you get recruited for the resistance movement. As you take to the sewers with the resistance you earn respect, which allows you to recruit and lead other fighters. This leads to some AI squad based action with more and more recruits joining you as you progress.

Structured warfare

Don't feel that you need weapons to go against Russian gun emplacements

The game starts you in a sewer-based hideout with the other freedom fighters. From here you can move from building to building without being hassled by the Russians. You only have access to a certain number of buildings at a time, which might see you having to attack one to get supplies so that you can infiltrate the next one. Once that is complete you can go back to the first one and complete that to finish the mission. This mission structure does mean that there is a lot of back and forth to the sewer and then re-treading ground between buildings. It is a good way of designing the missions though as it feels like you are involved in a guerilla war, which, after all, is the point. You can tackle the buildings in any order you like but cutting off the enemy’s supply route means that troop numbers decrease and you have an easier time attacking the other buildings. You can also pick up weapons and ammo from fallen enemies and comrades, as well as from supplies left lying around.

There’s no I in team

Let your teammates do the hard work while you hide behind a crate

The squad-based aspect of Freedom Fighters uses a simple command system. This allows you to direct your squad to attack defend and regroup. You can also heal wounded teammates with spare health packs if you don’t need them for yourself. This means that even if they’re stupid and keep getting killed you needn’t be without assistance. The ability to individually direct your troops allows a fine control over your tactics through the mission. The missions can be played out as you like, allowing you to charge in all guns blazing or letting you sneak around, sending your troops ahead to scout out the enemy. The game tries to move you towards the right tactics for the level but you always feel like it’s you guiding the game. For all that, the levels are linear and slightly samey. They vary between outdoors levels where you are fighting through the Russian army to get to a building and then an interior level where you infiltrate the building.

Controlling the war machine

The aim mode can be useful for distance shooting but is a little tricky to use

The controls are a little hard to get to grips with in Freedom Fighters. The left thumbstick controls movement and the right the camera. This is fine except that clicking the left thumbstick brings up the aiming mode. This moves to a first person view so that you can line up the gun on the enemy. You only really need this for distance shooting as the auto-aim in the third person mode works pretty well for nearby enemies. However, holding the thumbstick down, moving, looking and shooting is a pretty tricky exercise making accurate distance shooting difficult with most weapons. The variety of weapons is pretty good though, ranging from pistols to shotguns, grenades and Molotov cocktails. These can be found helpfully lying around in the levels as well as being stolen from fallen characters.

The first bite is with the eye

The falling comet took everyone by surprise

The story in Freedom Fighters is conveyed through a series of pre-rendered cut scenes, which show a Russian news presenter relaying propaganda to the Americans to crush their spirits. This lets you know how your actions are affecting the Russian war machine. The in-game graphics are quite impressive. The characters look good although aren’t as detailed as they could perhaps have been, although they are viewed from a fair distance. The characters move well whether standing or crouching and the weapon explosions look fairly realistic. When characters are shot they react appropriately to the body part that was hit. Shoot a leg and they stumble momentarily, which gives you enough time to shoot again. Shoot the upper body and they stumble from the top, which again allows you time to line up another shot. Headshots can kill with one hit, although lining them up accurately is pretty tricky. The audio effects are also well implemented and use a decent surround mix. As characters talk to you and you move around them the sound moves between the speakers relative to their position to you on screen. This isn’t done wuite perfectly and a few times I did notice that the sound emanated from the wrong speakers. Despite this the sound adds to the atmosphere leaving you feeling like a guerilla commander in the thick of battle.

Guerillas in the mist

Choose your weapon on the Wheel of Fortune

The format of Freedom Fighters is one that could be extended into numerous sequels. I can envisage many follow-ups set in WW2, future and outer space if this title is a success, especially as it is being published by EA. I see no reason why it wouldn’t be a success - the game oozes quality, although a few things feel unfinished. The sound mix isn’t perfect and the voice acting particularly seems like the weak link in the presentation. EA have a reputation for re-releasing the same games year on year and its nice to see the start of what should be their latest franchise.