When gamers think of comics, they do not usually associate them with PC games. The reason as many of us have seen, is that comic book type games have never been translated very well to the computer screen. The few attempts at a comic book style game has resulted in failure and thus many developers have not taken the initiative in producing any more as they have never proven very successful. Irrational Games founded in 1997 hopes to change this with the release of their comic style real-time tactical RPG known as Freedom Force. Irrational Games is a company well known for many successful games such as Thief: The Dark Project, Ultima Underworld and System Shock 1 and 2. With so many successful games to their credit, is Freedom Force the game that takes this style of game out of failure and into success? Let’s see for ourselves.

Freedom Force includes over ten different and unique superheroes for use in battles against powerful and mysterious supervillains in multiplayer or in the 20+ scenario campaign included with the game. You will not find famous superheroes such as Batman, Superman or others within this game. The developer felt that they would run into many difficulties using such licensed superheroes and felt that introducing their own unique ones would allow them to produce a better game. From the superior speed of the Bullet, to the tunneling ability of the Ant and the strength of their leader Minuteman you will find something to like about each superhero in this game. Each of the new superheroes is nicely introduced in the game with their own animated comic style movie that details their history and how they obtained their powers. This indeed shows the dedication, detail and quality to produce the experience one would have of a comic book. Yet, those that still want to play as there famous superheroes have not been forgotten as a special character modeling tool has been made available at the games website that will allow you to create your own models of your famous heroes to play with in the game. If you want to make Superman, Spiderman or any other classic superhero, only your imagination limits you to what you can do with this game. I found the story quite interesting as well about the mysterious substance known as Energy-X that has imbued both the world’s criminals and ordinary citizens with vast powers. This in turn leads to the eventual creation of the Freedom Force team (which you belong to) which is lead by Minuteman to stop the supervillains and their destruction of the known world. With so many impressive features to be found within this game, how does it look and sound?

Freedom Force uses the powerful and popular NetImmerse 3D Game Engine to produce some beautiful environments. This is also the same graphics engine that is used to create the awesome environments in the RPG game Morrowind. The creators of Freedom Force do their best to inject this game with the spirit of the classic comic books as you see all the varied and diverse environments you will play in. Patriot City, in which our story takes place in, is nicely detailed, with its sprawling streets, filled with many details, such as citizens walking through the streets, gangsters bothering some of those citizens, to the cars moving along the street. If you stop playing for awhile you can take this all in and become amazed at how Irrational Games is able to make Patriot City come alive for the gamer. Sound effects are done quite well and range from exploding buildings to heavy enemy bullet fire, as excellent 60’s type of music plays in the background. The game engine used is flexible as well to allow for the massive destruction our heroes can cause with almost anything in the environment. You see a tree in the distance, or a lamppost to your liking; you can uproot them at your desire and use them to dispose of your enemies. Especially interesting is that you can pick up heavier objects such as water towers, cars, and phone booths. Such is the beauty of this game that you can pick up almost any object in the environment to use in smashing your foes. Be careful though, because you will lose prestige points if you heavily damage the city as the citizens will not appreciate it. Prestige points are given to you for accomplishing your objectives within each scenario in the campaign. These points will enable the gamer to add additional special powers to their superheroes that will make them stronger and result in them unleashing mightier blows upon their enemies.

This game does include an interesting but small RPG system for leveling up your superheroes. As previously mentioned, within the campaign you will be awarded prestige points based on factors, such as accomplishing your objectives within the game. Each area within the 20+ campaign has its primary and secondary objectives. A primary objective may be to hunt and defeat a major supervillain while the minor secondary objective might have you defeating all of the lesser enemies within a particular area. You only need to complete the primary objective to proceed throughout the campaign as secondary objectives do not need to be completed but more prestige points will be awarded if you do. Control within this game is fairly simple as well. By left clicking on the mouse you can attack your enemies or grab objects such as cars in the environment to throw at them, while right clicking will allow you to click on enemies to view their health bar as well as powers you can use to attack them. For example, Minuteman can use a power such as, strike for freedom, to attack a group of enemies. Your superhero also depends on his red health and purple energy bar at all times. If your energy is depleted you will not be able to use any special powers to attack or if it is low they will not be as powerful. Powerups, such as health and energy canisters can be found along the way to help the superhero out in a time of need. Along the way your party will grow with the addition of other diverse and mysterious superheroes that will aid you with your objectives and there own formidable powers. The story as well is quite engaging and very suspenseful at times with diverse quests and as superheroes and supervillains are introduced throughout the campaign. One quest has you using stealth to slip by your enemies unseen while others are direct attacks against groups of tougher supervillains and enemies. As I saw the introduction cut scene and others scattered throughout the game I sat there amazed at how closely they mirrored the style and atmosphere of our beloved comic books.

The developer should be admired for creating the environments, supervillains, superheroes, story elements and other facets in this game in such a way to model the feeling of comics from the 60's. This game does succeed where others of this type have failed. The team at Irrational Games emulates gracefully the feeling of reading a comic book, through the voices of the superheroes and villains, the movies that introduce our superheroes, the small RPG system in use and to the special scenes at key points that advance the story. Any comic book fan that is also a gamer and likes a small dose of RPG gaming will feel quite at home with this game. You can be assured that the developer promises expansions as well as sequels to this game that has proven quite successful. I see only two major flaws in an otherwise great game that lessens the gamers overall enjoyment of it. First, I did not like that the locations in scenarios seemed very small, contained and restrictive as I would have hoped that they would have made environments that were larger, involving and more engaging. For example, there are buildings that appear within many locations, and I would have loved to have been able to enter these buildings to explore and battle in. I would also have enjoyed quests that went beyond the restrictive borders of the small playing areas that allowed your party to adventure very deeply in them instead of being taken into new maps and sectors when you had completed a particular primary objective and were given a new one. Secondly, I would have liked the inclusion of a mini-map showing me the layout of the particular area I was in as many times I was simply confused as to where the main primary objective was and I had to fuddle my way through certain areas to find a particular supervillain that I may have been looking for. While the areas that you can fight in are sometimes small, they can often be very maze-like and the player without a mini-map may become frustrated by the layout of a particular area. Beyond this, the many merits of Freedom Force alone warrant your consideration and interest if for nothing else than allowing you to relive the role of a mighty superhero from the "Silver Age" of comics.