Freedom Force Reviews

Crash-tastic! My memory of this game, of playing it off a CD, is that you could read an entire comic book waiting for a new level to load. Unfortunately that's the part of the game that has been preserved here. Bugs galore, including having actions edge off screen and characters 'dropping' through buildings making them unmovable or un-engagable. What was fun about this game originally was the campy concept and bright colors. It doesn't look right now. The bright colors and comic book dashes and dots with this early animation style doesn't scream page-turning immersive world. It's like a cheap, superficial game you'd get on a cellphone. The missions can be painfully simplistic and there isn't a sense of team building or world building. Your reward is largely your own imagination as you earn enough to unlock 'sets' of abilities or skills. If you're someone who wants the nostalgia either from the original release or from the really, really old comics, this might scratch the itch. If you have even slightly high standards informed by modern games, you'll be disappointed. The idea that something this simplistic came out in the same era as the Halo games or even the early Civilization games is a little shocking to contemplate. The people who designed it loved Patriot City and some of the 1980's kind of super villain tropes. They had fun with this, clearly, I just don't think it aged well and given the depth of both missions and conceptual design of other early 2000's games I remain shocked it was ever reviewed and ranked so highly. I guess get it if it's on sale or you're really, really curious about what people did when they weren't playing Quake back in the day.