Freedom Force

Freedom Force was a game I initially got, together with the 3rd Reich expansion, way back in January during one of the sales on Steam. At the time, both of the games were being sold for USD2 which is an incredible deal. At that price, the game would still be worthwhile even if I only got several hours worth of entertainment out of it.

On a side note - I love the occasional sales on Steam. As I type this, Fallout 3 Game of The Year edition is on sale for USD25 and is currently being downloaded onto my PC. Can't wait to get started so let me know if there are any good mods I should be downloading as well.

Anyway, I finally got around to finishing Freedom Force after several months of occasional playing. The game itself is a real time strategy game where you take control of 4 members of the Freedom Force - a group of superheroes dedicated to Freedom, Liberty and all that good stuff. After forming your group of superheroes, you find yourself pitted against numerous superpowered enemies before finally taking on the big bad himself (who, in the greatest tradition of comic book villains, is out to destroy the Universe!).

Stuff I liked
Atmosphere
What you think of the games atmosphere will really depend on whether you like comic books. More specifically, whether you liked the silver age of comic books as this is were the game clearly draws its inspiration. However, what Irrational have managed to do is throw in a heavy serving of cheese with the game. The amount of melodrama belies description (at least for my paltry vocabulary) and really has to be seen to be believed.

Superheroes
You are controlling a squad of superheroes. I'm a serious comic book and superhero nerd. Come on - do I really need to elaborate on this?

Flexible powers
Irrational have done a great job in building up a diverse list of superpowers. Certainly, there is enough in the game that you can easily imagine building up a Marvel or DC superhero quite easily. In fact, you don't need to imagine it as the mod community has a library of skins and game mods for you to try out a new batch of superheroes. Spider-Man, X-Men, FF - they can all be recreated here for your amusement.

Characters
The heroes themselves are a great bunch of characters. I was tempted to immediately sub in my favourite Marvel superheroes when I started to play this game. However, I decided to stick with the default characters and I was really glad I did. The heroes in the default list you get to choose from are an eclectic and strange, but funny, bunch of characters and the developers did a fantastic job in designing them.

Stuff I didn't like
Superheroes?
Unfortunately, the superheroes you get to control feel seriously underpowered. At no point in the game do you feel as if you are controlling a group of superpowered heroes. If you ever get in a fight with a bunch of goons, you are going to be lucky to come out alive (even if the goons in question are your ordinary run-of-the-mill gangsters). I can understand that this is done for gameplay balance reasons - but still, its annoying to have to micromanage even when you face off against ordinary humans.

Not enough RPG
I really shouldn't complain about this considering that the game was designed as a real time strategy game. However, I can't help but feel that a more robust leveling up system would have helped the game. Possibly, this is tied into the first dislike that I had above.

On a side note, I know this will never happen but I really wish someone would develop a turn based superhero RPG. That game would scratch so many itches. Way too niche for a mainstream developer though. Maybe an indie developer?