Fans of Freedom Force will find more of the same to love here, and anyone comic fan should get a serious kick out playing a game that plays up the superteam aspects with all it’s resulting drama and action. RPGs are a hard sell for casual gamers who don’t already love ‘em, but if you get a hankering for a hunk of cape on cape action, this is the game to turn to. So either get yourself a copy here, or you can just download the demo and then decide whether I’m completely insane or not.
Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich
3 Stars
I’m a recovering gamer. I’ll admit it. I spent my time with 12 sided die and the distinct scent of nerdom. Being that I’m fundamentally anti-social, it’s no suprise I eventually lost interest in RPG’ing. That disatisfaction has mostly extended itself to video game RPGs as well, but I’ve often wondered if I was just being stubborn. So when I got the chance to review Irrational Game’s Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich, I decided to jump back into to those nerdy waters and see what all the hubbub was about.
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| Take that, Ratzi! |
I was only passingly familair with the first Freedom Force game, but lack of knowledge with it’s predecessor didn’t seem to be an issue, as FFvt3R goes out of it’s way to give you an overall grasp of the storyline. Harkening back to the halcyon days of Jack Kirby’s glorious comic book reign, Freedom Force vs the 3rd Reich takes a group of super-powered do-gooders and pits them against foes both current and from the past. A brief introduction explains how an alien chemical has bestowed all manner of individuals with fantastic powers and then jumps right into plot. Bascially, you control any number of heroes as they battle Cold War era villans, and ultimately return to World War II, to take on the most popular punching bags of all time, the Axis powers.
For any comic book reader with a good grasp of the genre’s history, FFvt3R hits all the right notes. Every hammy utterance and plot twist feels like it could have been taken from any number of 40-50’s era four color adventures. I was really impressed by Irrational Game’s understanding of what made those comics so popular and effective, and I give them high marks for handling that style with an able combination of reverence and camp.
As for the actual game itself…
I’m a notoriously impatient gameplayer, as I hate reading manuals and would rather just jump right in. FFvt3R did me some justice by allowing me to just start a single player campaign and explain the mechanics of gameplay as I went about getting my hero on. Since RPGs are by their nature more involved than your standard shoot ‘em up or puzzle game, the opening level was chock full of short tutorial message and explanations that you could choose to view or ignore, depending on your ability. I was a bit hazy the first go round, but after playing the very brief introduction level again I had a firm grasp on how to get my characters to most effectively fight for truth, justice, and all that.
I was a bit taken aback by the second level, as you go from controlling two characters to 3, which may seem like no big stretch, requires a goodly more dose of concentration and strategic thinking, especially when the characters’ strength and weaknesses are more varied. As any character you’re not actively controlling is fairly independent and autonomous, it’s easy to focus on one character and forget that perhaps their team mates need a little assistance. However, after the second level was complete, I was able to handle the team aspects with less effort and consequently began to enjoy myself more.
As I’ve nowhere near the spare time I used to have, one element of RPGs that’s always turned me off is the extensive character stats and abilities that you have to track, modify, and boost as the game progresses. Unlike the majority of game genre’s, where your character’s basic abilities stay the same throughout the game (and the increases come in the form of new weapons, etc), RPGs absolutely require you to stay on top of your character’s development otherwise you’ll soon find yourself getting beat down with each increasingly difficult level. That aspect is still a turn-off for me, but FFvt3R managed to make the process less painful that I would have expected. Boosting my character’s powers and abilities still took some deliberation and care, but overall it was certainly no deal-breaker for me.
Overall, I was impressed with the look and feel of FFv3R. The menu graphics and Jack “King” Kirby look of the character designs really struck a chord in my comic book lovin’ heart. The gameplay was intuitive and took only minimal effort to pick up the nuances of more streamlined play. My only real complaint was the awkward view mechanics, and what felt to me like a slower than ideal gamespeed even on my beastly workhorse of a system.
Fans of Freedom Force will find more of the same to love here, and anyone comic fan should get a serious kick out playing a game that plays up the superteam aspects with all it’s resulting drama and action. RPGs are a hard sell for casual gamers who don’t already love ‘em, but if you get a hankering for a hunk of cape on cape action, this is the game to turn to. So either get yourself a copy here, or you can just download the demo and then decide whether I’m completely insane or not.