he modern tactical squad game owes an immeasurable debt to an unlikely little slice of diversion that arrived to much jubilation nearly a decade ago on the PC. That game was X-Com: UFO Defense and involved a band of international extraterrestrial hunters who were haphazardly shuttled around the globe to hunt little green men (et al.) and wage nail-biting turn-based battles with a veritable grab bag of sci-fi paraphernalia. It was just a matter of time before someone successfully married America's favorite pulp pastime—comic books—to a real-time version of the tactical slug-a-thon, and in 2002, Irrational Games delivered Freedom Force, a 3-D superhero sandbox brawler that emphasized serious strategy without ducking campy banter and oodles of four-color flamboyance.
The three-year wait for the inevitable sequel is over, and Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich occurs after the nefarious (and unpleasant-looking) alien Lord Dominion has been soundly trounced by Freedom Force, a band of superhuman individuals who were exposed to a mutagenic substance called "Energy X." In the original, Lord Dominion intended to subjugate planet Earth by infusing Earth's criminals with Energy X, but was thwarted by a dissenting alien named Mentor, who smuggled canisters of Energy X to Earth to counter Lord Dominion's supervillains with a league of super good guys. The sequel's story takes place one year after Lord Dominion's defeat, and concerns time-travel shenanigans that culminate in an alternate-history nightmare: Germany wins World War II, and the minions of the Third Reich take over the world.
Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich follows a linear story campaign broken into missions, into which various heroes can be inserted in squads of four. As heroes succeed in battle, they gain experience and can train up skills and powers between missions. The missions play out in a bevy of largish locales, ranging from cities and parks to underground and rural settings. The camera hovers behind each hero at a roughly 3/4 isometric angle, but can be zoomed in or out at leisure, and, excepting a handful of keyboard shortcuts, the game is designed to be played almost entirely with a mouse. Players move or execute special attacks by right-clicking on locations or targets and selecting from a dynamic context-sensitive menu, and battles can be slowed or paused at will for tactical noodling.
A Silver Age to rival Stan Lee
The only criticism worth leveling at a game as polished and laugh-out-loud amusing as Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich is that it doesn't do anything terribly new. On the other hand, that's pretty light roasting considering how much the game gets right. On the surface, this is one of the better tactical squad sims on the market, with a Silver Age story to rival Stan Lee at his kookiest. What the marketing on the package won't (and can't) advertise, however, is that this is actually a first-class all-around superhero simulation tool—so finessed and well-stocked with customization options that it can be used to recreate virtually any comic-book superhero from any of the major A-grade franchises.
Visually the engine has been notably improved, with far more sophisticated light sourcing and color blending, though the four-color comic-book look has been lovingly preserved. The super-destructible environment seems even more so this time around, with enhanced shadows and special effects, and the character models have also been kicked up a graphical notch.
Imagine a slightly improved version of an already great superhero game with 13 new missions and another 12 to 15 hours of gameplay (if played at normal or higher difficulty) and that about sums up Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich. Yes, multiplayer is still a little rough around the edges, with often vacant online Internet rooms and a small community, but it's difficult to blame that on the game when multiplayer battles allowing squads of custom heroes to brawl comes off so well in action. The only thing missing are more multiplayer game types, e.g. "capture the flag," to liven things up when head-to-head brawling wears out its welcome.
While it's fair to suggest at a glance that this is more of an expansion pack than a standalone game, a runtime look at the tremendous production value and classy tribute to Kirby-and-Ditko artwork should assuage any fears that 40 bucks is too much for another tango with Irrational Games' magnum opus. There's a lot of boilerplate stuff on the market right now—fortunately there's Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich to remind us that it's still possible to blend meat-and-potatoes substance with dazzling artsy style.
I turn my games over annually and keep a small handful around to play again and again—I count the Freedom Force series among these, and this sequel's just earned that rarest of rare places in my collection.
—Matt
Back to the top.
