The game's graphics engine does a great job of building a 3D world with a comic
book look. The city is alive with traffic and people - be careful when
crossing the street, even heroes can be hit by a car. The camera supports
free zooming and scrolling, but does not support rotation. This works just
fine most of the time, but sometimes objects and obstructions do not become
transparent when needed and it can be hard to find a person blocked by such an object.
Another knock against the game's graphics engine is that it can be hard at times
to find enemies. There is no built-in mechanism for highlighting or
selecting nearby enemies, so sometimes it feels like a mouse hunt in the dark
when you are trying to find nearby enemies.
The game does have a multiplayer component, but it is the game's weakest
point. Play is supported through GameSpy, and up to four players can join
a game. Unfortunately, the only mode of play that is supported is a death
match free for all, and you better have at least one pumped-up hero on your
computer before venturing online. The lack of play modes is disappointing,
as is the choice of mode supported. Super heroes battling it out against
each other is a complete contrast to the spirit of the rest of the game.
It would have been much better to provide cooperative modes of play where
players could use their powers in concert to defeat the minions of evil.
Multiplayer aside, Freedom Force is a thoroughly enjoyable game. You'll
often find yourself wanting to play the next mission just to gain one more hero,
or see what happens next. Like a limited special edition comic book, you'll
enjoy it thoroughly and wish that it could keep going when you reach its end.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
91%. They finally made a superhero game, and they did it right.
There are few knocks against the game outside of a few interface issues and a
disappointing multiplayer component.
System Requirements: Pentium II 300; 96 MB RAM; 16 MB
Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; 570 MB Hard Drive
Space; Mouse.
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