Freedom Force

Back in the early 2000's, superhero-themed videogames had a really bad reputation for being either cheap movie tie-ins, or mediocre licensed games that relied on its superhero title for name recognition. Freedom Force was arguably the first good superhero game to come out, and it was addictively fun. First of all, the art style is amazing. The game is brightly coloured and corny, and the over-the-top voice acting and "secret origins" of the characters really evokes the silver age of comics. Each mission feels like playing through an actual issue of a real-life comic book: the missions are decently diverse, and cover a range of stereotypical comic-book tropes. By not relying on licensed DC or Marvel superheroes, the game devs were free to create their own hilariously campy cast of heroes, each with their own unique set of powers and playstyle. A large part of the game's appeal is learning to use each hero's power set as part of a larger team. Not all heroes are available for every mission, so the game encourages you to mix it up and try different team configurations. This kept the gameplay fresh and always exciting. Unfortunately, there are a few minor issues that prevent the game from achieving all-time greatness. Sometimes your heroes just won't register commands the first time. The UI can also be a bit clunky. For example, swapping between a given hero's powers can be a bit of a chore, as you have to select the new power from a drop-down menu. Ranged attacks are also not automatically continuous; to get a hero to repeat their ranged attack, you have to click once again on its target each time. These and other issues make it so that you'll need to pause the game frequently in the middle of big combats in order to update/reissue orders. The game also doesn't seem to like running on modern Windows systems; I experienced a few game freezes and CTDs. Still, the game is fun enough that I was willing to put up with these issues in order to play through the campaign.

At first, I wasn't particularly enthralled by FF. Neither the writing nor voice acting were a strong point at the start, and the fact that you only control a limited set of heroes with equally limited abilities at first didn't leave much room for tactics. However, the more I played, the more I grew to like what I was playing. With more enemies and heroes becoming available, the depth of the combat started to shine, as the attacks and defenses of both heroes and foes have certain damage types associated with them, which is why composing one's team to counteract weaknesses and exploit strengths becomes increasingly important. The game can be paused at any time, making it easy to coordinate stun attacks, ranged blasts, and so on. In addition, once I became accustomed to the cast of original characters, I could appreciate how well-done they were, nicely echoing the heroes of the silver age of comics. While the plot isn't particularly intruiging, it keeps thing moving enough to actually care about what happens. Still, there are some issues. The balance between heroes is very much off, as some are hilariously bad, while others are grossly overpowered. Supercollider, for instance, could be pitted against ten Blackbirds and would easily come out on top. Furthermore, the controls can be irritating, as zoom is limited, and selecting heroes in combat requires precision to where it's more convenient to use hotkeys. Furthermore, given the wide range of potential cast members, there aren't that many opportunities to use and develop your heroes as much as I wanted to, leaving me wanting. On a technical level, I had no issues whatsoever—the game ran stable and without issues. In short, if you like squad tactics and 60s comic book aesthetics, Freedom Force is absolutely worth playing.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED. This is one of the best comic-book-themed games ever created. The only bad thing is the crash rare bugs, though the missions are so short you will not be losing significant progress even in the unlikely worst case. The voice acting is the best I have heard thus far in any game. The campaign is quite long and varied and the ending was quite satisfactory. The overall level of writing and design is high. It is very difficult to not praise the game. There are multiple playstyles with different superhero combinations and difficulty levels and unlockable skills. There is a skirmish mode for extensive gameplay. It is simply rare to see a game this well done. I strongly dislike the spoofed U.S. comics, yet I can enjoy the game and played it through. Probably because it features plenty of humor and does not take itself too seriously. It is a game worth trying no matter what kinds of games you usually like. This version includes the 3 bonus disc characters, e.g. Supercollider. P.S. The game is real time action and NOT "Turn-Based" as stated in the tags. Sure you can pause constantly, though there is no turn actions perform. It is mostly to provide more time for issuing unit commands to your dudes.

The game is very cool, but the amount of bug is overwhelming. A problem that the game has since its original release, but never got properly patched. If you are willing to play this game (and if you like super hero comics you should) be prepared to bare a lot of glitch and missing XP due to an unbearable amount of bugs

Superb game. The overall Kirby/early marvel atmosphere is amazing in every single detail. Gameplay is interesting, challenging and with a wide variety. The plot flows perfectly in style. If one can find tiny issues, on Windows 10 the game is a touch lagging, has a bunch of crashes and feels slightly clunky in general. But absolutely a masterpiece to be played for all the lovers of squad based games. A game that knew how to age awesomely.