Freedom Planet

Let me give you some perspective first. I don't play platformers. I haven't played them in more than 15 years. I left them as not a worthwhile use for my time. Freedom Planet changed this. The game captivated me with it's colorful graphics and varied gameplay thanks to Jesse Cox streaming it for GOG. The characters are cute and endearing, thanks to the great charcter design, animation and voice acting. The graphics are colorful and detailed and the level design has a lot of variety to keep things fresh. The controls are very responsive even with a keyboard and the game is a joy to play. The platforming is challenging and fun, and the combat is satifying with a variety of different ways you can dispatch your opponents. The music is themed well for every individual level and I found myself humming along to the tunes more than once. The story mode is a nice addition. It gives you a brief respite between the action packed levels and helps getting to know the characters and thier motivations. You start to care about them and their world and that in turn motivates you to play the game. What more I can say. Freedom Planet captured me and didn't let me go until Lord Brevon was defeated and I still keep coming back when I need some fun in my life. In short, this game is more than the sum of it's parts. Something unique that effortlessly made it to my list of best games of all time along with titles like Thief 2, System Shock, Civilization, Elite and XCOM. This was something I did not expect.

It is rare that I find myself sitting in front of a video game for longer than 45 minutes at a time. That said, Freedom Planet kept me on the edge of my seat for 4 hours straight, until I beat Classic Mode as Lilac. I haven't been so thrilled by a 2D platformer since I played the SNES as a child. It's everything I loved about mascot platformers, and it takes all of those elements in an new direction. It's less a clone of what you're already familiar with, and more exploring what those older games couldn't do, or simply didn't. Freedom Planet not only has fun, vast stages that you can speed through, or take your sweet time exploring. (It encourages exploring more-so with Carol and Milla, the other two playable characters.) The bosses are like anything you would expect in a Treasure game, and it puts everything Sonic has ever done to shame. They're big, hard, fast, and not impossible either once you get their unique patterns down. It's exactly the kind of engaging challenge you would expect for a platformer. However, I need to say this upfront : If you dive in expecting Sonic-y physics, you will be sorely disappointed. As much as Freedom Planet is inspired by Sonic, the tighter, precise movement, greater focus on combat, and other physics adjustments are not only because it makes Freedom Planet more accessible to players unfamiliar with Sonic's slippery pinball controls; many of the stages and challenge levels in the game would be discouragingly difficult if plopped directly into a Sonic game, even for veteran Sonic fans. If you loved platformers on the SNES, Genesis, Saturn, PSX, or Amiga. If you love outstanding soundtracks, large, fluid levels filled to the brim with secrets for you to find, big boss fights, multiple playable characters, each with their own abilities and playstyle that will keep you coming back for more. If you love all of these things, Freedom Planet as a game is worth more than the price it's sold for, even if you don't play the story mode.

Story & writing are whatever, you can skip them. Gameplay, graphics, music - they're all fantastic in their own right. Freedom Planet is simply one of the best games I have ever played. My only major complaint is how difficult the bosses are. Nothing wrong with difficulty per se, since there are multiple difficulty settings to choose from. The problem is how unforgiving and repetitive the bosses can be compared to the preceding platforming segments. If you want a good challenge throughout the main stages and choose to play on hard, you might hit a wall at the bosses. I found myself blasting through the stages with relative ease and then having to retry the bosses even dozens of times. Sometimes I would give up and replay the whole stage in casual mode, which in turn is an absolute cakewalk. This wouldn't be a problem if you could change the difficulty between checkpoints. The stages are also very long, which I do like, but it makes me wish you could save mid-game and split the stages across multiple play sessions. As it is, this game requires prolonged attention (.5 to 3 hour sessions) for best experience.

I bought this game on steam first. I liked the trailer for game number 2. So, I bought both. I haven't played number 2 yet. 1 is great, but with 1 bug that I can't find a fix for. Whenever you try to change the games resolution, it stops responding, and you have to close it using task manager. I bought the game through GOG next. I know GOG is good with making sure older games will be playable. The same issue is still present. I'm not looking for a refund. It's a sweet game and having a DRM free copy is nice, but I was hoping the bug would get fixed. That is the only reason I'm giving it a 2 star review. Otherwise. It's really fun.

This game is a blast. For the time of duration of the first level. Every next one was increasingly more dull, straightforwardly tacked on without any bigger designer's thought. After few hours I simply got bored. The quality gap between the first level and the later ones is just amazing. The game is visually charming, the music score is great. The story is awful and the cut-scenes can take more time than the actual levels.