Freedom Fighters Review (XBOX)

I have a bit of a soft spot for games like Freedom Fighters. That is, I enjoy picking up critically acclaimed games that no one's ever heard of. I suppose it makes me feel special - like I know something that no one else does. That, and I don't want good games to go overlooked. In that spirit, I bought Freedom Fighters a while back, and I just recently got a chance to play through it. The critical acclaim is mostly deserved, but I can certainly understand why it wasn't a more high-profile game.

Freedom Fighters is, at its core, a third-person shooter. But soon enough, it becomes apparent that it is actually real-time-strategy-lite at heart. You take control of a plumber named Chris something just as the Russians successfully invade New York. Your brother is kidnapped, while you're swept up in the chaos and end up joining a group of freedom fighters that operate out of the New York sewer system.

From the sewers, you and your A.I. squadmate(s) can recapture or destroy various key locations in order to weaken the Russians' hold on the country. As you complete objectives and heal wounded soldiers, your charisma increases, which allows you to recruit more soldiers at once. By the end of the game, you can command up to twelve soldiers.

Once you're commanding a bunch of soldiers, the RTS-lite gameplay begins to shine through. You can't run and gun through the levels, and there are WAY too many enemies to take on single-handedly. You are forced to command your troops effectively, while laying down gunfire and chucking grenades. This is where the game is at its best. Controlling your troops is effortless because of the limited number of commands at your disposal (hence RTS-lite), yet it's robust enough to offer satisfying choices.

It really is satisfying to hop on a turret while your soldiers protect your back, or to send your men (and women) charging into a fortified enemy position while sneaking around to flank them. The more charisma you accrue, the more the game becomes about making good choices with your commands, rather than making good choices about where to send your own bullets.

You also have to make good choices about which objectives to tackle and in which order. From the sewers, you are shown a map with several areas, each with multiple objectives. You can tackle these areas in any order. Additionally, anytime you find a manhole, you can return to base, go to a different area or quicksave. You're not given much direction as to the order you should take, but you will soon learn that carefully planning your attack is just as important pre-battle as it is during battle.

For example, in one mission, I was having a hell of a time advancing down a particular street towards the power plant that I had to retake. Standing in my way was a bunch of enemies (one of which was wielding a very dangerous rocket launcher) and an attack helicopter, which could shred me in an instant. I backtracked all through the level, procuring the lone rocket to take out the helicopter, only to find that, by the time we got about halfway down the street, a new chopper was in the air, bearing down on us. After many failed attempts, I perfectly coordinated our attack so that I could pick up the enemy's rocket launcher and take out the new chopper. This was exceedingly difficult, but eventually, it worked.

Listening to the briefing for the next area, I found, much to my chagrin, that destroying the helipad in this area would have eliminated the enemy's air presence in my previous mission. Had I known that, I could've taken the power plant in less than half the time, with about a tenth of the frustration. Needless to say, I planned my attacks much more carefully from then on, and to great effect.

I really enjoyed making these types of strategic decisions and carrying them out in the context of an action game. Do I go straight for the main objective (which clears the entire area), or do I collect more charisma by completing all the secondary objectives? Do I charge in, guns blazing, or do I look for an alternate, less exposed path?

There were, however, some things about the game that I didn't enjoy as much. You're endowed with a too generous auto-aim, which I only forgive because Freedom Fighters isn't really a shooter. Well, usually it's not. There are a couple of missions in the middle of the game where you go solo. One of them was pretty fun. Knowing I could only rely upon myself added a nice amount of tension. The other one, however, curiously decided to introduce the strongest enemy in the game, at the end of the level, with no save points. Restarting that mission over and over was more than just a little frustrating.

Since the game is slightly non-linear, there are some spots where you can get yourself into really bad situations. These can be frustrating as well. The art style is kind of bland (especially compared to the sweeping soundtrack), the story is ho-hum (despite an awesome concept), and it lacks the polish of a first-class title.

So, no, Freedom Fighters is not a AAA title. I understand why it was a sleeper. Its kitschy graphics and non-traditional gameplay (and probably its marketing budget) precluded it from being a mainstream hit. But it is a good game. It has its flaws, but if you take it for what it is, you will surely find an enjoyable experience that few others have.

7.5

-Joule

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath Review

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is a first/third person action game from the no-longer-with-us studio, Oddworld Inhabitants. Typical of an Oddworld game, Stranger is a solid, beautiful and mold-breaking commercial flop. And as bitter as the developers' exit from the games industry was, Stranger's not a bad way to go out.

You play as the Stranger, a beast-like bounty hunter in a world of chicken-like citizens, and dinosaur-goblin thugs. You begin the game by taking bounties, and you soon learn you'll be using the money to get an operation. The nature of the operation is a mystery, but it seems damn important. You capture all the bounties in a town, and then move on to the next one.

Your tools are your animal strength (you can spin attack, head-butt and gallop into enemies in third person) and your crossbow with its live ammo for the first person view. Finally, you can suck up incapacitated enemies in order to collect their bounties (live enemies are worth more than dead ones).

This game oozes imagination, from its cooky creature design to the aforementioned live ammo. The ammo for your crossbow is literally alive. You can buy or capture seven different species of tiny creatures (in addition to zapflies, which are unlimited), two of which can be equipped to your crossbow at any given time. Some creatures serve to incapacitate enemies, some distract them, and some just cause damage. The ammo system is quite deep, although in my opinion, its potential wasn't realized until the last third of the game.

Another interesting mechanic is capturing enemies alive to maximize your profit. In general, you can collect at least twice the price on your main bounty if you capture him alive. This is a really interesting device that I feel never reached its potential. While defeating some bosses involved solving some environmental puzzles, finding out how to capture them alive was simply a matter of trial and error to discover which ammo depleted their stamina faster than their health.

Overall, I felt like the boss battles and a lot of the level design didn't live up to the imagination of the rest of the game. The levels leading up to the bosses were completely linear treks through similar (though beautiful) environments. And while some of the boss fights were cool, most involved simply fighting a more powerful dude along with a swarm of lackeys.

In addition, the structure of a lot of the game is simply: take bounty, find bounty, fight bounty, collect reward, repeat. In between bounties, there's nothing to do in town except buy a small selection of items at the general store and take more bounties at the bounty store. It feels a bit like a chore to finish a bounty and have no choice but to take the next one on the list until you can move onto the next town just to do the same thing.

That said, the gameplay really grew on me. I got into picking off enemies that wandered (or were lured) away from the pack, using my beastly speed to strike at groups and escape quickly, and just plain causing havok with my crossbow. Also, the trial and error in boss fights became much more palatable once I discovered the importance of the liberal use of the quick save feature.

Yet just as I was coming to accept the game for what it was, it became something totally different. The plot, which is simple but layered with subtext, picks up big time, and the game goes into overdrive. The environments become varied and imaginative, the encounters, epic. A couple of key gameplay mechanics are introduced, changed or altogether eliminated, and it actually feels like a separate game. As much as it feels different, its play style nicely complements that of the first part of the game. I'm not going to spoil it, but the last third of the game is simply fantastic.

Some people complained that this game was too short. I thought the beginning was possibly too long. But either way, Stranger offers a beautiful, whimsical adventure through a twisted wild west. It's interesting, imaginative, it addresses issues like corporate greed, environmental destruction and the eradication of native peoples, but above all, it's damn fun.

8

-Joule

Sly 3 Review

Well, I did indeed beat Sly 3, and only a day or two after that first post. As I said, it was one of those rare games that grabbed me by the nuts and wouldn't let go until I beat it. My initial impressions were pretty right on; this is a damn good game.

But there are some small clarifications I would like to make. I said that the missions were widely varied, but uniformly fun. They were indeed widely varied, but not quite uniformly fun. With such an assortment of missions, I suppose it's inevitable that some would not quite live up to the others. That's not to say that there were any stinkers (I can't remember any bad ones in particular), but some just weren't as inspired as the rest.

I would also like to confirm that my complaint about too much storytelling was indeed confined to the very beginning of the game. Later on, there are longer and multi-part missions that serve to extend the time in between cutscenes.

On further playing the game, I did find one more flaw. Since you spend the bulk of the game trying to recruit members for your gang, each level is centered around some goal you have to complete for them. In each mission, you find out what that character wants, then Bentley (your brainy turtle buddy) sets up a plan to accomplish that goal. You do a bunch of missions, then get a cut-scene where you find out what else you have to do, and then you do a bunch more missions. Eventually, it felt a bit like I was on a treadmill.

But, like everything negative I have to say about this game, there is a definite upside. First, each character you recruit is interesting, both as a character and to play as, so you have a very real incentive to hop on that treadmill. And second, the missions you take on to accomplish that goal are great, so it's hard to mind too much. In particular, the last mission of a given stage is typically a complex operation involving your entire team. These multi-member, multi-part missions tend to be the most interesting, exciting, well-excecuted and memorable moments of the game.

I could go on about the things I loved about this game, but it's really not necessary. The very minor issues I've listed are about the only things that are not perfect. The rest is simply great. This is one of the most well-designed, most imaginative and just plain fun games I've ever played.

8.5

-Joule

Sly 3 Initial Impressions

I know I'm late on this one. I have quite a back catalogue of games that I've yet to play on the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox. Hell, I even have a couple of 360 games that I haven't played yet. Fortunately (not really), my 360 died two days ago, freeing me up to deal with my plethora of 'last gen' games.

I'm in the middle of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath on the Xbox, and I didn't really feel like continuing it at the moment, so I popped in Sly 3: Honor Among Theives, a game that I'd really wanted to play for quite a while.

The presentation is really slick. The art is very cartoony and stylized, and the music exudes an Austin Powers-calibur mojo. The cutscenes are done in a sort of animated stills style, and the story-telling overall is very strong.

My biggest complaint with the first couple hours, though, is that there was too much story telling. The missions were so short and as soon as I'd finished, there would be a sizable chunk of dialogue/cutscene. Of course, that's not too damning, considering how well done the dialogue and cutscenes are.

As the missions get a little more difficult, though, the gameplay time and cutscene time begin to balance out. When this balance is achieved, it really allows you to appreciate both the gameplay and the dialogue.

The dialogue is fantastic. I don't laugh out loud (or even inside) with most games, but I've laughed at least three times in the four or five hours that I've played so far. The dialogue, like the characters that deliver it, is perfectly crafted, filled with character, and quite funny.

And of course, I've barely mentioned the gameplay. The gameplay in Sly 3 is very tight, and wonderfully varied. The gameplay structure is elegant as well. You are placed in a level with a handful of missions to take on as several different characters. You can tackle these missions in any order, whenever you feel like it, or you can just sneak around the level, pickpocketing enemies and causing trouble.

But it's the missions that make the game so great. They are widely varied, but uniformly fun. Whether you are jumping from rooftop to rooftop, stalking a mob boss so you can take incriminating photos, participating in an opera contest, or busting heads as the burly pink hippo, Murray, you will have a blast.

Playing as different characters is interesting as well. As Murray, for example, you might miss Sly's ability to scamper across the landscape like a ninja, but you'll appreciate his ability to take out enemies with just a punch or two. Each character has his/her own unique play style, and impressively enough, they're all fun. Moreover, it looks like the game will continue to introduce new characters as I recruit them into my band of theives.

Like I said, I'm only four or five hours into the game, but I'm really impressed so far. This is one of the rare games that I can't stop thinking about. I'll let you know my final impressions when I finish.

-Joule