I initially dismissed this game based on the name/concept, but I picked it up on a recommendation from a friend. I’m pleasantly surprised so far.
I’m playing the PC version, and although there are a few things that feel console-y (save points, 3rd person perspective), I had no complaints about either after playing for a short while.
The game is essentially a shooter with a twist, you can control a squad of other soldiers. The commands are very simple (attack, defend, follow) and the AI is fantastic. More often then not you deal with a group of enemies by finding a good vantage point, ordering your fighters around and hanging back and providing covering fire. It’s great fun so far.
Although the story is pretty light, it’s amusing enough. The setting is a tongue-in-cheek Red Dawn, with some none too subtle jibes at current American foreign policy (I guess save that for another forum and keep the politics out of here, eh?).
Is it really that good? I played a demo of it and walked away pretty unimpressed. The shooting didn’t really have much substance or impact to it, and the whole demo was spent essentially ordering my squad to go kill while I sit and watch. If anyone dies…medkit revive, repeat ad nauseuem.
The obscenely high Gamespot review boggled my mind, but it’s possible I’m just missing the point or the final is a more well rounded action game?
I dunno, the demo might have been set at a low difficult level, if I did what you describe all my fighters would be toast. (and I’m not even playing at the hardest level).
I haven’t finished yet, so I’m not sure if I agree with gamespot’s score, but I’m certainly having a lot of fun.
I saw my roommate play the PS2 version, and it looked pretty cool. Then the Xbox version, which visually was so much better it was startling. I assume the PC version looks pretty much like the Xbox version.
I don’t know how the PC control is, and I haven’t actually played it myself, but it seems like a pretty tight game. Less flawed than the Hitman games (it’s the same developer, I believe).
As posted to another board (there are a couple of semi-spoilers in here, so I’ve given it the whiteout treatment)
[color=white]I’m really getting a kick out of this, for all the wrong reasons. Okay, one of the right reasons - the squad AI is very good. Well done. Kudos. However, what’s really keeping me hooked is some of the most stunning strangeness I have seen in a game for years. To give just a few examples…
Okay. Stealth assassination mission. Stealth. Top secret. Stealth. Oh, except it doesn’t matter. Have some grenades. And assault rifles. And molotov cocktails. But no team-mates. Stealth. Because you don’t want to give away your presence to the enemy general. Did I mention that that your sniper post is on the top of a spotlight in the middle of the enemy encampment? I see no problem with this at all.
To escape from aforementioned encampment, do you dive into the sewers and use them to Ninja Turtle your way out of trouble, as you do on every other mission? No, you depart in a rowboat. Despite having a helicopter gunship on your trail. Smart planning, heroic Resistance…
Quite possibly the lamest hipster dialogue ever written. What’s up, bro? You no dig the white Man’s masterin’ of the ghetto? Unfunky to the max, man!
The propaganda. Oh, Christ, the propaganda. Basically, between every level, you see the Soviet TV channel pushing their own view of your activities. Back in Crusader: No Remorse (anyone remember that? Good), this was done ‘properly’, with the enemies spinning your resistance work into horrible terrorist attacks. Here, you basically get “Da, am to be transmittink evil Soviet conqvest report to Glorious Amerikan Nation. Leadink our news tonight, we lose again to forces off good, as veasely plumber kills seventeen legions of mighty Communist army vith socket wrench. After weather, I to be taken out and shot for beink appallink stereotype voman, and vorst hoodvinker since Jeffrey Archer. Am to be wishink you goodnight.”
If and when I take over your country, trust me, I will not use my complete power over the media to dub your potential savour “Freedom Phantom”. Instead, my stereotypical anchorwoman will be on screen every night, grinning nastily and reciting “In lighter news, capitalist pig-dog seen leadink desperate strike for vital terrorist Viagra supply. Mathematics, Soviet style, da?”
5b) I would not get these people to do the war march. (WARNING: Contains Very Bad Language)
As for any grasp on realism, consider it shot when General von Klinkerhoffen’s Russian brother begins beaming threatening messages into your head using the power of his mind! Mimesis: They’ve heard of it.
Easy level is simply hilarious. Superman takes less damage from bullets than this chubby plumber.
Guy lying on the floor after taking a hit with a rocket launcher. Heroic resistance leader Chris runs over with a medi-kit. “You’ll be all right,” he says. And such is the case.
The Russian army apparently consists of just two men, Ivan and Pitr, and the cloning machine of Dr. Wilford T. Doppleganger. Luckily, he has also been at work on the Freedom Fighters, Bob, Fred and Janice. Clearly, this is what happens when Boba Fett isn’t available.
Fifty years of Cold War Paranoia. A hundred million Soviet paranoid trips. Nine billion video game plots. And our big villain is named Bulba? Call Ash Ketchum![/color]
Just one thing, if you play this on Easy mode, you’ll be finished in a weekend. It’s good fun, if you go in expecting a brainless shooter and allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised by the extra stuff, but certainly no classic. Everyone involved with the music certainly earned their fees at least - and there are some splendid sequences in it (notably the street scene just after the intro finishes)
Hey if anyone was interested in this and passed on it, it’s now 20 dollars at Gamestop and EB (PC version only, console versions are still 50). Pretty amazing that it dropped so quickly.
I can’t for the life of me figure out what everyone is seeing in this game. I blasted through it in a couple of nights and was like, “That’s it?”
I found the squad AI pretty bad (they appear to do cool things like take cover, but tend to charge, get hung up on the environment, run across your line of fire, etc.), but at least the enemy AI is worse.
And I can’t figure out why it’s a third-person game. It just makes aiming that much more difficult.
