shooter

"Freedom Fighters"--what's that? Only one of the greatest games ever made, that's what! I've owned it for about two weeks now and I haven't played anything else. It just doesn't get old. The "ragdoll effects" that made Hitman 2 such a joy are even better in Freedom Fighters (bodies fly out of explosions, bounce off walls, flop down stairs--beautiful!) There are only 9 missions, including one unlockable bonus mission, but most of those 9 are looooong missions, boy. The last mission alone takes a minimum of two hours to beat! And you won't believe the action. I've played war games like SOCOM and MOH Frontline, but they don't come close to the intensity of Freedom Fighters, especially when you're able to command twelve (count 'em--TWELVE!) gung-ho rebel soldiers. Woo!

Controlling your crew is incredibly simple. Triangle button=attack, square button=regroup, x button=recruit and circle button=hold position. That's it. And they actually obey you! If you want a couple of them to run kamikaze into a machine-gun nest, they'll do it, no questions asked! In addition to being the team leader, you're also the team medic. After the gunfire has faded, it's up to you to find and heal your wounded. Or not--it's your choice. You can also be a Good Samaritan and heal the enemy's wounded. They'll be so thankful that they'll join you and take up arms against their own army!

I love this game. I love everything about it: the story, the graphics, the sound, the voice-acting, the cut-scenes, the dialogue, the fast load times and the steady frame-rate--I can't find a flaw anywhere. And best of all, there's room for plenty of sequels! I raise a glass of hijacked Vodka to the folks at IO Interactive and may Freedom Fighters 2 (and Hitman 3) be just as good as the originals. Dasvidanya!

At first I was skeptical of this game, but I decided to pick it up based on some things I'd heard about it from other people who'd played it. I'm really glad I did! I just bought it a couple days ago and played it for 10 hrs. straight yesterday, it's that addictive!
The story line is great, in fact even though the Soviet Union hasn't existed since 1990-91 and hasn't been a military threat to the US for decades, this story line is carried so well in the game it's downright believable sometimes.
The graphics are simply awesome. Everything in every level looks very real, including the "cut" video scenes at the end of every level. The two main characters, Chris (who's the guy you play as in single player mode) and his brother are designed to look as what Mario and Luigi would look like if they were real people instead of cartoonish characters. The only drawback to the graphics I've seen so far is that while there's several different levels dependent on what you've done before in the game, the levels take place in different areas of the same places. There's two levels (that I've seen so far) on the docks area. Rather than this being IO/EA Games being cheap on the design, I think it's just because the whole story line takes place in NY City, so the designers are pretty much stuck with certain areas of NY for any levels that take place at the docks.
There's a multitude of weapons to use in the game, you choose which weapon you wish to use because you're not only able to pick up additional ammunition but on occasion drop the current weapon you have and pick up the weapon of somebody you or your team has just killed. This is especially useful in tougher levels where finding ammunition isn't as easy.
The team aspect of a single player mission is very SOCOM like. You're the team leader and can issue orders to your fighters. One additional fun thing is you've got to recruit fighters to join your anti-Soviet fight. If you've got enough "charisma" which you earn by freeing POWs, healing civilian wounded and other (mostly) non-killing things during the game, people will join your cause. If you don't, people will refuse your recruitment. It also seems that the designers have made each CPU character you can recruit have different fighting abilities. So far, I've had teams of recruited fighters that seemed to fight and follow orders better than others.
Even on the easiest setting, the AI does present a challenge in most levels, they don't just walk in blindly to your fire and almost willingly get killed. There are also soldiers with full body armor on in the game in certain places. These guys take a lot of strategy and smarts to deal with because unless you shoot them in the face, everything else just bounces off. It also even takes multiple grenades or molitovs to kill the guy. I think it's great because it requires you to use stealth sneaking as well as use your weapons wisely.
I also think as a bonus for players who don't play this type of game very much the levels on the easiest setting aren't TOO difficult and shouldn't cause a player to give up in frustration after just a couple levels.
I really hope this isn't just a one-time game from IO/EA Games. This game I think is of such good quality that it's worthy of a series of games that come out yearly, just like the Medal of Honor series. Perhaps the next game could be about terrorism in NYC and not the Soviets.

This game is one that will keep you playingfor hours. With very tough levels and very good AI, a gamer can't really ask for more.