Review by: Gavin Carter
Published: April 26, 2002

One would think that if there’s any form of entertainment that could easily make the transition to a computer game, it would be comic books. All the elements for a great gaming experience are there, from powerful heroes and villains to deep storylines and character relationships, and even a built-in fanbase. Sadly, most licensed superhero releases have been mediocre at best, relegated to limp fighting titles and platformers. Nearly all attempts at creating original superhero properties never even got to store shelves, as the case was with Microprose’s Agents of Justice and Bullfrog’s The Indestructibles. Looking to buck the trend is Irrational Games, formerly the developer of System Shock II, with Freedom Force, a title that takes more than a fistful of inspiration from the 1960’s silver era of comic books.

The premise of Freedom Force involves an alien by the name of Lord Dominion who has conquered every dimension except for Earth’s. Instead of launching an invasion, he wants to savor the experience and watch as Earth destroys itself. To accelerate the process, he plans to make a delivery of Energy-X, a potent mutagen capable of bestowing great powers upon humans, to Earth’s worst criminals. A benevolent subject of Lord Dominion known only as Mentor overhears the plot, steals the ship containing the Energy-X, and makes for Earth in hopes of rallying the forces of good against Dominion. Unfortunately, he is shot down and Energy-X rains over the entire planet. It lands on such people as Frank Stiles, a former Manhatten Project scientist who transforms into Minuteman, a patriotic do-gooder. With the help of Minuteman and others, Mentor sets about creating the Freedom Force, a group of superheroes dedicated to fighting the forces of evil.

Nowhere is the comic book inspiration more evident than in the design of the heroes and villains of Freedom Force. All heroes and villains are entrenched in the campy, humorous motifs of the 60’s comic book era. Minuteman, for instance, was in the middle of attempting to foil a Communist plot when he was zapped by Energy-X, and thus became the classic All-American, commie-stomping hero. Man-Bot was the city’s most eligible bachelor until a random hit by Energy-X caused his molecular structure to become unstable, forcing him to wear a huge metal suit to contain the random blasts of energy. Other characters fit into similar “themes” such as El Diablo, the fire-powered hero, and Bullet, a Flash-inspired hero with incredible speed. Each controllable character is introduced by a short cutscene featuring art clearly inspired from silver age comics. Thick lined, Jack Kirby-like drawings slide onto the scene as an overdone, tongue-in-cheek narrator dictates the plot.

Each hero possesses a variety of skills, attributes, and powers all laid out on the character screen. The five basic statistics of Strength, Speed, Agility, Endurance, and Energy are all rated on a one-to-ten scale and cannot be changed after the character is created. The next section is the Attributes; there are 58 in the title and they cover a wide range of properties. Characters might have the “Cold Blooded” attribute, making them more vulnerable to cold damage. Or they might be a “Heavy Hitter” and do double damage when wielding a melee weapon. Negative attributes exist as well, such as “Unstable Energy,” a property belonging to Man-Bot causing him to randomly erupt in an area energy attack when damaged. Among the other character traits is the material of your hero, such as Flame or Energy, each offering specific levels of resistance and vulnerability to attack types.

As characters go on more and more missions, they earn experience points towards leveling up. Gaining a level results in character points that can be spent increasing the power of abilities or in “buying” new attributes. Characters who stay behind on missions still earn experience, but far less than those who actively participate in it. Thus, it’s important to always take a variety of heroes along, or else you risk creating a small number of very strong heroes and a large number of weak ones. This is a dangerous situation since the program often forces you to take along one or two specific heroes for each mission.