Missions in Freedom Force begin in the Freedom Force’s base, where Mentor informs you of the developing problem and what needs to be done about it. You then pick your team of up to four heroes and are transported to the battle site. Missions play out from an overhead perspective with a moveable camera very similar to Dungeon Siege. Each mission can have you complete a wide range of tasks, from traditional “destroy the supervillain” to more varied tasks such as destroying gang warehouses, or battling evil clones of citizens created by archvillain Déjà Vu. Missions take place in a wide range of settings; while most take place on the streets of Patriot City, many will find you traveling to such places as underground cities, alien spacecraft, and the lairs of a wide array of supervillians.

Each mission starts out with only one or two primary objectives that must be completed in order to pass to the next level. However, over the course of the mission you may run into people in need of your help, such as a woman who’s purse got stolen. Events like that play out in an in-engine cutscene, and become secondary objectives that you can complete if you want. Completing as many objectives as possible results in more Prestige points awarded to your team at the end of the mission. Prestige is used to recruit new heroes that you come into contact with throughout the title. You can also use Prestige to purchase extremely powerful characters of your own design at any point. While taking out enemy villains and thugs results in positive Prestige, you can also get negative prestige by allowing the enemies to tear up the city too much, or by tearing it up too much yourself over the course of a mission.

Freedom Force‘s combat plays out similarly to other tactical RPG titles like Dungeon Siege and Baldur’s Gate. Battles proceed in real-time, though you have the option of pausing the action at any point to issue orders. You can even slow time down instead of pausing, allowing for some very nice visual effects as you pan around a slow motion battle. Your heroes all possess a variety of attacks, including melee, ranged, defensive, and status-changing actions. Default attacks can be assigned to characters with the function keys, and more options are available through the right-click menu. Right-clicking during a mission pauses the action and brings up a menu listing available attacks and defenses. It also shows information like whether or not you are in range to your target, and allows you to choose a power level for the attack. Increasing the power level uses up energy, which slowly replenishes over the course of a mission.

Irrational took pains to make combat as fun as possible, not only by creating a wide array of enemies and heroes, but also by making nearly every object in the environment fully destructible. Everything from cars, to phone booths, to fire hydrants and even full-scale buildings can be destroyed. In addition, many objects can be used as weapons. Heroes can rip up lampposts and trees to swing like bats, as well as pick up heavy objects like cars and phone booths to throw. Freedom Force sports an impressive physics system, causing things like cars and rocks to bounce realistically off their targets, often hitting your fellow heroes if you’re not careful.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Freedom Force is the creation of your own heroes, any of which you can bring into the game at any time, provided you have the Prestige points to afford them. Every aspect of your character can be individually tailored to your tastes, although everything has an associated Prestige cost. Creating a godlike hero is easy, but you might not ever be able to afford him over the course of the game. Things like attributes and powers can be “purchased” with Prestige, with positive attributes increasing the total cost, and negative attributes decreasing it. You can even create your own new offensive and defensive powers. Want a projectile electric grenade that splits into three pieces during flight? It’s easy to create with the Freedom Force character system.