Review by: Josh Horowitz
Published: April 6th, 2005

It’s evident by the success of PC titles like Spider-Man: The Movie, City of Heroes, and even the tabletop game HeroClixthat classic comics make for fun entertainment beyond their dusty, worn pages. Perhaps players enjoy the novelty of campy, bloodless battles found in comics in contrast to the trend of realistic videogame violence or maybe the old comic book fear of fascism and communism strikes a chord in gamers living in a new era mindful of terrorism. Regardless, the developers over at Irrational Games recognized that a gaming audience was out there ready to embrace a superhero action / strategy game when they released the successful Freedom Force in 2002. Three years later, they have pooled their resources together to come up with the next chapter in the saga of The Minuteman, El Diablo, and the Alchemiss in FreedomForce vs. the Third Reich.

The Freedom Force universe has an interesting (and familiar) backstory outlined in the original game and replayed in this title. In the far reaches of space, the evil Lord Dominion, master of an advanced alien race, desires to crush the planet Earth. Rather than doing so outright, he chooses to distribute the mysterious “Energy-X” to Earth’s criminals, and watch as newly endowed super-powered bad guys do the work for him. When a good member of the alien race named Mentor intervenes on humanity’s behalf and steals the supply of Energy-X, his spaceship is pursued and shot down over the Earth. Soon canisters of Energy-X fall all over the planet, turning normal humans into superheroes and supervillains. The superheroes, led by Mentor, join up to form Freedom Force, protecting the metropolis known as Patriot City, along with truth, justice, and all that jazz.

As the latest chapter in the Freedom Force saga opens, the members find themselves facing old enemies and new foes alike. It appears that the evil Russian, Nuclear Winter, has escaped from prison and joined forces with the mistress of mayhem, Red Oktober, in a plot to smuggle nuclear missiles into Cuba using time travel. Later, the team discovers more time-travel mischief afoot, as suddenly the minions of Germany’s Third Reich have taken over the world. Somehow, that the nefarious villain Blitzkrieg has helped Germany win World War II by sending Energy-X back to Germany in the 1940s, so after dealing with the mad Russian, it is up to Freedom Force to travel back in time to stop the crazed German.

Along the way, Freedom Force meets up with new friends and foes, both from the past and the present. The 1940s good guys include the British adventurer Black Jack, the French fencer Tricolour, and the American rocketeer Sky King. In the present, new team members like the mischievous Green Genie, the powerful Quetzalcoatl, and the reaping Tombstone are also available to help Freedom Force win the day. They will all
have to face off against evil Roman centurions, dark shamans, freakish gorilla mutants, and even the nazi horde led by the powerful Blitzkrieg and his underlings.