Graphics: Although FFv3R uses essentially the same game engine as its predecessor, the designers at Irrational have gone out of their way to give the program a graphical facelift.

This Freedom Force title supports resolutions up to 1600×1200 using 32-bit color and many of its environments are crisp and colorful, filled with detailed textures of destruction. Large structures such as a police station or opera house get destroyed in pieces, collapsing into a cloudy heap of rubble while leaving half-crumbling debris standing. In addition, the levels make good use of fog, colored lighting, and dynamic shadows, as well as shiny reflective surfaces and glowing sprite effects. I did feel, however, that the lighting seemed at times too bright, giving some of the characters an overexposed, washed-out feel during cutscenes. The characters look similar to the previous title, though perhaps not as polygonal as
before. They still employ the same pseudo-lip synching during cutscenes, which looks odd at first but becomes natural after a few hours of playtime.

Overall, the designers do an excellent job in once again capturing the comic book look and feel throughout the game, especially during the new cutscenes and “secret origins,” which hits the old Jack Kirby / Stan Lee Marvel style spot on.

Interface: While most sequels would contain a significant upgrade to the user interface, FFv3R’s
developers chose to utilize the same interface as the original Freedom Force, which in this case, is a good thing. The method of clicking or right-clicking enemies and objects in the game to bring up different options works quite effectively, especially when it pauses the game to prevent the player from becoming overwhelmed. While playing, I noticed two features in the interface that work quite well. The first is the overcharge feature, which can be easily added to any action by holding the “control” key. The second is the vulnerable attack feature, which lets players know if a specific attack is more effective against a certain opponent. This really helps would-be-heroes dispatch more difficult villains instead of being lost among a plethora of similar power choices. If I have any gripes about the title’s in-game interface, it would have to be its camera controls. It’s true that the most effective view in the game is from above, but the camera doesn’t really make it possible to zoom down to low eye-level angles adequately enough for situations that warrant it.

It’s worth mentioning that one of the strengths of the original Freedom Force was its unsupported ability to let players go beyond the boundaries of the in-game character creator and make new heroes essentially from scratch. With a little Photoshop and 3D Studio Max know-how, advanced gamers could design new “meshes” and “skins” and import them into the program. This is still the case with FFv3R, but it isn’t presented in any real user-friendly way. I had trouble getting my custom skinned character to work properly in FFv3R, despite downloading the character editor tools and following various instructions on the Freedom Fans forums. In this day and age of RPGs that take advanced, custom character creation to new, user-friendlier levels, it would have been preferable to see this updated Freedom Force offer players a different custom hero creation method instead of the same complicated and dated system from three years ago.

Gameplay: The latest chapter in the Freedom Force series presents gamers with a fun gameplay experience akin to the first title. Playing through FFv3R, gamers can tell that the designers had fun writing the story for this latest episode, with its crazy villains and numerous in-jokes (such as having to “hunt for Red Oktober” and hearing defeated nazis yell “mein leben!”).

The single-player campaign is fairly short, with its 13 missions taking under 10 hours to complete in the normal difficulty mode. One of the neat features of FFv3R, however, is its replayability. Players can always try the campaign again using different heroes and tactics, including custom-built heroes to spice things up. I thought the missions in the new campaign were entertaining, though some of the mission objectives (like having to destroy several objects simultaneously to open a door) felt somewhat repetitive. The real bread and butter are the multi-part missions that happen both in the past and the present, incorporating the comic book convention of “meanwhile in Gothem City…” quite effectively. There are also enough twists and turns in the story to keep players guessing what will happen next.

FFv3R‘s destructible environments once again help sell the game’s fun factor. While not much different from its predecessor, some of the new maps offer different things to blow up or demolish, all with dynamic shadows, smoke, and lighting effects. The Rumble Room option is also a fun addition to the game, providing players a chance to try out all of the heroes and villains in the game in practically any scenario they want.

Multiplayer: While this title does many things right, its handling of multiplayer is not one of them. FFv3R supports numerous options for multiplayer action, such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, and the like, all over LAN, direct TCP/IP, and Internet via GameSpy Arcade. The GameSpy integration has some problems, however, that could have been handled better to earn a higher score in this category. Out of the box, launching FFv3R in Internet multiplayer mode has a tendency to crash to the desktop. When players actually get into the mode, they may notice that there are very few actual games to play. This is probably because FFv3R is set up so that hosting requires heavy tweaking of a user’s software and hardware firewall settings, which casual gamers may be hesitant or incapable of performing. Since most of today’s multiplayer titles don’t really run into this kind of hosting problem, seeing it here was a disappointment.

Another issue involves the multiplayer experience itself. When actually finding a game, players face each other in teams just like in single player, but unlike in offline mode, everything online happens in real time. This means players have less options to consider during battles, and must react to everything quickly. Being used to the slower pace of the campaign missions, I felt this just wasn’t as much fun.

One of the multiplayer additions in FFv3R is its touted “multiplayer story mode,” which allows users to add text to a multiplayer match and force specific characters onto players who join. It seemed that some users online were willing to try this mode, but ultimately preferred the ability to choose their own heroes instead.

Sound FX: FFv3R does a great job with its sound effects and voice acting, perfectly capturing the cheesy clichéd essence of comics throughout the game. Such lines as “My… mind is being stolen from me…” followed by the utterance “Then Mentor will help you recover!” works quite well in placing players right in the pages of a comic. The new characters deliver their lines with finesse; it’s fun hearing a shaky and apologetic Jimmy Stewart-esque Sky King utter his goofball lines alongside the Cockney-laced dialogue of Black Jack.

There are some audio hardware issues in FFv3R, however, that lower its score in this category. The program claims to support many different sound drivers, including Aureal, Directsound, EAX1 and 2, and other 3D positional audio. I was unable to set up EAX with my Sound Blaster Audigy card, however, being forced to instead use a generic 3D audio option that didn’t really take advantage of 5.1-surround sound like I hoped it would. Apparently the folks on the Freedom Fans forums have noted this issue, but no fix as of yet has been found.

Musical Score: Musically, FFv3R has an above-average score, with the theme song consisting of a familiar humming chorus singing a Teutonic marching hymn. Other motifs for the Cuban missions, nazi book burnings, and the villain Red Sun have appropriate ethnic flavors to them, but they become somewhat repetitive fairly quickly. Overall, the music is high quality and purposely campy at times, never interfering with the ongoing action.

Intelligence & Difficulty: FFv3R has a fairly decent AI and a good range of difficulty that should keep most gamers satisfied. The AI pathfinding is usually good, with only a few difficulties on maps with lots of twists and turns. Typically the AI will make sure that stationary heroes will react to their environment rather than waiting for a user command, and enemies like to mix their powers up to stay challenging while having the good sense to flee when hurt. Difficulty-wise, players can engage the enemy in one of six difficulty settings (very easy to impossible), each of which alters the dice rolls happening behind the scenes that determines hit successes and damage. With the different difficulty settings in place, the 10 hour single-player campaign can easily double or triple, especially considering the use of different heroes on each mission.

Overall: With its decent graphic enhancements, fun new characters, maps, and single player missions, Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich is a solid title, though I question the fact that it is being released and priced as a full-blown sequel. Its additions are fine and I enjoyed the game overall, but too many elements are the same as its predecessor, giving the program the feel of a very-polished expansion pack. Perhaps if Irrational’s handling of multiplayer and the new modding tools were improved, my outlook would have been different. Ultimately, gamers who never had a chance to try Freedom Force may feel they’re getting their money’s worth with this release, but owners of the original may want to wait for the price to drop before heeding the call of freedom once again.