FREEDOM FORCE

                 Reviewed by Stefan Herber

Wonderful, splendid, original .. and FUN!  It seems I play a
maximum of two really memorable games a year and it is nice that
so early into the New Year the first has already appeared.  It's
not really a role player nor is it a RTS game - it's a clever
amalgam of the two. And it works very well indeed.

In "Freedom Force" you get to play the comic book superheroes of
the 1960s. I don't know if any of the ones depicted here actually
appeared in comic book (or the politically correct term graphic
novel) format but they easily could have done. The story is
nonsense of course - an outer space element appropriately called
Element X has appeared on Earth, which is contaminating certain
human beings and turning them into a variety of superheroes. Cue
hero 1 - Minuteman - a transformed ex nuclear scientist and his
enemy who sold secrets to the USSR (this is the Cold War
remember). Naturally his first task is to locate and destroy the
latter; as time progresses more heroes appear each with their own
powers and after each mission you get a chance to upgrade or
purchase new skills with the experience you obtain.  This
accumulates from sorting out your main objectives, picking up
experience bonuses of Element X that lie around randomly and also
ensuring that civilians don't die unnecessarily or buildings get
destroyed. It's possible to examine each baddie and decide the
best attack against them to equip your team appropriately and joy
of joys - you can save anytime anyplace!

The game has to be played in turn based mode which leads to the
only flaw - it's impossible in real based time but the pause key
didn't work for me in the first few missions and I felt the game
was going to be impossibly difficult. Thereafter it seemed to kick
in although at times it for some reason wouldn't function. No
matter - save and reload and you're fine!

And what a conglomeration of villains there are ranging from the
ubiquitous thugs with bats to sylphs, dinosaurs, robots and the
ultimate villain himself who has amazing powers of magic,
replication and time warping. They're all in fact easy to defeat
IF you hit on the right strategy. Examples is the formidable T Rex
- take him on hand to hand and you last seconds - alternatively
shower him with radiation bolts and he's history in as short a
period.

Goes straight into my top ten of all time. I don't know if it sold
well enough to expect a sequel but I sure hope so.











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