Upon receiving the press release stating that Lo-Interactives' most original
project since the first Hitman title – Hitman: Codename 47 – would
be receiving a GameCube release in the UK, I was surprised to say the least. More than a
year has passed since Freedom Fighters’ original release, but with squad-based
games coming into their own in 2004 thanks to great titles such as Conflict: Vietnam,
Ghost Recon: Island Thunder and Shellshock ‘Nam ’67 all being
released, I decided to check out one of the GameCubes’ front-runners in the field.
To begin with, the title feels  very much like an
extensively polished Hitman expedition. In addition to running and gunning, you are
able to recruit members to your squad, limited by your “charisma” – which
can be earnt by performing general good-guy actions such as healing your downed cohorts or
rescuing survivors. The dual analogue control is calibrated perfectly, and your squad
commands are issued on Y, X and A. The commands you have over your squad may seem fairly
limited, consisting of basic attack, defend or hold position actions, but in practice adds
a huge amount of depth to gameplay which is already flowing at a respectable level. Most
of the mission objectives you will encounter include little more than reaching locations
or raising flags, but with the intricately detailed and incredibly well crafted maps
available they never get tiring. Although the game tries to force you into the position of
using your assembled recruits as back-up, it’s often much more pleasing and
tactically rewarding to utilise your recruits as expendable hired guns, as their health is
easily replenishable, giving you the opportunity to direct the battle from a vantage
point, picking-off the stragglers and searching for weaponry or more recruits.
The title has been constructed with a large amount of both imagination and caution.
While looking large and impressive, great care has  been taken to ensure the game never slips
from your grip, informing you where you are, where you’re going and what to do when
you get there clearly and concisely throughout. The titles’ graphics are very solid,
with complementing textures and gun-flare. The cut-scenes are crafted beautifully,
seemingly taking some inspiration from Robocop; news reports, fully lip-synced, set
the scene of the post-communist invaded New York. The only real graphical gripe is the
staggering amount of pop-up, but this could be put down to the fact the GameCube
conversion was probably way down on the list, so the title wouldn’t have been updated
at all from the Xbox version. The sound is clear and each character gains depth through
some brilliant voice-acting. At times it is even possible to recognise which of your
recruits has been downed thanks to their distinguishing scream.
While Freedom Fighters doesn’t break any boundaries, it’s very
much a solid and playable experience. As with the single-player, the multi-player set-up
is limited but rewarding. Lo-Interactives’ exercise into branding their development
has been worthy of the effort, and has obviously been noted by other bods within the
industry, with Freedom Fighters appearing to be the most likely inspiration for
Free Radical’s step with Second Sight.
 
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