“By the Moons of Rakshell …”

“For Freedom!”

Villains beware; there are new heroes in town! And what a troupe they make. Psychic powers, a thumping Patriot staff, fire – these are just a few of the weapons wielded in the name of justice.

Freedom Force – Crave Entertainment, Irrational Games and Electronic Arts – is the kind of game that makes you glad you are a kid, despite whatever age you may be. This is comic book superhero stuff come alive, and the result is an enjoyable escapade into campy humor, with the flags of right fluttering in the background.

What this game brings to the fore is kind of visual treat that combines cartoon styling, some RPG and tactical combat, and the kind of humor some may remember from the 1960s Batman television show.

The story begins when an old Frank Stiles witnesses a scientific colleague selling secrets to a Russian agent. He confronts them and receives a bullet for his troubles. Staggering, dying, he falls upon a glowing statue of a minuteman. Whatever was causing it to glow transfers itself to Frank and he miraculously grows younger, stronger, with powers beyond human understanding. He dons a red, white and blue costume and becomes … The Minuteman!

But what caused the glow? Unbeknownst to the folks of Patriot City, in another dimension there is a race known as The Domain. It is led by the ruthless conqueror Lord Dominion. Earth is all that stands between him and total control of the universe. But rather than send his armies, Lord Dominion comes up with an insidious plan to perpetrate on the guileless globe. He will have his agents seek out the worst members of society, then imbue them with a mutating agent known as Energy X. They will have powers beyond belief and with their greed, and lack of morality to guide them, they will destroy the planet.

But someone overheard the plot, an alien known as The Mentor. He steals the Energy X and a spaceship. His escape is short-lived, and when The Domain destroys the ship he is on, canisters of Energy X rain down upon the world.

Meanwhile, back in Patriot City, Minuteman has confounded and captured the traitorous scientist, who gives him a clue to the Russian agent, known as Sukhov. The Mentor joins the quest and Sukhov seems trapped, but during his escape, he sets off a canister of liquid nitrogen and is frozen. However, Sukhov has also been exposed to Energy X and the frozen matter transforms him into Nuclear Winter, a diabolical iceman who likes to folks to literally chill out.

Freedom Force is great fun, despite some of the stability problems of the program. Crashes were occasionally experienced, especially when transitioning between one mission and another.

The game is played almost in chapter form, with each mission introducing new characters or villains. The game comes with 11 pre-built heroes, who can be selected for the individual missions; or you can create your own hero, selecting from body styles and customizing their powers. Minuteman and his compatriots could certainly rival the Justice League of America (DC Comics) with their diverse skills.

The controls are fairly straightforward. You can group your team, much like grouping a unit of warriors in an RTS. And each hero comes with his or her own abilities, which are selected either through mouse clicks or keyboard hotkeys. Unfortunately the camera manipulations are not that intuitive. You may be walking through Liberty Park and take fire from enemies you can’t see because the tree foliage masks them. It isn’t much fun doing contortions to try to find the bad guys.

The sound of this game is truly wonderful. The voice acting is completely over the top, which makes this game even more enjoyable. Imagine the deep, heroic voice of Space Ghost and you have the same sound for Minuteman. Everything he utters sounds pretentious, or grandiose. It is excellent and perfectly in touch with the feel of the game.

The game does a good job of creating a three-dimensional atmosphere, though some of the locales are better designed than others. Liberty Park is well done, but the aircraft carrier looks more realistic in terms of environments.

The character design, both of the good and bad guys, will immerse you in this madcap world. The animations are very well done. Special effects are also excellent.

While some comic book heroes (like Spiderman) have found a life in the video gaming world, this is one of the first games that really explore the camp side of the genre in a delightful, well-designed way.

If you have a passion for superhero comic books, or indulge (or have indulged) in the luxury of superhero cartoons, this is a game you won’t want to miss.

This program is rated Teen for violence.

Install: Easy
This game takes up less than 600 megs of hard-drive space, even with save file space.

Gameplay: 8.5
There are quite a number of cutscenes which set up the action sequences. Each mission has primary and secondary objectives (accomplishing them all gives points for training and upgrading your heroes), and there appears to be a time frame for some of the missions. For example, in the first trip into a frozen Liberty Park, the mission came to an end before figuring out how to destroy the pump house (other games have bred a tendency to look beyond the obvious). Overall, once into a battle, this game really moves smoothly. The mapboards for the individual missions are not overly large.

Graphics: 9
The comic book pieces are exquisite. There are some clipping problems in places, but this game does feature great animation, a wonderful array of characters, and excellent environments.

Sound: 9.2
The vocal acting is superb, while the rest of the audio package is very well designed.

Difficulty: 7.4
There is a bit of a learning curve with the control elements of the game, especially when trying to navigate through the city. There are several difficulty levels, which should please most players.

Concept: 9.3
This is a brilliant game, not only from the standpoint of the overall look, but the designers have managed to take a well-trod plot and really liven it up through the world they have created.

Multiplayer: 7
Two-to-four players can battle each other over the Internet (this game is supported by GameSpy) or LAN. This doesn’t have quite the draw that the single player campaign has.

Overall: 8.9
The temptation was to rate this game higher, but the stability woes, a few clipping problems, and finite game boards do present some drawbacks to the game. The good news is that this game is so good you can forgive all that. Freedom Force is an immensely enjoyable romp through a delightful world.