Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich

[Matt]

I recently got my hands on this PC game and played through it so I thought it best if I share my thoughts.

I loved the original game - it was ground breaking for it's time and can still be counted as being one of the best superhero based games ever produced.

Therefore my expectations were extremely high for the sequel.

The sequel is every bit as good as the original.
But that's where the main problem is.

Sure, the graphics engine was updated and some new powers thrown in but that was really about it - it played just like the original and there wasn't any additions that were jaw dropping.
Yes, some of the new powers were quite nice but it just seemed more of an expansion pack than an entirely new game. I would have expected to see more new powers and some greater changes to existing ones (eg, a damage reduction power instead of the rather odd damage blocking invunerability system the game uses).
Bigger squad sizes, better multiplayer and rumble room options should have been included but weren't which is a pity.

Don't get me wrong, it is a great game and I do recommend it.

The plot is great though the emergence of the games final baddie could be seen a mile off and that baddy was probably far too easy to defeat. Graphics quality is quite nice and added details such as the rubble left over from collapsed buildings is well done.

There's one mission which requires the use of a character who can teleport yet there's no mention of this during the team selection - so if you didn't happen to pick one (the ant, tombstone, green genie) then you have to abandon to mission which would be quite annoying.

It's a solid game which is still the best superhero game out (unless you want to fork out $15/month) but don't go in expecting all that many additions over the original Freedom Force.

[Metaphysician]

Odd, I coulda sworn I saw something saying it did have a Danger Room mode. Am I thinking of something other than what you are??

[regnak]

Odd, I coulda sworn I saw something saying it did have a Danger Room mode. Am I thinking of something other than what you are??

It's called the Rumble Room now. Marvel must have objected to Danger room.

[Matt]

Yes, it does have a rumble room mode but the options available in it are rather limited.

[JKCarrier]

There's one mission which requires the use of a character who can teleport yet there's no mention of this during the team selection - so if you didn't happen to pick one (the ant, tombstone, green genie) then you have to abandon to mission which would be quite annoying.

Are you talking about Blitzkrieg's headquarters? If so, there's plenty of ways to get through that without teleporting.

Spoilers:

The first person who walks through one of the hypno-spheres gets hypnotized. Then the sphere disappears for a brief period, which gives one of your other heroes a chance to run through the door and flip the "off" switch. The hypnosis doesn't last long, so it's not hard to just avoid or wait out the hypnotized character until it wears off. Send in someone slow like Mentor or Microwave, and they probably won't even get a shot off before retuning to normal.

end spoilers

[Grazzt]

Another thing:

Spoilers:
You can also fly over the hypno-orbs. I did it with Green Genie and/or Man o' War. For the orb in front of a door (you had to be on the ground to open the door), I set it off using Tricolour, then used Eve to stasis her so that she couldn't hurt anyone, then had Green Genie open the door. Even teleporting wouldn't have helped with that one though.
End Spoilers

I liked this one slightly better than the original. Everybody having useful zero-energy powers was a bonus. There was less micromanaging since you could normally just pick whichever zero-energy power was most useful in the given situation, then sprinkle in one-use more expensive powers as needed. I loved the new characters, particularly Tricolour, Green Genie, and Tombstone. The personalities were more engaging this time around, particularly Sea Urchin who gets several good lines of dialogue. Oh, and Entropy's costume rocked hard. :D

For the inevitable sequal, who do you want the plot to focus around? Mentor gets a lot of face time in the briefings, but he generally just serves as exposition so it would be nice to see him get his own subplot. Same thing with El Diablo. Man o' War is another one I'd like to see get a decent subplot, or perhaps Law & Order.

[Matt]

I have to admit, I really liked Tombstone and Sky King.

Next character for game focus? Well, we've had Man Bot and Alchemiss so far ... Hmm, if it were up to me I'd bump Liberty Lad off and have Minute Man go bad, an event which would shock the entire team completely and make Freedom Force split up for a while.

Supercollider hasn't got any attention so I'd look at him a little but the game would, if it were up to me, focus more on Law & Order.

Mentor ... I don't like the character. He seems to know everything but he's pretty useless in actual combat and I can't look at him without thinking 'Oh, it's the Martian Manhunter'.

[regnak]

Mentor can be very effective with his electron blast against certain late game enemies.(w of c) He can drop em in 2 shots whereas other character have to do at least 3 attacks.

[Draconomicon]

Well, got the game.
The introduction was kinda weak, but Godzilla Winter was cool.

Now, after having played a while, I am not anymore happy with the game.
The Nazis are called "germans" all the time, instead of Nazis.
On one guy they had the current german flag shown... I really dont like how this tastes...

[Copper]

I have to admit, I really liked Tombstone and Sky King.

Next character for game focus? Well, we've had Man Bot and Alchemiss so far ... Hmm, if it were up to me I'd bump Liberty Lad off and have Minute Man go bad, an event which would shock the entire team completely and make Freedom Force split up for a while.

Supercollider hasn't got any attention so I'd look at him a little but the game would, if it were up to me, focus more on Law & Order.

Mentor ... I don't like the character. He seems to know everything but he's pretty useless in actual combat and I can't look at him without thinking 'Oh, it's the Martian Manhunter'.

A story focusing on Bullet sounds pretty fun as well. :D

[Shellhead]

I just picked up this game plus the original on Steam for just $6.72. It seems like a lot of fun so far, but I'm worried about playability when running a team of four heroes in real-time. Does it become a big hassle, or is it easier than I'm expecting?

[Surtur]

I loved both games, but I actually prefer the Third Reich to the first game. Granted there wasn't much difference between the two, but then again why fix something that isn't broken you know? In the 2nd game they made some better tweaks, like each character has a power that doesn't take up any energy. Like, for the fire guy El Diablo. Makes sense it would take a lot out of him to throw down some big fiery blast, but simply shooting flames out of your hands should be easy for him. Yet these free powers aren't too powerful either, so they aren't game breakers.

Also personally, I always thought the first game was a bit too challenging at times..I never had that problem with the Third Reich.

What's fun for me to do is to create a decently powerful character. Not completely invincible, but usually more powerful than any one team. Then I amp up the difficulty a bit, and make sure he is the only character I use. So if I'm on a mission where I need more than one person, I just leave those characters be and just use my guy. It's actually pretty fun, you feel really powerful, but you also feel challenged to. It's pretty cool to be fighting a guy and knocking him across the city and taking buildings down as a side effect of your powers. Plus you can give your hero some pretty unique weaknesses as well to balance gameplay even further.

Also for anyone interested..there is a mod for the first game that is about the Justice League. It's about 6-7 campaigns, but it's really well done, voice acting..everything. The characters look great and they managed to do the powers pretty well also. I recommend it to anyone interested, I don't have a link on me, but just do a search and you'll find it.

I just picked up this game plus the original on Steam for just $6.72. It seems like a lot of fun so far, but I'm worried about playability when running a team of four heroes in real-time. Does it become a big hassle, or is it easier than I'm expecting?

Are you worried about how your computer will handle it, or just how it will play? Well I'll say even having only 256 mb of ram before, my PC still handled it fine.

If you're asking about the gameplay, it actually isn't that hard managing all the heroes. The heroes you aren't controlling will attack and stuff if they're are attacked, so you don't need to always worry about that. Although I will say team AI is a lot better in the 2nd game.

As for running in real time? Well, this game isn't meant to always be run that way. It has a pause feature for a reason, but it's not hard to give commands to various members of your team, but you will need to pause sometimes just to regroup and stuff. This is more-so necessary during boss fights than anything else. I will admit I usually focused on controlling one character during a mission and then let the AI take care of the others, though I'd occasionally take control of them if they had a power I needed. It really is a fun game, but if you have both games I'd recommend playing the first game first. While it isn't necessary to understand the story of the 2nd game, you'll still know the characters back stories and you'll understand the references they make to the first game.

Still, they're both great games and it sucks that we probably won't get a 3rd installment in the series.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

I still love this series more than any of the XML/MUA games. The best superhero series outside of City of Heroes and maybe Champions and DCUO (matters how they are when they are released).

[Surtur]

Anyone ever played a game called Hero X? It's supposed to be similar, just not as good. I saw it on Amazon.com for 99 cents and almost ordered it.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

Anyone ever played a game called Hero X? It's supposed to be similar, just not as good. I saw it on Amazon.com for 99 cents and almost ordered it.

I've heard nothing but bad/mediocre stuff about it, so I avoided it.

[Shellhead]

Also for anyone interested..there is a mod for the first game that is about the Justice League. It's about 6-7 campaigns, but it's really well done, voice acting..everything. The characters look great and they managed to do the powers pretty well also. I recommend it to anyone interested, I don't have a link on me, but just do a search and you'll find it.

If you're asking about the gameplay, it actually isn't that hard managing all the heroes. The heroes you aren't controlling will attack and stuff if they're are attacked, so you don't need to always worry about that. Although I will say team AI is a lot better in the 2nd game.

As for running in real time? Well, this game isn't meant to always be run that way. It has a pause feature for a reason, but it's not hard to give commands to various members of your team, but you will need to pause sometimes just to regroup and stuff. This is more-so necessary during boss fights than anything else. I will admit I usually focused on controlling one character during a mission and then let the AI take care of the others, though I'd occasionally take control of them if they had a power I needed. It really is a fun game, but if you have both games I'd recommend playing the first game first. While it isn't necessary to understand the story of the 2nd game, you'll still know the characters back stories and you'll understand the references they make to the first game.


That JLA mod sounds great. I will track that down sometime.

Yeah, I was worried about the gameplay, specifically about running four characters in real time. So far, I've just been running that patriotic dude through the first scene in the city park and then in the city, and it's been easy to handle except for manipulating the camera view in the alleyways. From what you're describing, it sounds manageable with a team. Pause the game to switch default power usage, but focus mainly on one key character.

[Matt]

The JLA mod is alright but it's not quite of professional quality.

Personally I thought the first game was better, particularly in regards to the power meter/how much power using an ability actually used. It was much more fluid in the first and far too rigid in the second.

I also expected a lot more from the sequel; more powers, better graphics, etc. But they just weren't there.

[Surtur]

Anyone interested in more mods for the first game:

http://mike.va.com.au/

Haven't tried them myself, but they're supposed to be good.

[Surtur]

Damn there's also a mod that can add things like telekinetic powers to the game..and it's actually done well. I was having a fist fight with a guy who was stronger, but my guy was resistant to fire. So I picked up a truck with TK, and tossed it at us both, the explosion took him out but spared me thanks to my fire resistance. Pretty epic.