Overview
Freedom Force chronicles the exploits of a group of super heroes in a strategy / RPG hybrid game. The unique aspect that distinguishes Freedom Force is the over the top humor and art style that pays homage to the Silver Age of Comic Books. The game was developed by Irrational Games and released in 2002.
Development
Ken Levine & Irrational initially pitched the game as"Justice Squad", a tactical turn-based RPG (like X-Com) that was even closer to the Silver Age of comics. But early on in development, they noticed the waning popularity of the tactical RPG genre and switched to a hybrid real-time combat. Ken noted the Baldur's Gate series as a major inspiration for the hybrid "pause and play" combat in the final game that encouraged liberal use of the pause-in-combat feature.
Gameplay
Freedom Force plays as a strategy / RPG game were you get to control up to 4 members of Freedom Force on several missions. Each of the heroes has various moves and superpowers that can be used in the game. As you gain more experience points from completing missions, you can unlock new powers for the characters. Unlike an action RPG game like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Freedom Force plays more like a tactical RPG, where you get to pause the action, plan your next move, and act accordingly.
Hero Creation
The hero creation feature allowed players to create their own heroes by mixing and matching many stock powers. Players could also give these heroes their own origin stories, allowing people to role play as their own creation. Years after the release, this proved be one of the most popular features of the game.
Plot
Minute Man & MentorLord Dominion is an alien bent on world domination, and the only thing standing between him and achieving his goal is earth. He devises a diabolical scheme of endowing the criminals of earth with a super human power inducing substance known as energy X, and watching earth crumble from within. Before he can execute his plan, one of the alien citizens from his planet (known as Mentor) steals the canisters of energy X and heads to earth in the hope of giving the power to some good citizens who can stand against Lord Dominion's oppression. On his way to earth, Mentor's ship is shot down by Lord Dominion's forces and the canisters of energy X are dispersed all throughout Patriot City.
Various people -some good and some evil- are exposed to the radiations of energy X and endowed with super human powers. The good ones join forces with Mentor and decide to form a group to fight the forces of evil, and defend Patriot City from all dangers. Each one of the heroes is granted a power that matches his or her personality. For example, Frank Stiles' patriotism translates to Minute Man, the righteous hero who fights for justice, and El-Diablo is a hot headed Latino whose fiery powers match his fiery personality. Together, this group of heroes is known as the Freedom Force.
Powers
Hero powers are either offensive or defensive, with each group then dividing itself into sub-categories.
Offensive Powers
Offensive Powers can be divided into:
- Area Powers
- Beam Powers
- Direct Powers
- Melee Powers
- Projective Powers
- Special Powers
AREA POWERS
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Annihilation | A massive explosion that destroys the attacker and damages all targets |
| Aloft | Propel objects straight upwards with great strenght |
| Area Energize | Generic area attack |
| Bellow | A primordial bellow with a ranged effect that causes Panic |
| Bind Trap | Generic binding power |
| Call of Confusion | An echoing cry that causes Confusion in those that hear it |
| Cortical Supression | Causes Mental Blank on all enemies within the area of effect |
| Disrupt Object | Generic disrupt object attack |
| Electrical Explosion | Generic electrical explosion |
| Electrical Field | A powerful attack that damages all targets within a radius |
| Energy Leech | Draws energy points out of a target |
| Explosion | Generic explosion |
| Fire Explosion | Generic fire explosion |
| Fire Explosion Large | Generic large fire explosion |
| Ice Explosion | Generic ice explosion |
| Ignite Explosion | Generic explosive ignition attack |
| Lethes Song | Hypnotizes within a radius |
| Molecular Explosion | Explosion that accompanies molecular excitation |
| Order In the Court | Causes Fear in anyone caught in range |
| Portal Explosion | Explosion that accompanies dimensional ruptures |
| Quake | Area attack that deals heavy damage to any objects on the ground |
| Rally the Troops | Temporarily gives nearby heroes mental resistance and cures Panic |
| Release | An attack that damages everything in a wide radius |
| Roaring Doom | Induces Panic within a radius |
| Schoolyard Taunt | Enrages enemies and provokes them into attacking |
| Screech | Causes Panic within a radius |
| Shockwave | Generic shockwave |
| Snowstorm | Confuses opponents |
| Space-Time Rift | A very powerful attack; it has a long foreshadowing time, however |
| Turret Explosion | Generic turret explosion |
| Ultrasonic Squeal | Stuns everyone, either friend or foe, within a radius |
| Unstable Energy | Generic unstable energy attack |
| Vine Trap | Entangles the enemy and places them in Stasis |
| Whirlpool | Strikes all in reach; similar effect to Water Jet |
BEAM POWERS
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Chronal Electricity | Beam that deals electrical damage |
| Chronal Energy | Beam that deals energy damage |
| Chronal Radiation | Beam that deals radiation damage |
| Cold Fusion Ray | A focused beam of oscillating energy |
| Density Max | A ranged attack that increases the density of the target |
| Disruption | Causes inanimate objects to explode |
| Electron Beam | A ranged attack with moderate damage |
| Energy X-Ray | A powerful, medium range energy beam |
| Flame Cannon | A fiery ranged attack |
| Flame Gun | A fiery short-ranged attack |
| Focus | A standard ranged attack |
| Freeze Ray | Causes targets to Freeze |
| Icicle Blast | An icy ranged attack |
| Irradiate | Causes the target to become radioactive, taking progressive damage |
| Meltdown | Ranged beam attack that passes straight through to the target |
| Microwave Beam | A long range attack |
| Modulating Beam | A penetrating beam attack |
| Rad Pistol | A powerful ranged radiation attack |
| Reminder Ray | A low-damage, short-range attack |
| Sacred Bolt | Ranged electrical attack |
| Seeking Beam | Beam attack that ignores obstacles, dealing cold damage |
| Sonic Shriek | Penetrating beam attack with a good chance of stunning opponents |
| Storm Bolt | A ranged projectile with moderate damage |
| Tongues of Flame | Effective ranged beam attack |
| Transfer | Transfers the user's own energy points to a target (useful to help allies) |
| Water Jet | Low-damage, high Stun and Knockback attack |
DIRECT POWERS
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Alteration | Randomly inflicts primary states and removes secondary states |
| Balance | Pools hit points of user and target, then divides them equally |
| Binding Vines | Paralyzing attack that binds the target with vines |
| Cerebral Balance | Cure an ally of any special mental state |
| Chrono Crush | A ranged attack that causes its target to become slow or paralyzed |
| Commuted Sentence | Removes secondary states like Blindness or Irradiated |
| Darkness Power | Powerful ranged explosive attack |
| Direct 01 | Generic direct attack |
| Energize | Accelerate other character's energy regeneration, but with chance of stun |
| Energize Other | Increases the target's energy regeneration, but causes unstable energy |
| Entangling Vines | Entangle foes with vines |
| Genetic Damage | Alter the resistances of a target |
| Ignition | Set fire to objects, causing them to explode in a fireball |
| Instinct Dominance | Causes Rage in a single target, either enemy or ally |
| Mercy | Transfer health points to other characters |
| Molecular Excitation | Turns any inanimate object it affects into a bomb |
| Power Null | Removes a randomly selected power from an enemy target |
| Purgatory | Temporarily banish an enemy from this plane of existence |
| Repulsion | Batters an enemy against an object or removes them from melee range |
| Swarm of Leaves | Swarm of leaves appears to Blind the enemy |
| Throw Voice | Forces an enemy to use taunt, making his allies go berserk |
| Vengeance Curse | A curse from the goddess to vex the unworthy |
MELEE POWERS
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Biff | A hefty punch |
| Blinding Scratch | Causes blindness |
| Cloven Kick | A standard melee attack |
| Club | A standard melee attack |
| Commie Clobber | A standard melee attack |
| Condemnation | Spinning attack that strikes all within a short radius |
| Double Uppercut | Two quick strikes |
| Electric Arc | Powerful attack that hits everything within a short arc |
| Fist Flurry | Three strikes in quick succession |
| Fist Fusillade | Delivers six average punches in quick succession |
| Flaming Fist | Strong, fiery melee attack |
| Flaming Spear | Deals heat damage |
| Flip-Kick | Powerful attack that delivers good damage and knockback |
| Frost Punch | A standard melee attack |
| Gore | Attack using jagged horns |
| Hammer Carnage | A series of reasonably fast, very damaging attacks |
| Hammer Crush | A slow, yet very damaging attack |
| Haymaker | Melee attack that affects an area, knocking opponents up and away |
| Headbutt | Move quickly to a target and slam it with damage |
| Icicle Slash | Attack using razor-sharp icicles |
| Interference | Attack with a semi-materialized hand, causing severe damage |
| Jab | Attack that pierces through an opponent's defenses |
| Kick | A standard melee attack |
| Mandible Assault | A triple attack that strikes everything in a short forward-facing arc |
| Mandible Bite | A powerful melee attack |
| Mecha Smash | Use this to smash any architectural ignoramus |
| Mecha Stomp | Stomp on the inferior structures |
| Nature's Kiss | An attack that can cause hypnosis |
| One-Shot Punch | High velocity jab |
| Patriot Whirl | 360º spin that strikes everyhing in its arc |
| Piercing Peck | A basic melee attack |
| Pincer Punch | A quick double attack |
| Poison Spear | Very potent attack that causes acid burn |
| Pressure Punch | Delivers moderate damage and knockback |
| Psyche-Slash | Delivers multiple strokes, but has a slow lead up time |
| Punch | A standard melee attack |
| Punishment | Short, sharp whack with the hammer of punishment |
| Rend | A standard melee attack |
| Riptide | An attack that strikes three times in quick succession |
| Scratch | A standard melee attack |
| Shove | A high knockback that causes no damage |
| Slam | Delivers a blast of crushing damage to an area |
| Slap | Low-damage attack |
| Slash | Attack with a wide arc, but lower damage |
| Smash | A slow but powerful melee attack |
| Smite the Wicked | Short, sharp slap for the unworthy |
| Snap Kick | A very fast, low damage kick |
| Spear | A short-range melee attack |
| Strike for Freedom | An attack with the staff of patriotism |
| Swift Punch | A fast punch |
| The Ol' One-Two | Quick attack that strikes twice for low-damage |
| Thorax Punch | A simple, fast jab |
| Thrust | An attack that delivers some good damage |
| Trouncing | Delivers three strong attacks in quick succession |
| Vanquish | A quick double attack |
| Wallop | A standard punching attack |
| Wham | Solid melee attack |
| Wrecking Ball | Powerful attack, good for smashing objects... and people |
PROJECTILE POWERS
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Acid Arrow | Causes progressive acid damage |
| Acid Bomb | Acid grenade that causes acid burn to a small radius |
| Acid Spray | Attack that causes acid burn |
| Ant Swarm | Homing attack that causes Blind in the target |
| Arcane Bolt | A small bolt of mystic energy |
| Arrow | Low-damage, but accurate long-range attack |
| Ball Lightning | Hard to target, but attacks large groups of enemies randomly |
| Bermuda Triangle | Entangling projectile attack |
| Bubble Gum | A bomb that puts Stasis on the target |
| Bubble Swarm | Fires several weak projectiles that home in on the target |
| Darkness Bomb | An area effect bomb attack that causes Blind |
| Energy Bullet | Powerful ranged projectile |
| Energy Grenade | Solid ranged explosive attack |
| Flame Burst | An attack that does heat damage |
| Grenade | A low-power explosive grenade with an area effect |
| Hellfire | A mighty explosion that releases other smaller explosions |
| Ice Bullet | A short-range burst of medium-damage ice bullets |
| Inferno | Powerful explosive projectile |
| Living Arrow | Homes in on its target |
| Mafioso Tommy Gun | Ranged burst from the tommy gun |
| Minute Missile | A medium-damage projectile attack that strikes all those in range |
| Pistol Shot | Low-damage ranged attack |
| Plasma Rocket | Explosive rockets; bad at short-range, but good over long distances |
| Projectile 1 | Generic projectile attack |
| Projectile 2 | Generic projectile attack |
| Proximity Grenade | A bouncing bomb that will remain dormant until an enemy gets close |
| Rad Bolts | A projectile that spawns new copies of itself in flight |
| Shadow Shuriken | Low-damage ranged attack |
| Sonic Wing | Projectile that releases a powerful concussive blast when it strikes |
| Stun Grenade | Bouncing bomb that causes no damage, but inflicts Stun |
| Sukhov's Shot | Standard pistol attack |
| Sunday Punch | Throws out a shockwave of damage to stun an opponent |
| Swarm of Arrows | Splits into multiple arrows that seek out and strike random enemies |
| Whirlwind | Carries opponents in the air before stunning and dropping them |
SPECIAL POWERS
| Name | Description |
|---|
| 300-Percenter | Causes the next melee attack to do triple damage |
| Blind Justice | Allows you to go Berserk at will, and adds a bonus to strenght; anyone within range will be attacked, though |
| Cloak of Shadows | Slip into the shadows, becoming invisible |
| Clone Self | Creates a duplicate of the user |
| Deja Duplication | Creates a duplicate deja-vu, with half hit points |
| Displace Image | User becomes temporarily invulnerable, but cannot attack |
| Electrify | Provides a burst of electricity to the user |
| Empathy | An active defense which causes enemies to share the damage they inflict |
| Speeding Bullet | Knocks back enemies at the end of a sprinting run |
| Sprint | Allows you to move to a chosen spot nearly instantly |
| Teleport Self | Move to any point within visual range |
| Uncloak | Become visible again |
Defensive Powers
Defensive Powers can be divided into:
- Active Defense Powers
- Passive Defense Powers
ACTIVE DEFENSE
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Arms of the Goddess | Protection against a variety of projectile and beam attacks |
| Bubble Shell | A good defense that will absorb all attacks, but that has limited HP |
| Energy Shield | Provides protection from all attack types |
| Fire it Up | A powerful defense that burns enemy attacks before they can strike |
| Harmony | Prevents damage being taken from elemental forces |
| Hyper Spin | Active defense, but the character cannot move or attack while in use |
| Ice Shell | A sturdy defense against all attacks |
| Iron Jaw | Active defense that gives extra protection against mundane damage |
| Kinetic Barrier | Protects against all physical attacks |
| Magnetic Harbor | A defense useful against projectiles, energy and electricity |
| National Guard | An energy shield that redirects projectile attacks at a nearby enemy |
| Proton Shield | Shield the user from pesky projectiles |
PASSIVE DEFENSE
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Absorb Heat | Gain Energy Points from incoming heat damage |
| Blessed Aegis | Completely protect against mystical attacks |
| Charge Redirection | Automatically redirects electricity attacks onto the nearest enemy |
| Contain Energy | Turn damage from energy attacks into extra energy points |
| Current Bounce | Automatically redirects electricity attacks onto the nearest enemy |
| Density Control | Absorbs all attacks |
| Eternal Vigilance | Gives a 50% chance to deflect projectiles |
| Fancy Footwork | Defense against Crushing and Piercing attacks |
| Fluttering Feathers | You confound the enemy, making you harder to hit |
| Heat Siphon | Gain energy points from incoming fire damage |
| Justice | Shields the user from many melee attacks |
| Kraken's Scales | Defense against crushing, piercing and energy attacks |
| Mental Barrier | Protects against all mental attacks |
| Metabolize | Absorb acid and radiation damage from ranged attacks |
| Scram Absorb | Turn radiation into Energy Points, but releases rads periodically |
| Shrug Off | Defense that protects against energy, fire and cold damage |
Attributes
There's a wide range of attributes for the player to choose from, but not all of them are good-- afterall, all heros should have a weakness :)
These "bad attributes" are not just for fun, though, as they can be selected to buy back some "credits" in order to be able to buy more good ones. Choose carefully!
Displayed in alphabetical order.
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Armored | Resistant to piercing. Speed reduced by 1 |
| Beautiful | Enemies attempting melee attacks on character must make a successful resistance check against hypnosis |
| Bedeviled | Vulnerable to mystical damage |
| Berserker | 10% chance of becoming enraged after taking damage |
| Blind | Lowers accuracy on ranged attacks. Adds a penalty to the swiftness of melee attacks and dodge chances |
| Blitzkrieg | Adds 3 to the swiftness of all melee attacks, and extra damage |
| Charged | Resistant to electricity. All melee attacks do 5 points of electrical damage |
| Claws | Adds 10 points of piercing damage to all melee attacks |
| Clumsy | Can't pick up or wield objects |
| Cold-Blooded | It makes you more vulnerable to cold damage |
| Cosmic Chump | It makes you vulnerable to energy attacks |
| Crack Shot | Increases accuracy |
| Cybernetic Brain | Resistant to: hypnosis, enrage, panic, mental blank. Increases accuracy |
| Danger Sense | Adds 1 speed bonus to dodge attempts |
| Density Control | Immune to knock-back. Jumping abilities similar to Jumper attribute |
| Disciplined | Resistant to all mental attacks: hypnosis, mental blank, rage, panic |
| Energetic | Your energy recharges twice as fast, but you only have half the normal maximum energy |
| Extra Heroic | Your character receives an extra hero point |
| Fast Healing | Your character will continously recover HP whenever they are damaged, up to a maximum of 100 HP |
| Flier | You can... fly |
| Fluctuation | You are dangerously unpredictable; random damage of 0% to 300% of base damage amount |
| Focus | Attack area range is halved, damage is doubled |
| Glass Bones | You're more vulnerable to crushing damage. Plus, you make rattling noises when you walk! |
| Grim Resolve | More resistant to stun damage |
| Grounded | You're more vulnerable to electrical damage |
| Heat Sensitive | You're more vulnerable to heat attacks |
| Heavy Hitter | The damage of all wielded attacks is doubled |
| Heavy Lifter | Adds strenght value to lifting and throwing |
| Heroic | Gives one more hero point |
| Hirsute | Greater resistance to cold damage |
| Hot Tempered | Randomly uses higher intensity powers |
| Invertebrate | You're more resistant to radiation |
| Jumper | Scales you effective jumping ability |
| Level Headed | You're resistant to mystical and mental damage |
| Levitate | You fly with half the normal movement speed and doubles the EP cost |
| Light Speed | The damage of all beam attacks is increased and it adds 3 to swiftness |
| Myopic | Decreases accuracy |
| Neutralize | You're more resistant to acid damage |
| Nimble | Character gets 3 to agility, but has -10% HP |
| Ponderous | Character can't dodge and gets a -2 penalty to the swiftness of melee attacks |
| Radioactive | Highly resistant to radiation |
| Rapid Metabolism | Vulnerable to acid and radiation |
| Shake it Off | The duration of all prolonged damage states is halved |
| Slow Moving | Character has a -3 penalty speed to dodge attempts, but gets 10% more HP |
| Solid Skeleton | Resistant to crushing damage |
| Strange Visitor | You're more resistant to energy damage |
| Temperature Control | Resistant to heat and cold |
| Thin Skinned | More vulnerable to piercing damage |
| Timid | 5% chance of becoming panicked after taking damage |
| Tough Guy | All resistances are increased by 50% |
| Unbeliever | More resistant to all forms of mystical attack |
| Unheroic | Your character receives one less hero point |
| Unstable Energy | Randomly triggers energy release area attack when character takes damage |
| Unstable Molecules | Your material type is randomly selected at the beginning of every mission, for the duration of that mission |
| Volcanic | Resistant to heat damage |
| Wall Climbing | You can... climb walls. |
| Weak Minded | Your resistance to mental damage is halved |
Fan Community
Freedom Force has an active fan community at http://www.freedomfans.com/ that produces many mods and custom heroes on a regular basis.
Steam Release
Both the Freedom Force games were re-released on Steam on May 29, 2009 as part of "Freedom Pack".
PC System Requirements
| Minimum | Recommended |
|---|
- OS: Windows XP/ME/2000/98 (95 and NT are not supported)
- Processor: 300 MHz Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-2
- Graphics Card: 16 MB supported Direct3D capable video card with DirectX 8.1 compatible driver
- Hard Drive Space: 31 MB, not including saved games
- Sound Card: DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
| - OS: Windows XP/Vista
- Processor: 600 MHz or faster Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon processor
- RAM Memory: 128 MB or more
- Graphics Card: 32 MB or greater supported Direct3D capable video card with DirectX 8.1 compatible driver
- Hard Drive Space: 570 MB or more free hard disk space plus space for saved games
- Sound Card: Environmental Audio capable sound card
|
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