Freedom Fighters (2003) (VG)

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Release Date:

1 October 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action

Plot:

During the end of World War 2, the soviets dropped an atomic bomb on Berlin. Strengthening the forming iron curtain that soon encompasses the world...

Plot Keywords:

Alternative History

Cast

David Thomas	...	(voice) (as Dave Thomas)
Drew Massey	...	(voice)
Henry Dittman	...	(voice)
Brigitte Burdine	...	(voice)
Vanessa Marshall	...	(voice)
Nicholas Worth	...	Mr. Jones / Colonel Bulba (voice)
Adam Gregor	...	Gen. Tatarin (voice)
Walter Jones	...	The Kid (voice)
Marsha Clark	...	(voice)
Stuart K. Robinson	...	(voice) (as Stuart Robinson)
Charlotte Thomas	...	(voice)
April Stewart	...	(voice)
André Sogliuzzo	...	(voice)
Michael McKay	...	(voice)
Andrea C. Pearson	...	(voice) (as Andrea Persun)

Also Known As:

Freedom: Battle for Liberty Island (USA) (working title)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Company:

Electronic Arts (EA)

Movie Connections:

Featured in Spike TV VGA Video Game Awards (2003) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Requiem in D Minor

fun shooter, stupid rpg story

Pretty good shooter; levels are difficult but not impossible. Some amusing touches, like the Soviet newscaster who breaks for the weather every time there's bad news - just as the right-wing media of the current America does now.

The main problem with the game is the hilariously stupid story that grounds it.

The Soviets could never have invaded America, nor would they unless the US tried to invade them first. The Soviets were too isolationist, they didn't trust each other enough to launch such an invasion, which would have strained their always unstable inner political structure. If they had invaded, reaction would have been swift and devastatingly violent, whether the US was led by Democrats - like Jimmy Carter, who effectively designed the US nuclear submarine program, targeted specifically at the Soviet Union, long before he entered politics - or Republicans like Reagan.

The laughable scenario is underscored by the task the main character performs to end a mission And move on - he raises a flag over a building.

Oh, come on! Despite right-wing rhetoric, wars are not about flags (what the Amish call "painted rags") or buildings. In 1812, Napoleon thought he had captured Russia because he had captured Moscow; the Russians let him know different. 42 years later, the Confederate Army fought Union General Sherman to preserve Atlanta Georgia, because they thought he wanted to use the railway network that joined at Atlanta as a base; so he had the whole city burned down just to prove he didn't care about they're dam' railroad.

The kids who think such stories such as that of "Freedom Fighters" make sense, haven't any notion what freedom really means, and so would never know how to fight for it. You don't start by willing to kill - but by willing to die. To die, because "freedom" is only a codeword for "the next generation" - that is, our children and our children's children, and the kind of life we wish for them to enjoy.

If this "kind of life" is all about money and consumer goods, then it amounts to nothing.

It is the ability to think for one's self and to define the self that thinks. It is the choice of morals, which admittedly deny us much of the grosser enjoyments in life, not a choice of objects to enjoy.

"Freedom Fighters" was a fun game to play - but I will not be leaving it to my children.