''Freedom Force'' is a real-time

tactical role-playing game Tactical role-playing games (abbreviated TRPGs), also known as strategy role-playing games and in Japan as (both abbreviated SRPGs), are a video game genre that combines core elements of role-playing video games with those of tactical ( turn-b ...

developed by Irrational Games and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted th ...

and Crave Entertainment in 2002. The player guides a team of superheroes as they defend Patriot City from a variety of villains, monsters, and other menaces. The game's budget was around $2 million. A sequel, '' Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich'', was self-published in early March 2005. The games were made available on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...

on May 29, 2009.

Setting

Players control the character Mentor across a series of locations and time periods in pursuit of and in contest with the game's primary antagonist, Lord Dominion. The game begins with a fight between Lord Dominion and Mentor resulting in the latter's ship exploding, releasing a substance named "Energy X" over the game's primary setting, Patriot City. The substance acts as a context specific agent that grants an individual superpowers based upon their personality or the environment wherein they made contact with the substance. This substance, "Energy X" acts as the driving plot device for the game as it generates allies for Mentor along with new environments for the player to pursue and fight Lord Dominion.

Comic book tie-in

From January to June 2005, the story of the first ''Freedom Force'' game was retold in a six-issue comic book miniseries published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-o ...

. This series was scripted by

Eric Dieter The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

and featured

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comics artist, comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential c ...

-influenced artwork by Tom Scioli. Dieter also wrote the series "Bible" and served as community manager for the official website's forum, "''Freedom Fans''".

Reception

The game received "universal acclaim," according to the review aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' named it the best computer game of March 2002. ''Freedom Force'' won ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through t ...

''s 2002 "Strategy Game of the Year" award. The editors of ''

Computer Games Magazine ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' named it the ninth-best computer game of 2002 and called it "the superhero game fans have been waiting for". It also received the magazine's "Best Voice Acting" award. ''GameSpot'' presented it with its annual "Best Story on PC" prize. ''Freedom Force'' was also nominated for ''

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games mag ...

''s "2002 Best Roleplaying Game", '' The Electric Playground''s 2002 "Best Strategy Game for PC" and ''GameSpot''s "Best Music on PC", "Biggest Surprise on PC" and "Best Graphics (Artistic) on PC" awards.

Sequel

''Freedom Force'' was followed by a sequel, '' Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich,'' which released three years after the original game.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Freedom Force (2002 Video Game) 2002 video games 2K games Crave Entertainment games Electronic Arts games Irrational Games Multiplayer and single-player video games NetImmerse engine games MacOS games Python (programming language)-scripted video games Real-time tactics video games Superhero video games Cold War video games Tactical role-playing video games Take-Two Interactive franchises Video games about parallel universes Video games adapted into comics Video games set in the United States Windows games Video games developed in the United States