Reforging for… Freedom Fighters (issue #2)

The author’s opinion may not coincide with the opinion or objective reality of our dear readers or the editors of the StopGame website. If you find inaccuracies in facts and general constructive criticism, please write comments, but do not insult – a subtle mental organization is humanum errare est (it is human to make mistakes):)

Historical cranberry pie

The largest confrontation between the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) led by the United States and the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTO) bloc with the USSR at the helm, called the “Cold War,” kept politicians and military men of all countries awake at night in the second half of the twentieth century. And today it continues to fruitfully excite the minds of filmmakers and video game developers, which has given rise to a whole artistic layer in various forms of art. And as is always customary in our cheerful everyday life, there will always be tons of stereotypes and facts of deliberate and not very distortion of facts. In relation to the Soviet heritage and traditions of modern Russia, it received a very capacious name – cranberry.

Vodka, an astronaut in Armageddon, cranberry friendship with bears, and basic necessities 🙂

So what is the Freedom Fighters game like in terms of history and historical thought?? “Cranberry” satire or dramatic experiment on historical heritage from the point of view of “what if”?». Let’s figure it out a little, it’s interesting.

Now it’s clear what we’re talking about?

Right off the bat – the game tells about the Soviet invasion of the United States with further occupation and an attempt to establish a communist system. It sounds absurd at first glance, because all of us, at least most of us, are children of 90 and have seen and heard with our own eyes how history turned out. But the degree of absurdity immediately decreases if you carefully look at the cinematic intro of the game, which plays before the main menu and can easily be skipped by you along with all the advertising of the game publisher and other fun.

So why is this intro so important?? It’s simple – it briefly and logically explains the state of the world in which such a fact as the Soviet invasion of the USA became possible. Think about it – half a world away, across the ocean, having cut through the forest of states allied with the United States, and from all sides. Let us present and explain it briefly:

1) 1945 – Soviet aircraft drop an atomic bomb on Berlin, thereby ending World War II in Europe.

Wow! Succinctly and briefly – but at the same time the Germans are going through the woods with their “heavy water” nuclear program, which began in 1938, and the Americans with the “Manhattan Project”, which began in 1942 (while spending 10 times more resources than the Germans). The USSR also began work in 1942, but in general the first nuclear test was carried out only in 1949 in comparison with the USA in 1945. There is a general thesis – both the USSR and the USA actively searched for, removed and cleared the biographies of German scientists involved in advanced scientific research and development, including the atomic program.

That’s how strong the Soviet galaxy of nuclear physicists and their luminaries, Igor Kurchatov, were, since they managed to organize this in Berlin before anyone else, as the game tells us 🙂

Ruins of Dresden – from conventional bombs. And a photo after the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki. There is a difference.

2) 1953 – Britain reluctantly joins the communist bloc. The last European country to become communist.

Even more fun. Uncle Winston Churchill is turning over in his grave with the “Fulton Speech”, it is unclear where Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has gone. And the words “the last European country” generally automatically cancel the creation of NATO in 1949, which was originally created to protect Europe from Soviet influence.

The proletarians of all Europe united 🙂

1 – Churchill with his famous speech on March 5, 1946. 2 – coronation of Elizabeth II March 2, 1953.

3) 1961 – Despite US protest, Soviet intermediate-range nuclear missiles are deployed in Cuba.

Cuban missile crisis. That says it all. In 1961, the world stood on the brink of open conflict and nuclear war. By 1960, the United States had an overwhelming advantage in nuclear capabilities over the USSR. And the deployment of missiles in Britain, Italy and Turkey guaranteed a strategic nuclear strike on the Soviets within 15 minutes. The response to this was Operation Anadyr – the secret transfer and deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba under the cover of a military contingent and general support for the communist regime of Fidel Castro. As a result, almost the entire East Coast of the United States and the center of the country were under the same threat. I thank the Almighty that then John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev were able to come to an agreement and, through mutual concessions and negotiations, averted such a terrible threat.

4) 1976 – The Soviet Union sends thousands of military advisers to Guatemala and Honduras.

The Caribbean countries have traditionally been in the zone of US interests and economic influence. Despite everything, even attempts at revolutions and the establishment of military regimes in them in the twentieth century, they never left the close attention and political control of Big American Brother, except when they tried to pursue a more independent policy, which was possible with varying degrees of success.

Such an “alternative thesis” speaks of the general political weakness of the United States in the Freedom Fighters universe and the formation of a strong communist belt around

5) 1996 – The Mexican Communist Party celebrates a controversial victory in the presidential election.

Mexico. Direct southern border of the USA. In the 90s, during the economic crisis within the country, there was a political struggle between the then largest political parties – the then ruling social democratic Institutional Revolutionary Party (part of the Socialist International) and the Christian Democrats from the National Action Party. Moreover, the IRP, against the backdrop of failures and the economic crisis, was rapidly losing popular support, and in 2000, for the first time in a long time, it lost the presidential election, which was beneficial for the United States to the Democrats from the PAP.

The scriptwriters simply and directly told us that a puppet communist regime has been installed in Mexico 🙂

6) 2001 – failed attempt to assassinate the US President. Authorities of an unknown foreign state are involved

No comments necessary. The assassination of such https://redstarcasino.co.uk/login/ a high figure as the president usually means preparation for a political coup in the country. What in this universe speaks about the deep internal decay of the US political system and the presence of an extensive system of organizations that directly undermine and corrupt the traditionally democratic and anti-communist American society from within?.

2 different assassination attempts on American presidents – the murder of J.Kennedy and the attack on President George.Bush Jr.

7) Yesterday (like 2003, t. To. the game was released in 2003) – reports of many low-flying objects over the entire United States. The government denies all rumors and reports the objects as weather balloons.

The absolute absence of any coherent military defensive response to the obvious threat of invasion of the country. Usually this means the puppetry of the ruling elite and the high command of the country’s armed forces. And in this state of affairs, intervention is not even required – the country is already yours, eat it with a knife and fork, there is no one to resist you.

However, according to the history of the game, the invasion began..

So, what do we end up with before the actual events of the game begin?. Not a lot, not a little, the USSR and the USA changed places in history. The only difference is that with the collapse of the USSR and the defeat of the “August Putsch”, the first transitional democratic government led by Boris Yeltsin came to power in Russia and a transition to a market economic system took place. That is, in essence, the country acquired a political “color” convenient for the United States, the deep crises and internal problems of which provided scope for the establishment of the United States as a world hegemon for the next 15-20 years and no military intervention or coercion was needed. Hegemony, by and large, happened, as further events in the Middle East and Afghanistan showed.

In fact, we see an alternative view of the history of the second half of the 20th century under the flag of the USSR (hello to the Wolfenstein universe). This is if we talk about the general picture of the world. And below we will consider the events of the game itself, as the history of the heroes as direct individuals.

What was Freedom Fighters about?

Freedom Fighters is a third-person shooter with tactical controls. You play as an ordinary American guy, Christopher Stone, who, like all residents of New York, was taken by surprise by the Soviet intervention.

The highlight that defines the style of gameplay and the entire game in general is that you command a cell of partisans in a variety of open locations. You are up against a well-organized and well-endowed enemy who is superior to you in almost everything, so to win you have to dodge and think proactively to find a gap in the enemy’s defenses.

The plot tells the story of the New York Resistance movement, which, under the leadership of the main character and other characters, having survived betrayal and adversity, was able to repel the invasion of Soviet forces and become the nucleus for the liberation struggle throughout the country.

Main characters — Christopher Stone, plumber. Isabella Angelina – leader of the anti-communist movement "Beware the Reds"!». Troy Stone – Chris’s brother, plumber. Phil Bugston – rebel, commander of the New York Resistance cell and part-time joker. The boy is just an orphan who will help us throughout the game.

Antagonists – General of the Intervention Corps Vasily Tatarin and his deputy – Colonel, and later KGB General Mikhail Bulba.

Why this game deserves a remaster?

Gameplay. There were already a lot of different third-person shooting games released before Freedom Fighters. This includes the grotesque GTA, the perky Mercenaries, the spirit of which later migrated to Just Cause, as well as the slightly more serious Mafia. But they all allowed you to play yourself in different ways, and best of all they showed themselves in hurricane action with colorful fake explosions and cartoon chases. But FF dictates from the very beginning a doctrine of more precise and precise actions and punishes thoughtless “ololo” attacks in the forehead. You are partisans and your advantage is surprise: quickly attack, throw Molotovs and grenades and shoot everyone before you have time to come to your senses. But send soldiers to attack a fortified checkpoint head-on – it’s unlikely that anyone will come back. And you are the very link that makes your group complete, you are the commander and the best shooter in the group, so you will have to especially protect yourself.

You will be forced to look for non-trivial ways to complete the task at the location. There are always many paths to your goal, but not all of them correspond equally to your capabilities. Here is the task – to shoot a Soviet general, and you are alone with a sniper rifle, between you there are a lot of soldiers and firing points, and there is also little ammunition. What to do – look for the right position. Here it is, but it is also guarded by Soviet snipers. But there is a way out – think, observe and make a plan.

It’s simple – that’s why it’s difficult 🙂

The opponents are also not idiots and are not there for show. They disperse competently, stand behind stationary machine guns, hide behind cover and generally competently imitate coordinated actions against your group. Moreover, there are almost always more of them than you and there are several types of them. The special forces will quickly injure several rebels and strangle someone else, the maroon beret is very dangerous in close combat, and the heavy machine gunner would not sneeze at your shots and will rip apart your group with a light machine gun, and how. There are still a bunch of others..

In turn – a security guard, a Soviet soldier, an officer (aka a maroon beret), a commando, a sniper, a saboteur (also an acrobat), a heavy machine gunner

Each weapon also has its own advantages and disadvantages, which limits and determines its scope of application. A shotgun is lethal up close, but useless at a distance, a submachine gun eats up ammo very quickly, and they are generally rare, and so on..

All the weapons in the game – yes, yes, you can’t live without a wrench, you’re a plumber 🙂

At the same time, there is also a strategic part of the gameplay that connects all locations together – this is the relationship of tasks. Example: you blow up a helipad in the Harbor. In turn, this means that the enemy will not have air fire support when you storm the Fire Station. Blow up the bridges – the enemy will stop receiving reinforcements. But explosives and ammunition also need to be obtained, having previously recaptured them from the enemy. All this forces you to think and prioritize tasks.

Fighting “Crocodile (MI-24)” in the air is like hemorrhoids. So why not blow it up on the ground?

Design. By the merits of the design, I mean that the game, although it shows a Soviet military ambience, does not slide into the complete realm of “cranberry” grotesque and absurdity, as, for example, Red Alert did. No, everything was done to convey a serious mood and the general ferocity of what was happening. Soviet soldiers do not dance the bullseye, do not drink vodka everywhere and do not shout cliched slogans. On the contrary, they communicate in the essence of the battle, and all that can make you laugh is perhaps the funny voice acting of Soviet soldiers speaking Russian with a terrible broken accent, giving away the American voice actor. The city is also filled with Soviet posters and billboards, but they are also made in a serious, quite understandable style, and yes, there are advertisements for “Russian vodka” too.

Everything is in place and in the right design – it fits harmoniously with what’s happening on the screen.

Music. The success of the Freedom Fighters soundtrack goes entirely to Danish composer Jesper Kyd. Yes, yes, this is the same guy who made divine music for the 1st and 2nd Assassins Creed, the first parts of Hitman, as well as for all three Borderlands. And the choir of the state Hungarian radio helped him in this. As a result, under his conductor’s direction and the parts of the Hungarian singers, a magnificent and memorable soundtrack came out, ideally suited to the game. I still listen to some tracks on my Spotify.

Plot. The point for which I will both praise the game and criticize it below. The New York Resistance is led by several characters. They all have different characters and views on what is happening, and the plot twist that takes place in the middle is generally my respect. But unfortunately, the developers did not disclose this as required – they teased us and that’s it.

And the global plot has a very large reserve for sequels and plot additions. But someone else needs to make them..

What will be reforged??

Graphics. The project was released in 2003, having a very good looking and detailed picture for that time. However, multiplatform played a cruel joke on the game and the graphics are clearly not as good as they could be. For it they used IO Interactive’s own development – the first generation Glacier Engine, the same one that was used for Hitman, and also released the Kane&Lynch duology. It was distinguished by high performance and resource saving, while delivering very rich scenes with a large number of NPCs. However, now the times are not the same, but the picture resolution remains the same. The graphics simply need to sort out and rework the models, increasing their detail and adding new animations.

Gameplay elements. Some gameplay decisions look at least illogical. I mentioned different types of enemies that are armed and fight differently – generally have different behavior patterns. But the same cannot be said about the Resistance fighters. They are as faceless as possible, but although they are armed differently, this does not in any way affect their tactics in battle. A firefight has begun at a distance – your guys with shotguns will stand next to everyone and try to hit from afar, which is absolutely useless. And this will continue until you send them into close combat with the enemy. But there’s a catch here too – absolutely everyone will trample on the attack and you can’t choose exactly those who should attack. That is, only part of the fighters can be sent into battle, but who will go to carry out the command is random. This clearly shouldn’t be the case, we need a system for distributing squads by specialization and a more flexible system for issuing commands.

Game design. Weapon. There is very little of it. Let us remind you that our game is about the invasion of the United States, where the most important Second Amendment to the Constitution is in force, which guarantees the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. And in our game, it seems illogical that the rebels and the Soviets are armed the same way, well, at least someone at home should have a semi-automatic carbine or pistol. Moreover, everything is positioned from the point of view of the fact that the rebels used only Soviet weapons – then why are Soviet soldiers armed with Italian Beretta 92 (hello Max Payne) instead of standard army Makarov or Stechkin pistols, and maroon berets are armed with the same Italian SPAS-12 instead of Soviet TOZ or Saiga-12. Plus, there is no weapon attachment system at all – you won’t even see an under-barrel grenade launcher anywhere, although Hitman: Blood Money was released in 2006, where you could do any obscenity with your Silver Ballers.

Translation of the 2nd Amendment – The right to maintain a well regulated militia in defense of the liberty of the State, and the right of the citizens to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed

Soviet fortification. Here the questions are that Soviet checkpoints and fortifications look too “unconventional”, in the American style. The usual Soviet fortification, it is simpler and more ordinary – parapets made of bags of sand or earth, ordinary concrete blocks covered with a camouflage net, barriers. No, of course they build more serious fortifications, but they are not so common. And in our game – no matter what the fortification is, it is the pinnacle of engineering – a pure Western approach. Plus, stationary machine guns – they have a huge bulletproof shield hung on them. How to conduct targeted fire from it, or do you just need to shoot at sparrows?? And the appearance of field headquarters and command centers is pure hi-tech?

It is clearly evident that the Danes from IO Interactive in 2003 did not have enough money or simple logic to invite at least a couple of experienced military consultants. Then the authenticity of what is happening would increase by an order of magnitude.

Plot. I said above, they teased me, but didn’t give me the full picture. The Resistance has several leaders, but their development as characters is negligible. Chris is silent throughout the entire game, with the exception of the introductory video, his address to the people and the final video – why?? Isabella Angelina, the main ideologist of the rebels, we will then spend almost the entire last quarter of the game looking for her – how she even reveals herself as a person? There is Phil Bugston – he seems to be a joker and a positive dude, but at least once we meet him on missions? And the nameless Kid who helps the rebels? The antagonists, represented by General Tatarin and Colonel Bulba, were able to reveal themselves much better, simply because they were given a little screen time. At the same time, a huge Wiki has been created for the game, where there is simply a ton of information and biographies of everyone, but there is nothing of this in the game. Supplement, expand, give screen time – everyone will benefit from this and even the overall running time of the game will increase.

Final judgment, impressions and dreams of a sequel

Freedom Fighters is a game that tried to fill the vacant niche of “non-cranberry” shooters about the Soviet-American confrontation. It has balanced and dynamic gameplay, an established style, and most importantly, great but untapped potential. In the wake of the remakes and remasters craze, IO Interactive has a good ace up its sleeve in the form of Freedom Fighters. Well, you can’t constantly rivet one Hitman – you can go bald 🙂 I recommend completing the original (play only on the highest difficulty) and wait for the remake, and then you’ll see, we’ll wait for the sequel!

Thank you for your attention and time, dear readers, and I invite you to comment for fascinating conversations!

Thanks to everyone for the positive ratings and interesting questions for the pilot episode of “Reforging”. I am very motivated by your reaction and interesting comments. Write your suggestions on what you would send to “Reforging” 🙂