Freedom Fighters

Freedom Fighters is a popular third-person action game developed by IO Interactive and published on PC and home consoles by Electronic Arts in late 2003.

Built on top of the highly upgraded engine that powered IO Interactive’s popular previous titles Hitman: Codename 47 (2000) and Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002), this game greatly expanded the scope of the gameplay and world detail, enabling users to become the leading operative that will organize the resistance of American civilians and soldiers in the alternate history version of the world where Soviet Union gave managed to surprise the USA and invade it.

Originally built to be a turn-based strategy, this project quickly morphed into its final form of the frenetic but highly tactical third-person shooter with a light squad-member manager mechanic. The Freedom Fighters player is put into the boots of Chris Stone, an ordinary New York plumber who somehow manages to become a leading soldier in the rising resistance.

During the campaign which lasts on average around 8 very enjoyable hours (which can be expanded to almost 15 hours for completionist players who want to achieve all available in-game goals and find all collectibles), the player will visit many areas of New York City, fight against armies of soviet soldiers, and slowly but surely expand its influence on the rest of the freedom fighter movement.

The game's very large fun factor is promoted by two gameplay systems – core movement and shooting mechanics, and the charisma system. The game is very easy to control, making sneaking, attacking enemy troops, and destroying enemy bases and supplies a true joy for both novices and fans of the videogame action genre. That action slowly becomes larger as the campaign goes on with the help of the Charisma system, which enables the protagonist Chris Stone to enlist the help of his fellow freedom fighters.

Once under their command, these friendly soldiers will follow players' commands such as move, defend, and attack that are given by simply pointing to the in-game location and clicking the appropriate button. This system transforms the game from the solo shooter at the start of the campaign, to the truly large and spectacular set-piece battles near the end, making the entire experience memorable.

Since it was released in 2003, Freedom Fighters today requires truly minimal hardware resources to be played today. The game requires only a single-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, DX10 compatible GPU, and 800MB of free storage space. The game is fully optimized to run on Windows 10, but due to its age, it does not feature any support for game controllers. PC gamers will have to be satisfied with only mouse and keyboard controls.