Freedom Force

A sequel, Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich, was self-published in early March 2005. The games were made available on Steam on May 29, 2009.

• Title — Freedom Force • Developer — Irrational Games (Windows) The Omni Group (OS X) • Publisher — Crave Entertainment and Electronic Arts (Windows) MacPlay (OS X) 2K Games (Steam) • Engine — NetImmerse • Released — Windows OS X December 21, 2002 • Genre — Real-time tactical role-playing • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Platforms — Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X

Set in Patriot City, a generic American city, circa the late 50s/early 60s, the game sees a range of ordinary citizens imbued with super-powers after being struck by beams of Energy X. First among these is Frank Stiles, an elderly veteran of the Manhattan Project, who becomes Minute Man. He is quickly joined by Mentor, a member of the alien species, the Domain, who are responsible for the Energy X striking Earth. Together with El Diablo and Manbot, they create Freedom Force, which rapidly expands to include other heroes while taking on a variety of Energy X powered villains. Stories are broken down into issues, with each issue containing multiple individual missions. The game is a homage to the Silver Age of comics, with most of the cast being analogues to one or two Marvel or DC characters.

The player controls a group of up to four members of Freedom Force, guiding them in real time to complete objectives, mostly combat based. Each character's actions are limited by individual stamina meters, with different actions requiring varying amounts of stamina, relative to their power. Characters level up with XP gained from participating in missions which then gives CP. This is used to improve existing abilities or add new ones. The game offers the ability to create custom characters, especially through the use of mods. These can be recruited in the main story, as well as used in multiplayer. Characters, including customs, are given a rating in Prestige based on the amount of and strength of their abilities, preventing players from recruiting overpowered custom characters at the start of the story campaign and allowing for multiplayer balance.

The game used the NetImmerse game engine.

• Illustration — Cover of the first issue 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. This series was scripted by Eric Dieter and featured Jack Kirby influenced artwork by Tom Scioli. Dieter also wrote the series "Bible" and served as community manager for the official website's forum, "Freedom Fans".

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