Is this game like Freeman Guerrilla Warfare?

[lnxpnk]

tldr: no, it is not, both games have an almost identical setting though

Hi. I own both games, and have played a couple of hundred hours of Freeman Guerrilla Warfare, and can positively state that the games are not "a copy of each other", or an "asset flip" or even that similar to begin with.

Both Total Conflict: Resistance and Freeman Guerrilla Warfare portray an armed conflict in the present, in an Eastern European country, and both games have "the same weapons", that is, real life NATO or (former) Warsaw Pact gear. The maps and setting also are similar, as both games portray Eastern European, soviet style towns, and even the vegetation looks alike, which is totally logical as both games have almost identical settings. You could argue that the vegetation, buildings and weapons also are similar to the STALKER series (albeit not post-apocaliptic) and that's explainable because STALKER, like Freeman or Total Conflict, also tries to reproduce the same spot in South Eastern Europe. But the similarities end there.

Freeman Guerrrilla Warfare, like Mount & Blade Warband, is an RPG. You control a character, you raise their stats, and the more you raise their stats the better it shoots, runs, interacts, etc. Total Conflict: Resistance is not and RPG. Let me say that again, Total Conflict: Resistance is NOT an RPG, and you don't control a specific character, but any solder or vehicle you want like Call to Arms/Gates of Hell allows you to. Therefore the game mechanics are completely different, apples and oranges. To give an example, in Freeman you buy ammo for your character, but your squads will replenish their ammo on their own before every new battle. In TC:R you manage ammo for all your army, in a Grand Strategy way that involves production and distribution of the ammo, if you don't supply your armies correctly, your soldiers won't be able to shoot back in the tactical mode. Apples and oranges.

Freeman GW had vehicles, and the developers couldn't integrate those vehicles to their RPG system (they threw things of balance, as global map movement was determined by an RPG skill and having vehicles broke that mechanic ), so they took them out. There are no vehicles in Freeman, except if you opt for a (heavily unfinished) legacy version that still has them. Total Conflict DOES have vehicles, and so far they are way better than they ever where in Freeman.

Both Freeman and TC have a strategic map where you can manage armies and towns, but Total Conflict is way more complex, has more options, and has much more room to grow. Total Conflict is more of a Grand Strategy game, Freeman is more a carbon copy of M&B Warband mechanics in a modern setting. In Freeman's strategic map you could only give direct orders to "your" army (the army your character commands), just like M&B, in Total Conflict you can give orders to all your faction's armies (and create or disband battalions), as you control the whole faction.

Total Conflict allows you to give orders in first person mode, with a 3D cursor similar to M&B Bannerlord, Freeman only lets you command your troops from a top down RTS like perspective. In that sense, Total Conflict is much more interesting and dynamic.

To wrap this rant up, I loved Freeman Guerrilla Warfare, I loved it. But the game never grew to it's full potential. The developers agreed with this sentiment and announced an "overhaul", that hasn't arrived yet (I still have hopes for it, I also hope for world peace, doesn't seem likely I'll get either anytime soon). I don't want to parrot stupid things like "they scammed us and ran with the money to live in luxury in Switzerland", I know life is complicated, projects get out of hand, money runs short. Bottom line, Freeman's development hit a snag and there's little hope it'll pick up again. Total Conflict: Resistance, on the other hand, is a new project that still needs a long time to develop before we can properly judge it. I have great hopes for this game, and it deserves the great reception it has gotten. Total Conflict is much more original than Freeman is, it is arguably a new genre, even if it's just a genre mash up, it's a mash-up that hasn't been pulled before.

Also, both games were designed in different engines, so the talk about either being an "asset flip" (as far as physics or mechanic goes) is nonsense.

[BaMxIRE]

100 percent. They are similar and if you have an itch to still scratch from the Freeman episode then get this game I bought it after only hearing that it existed the other day and am thankful I've found something to kinda scratch that itch. Tho it is still early days I think this game has super potential!!

[alchemist]

Been playing since the demo came out and it has so much potential. Still a number of bugs to iron out of course.

[lnxpnk]

Originally posted by alchemist:

Been playing since the demo came out and it has so much potential. Still a number of bugs to iron out of course.

I'm in my second play trough, at 2025 game time, and I don't know if it's just this run, or if the game needs a lot of mid game balancing. Still, this game might be a diamond once it's finished.

[Blackwall]

thx