Is it worth it?

[BrackObama2]

Hello,

I am a fan of Mount and Blade games, I love everything about them, sandbox, ability to form your own faction or join others, build fortifications of some sort, buildings in your villages and etc.. Basically tailor your own story and each playtrough is different.

From what I understand Freeman is similar, but modern? If yes, then this is exactly what I have been looking for, modern Mount and Blade.

What is this game exactly about? Can I decide who to work with, join different factions/nations? Can I liberate towns, villages, military bases, wander around them, interact with other people, buy, sell, loot stuff? Can I build something there, expand them, perhaps start my own faction and either be a marauder or establish my own "nation" if you can say so, basically liberate towns for yourself and then manage them?

And of course, how is combat? Are there any vehicles, like there are horses in M&B?

Thanks.

[marijn211]

I'd say not rn, wait to see if the game gets updated as announced, got 50 hours or so of gameplay, but you can get better stuff for the price even with sale

[BrackObama2]

Originally posted by marijn211:

Not rn, wait to see if the game gets updated as announced

May I ask what's wrong with it? Is it not playable at current moment, like, gamebreaking bugs, or no late-game content, non existing AI or something else?

[marijn211]

Originally posted by cCheerSs:

Originally posted by marijn211:

Not rn, wait to see if the game gets updated as announced

May I ask what's wrong with it? Is it not playable at current moment, like, gamebreaking bugs, or no late-game content, non existing AI or something else?

is playable, some uncommon gamebreaking bugs and limited late game content, but if the announced update is good then you might as well wait

[BrackObama2]

I see. Well I will watch some reviews and hopefully more people will comment here just so I could get a clear picture of what is this game and if it's worth it.

[DM304]

Thought I'd add my 2 cents. I got the game a few days ago on the sale and have ~30 hours so far. I reckon if you liked M&B Warband you'll like this, especially for the sale price. Since you're a fan of M&B I'll list some of the similarities/differences in my opinion.

Some similarities to M&B:
- you start as a nobody with no skills, crap gear and have to work your way up
- you can take jobs from towns and villages and also recruit new troops, buy new gear etc
- can trade (didn't do much of this myself)
- you fight looters/bandits etc (early game mainstay)
- field battles work almost the same as M&B but this game has a good tactical overview mode where you can give squads waypoints to follow, allowing you to set up flanking attacks etc (something M&B really needs)
- AI is about the same as M&B, don't expect anything too intelligent
- can conquer towns and improve them with new buildings etc (IMHO works better than M&B)
- can collect companions that can lead parties/manage towns for you etc (they also have interesting backstories which you progressively unlock)
- for better or worse menus/UI are about the same as M&B
- Basic but serviceable diplomacy

Differences:
- smaller armies. the game is based on 7-man squads, the higher your leadership the more squads you can bring into a fight. Max armies I've seen isn't much over 100.
- you can change the gear/weapons on every single one of your soldiers
- you cant join a faction as a vassal/merc etc. This game kind of skips the whole M&B mid-game and goes from independent party straight to capturing your first town and starting your own faction
- there's a bunch of different game starts that set the world up in different ways (haven't tried these yet)


General comments:
- graphics are somewhere between Warband & Bannerlord, not great but serviceable. Seemed really blurry to me initially but did some tweaking in the Nvidia control panel which made it much better. Also the FOV seems too high to me but cant find a way to change it.
- shooting mechanics are reasonably solid, not the best ever but not terrible.
- to me it is basically M&B with a modern setting. Some things are done better than M&B, some not as good. As cCheerSs said above, its probably good for 50 or so hours till you get bored, but like M&B I can see myself coming back every year or so and starting a new campaign when i need to scratch the itch :)

Hope that helps

[JohnBart]

^Great analysis. I might only add three additional points:

1.) The current version is generally not as polished as its earlier versions were, so the larger your party becomes, the more often you can run into bugs of varying severity (e.g. enemy troops spawning under the terrain or out of map boundaries, squads not following your waypoints, or getting stuck in misaligned vegetation/terrain collision boxes during battle). The endgame is also rather unbalanced, with an OP foreign force essentially steamrolling through the island once you unite it, forcing you to get into a bleak war of attrition against them.

2.) The game's modding scene is pretty much dead in the water at this time, given that the official modding SDK is rather wonky and generally poorly documented. While there are some weapon and skin mods available on the Workshop and the Mod Nexus, there are no substantial gameplay enhancement or total conversion mods out there that could potentially address the various gameplay and technical issues listed in previous comments. This can very well affect the longevity of the game.

3.) The developers are supposedly working on a complete rework of the game (essentially remaking it from scratch) which is currently estimated to be released late this year. As such, the current gameplay and presentation of Freeman can (and probably will) significantly change in the future.

[[Wenal] Buffalo]

Its totally playable, i enjoy it. Not mount and blade status but it is a good game

[m1x3d_up_g4m3r]

Originally posted by JohnBart:

^Great analysis. I might only add three additional points:

1.) The current version is generally not as polished as its earlier versions were

I don't own the game yet but have been following it for a while now but is it possible to play other versions of the game, if any? Cheers

[JohnBart]

Officially, no. Technically, it might be possible, based on this reddit sub:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FreemanTheGame/comments/mbytrv/anyone_have_copies_of_v0222_or_similar_early/

[m1x3d_up_g4m3r]

Originally posted by JohnBart:

Officially, no. Technically, it might be possible, based on this reddit sub:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FreemanTheGame/comments/mbytrv/anyone_have_copies_of_v0222_or_similar_early/

Ah, thank you so much for the tip.
It means a lot.

[entropyjones]

I would say that the game is playable and actually pretty fun. There are some really dumb bugs though. That aside this is the most fun I've had since mount and blade 1. If you want a description that is basically it. This game is mount and blade 1 with guns and with a post soviet feel. Although there are western guns.

This game needs a lot of work and love but it's definitely worth it. The bones are there.

[IRDCAM]

For a beer and pretzel game, 1570hrs in, I would say yes, play it for what it is, not as what you want, as everyone has a different opinion based on perceptions, not the reality of the game.

[Cyan Eye'd]

Originally posted by cCheerSs:

Originally posted by marijn211:

Not rn, wait to see if the game gets updated as announced

May I ask what's wrong with it? Is it not playable at current moment, like, gamebreaking bugs, or no late-game content, non existing AI or something else?

it actually DOES have gamebreaking bugs, i've been stuck on the edges of tree, bush and branch models to the point where my character cannot move in any direction, and jumping does not resolve the problem so i either have to win the battle with my allies strategy alone, or commit suicide or die from enemy gunfire and re-enter battle with a hurt morale and reputation in order to just continue the game.

it's so infuriating and happens in 3/5 battles that it's consistent enough to put me in such a bad mood that i no longer play the game and have not played the game nor do i plan on playing the game until the devs update their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. and if they don't get it right by then, unfortunately i'm removing this game from my library

[Cyan Eye'd]

Originally posted by JohnBart:

Officially, no. Technically, it might be possible, based on this reddit sub:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FreemanTheGame/comments/mbytrv/anyone_have_copies_of_v0222_or_similar_early/

hahaha wow you actually linked to my post on reddit!

by the way I am currently playing an older version of the game, but it does not do so hot keeping my game saves consistent. i randomly spawn at arbitrary points in the map whenever i boot up the game after a while. That post of mine is from one of the last times I've played that game, shame it's been that long already.

[Cyan Eye'd]

Originally posted by tAnK_SkULL:

Originally posted by JohnBart:

^Great analysis. I might only add three additional points:

1.) The current version is generally not as polished as its earlier versions were

I don't own the game yet but have been following it for a while now but is it possible to play other versions of the game, if any? Cheers

As per the other person who linked to my reddit post explaining how to obtain older versions of the game, such as v0.222, I can say it's 110% possible so long as you're willing to tinker with command line code which i made a basic tutorial on how to do so.

i've done it and have multiple versions of the game installed, it's pretty neat being able to go thru each iteration of the game and see how things changed. there's more fun and stable versions of the game but off the top of my head i cannot remember which those are. but it's definitely playable.

some caveats:

1. DO NOT open saves from one version of the game and load it into another version of the game. either the game won't be able to work with it, or your game and save will be so buggy it'll ruin the save and there's no going back because once it overwrites on that save as you play, it'll write corrupt data that neither versions you used will be able to read. it leads to some game breaking bugs.

2. each version of the game is put into its own folder but from my pi$$ poor memory, all the saves are stored in a local appdata folder on the C drive. save a note somewhere with a link to the different places your files are kept so if you need to make a backup of a save before you do something or delete a save that's been corrupted, etc.

3. stay clear away from the latest version of the game, it had introduced a bug where you can randomly get stuck on trees, bushes, rocks, etc. if you walk nearby or under them and you will not be able to move for the rest of the game. it aint fun. don't use this version it literally has no benefits over the versions just before it.

hope i helped