This was one of my first games alongside Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. Two games that I grew up with and adore beyond belief. I can't tell you how much I've played these games because they're just so good. They remind me of the passion and heart that go into video games. Anyways, as much as I'd scream over Metal Arms being on Steam, it may never happen. Plus this is a long winded review about Freedom Fighters so I need to take off my nostalgia glasses and get going.

Story
The story revolves around an alternate ending to WW2 with Russia bombing Berlin as a final blow. They slowly take over the world and including the U.S of course since that's where the game takes place. You play as Christopher Stone who is a plumber alongside his brother, Troy Stone, who are on their way to fix a sink if I remember correctly. They have a conversation on the way there about the whole Soviet invasion thing with Chris not really believing that they will get invaded. Troy talks about Isabella, who is the leader of the resistance, and complements her beauty and such. Mario and Luigi arrive at the apartment but nobody is home and while Chris is out of the room, Troy runs into General Tatarin and his soldiers who are looking for Isabella Angelina, the girl that Troy was getting a bit too excited for earlier. Anyways Troy has no idea what they're talking about and gets kidnapped by them as the camera slowly pans to Chris. That's the beginning of the story at least and it doesn't really develop anymore until some major events that happen that I won't spoil. Everything kind of happens very fast with Chris becoming an expert with weapons and leadership all of a sudden which kind of always confused me. He also isn't a silent protagonist obviously but is a selective mute most of the time in-game. Another problem that I have with the story is that Isabella is a damsel in distress more than anything much like Princess Peach with Chris obviously being Mario. There are news segments pushing the story forward but that's about it until the end. It's not the greatest story ever told but it gets the job done.

World
While the story may lack in a lot of areas, the world building makes up for it. Over almost each chapter, you reach a new season starting from the summer to winter. New York slowly becomes filled with more Soviet strongholds along with the buildings being full of propaganda on the side. It really gives you a sense of how powerful the Soviet Union has really become.

Maps
The maps are probably one of the best aspects in the game. Each chapter has 2-3 maps with 2 of them being exceptions and they're all open and nonlinear. There are a number of things to do in them including blowing up things with C4 such as helipads to prevent attack choppers literally tearing you apart on the other maps, healing injured civilians and freedom fighters on the ground, freeing prisoners, raiding bases to get ammunition, etc. There are no automatic checkpoints in the game but that's where the sewers come in handy. Spread out through the map are sewers which can let you quick save, go to another location, and go back to rebel base. It's such an innovative and neat function that I never really took advantage of when I was younger. For example, if you don't have C4 in one area where you need it, you can go to another location and get that C4. Another one is if you're low on health and ammunition, you can retreat back to rebel base quickly and come back when ready.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack is composed by the legend Jesper Kyd who is pretty prominent in the gaming community including IO's popular franchise, Hitman. This soundtrack is honestly one of the best I've heard and is so memorable. Each track fits the scene perfectly almost every time and I love it. The best track, in my opinion, is definitely "The Battle for Freedom."

Gameplay
The gameplay is pretty well done but I still have some critiques to make and I'll get those out of the way. The gunplay isn't the best because it seems that it was made with console in mind with the auto-aim function as pointed out by Critical Nobody, a youtuber that I highly recommend. When you try to aim with any weapon, the bullets seem to go around the enemy. The best way I can explain it is like that one divine intervention scene in Pulp Fiction. The game offers the basic catalogue of weapons including some neat ones such as a pistol, revolver, assault rifle, shotgun, sniper, lmg, rpg, grenade, molotov, and a monkey wrench as your melee. It also offers items such as a medkit, c4, and binoculars. There are 2 ways to switch the weapons, scroll and weapon wheel. The ragdoll physics in this game are one of the funnest to shoot at. The enemies react in different ways in different areas of their bodies you shoot them in and it's hilarious to see them go flying from your shotgun and rpg. The movement is very fluent and responsive in the game which wasn't the case for most games in its time. There is a climbing function which feels very satisfying to me as there are different animations depending on the height of the object that you are climbing on. There are some neat details such as being able to shoot out lights and monitors making the room go dark and Soviet Soldiers going into battle stances if you shoot at them far away with a sniper. A sneak function exists of course since it's from the creators of Hitman obviously and it gets the job done. There are some instances where it didn't work but it was a rare occasion.

Squad Feature
I'm putting this in a different category because this is the main selling point of the game. The squad feature is really well done as it should be since the whole game revolves around it. You can have a maximum of 12 freedom fighters but only start out with 2. You can gain more with charisma and you get that by completing certain objectives such as the ones I listed in the Maps category and the main objective which is raising the American flag. You have 3 commands which are, regroup, attack, and defend. There is a way to have every squadmate do the same command or have certain ones do different tasks. The way to have them all do the same thing is holding down let's say the regroup key and they all come to you. But you can also hold down the attack key but tap the regroup key to have squadmates follow you to flank the enemies. The AI works really well as they get behind cover when shot at and are responsive to your commands. Thankfully there is no collision with the squadmates allowing you to pass right through them without being blocked off.

Graphics
The game obviously hasn't aged the best as it's 17 years old now but the art style still keeps most aspects looking good. It's still a beautiful game to gaze at especially in rebel base looking at the glowing light shining through or the snow coming down in the winter chapters.

Performance
The performance is good but make sure to keep the game in its default windowed mode in the launch options otherwise it will stutter and lag terribly. Don't worry, it still runs in full screen. It's such an amazing thing to witness Freedom Fighters in 1920x1080 running at a smooth 60 fps. The performance does dwindle a bit, even on my well performing PC, in some areas such as the winter missions but it isn't too bad.

Conclusion
Overall, Freedom Fighters is an absolute masterpiece that has been with me all of my life and I was super happy to play it on Steam. I highly recommend the game and hopefully IO is able to make a sequel instead of replacing it with another Kane & Lynch game. Get this game as it's worth it. There may be a few grammatical errors but I'm way too tired to fix them at the moment.