Freedom Force - how was it for you ?

[Sorceror]

I know this will have been done before - so don't be afraid to cut and paste.  But without this topic it might as well be any other comic fan site.

1) How did you discover Freedom Force ?
2) And what, several years after it was released, makes it a game worth posting on a website about ?

For me I discovered Freedom Force for £5.00 ($10 US) in a bargain bin at PC world (the UK's biggest retailer of PCs).  I expected rubbish because of the price and because I'd never heard of it before.  But it was one of the few games that would still run on my old PC.

And I was blown away.

The only time I've ever been that blown away by a game was playing Baldur's Gate for the first time.

I was a comics fan as a kid and I just loved the whole look and style of the game.

I loved the cheesy animations which reminded me of the worst of the spider-man/ Superman animations from my childhood.

I loved the origins.

I loved the cheesy dialogue.

I loved the "comic covers" which introduced each episode.

I loved the attention to detail - that you could rip down lampposts and hit bad guys with them, that you could throw cars at bad guys, that you could jump onto rooves, that buildings could be demolished, that you had citizens running around like in the comics.

I loved the characters ... Minuteman's Commie bashing patriotism, El Diablo's insouciance, "Sean Connery" as Man o' War, Alchemiss' flirtatious Southern Belle Mr Robotic (?) - the mad robot inventor - great fight those ones, the cowardly thugs, Pinstripe - a gorilla in a suit, the multiple riddling man, the evil cops.

I loved the story - the way the characters were introduced one by one - the carefully staged build up to the final battle, the Eve/ Pan romance, the subtle rip off of Dungeons and Dragons on the final Pan level, the running melee on the level that introduced Law and order, dinosaurs - anything with dinosaurs is usually brilliant, the whole mix of henchmen, supervillains, dinosaurs, robots, aliens, heroic recovery - would you believe I played through the entire game believing "heroic recovery" was a one off that could only be used once in the game, TimeMaster being a total kick arse villain.

I loved it that the entire game was obviously a work of joy for its creators - the total lack of cynicism in the product.

I loved it so much that when I saw the sequel I bought a new computer so I would be able to play it.


Sorceror.....x.

[herodad1]

baulders gate was an awsome game.i still look back at all the hours i'd play that game.as far as freedom force it gave me my superhero fix.ffvttr came out i actually bought the game and then built my computer for the game.i enjoy the characters and story line but the rumble room is the best option of any game.thanks to all the fine skinners,meshers,modders,mappers,sounds and fx makers out there its brought my childhood characters to life.  big THANKS to all you guys-n-gals!

[UnkoMan]

I probably learned about Freedom Force first from ads in comics. I played the demo when it first came out and was really quite into it. I've always been a huge super hero nerd, and the chance to create my own heroes in a game was incredible. I didn't end up getting it until a couple years later. I saw it for free and got it on a whim. It was fun, and I discovered the meshes and skins people had done. Started making my own. Eventually came across FR.

After getting more aquainted with the community I just sort of kept it up. I don't really play it often now (the occasional mod). If I do run the game it's usually to make characters, test their powers, edit them as I see fit. I use the character tool way more often. I really enjoy skinning, and seeing other people's various skins/meshes/keyframes. The art is what interests me most, I guess. That, and the people. That's why I stick around.

[gengoro]

I think I was browsing gamefaqs for a code and I saw an ad for it.  Something about it had me intrigued so I found the demo and liked it.  Shortly after, I think I discovered freedomfans and that first huge skin site (been so long I cant remember).  I then fell in love. :wub:  It was like a dream come true having all my fave characters in a single game.  I think it was seeing an archangel and spidey 2099 skin on the old male alpha mesh that sealed the deal.  Loved the second game as well, especially the new characters like tombstone.

And this game will always be worth posting about thanks to this amazing community.

[yell0w_lantern]

I bought a new computer and was looking for games. A guy recommended Freedom Force and I bought it.

[alberik]

A Friend of mine, how knows that i am a big superhero fan gave me the game as an Birthday present. I never heard about it before, so i am very thankfull to him.
What my let play this faboulose game today is the skinning. I love to see my Charachters in game.
My hero files are not so good (i am still today not realy good in tweaking heroes) but there are so many good hero files where you can coose from.

[USAgent]

I was a big comic fan in the late 80's early 90's but all the games that were ever made for DC/Marvel comics for home systems sucked horribly.  Well I got out of comics in the early 90's but still held a interest in them a little. 
So one day I was just looking at computer games In EB (back in 2002) and happen to come across Freedom Force (it was just released).  Just off the pictures and descriptions on the back of the box sold me.   I finally found a decent looking comic book type game that sounds cool. 
So after I installed it, it was everything I always wanted, it was the perfect superhero game (for me).  My dream video game was a game that I could have every single Marvel character at my finger tips with a RPG/action type game play and I finally got it!
I was part of the original MyFreedomForce boards and remember all the cools sites that came and went.  I upgraded my old computer just to handle FF and upgraded again to handle FFv3R.  And bought my laptop specificly to handle FFV3R.
Since I bought the game in 2002, I've only bought 2 other games  GTA Vice city and a Baseball game.  I never bother to finish Vice city, and ocasionaly play the baseball game.  But Freedom Force is still the ONLY game for me.
I still play the game, mostly new mods and rumble rooms.  I got into skinning for awhile, but it took too much time to make skins and I would just rather play and I hope to get many many more years of enjoyment from the game and this community.

[Gremlin]

I used to subscribe to the gaming magazine GamePro, and I read a preview review and was instantly enthralled.  The later full review, after the release, made me obsess over acquiring the game.  I quickly found it, purchased it, and loved it to death.

I got it for a couple of friends, but they never enjoyed it as much as I did (although now that I have more comic nerd friends, I should definitely consider FF as a Christmas/Birthday gift).  It was later that I stumbled upon FR.  I don't remember how, but I do remember being a right jerk.  I was in eighth grade, and didn't have these things called "social skills."

Now, I don't play much, although I pop it in every once in a while to mess around with stuff.  Mainly I pester people on FR and get freaking awesome meshes and skins.

[stumpy]

Living in Chicago back in late '02, while finishing grad school in another department, I used to work with CS grad students and they would talk about games fairly often. I was not at all a computer gamer so I usually stayed out of those conversations. But, at one point, we were talking about pencil-and-paper RPGs and I mentioned how I used to love Champions as a kid and how the character building was pretty mathematical, so I used to write programs to sum up characters costs, etc. One of the guys mentioned that I should give Freedom Force a try. He said it was probably the first good superhero video game out there and would appeal to someone who liked comics and liked the character-building aspects of Champions. I listened, but I never went and looked for the game, partly because I didn't really think of myself as a gamer or think of my computer as a gaming device, but also because I had no money and I suspected my system would not play any games well.

Skip to small town California in '04 and I am in a Best Buy, literally just wasting time until a doctor's appointment. I happen by the bargain rack and noticed Freedom Force sitting there and recognized the title as the game recommended back in that convo at Northwestern. I thought, "What the heck? Best Buy has kept me out of the rain for a half hour here, so I can spend a few bucks in good faith." More time passes and the jewel case had been sitting on my counter (still in the cellophane) for a few months when I had a day off and I finally installed it.

I didn't sleep for days.

I would play for a couple hours and literally have to go outside and walk around for a little while, thinking how cool it was and how incredible that, out of almost sheer luck and thanks to my office mate (thanks Emmet!!!), I had run across the game designed exactly to give someone like me the most enjoyment.

I had run across FR when searching around for FAQs for the game. I had read Nicadeamus' FAQ and saw the link for Ender's Resources, hosted here. Meeting other people interested in the game who were genuinely friendly and welcoming (something I didn't always encounter on forums) was another great discovery. Then, via the scripting forum and by downloading mods, I got a glimpse of the cool things that were possible by learning Python and that was another FF turning point for me.

The rest is history. For Freedom! :D

[GogglesPizanno]

I had been laid off during the dot com bust, and at the time was scraping by doing what little freelance web work I could do from my apartment. Since I had so much free time, I basically did a lot of web browsing, and happened across link to the character tool. At that point it was like... ok. If Im gonna be sitting at home "working" every day, I'm gonna splurge eat rice for a week, and pick this up.

Like Stumpy, I went a little crazy... It was basically sleep, play FF, check monster.com for jobs, play some more, go to bed (there was some freelance work thrown in form time to time...Im pretty sure...maybe).

[TaskMasterX]

I've always been a PC/Console Game freak and Civilization was my first love. But, when I started playing alot more MP online with a buddy of mine (both of us are big pen-n-paper RPG and comic fans), we got into playing BG and Age of Empires. Then we saw FF and we knew we had to get it, ecspecially after seeing the Freedom Force Center. Once I started playing FF, I was hooked. My friend moved on to other games, while I delved into converting all the Comic characters I could into FF. While I still love and play Civ, I've never got involved into the Civ community and modding as much as I have for FF.

[Kholdstare89]

This and the Baldur's Gate Series (BG, TSC, BGII, and ToB) are the two games I usually alternate between because, even though I have plenty of other games to play that I haven't finished, these games continue to draw me in.  I love nearly everything about them and I guess you could say they are a part of me.  Freedom Force and all the different meshes and skins for mainstream character actually renewed my interest in comics and made me a fan of a few characters I didn't care too much for before.  Kudos to Irrational for making something that can withstand the test of time for me and keeping me drawn in.

[DrMike2000]

I first heard about it from some people at work (I work in the games industry), and checked out the website.
I was immediately engaged when i saw the picture of John Miller (The Ant) staring morosely at an anthill with a magnifying glass :)

I'd been a lifelong comics fan and had a lot of fun browsing through and spotting the references.

So, I bought the game, played it and fell in love with it. Made more custom characters, played through it again, and so on. I relaised I wasn't bad at skinning, and did quite a bit of that.

Now, around this time the modding tools were released, and I started to have a fiddle around with them. I found the boards, relaised there were people making mods successfulyy and decided to have a go myself. I wasnt a confident programmer, being self trained, and had immense trouble with Python to begin with, but finally hammered out a few levels of the Strangers and released them to the world. I was terrified!

Feedback drizzled back, most of it positive, and word spread. I gained a confidence and started doing some really crazy stuff, eventually making the FFX expansion pack and lived like this for three years. Make racing games by day, get home and continue "my real work" - bringing superheroes to life!

Ideas for new characters, levels and powers kept pouring out faster than I could implement them. At a time when my real job wasnt always fulfilling, I could count on my FF work to buoy my spirits and keep me going, and gained a lot of confidence in my abilities from the people in this community and their support.

Eventually I burned out and decided to call it a day, but what a wild ride it had been!

In short, Freedom Force was a life changing experience for me.