Game needing a sequel: Freedom Fighters
Original game format: Xbox, PS2, Gamecube
Why it needs a sequel: Freedom Fighters was a vastly overlooked squad shooter from IO, the makers of Hitman. Not only a brilliant play, FF had an epic alternative history plot that took in a full-scale Soviet invasion of the USA and followed the player’s character as he developed from lucky survivor to self-made military tactician overseeing an entire resistance army.
As the player’s experience grew, the game’s scope grew with it, greater success providing new recruits to the cause and an ever bigger team to play with. Battles eventually became full-scale military assaults on fortified bases, requiring intelligence as well as brute force, and making the player take the role of foot soldier, field marshall, and leader of men all at the same time. Relentless, tactical, a bit satirical and a lot of fun, Freedom Fighters was one of the best shooters of the last generation, and we want more of it. And besides, IO owes us a decent squad game after Kane And Lynch.
What we want from a sequel: A new storyline for a start. Alternative history stories are always fascinating and thought-provoking, and if handled deftly enough, can be absolutely terrifying in a “What if?” kind of way. In short, they’re brilliantly involving and motivating places for a videogame to inhabit, so Freedom Fighters 2 would do best to explore a whole new one rather than following on from the first game or using real world events as a jumping-off point. History is full of emotionally-charged wars, from WWII to Vietnam, so IO should just pick one, flip it on its head, and make us think. That latter example in particular could make a brilliant jungle combat game, especially if played from the perspective of anti-American forces fighting off a successful invasion.
As for gameplay, we just want what we got before, but moreso. Tenser, more tactical fights in brand new environments would be a must, as would a bigger, more varied arsenal to master. And with current gen technology, the scale of battles could now be truly epic, making use of much bigger and more complex indoor and outdoor skirmish areas and genuine army-sized squads as the game’s storyline progresses. Larger battles could even make use of a stripped-down hot-swapping mechanic to allow control of multiple commanders at once.
Throw in a decent cover system, slightly more detailed squad commands and online multi-player co-op, and we’d finally have the worthy sequel we’ve always wanted to the worthy game we’ve always loved. And hopefully the resulting positive karma points IO would earn would be enough to actually erase all evidence of Kane And Lynch from history.
