Installing now. More later.
And no, I didn't play the first one.
I bought Freedom Force vs 3rd Reich
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XMEN Gambit
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XMEN Gambit
- Site Admin
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- Joined: Thu Nov 18, 1999 12:00 am
Here's my initial report:
Pretty fun! You control a team of up to four superheroes on various missions tied together in an interesting storyline. Your heroes have various powers and abilities, some of which cost energy to use. Energy replenishes over time, though health does not unless the hero has that ability. Heroes also have attributes which can be good or bad, and sometimes can be purchased.
Characters can interact extensively with the environment. Throw cars, destroy buildings, or uproot a tree to smack the bad guys. Several characters have variations on an ability to make inanimate objects into bombs, so you can blow up that fire hydrant from afar to nab the crook. The missions take place in a colorful 3-d world, and the camera viewpoint is zoomable and rotatable from nearly vertical to about 15 degrees horizontal.
After each mission you have the ability to upgrade your heroes, and also to recruit new ones. Your ability to do so is based on your performance and completion of various mission objectives.
The characters, story, visual style, and whole user interface are all faithfully comic-bookish. Mix of golden- and silver- age. As new heros are introduced, we see their origin story. Voice acting and narration are written and acted with just the right attitude and melodramatic overtones - and has great accomanying music. The story is (so far) set in 1963, but there's a BAD villian named "Timemaster" and I expect I'll go back in time for the "3rd Reich" part eventually.
The modern part of the story is capitalist U.S. good-guys versus bad-guy communist Russkies. The action takes place so far in "Patriot City" and Cuba.
There is no cartoon animation here. The cut scenes are rendered in movable chunks and layers - I'm sure you've seen the style. Lots of BIFFs, POWs, and SPLATs to go around, too.
There are ways to create custom characters and play them, and also multiplayer is supported (up to 4, I think). I've not yet tried these features, though.
So far I think my biggest gripe is the lack of lip-synching, which I must admit is not a huge gripe. When a character is speaking a pre-set part, there's an animated blowup of their face overlaid in the corner of the screen. Just kind of annoying when it's not lip-synched.
Should have excellent replay value!
Pretty fun! You control a team of up to four superheroes on various missions tied together in an interesting storyline. Your heroes have various powers and abilities, some of which cost energy to use. Energy replenishes over time, though health does not unless the hero has that ability. Heroes also have attributes which can be good or bad, and sometimes can be purchased.
Characters can interact extensively with the environment. Throw cars, destroy buildings, or uproot a tree to smack the bad guys. Several characters have variations on an ability to make inanimate objects into bombs, so you can blow up that fire hydrant from afar to nab the crook. The missions take place in a colorful 3-d world, and the camera viewpoint is zoomable and rotatable from nearly vertical to about 15 degrees horizontal.
After each mission you have the ability to upgrade your heroes, and also to recruit new ones. Your ability to do so is based on your performance and completion of various mission objectives.
The characters, story, visual style, and whole user interface are all faithfully comic-bookish. Mix of golden- and silver- age. As new heros are introduced, we see their origin story. Voice acting and narration are written and acted with just the right attitude and melodramatic overtones - and has great accomanying music. The story is (so far) set in 1963, but there's a BAD villian named "Timemaster" and I expect I'll go back in time for the "3rd Reich" part eventually.
The modern part of the story is capitalist U.S. good-guys versus bad-guy communist Russkies. The action takes place so far in "Patriot City" and Cuba.There is no cartoon animation here. The cut scenes are rendered in movable chunks and layers - I'm sure you've seen the style. Lots of BIFFs, POWs, and SPLATs to go around, too.
There are ways to create custom characters and play them, and also multiplayer is supported (up to 4, I think). I've not yet tried these features, though.
So far I think my biggest gripe is the lack of lip-synching, which I must admit is not a huge gripe. When a character is speaking a pre-set part, there's an animated blowup of their face overlaid in the corner of the screen. Just kind of annoying when it's not lip-synched.
Should have excellent replay value!