Overlooked Gaming Gems: Strategy Titles

We skipped over the shooter portion of Good Old Games’ “Overlooked Gaming Gems” article series for obvious reasons, but the strategy installment gives us a brief summary of Irrational Games’ excellent Freedom Force series. A crazy mix of strategy and RPG that works, and works well:

Freedom Force and its direct sequel, Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich, have set the bar for comic book tactical games that, for many gamers, hasn’t been equalled since–and we’re talking about games released in 2002 and 2005. They both have a zany sense of humor, earnest storytelling, and a delightful cast of characters that all pay their respects to classic comic book franchises of the Silver and Golden Age of comics.

FFvtTR (because it’s really too much to type the whole name over and over) starts almost immediately after the first game left off, and leads the player on a chase through time and space to fight off evil Nazis who have altered Earth’s timeline–and for the worse, we should note. Featuring a lengthy single-player campaign, multiplayer gaming and even a create-your-own hero builder, this game’s strong tactics, cartoony style, and top-notch production values show that developer Irrational Games (which has since gone on to create the BioShock franchise, among other things) had mastered the art of producing quality games even back then.