Developed by IO Interactive, who also brought us the great Hitman games, Freedom Fighters tells the story of our world set in an alternate reality. It is a world where the Soviet Union not only didn't dissolve but is actually the world's only modern superpower. You see, at the end of World War II it was Russia who dropped the A-Bomb (on Berlin) that ended the conflict and then went on to dominate world politics with it's communist ideals. Over the years the whole of Europe was forced under communist rule and then over the time we know as the Cold War period Russia began making it's moves towards toppling the last big obstacle to complete world domination - the USA!

Switch to present day and it seems the conspiracy theorists were right afterall. Russian subs fill the New York harbour and jets fly overhead - the invasion has begun! This is where you come in. You play plumber Chris Stone who along with buddy Troy are on the way to unblock a drain for a customer known as Isabella shortly before the invasion is realised. Turns out though that Isabella is the leader of an anti-communist group and shortly after you find her apartment empty, Russian military goons burst in and seize Troy while you hide in another room. Then it's all on! After they leave you sneak out and realise the Russian invasion is in full swing with helicopters flying all around, gunfire and explosions going off everywhere and people running frantically for their lives in the streets. After taking out a Russian guard in the hallway outside Isabella's apartment Chris finds himself quickly co-opted into a band of freedom fighters intent on hitting back at the invaders and thus begins the struggle to take back New York.

While setting up the story and atmosphere at the beginning is very well done with some amazingly chaotic street scenes don't expect quite the same level of cinematography and dialogue throughout. The focus is strictly on action and getting from one level to the next to fight some more which some may find a little disappointing while others revel in the almost non-stop run-and-gun tactical gameplay.

It certainly would've been nice to think IO could have included the same level of cinematography and storytelling here they built into Hitman 2 but it's not absolutely essential to flesh out the main plot. Besides, Freedom Fighters has an overall polish that more than makes up for little gripes about the underuse of cinematics and minimal character or relationship development.

Gameplay basically follows the path of similar action shooters but level structure and the way you carry out missions here has a feel all its own and is handled very well. Each "level" starts with Chris viewing a map in the Rebel Base and receiving a brief outline of the mission at hand. There is usually 2 or 3 areas shown on each map with objectives for each area that in most cases are interconnected. The great thing here is that in just about every level you can choose to attack the objectives in one of several ways but usually you need to eventually complete all of them in order to move to the next map.

There's also some objectives that "have" to be completed before you can get anywhere near completing certain areas. For example the first mission contains 2 areas and in the first you encounter some police pinned down by Russian snipers. In order to move on in this area you have to take some C4 explosive into the other area and blow up some gas tanks next to where the snipers are perched to take them out. Only then can you progress. It's a really great "semi-linear" system which allows you to determine the best approach to some degree and there's nearly always more than one way to attack each situation.

The save system is also handled quite well with smooth autosaving between the levels. Also included are several manholes scattered around each area which allow quicksaves mid-level as you open them with your trusty wrench. These are also your main transport portals as they allow movement between areas on each map via the sewer system which is the Freedom Fighters' main means of getting around New York.

What sets Freedom Fighters apart from other squad-based games though is it's revolutionary (nice pun IO!) "Recruit and Command" system which towards the end of the game allows you to run around with up to 12 other squad members at once. Now that's a decent sized squad and when we first heard about it we were very keen indeed to see how it was implemented. Essentially as well as a life bar you also have a "charisma" bar on your heads up display. Every time you do something heroic like heal wounded people or complete certain tasks or objectives your charisma bar increases and you hear a nice little cheer from your comrades "Yeeeah!". Once the bar fills up it opens a slot on your HUD. Each empty slot means you can recruit a squad member so as you progress through the game you can build up the slots to a maximum of 12.

Once you have available slots recruiting teammates in Freedom Fighters is then just a matter of walking up to any armed comrade standing around in an area and pressing X. They will then follow you around after responding positively and attack any enemies in range as will any non-recruited allies in the vacinity when enemies wander into their presence. 3 basic commands are available using the square button to follow, circle to defend and triangle to attack. By tapping any of these buttons briefly a single squadmate will respond whereas holding the button down for slightly longer will order your whole team into action. Using the aim mode (pressing and holding L3) in combination with a command will direct your squad to the area you aim at.

Now the make-or-break feature of any squad-based game is AI. In this case IO need to be congratulated for the very fine work they've produced in Freedom Fighters as it works fantastically. How many times in other games have you charged ahead thinking your teammates were following only to find they got stuck in a doorway 5 minutes ago are are now spazzing out or staring at a blank wall?! Or had them randomly yelling out stuff right at the wrong moment or just blundering straight into the line of obvious deadly fire? Well the AI in Freedom Fighters is much better than all that! In fact it's so good that you can just about get your squad to run around doing all your dirty work while you sit back under cover issuing orders. Watching them carry out your commands as they move in, take cover and attack enemy positions is a real treat.