Do you remember 2003? Of course you don't, nothing happened then. And besides it was ages ago. At least fifteen years ago. There were no iPhones; Harry Styles hadn't been invented; if you said 'Facebook' people probably thought you meant something like this:

Whatever this is

No, 2003 was a really bloody boring year as far as most things were concerned. Except for games, of course, because it was when Freedom Fighters came out.

Launching on 26 September, 2003, Freedom Fighters was a kind of afterbirth to the Hitman series; it used the same engine, was made by the same people, but for some reason never managed to become even half as popular. The plot centred on a ragtag bunch of American rebels, fighting off an invasion from the Soviet Union, which, in this re-imagined history, had become the world's leading superpower after beating the US to inventing the atomic bomb. Combat was squad based, guns were many, and the story was ludicrous. On paper, Freedom Fighters was a turd.

I bought it anyway (or at least my mum did because she was nice like that) and played it beginning to end in one night. First impressions were...meh. Of course, I was thirteen years old at the time and therefore an idiot, but nevertheless, Freedom Fighters was not initially remarkable. Friends who I've lent it to since have said the same; despite lengthy conversations about Freedom Fighters in the pub, and my drunken assurances that its "the bes' *hiccup* game ever" my pals remain unconvinced, often returning it to me after a couple of days and some pretty good excuses.

"It's aged, it's a bit clumsy" they say, and I can't argue. Freedom Fighters is more than nine years old; in computer game terms, it's the equivalent of a silent film. But even sober, I still think it's the best game ever made. Why? I don't hear you ask, because you're reading this days later, in your head and I'm not there: Here's why.

An ideal world

We talk a lot today about "gameplay", and how "gameplay" will, in an ideal world, somehow represent a game's themes and story. Look at pixelated masterpiece Passage: You play as a virile young man, steadily aging as he side scrolls a la Mario from one end of the game to the other. Along the way, obstacles get harder to navigate (ostensibly illustrating how life gets tougher as you get older) and you meet a wife, who doubles the amount of points you get. It's a short but powerful demonstration of how playing a game can tell a game's story; Freedom Fighters pulls a similar trick, but on a much larger scale.

Guns felt awkward and unwieldy; on the PS2, aiming down the sight was mapped to the L3 button, meaning that moving and firing at the same time was difficult to master. Like your character, a plumber from Brooklyn, you weren't very good with guns: The controls prevented you from ever feeling too comfortable with shooting people.

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Exploding Barrels Blog - Freedom Fighters, My Favourite Game