You can go to any of dozens of gamezine sites and see good full-length reviews of this game. In general, they agree that Freedom Force is a great game, deserving of its award-winning status. It is well-designed; it captures the flavor of Silver Ago comic book superheroes; and, in addition to the balanced and interesting built-in heroes, there is tremendous flexibility in custom character creation and power design. One legitimate downside is that the main campaign, although very entertaining and extensive, is fairly linear and after playing through a few times (you may choose different heroes for your squads for each mission), you may get too used to the gameplay. But, in all sincerity, I say that anyone who grew up reading comic books and has any love for the genre is really missing a tremendous treat by not trying this game.

However, my favorite feature is the extent to which new missions and campaigns ("mods") can be written by the community of FF enthusiasts. And there are thousands of new powers and skins (costumes) and meshes (body types) freely available online, essentially allowing the player to play an incredible array of superheroes. Also, there is a "Danger Room" mode where you can choose any any squad you want and then choose any group of enemies you want an battle it out. The modding enthusiasts have expanded on this as well and there are variations such as "beat the clock" missions, "unending wave of villians" mode, etc.

A note to address the earlier misleading review of the jewel case edition. It is true that the game (like many other programs) has trouble with Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP and will not run under it. Unfortunately, the developers were hit with this SP2 problem as they were pushing to complete two other new games (including the sequel to Freedom Force!). However, contrary to the prior review, they *have* said they are working on a fix and they are hoping to have it out at about the time (soon after) the sequel is released.

Anyway, this is a great game and I strongly urge anyone to give this game a try (I have a hard time imagining a better video game value right now). If you have XP with SP2 installed, then buy a copy (what is it now? Five bucks?!?) and keep an eye on irrationalgames.com for the announcement of the SP2 fix.

** Update: the SP2 patch is out, as promised. It is at http://www.freedomfans.com/news.php?id=37 **

As a previous reviewer stated, this is a great role playing game that really takes advantage of the unique powers of comic book super heroes. It's a fun, fresh take on RPG's. But as another reviewer also stated, there is a problem running this game with Windows XP service pack 2. Fortunately, there is a beta patch available that seems to fix this problem. I've downloaded the patch and Freedom Force now seems to run fine. Here's the info on the patch (it's available from the freedom force web site at www.freedomfans.com):

New Freedom Force patch available now: fixes Windows XP SP2 problem, and more!
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Irrational Games is pleased to announce the release of the Freedom Force version 1.3 Patch! You can download the patch from us.

This patch is intended for use by users of the US or European version 1.0 or higher of Freedom Force. It includes all fixes made in previous patches 1.1 and 1.2 and can be installed on an unpatched installation of the game or over an already patched version.

Freedom Force version 1.3 fixes a problem where the game would not run successfully under Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Please note that this patch is released "as is" and no representation is made about its fitness for any specific purpose. THIS IS A BETA PATCH so use at your own risk.

Do not buy this game if you have XP service pack 2 installed, It will not run, and the developer has no plans to fix it.