Anne McCaffrey's Freedom: First Resistance

List Price: $39.95 Discount Price: $2.37

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Shudder... [Posted on 2001-01-17]
Anne McCaffrey is a mediocre writer, but she creates fantastic worlds. So here we are, with the first video game focused on one of her worlds. And what do we get? The actual world and characters of the Freedom novels are nowhere in site. No Botany, no Zainal, no Kris.

Instead, we have a game based only vaguely on the books... taking place in the same time period, but with a very different feel. It might have, originally, been a wonderful RPG, but instead we get a mediocre-to-awful 'action/adventure' game. Anne's books appeal to a largely female audience, and we seem to have received a game directed at the largely male action-game world.

I only hope that the Dragonriders of Pern game isn't this bad.

Just Finihsed - Pretty Good Game [Posted on 2001-01-18]
Freedom First Resistance.

I just finished the game. I must say that when I first started playing the game, I never thought I would finish it. It seemed really boring without any action. Once you complete the first few levels though, the fun really starts. Just don't give up on the game right away.

I bought the game not knowing what to expect. The game is probably about 65 percent solving puzzles and 35 percent action.

Most of the puzzles are not that difficult although a few of them were real hard. If you are playing the game just remember that some characters need to perform some actions. The game never mentioned this, and it caused me to get stuck for a couple of days until I figured that out.

The graphics I thought were very well done. The frame rate was a little slow at times but never unplayable.

Pros: The fighting is fun, and the puzzles are solvable but challenging. The storyline is good, and a major part of the game is interacting with other characters to figure out what is going on. Once you get some good weapons, you can really cause major damage to the bad guys. No blood or anything. Everyone dies real nicely.

Cons: Sometimes other team members get stuck behind walls or desk. There are lots of places where all the characters will get jammed up and you have to switch between the characters alot to get out of those places. One time one of the characters just stuck and could not move out of the where she was. Had to restore to a saved game. At times the character you are fighting with refuses to fire a weapon or waits 10 seconds to do it. I could find no pattern to this, it just happens (save often)

Overall I really enjoyed the game after hating it at first. It gets a little tedious in parts, but overall I would say if you like RPG's with some action in them, then this is the game for you.

Enjoyable - Anne MccAffrey is the queen [Posted on 2001-01-27]
If you enjoy puzzles and role playing this is a good option. The graphics are good. It requires logic and thinking not just blood-letting. I will purchase anything with Anne McCaffrey's name on the cover and I was not disappointed. The story develops well and the action continues to grow.

I love it [Posted on 2003-09-08]
I really like this game. I have only played a couple of others. I was not really sure I knew what I was doing most of the time, so just guessed. Am still playing, have made it to the mothership. I went out and bought all four of the books this game is based on, and read them through in a week. I find that the game follows the books fairly well, taking place on earth, as the books suggest. There is lots of action, lots of fighting. I would have thought I would be against such, But have a look around, the whole city is trashed, and this country would not tolerate such treament! Would yours? So I joined up.

What a story. Excellent ending too. Just great. [Posted on 2003-12-08]
At first I wasn't sure if it'll be any good, the grahpic is a bit outdated for today, and has a few glitches(mainly missing collision detection, you sometimes see objects through walls). But the story really got me hooked. It's quite a basic, everyday story - aliens invade earth, resistance, etc. You know the drill. But it has been made brilliantly, unfolding as you play, leaving you time to puzzle things out(like, why do the aliens need a refridgerator factory) until it tells you.
Also, it's split up into several missions(some of them only side-missions, not mandatory), so it's quite easy to quit the game to get up and catch some fresh air once and then ;-)
Before each mission, you get some instructions and the opinions of your collegues - up to five, from which two will join you on the mission. The puzzles are rather easy, mostly, though sometimes unwillingly hard, because you have to guess what to do exactly(the line "different object required" isn't quite helpful...
The levels are nicely made, with great detail - often you'll walk into empty rooms, just to find out they're - empty. Yes, nothing in here. Only made to make it feel more natural.

All in all, a great game - good for about a week of fun, if moderately played.

Unlike some other games, it doesn't end with just a "You've won. Good work", but shows you a nice video and even leaves the possibility for another game open. (Open, they didn't exactly say that there'd be another one.)

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