YMMV / Freedom Fighters (2003)

• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Once you figure out what order to perform each set of stages in, some levels become almost too easy, and several objectives can be reached by shortcuts — some easily missed, some not — that bypass most of the enemies.
• Cult Classic: It has definitely become one since its original release, with many fans still holding out for a sequel years later as the original developer has held onto the IP and many times acknowledged the fandom's appreciation of the game.
• Good Bad Bugs: Sometimes, when you grab a weapon in the hideout, it will have more than the maximum amount of ammo that it can usually carry. Sometimes, this is a small, unexpected bonus, and you'll get a few extra magazines. Other times, a sniper rifle will spawn with 8,000 rounds in it and you'll be able to spend the rest of the game shooting everyone from a mile away with the normally quite rare sniper ammo.
• Inferred Holocaust: One of the news tickers mentions that radioactive fallout in Montana killed several thousand "rebel" soldiers, implying the Soviets nuked the American ICBM fields in the Midwest. This would explain both the lack of an American military response to the invasion and the mentions of the Soviets butchering pets for food; with the Midwest contaminated, the USA would lose a lot of its food production and that means likely tens of thousands of Americans starved to death.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: While the game can suffer from Early Game Hell due to the lack of soldiers to command, by the time the player reach the later levels, the player's squad of soldiers can easily steamroll the enemy.
  • Only on the lower difficulty levels. This game is extremely challenging on the highest difficulty setting and you cannot make frontal attacks on the enemy successfully, even with a full squad of 12.
• Moment of Awesome: Chris' speech to the people of New York and abroad from atop the captured TV station, reaffirming his commitment to the American Dream and urging all Americans to push back the invasion.
• Narm: Most missions are won by simply taking down the Soviet flag atop a building and hoisting the US flag in its place - even if you're surrounded by Soviet forces that could easily rip you apart. It seems as if the sight of an American flag would make the Soviets tremble and fall apart.
• Player Punch: General Tatarin personally executes Chris' brother.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The quicksave system revolves around finding manholes in the level, which are often placed out of the way of the action.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • They could have called it Red Dawn: The Game and no one would've thought twice. Both works share some Deconstruction of Patriotic Fervor American action films, such as avoiding the One-Man Army protagonist and Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy villains, and adding more elements of Grey-and-Gray Morality and War Is Hell, and also sharing a cynical, Bittersweet Ending.
  • The only reason this couldn't be set in Red Alert 2 is because WWII wasn't a Soviet invasion of Europe. The game even has the voices of Premier Romanov (Nicholas Worth as Colonel Bulba) and General Vladimir (Adam Gregor as General Tatarin).
• That One Level:
  • The rebel base when it is overrun with Soviet troops. Nothing but a linear progression of soldiers and no save points.
  • The mission where you personally, and ALONE, take on an entire Soviet base. Stealth is of utmost importance, but once you kill Tatarin, the entire base is on you with Hind Gunships. But you can swim back to the exit point, and neither the soldiers nor the Hind will notice you.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Despite being set in an Alternate History Cold War, the game comes with a few subtle digs at US foreign policy and the Iraq War. For instance, the Soviet Union, having beat the USA to the nuclear bomb and pushed the USA into global irrelevancy, claims to be "saving" the Americans from what they view as a failed political system and culture, but as the game progresses it's clear it's Blatant Lies.

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