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FOR FREEDOM! (http://www.f13.net/index2.php?subaction=showfull&id=1110339086&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2&)

I also picked this up today, but I've only played through the first three or four missions so far so I can't really say much except that, yeah,  it's Freedom Force and of course if you like the first one you'll probably like this one.  I enjoy these games, although I have to skip past a lot of the over-the-top voice acting, because it just gets on my nerves.  It has the same effect on me as when I see a cartoon I used to watch as a kid on Cartoon Network or something, only now I can see how painfully bad the dialogue is.  I know it's supposed to be over-acted but that knowledge doesn't make it any easier for me to sit through.  Other than that nitpick though, it's good stuff.

 I look forward to trying out the multi-player at some point if a few other people here get the game (rather play against the devils I know than the devils I don't), so when people here start picking this up, let me know when we can get some games together.

I totally forgot this was out. I don't have enough time to play all my games as it is...bugger! If/when we get some MP going on I am sure I will be forced to pick it up.

I didn't forget it was out, but after fiddling with the demo I have decided that I'm very, very bad at it.

That was one of my favorite parts of the first game!  I loved all the comic panel cut scenes and voiceovers.

I tried playing the first one, and did not do terribly well on 'normal' difficulty, tho as an experienced gamer, I generally choose that level of challenge.  I just find that the characters miss too much(like, 75% of the time, for El Diablo), or otherwise take too much damage, and there is no healing other than very rare items in levels, and the hero point that can be used once.

I got up to a mission where you meat the 4th hero, a mechanical guy of some sort, and there are just huge numbers of enemies, all of which hurt my characters alot.  I was low on health and out of hero points at ~1/3 of the way thru the mission, which was a very bad sign.

I've been tempted to change difficulty down to easy just to play the plot.

Alkiera

Were you playing with the pause option or just trying to "real-time" it? I find it plays much better with the pause being a full pause instead of slowed down time.

Also, one of the new characters, Quetzocoatal is a healer. The first mission I used him on was tough enough that healing was almost mandatory.

I agree, the game would not be fun without using pause.  It becomes a quasi-turn based game when using that option, sort of like Baldur's Gate.

IIRC, El Diablo wasn't all that great; you get better characters as the game progresses.

I liked using El Diablo.  Has some good AOE blasts that can take out a lot of guys if they hit right.  I used him on almost every mission he could be brought on in this game.

Maybe I just never used him enough to get him powerful.  He is pretty weak in the beginning.  Minuteman and the mentalist guy are much more effective then.

I bought it since I enjoyed the last one...

The first "real" mission, I walked about 10 feet, then a random bomb hit my party, nearly killing 2 of my party members, and flat out killing one of them.

Then I quit.

You have to learn to use the spacebar to pause.  The bombs show a target on the ground several seconds before they hit.  Plenty of time to get out of the way.  Also, you can use your Heroic Revivals to recover your heroes pretty easily.

Give it another chance.

Bruce

Is that supposed to be a statement about the game, because it does more to make you look bad?  No offense meant (or not much anyway) but they tell you bombs are dropping and like Bruce said they show the targets on the ground before they hit.  Just move out of the way, be sure to save your progress every so often, and if you die it's not the end of the world.  It's not the world's greatest game, so it's no real loss if you don't get back to it, but still...

His explosive attacks are nasty, nasty, nasty.  I used to always take him and Manbot if at all possible.  El Diablo was my floating artillery platform, and then I'd just send him back to Manbot who'd replenish his endurance.  Manbot was the battery, Diablo was the gun.

Yeah, I'm playing FFII now and I think I may have misremembered how much I used him.  His inferno attack is badass, but when I use it I have a tendency to be a bit too careless and blow up buildings and teammates.

El diablo is awsome in most missions but he is an odd ball character. He is my artillery support. There are times when you just need to blow the ever loving shit out of things and he is one of the best characters I have found for massive mayhem and distruction. He is due to his overpowering issues somewhat dangerous to use so I uncork his bottle of whoop ass on an as needed basis.

But it is really nice having a character who I have had at one time KO about 15 targets at once hehe and he took 2 buildings at that time as well.

Maybe with some of the new character I will find somebody to take the mass mayhem role over but so far early in the game diablo is still the king of OMFG this huge pack of things has to die NOW.

He is also a flier and has a decent ranged attack I often just keep him air born using his no energy blast which is very good against any of the cold based encounters which you see early on.


Kaid

Oh for the guy who ate the unlucky bomb strike always watch for the medal indicating your character has a heroic revival. In most of the really nasty fights I have seen such as the gaining entrance to the underground cave by fighting the four plant hand things I was getting revivals very quickly.

Revivals will rez a KO'ed hero and give them a decent ammount of health back. Use pause and those bombs are not an issue most of your characters on that mission are pretty fleet of foot so just move when you see a cross hair show up on the ground.

I also lost 2 characters before I realised what the cross hair ment and just revived them and finished the mission no problem.

Remember el diablo is really good vs snowmen so use his flamy attacks alot.


kaid

Better still, use a revival just *before* a KO, and it heals the character by a greater amount than if you let them go down first.

Oh yes use revivals before KO's if possible but with those bombs I had guys go from full to dead in one shot so they are nice to recover from a screwup when you get hit by a surprise attack like those bombs.  Or messups like el diablo pathing differently than you expected when launching an overpowered inferno BOOOOOOOM splat.

I like all the new heros except that psycho slut tricolor so far. She is an ass kicker in hth but jesus she is almost to dangerous to use. She enrages VERY easily and then will procede to attack anybody near her. She hits so fricking hard she tends to kill other heros in a single swipe.

Hehe she also seems to have some unnatrual urge to kill that jack spade guy man she has brutalized him in my game at least 5 times so far.


kaid

El Diablo was one of my mainstays. My core team in the first game was El Diablo, Man-O-War, and Man-Bot. They can all fly, and while Diablo and Manowar nuke, Manbot replenishes their energy. I'd then have a spot for whoever was the mandatory hero for missions. I used that lineup for almost the entire game.

With the destructible environments in the new game, my theory is Diablo's Inferno attack (iirc - the one that makes dynamic objects explode) will be uber. Still need to pick up the new one.

Well I played all the way through FF v TR this weekend. Very fun enjoyable game. Total play time is probably about 15 to 20 hours if you have played freedom force before.

I have to say after seeing all the characters available el diablo still fits his niche best of all the premade characters I have seen. There are only a couple with big damage aoe distruction powers such as man bots release and blastoff from skyking and of those el diablo is still the easiest of the bunch to use.

Most of the big aoe death characters seem a bit slow. Old diablo with his ability to blow up inanimate objects as well as throwing hellfire and inferno around is just hard to beat for massive destruction. He also gets to his target fast most of the other big aoe'ers tend to be kinda slow.

Admittedly that is a very specialty niche but there are places in the game where the ability to throw that kind of power around really makes things easier.

My favorite characters from this game are Green genie, bullet, tombstone and diablo.

Green gnenie is a god send in the later levels with her ability to make a enemy into a friendly unit for a period of time or just turn them into a vase. She also oddly enough has a huge bitch slap attack that can do some SERIOUS electrical damage. She is a bit fragile but she is also I think the second fastest character in the game so you can get her in to do her thing and back out fast.

Bullet is great. Good damage super fast and he can REGEN. It is so nice having a character that can heal himself.


Another very good if odd ball character is the quetzalcoatl. He is pretty much a healer+group assister but if you combine him with green genie it is very handy. Genie can polymorph a character into another random hero. So if things get bad you can turn quetzal into another here who will have more combat oomf. Then once he turns back you can use his heals, status removers and rezes as needed.



kaid

It's strange.  Now that I'm playing the 2nd game, I know I must have used DIablo more than I remembered, but it is strange I don't remember using him much.  I remember using Minuteman whenever possible.  I also remember really liking Bullet and The Ant.

I was going to try to avoid using minute man much but I must say in the end areas the guy is a god send. It is a little bit of a spoiler but I will say that the minute missile range attack is alot better in ff2 than it was in the first game and works on some mobs that are otherwise very hard to harm. He is very useful in the end areas if you are having troubles finding attacks that do good damage on some of the critters.


Kaid