Руководство по кампании Freedom Force: очень высокий уровень сложности + только ванильные герои

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Freedom Force is a Real-Time Tactics game, which involves control of multiple ‘Jack Kirby inspired’ heroes simultaneously to deal with multiple threats, set to a timeless Silver Age aesthetic, full of character and flair. The makers of Freedom Force (Irrational Games) later went on to make a little game known as Bioshock, but left the Freedom Force franchise behind, after releasing a sequel in 2005 (Freedom Force vs The Third Reich). Mechanically speaking, Freedom Force involves top down control of up to 4 heroes, and encourages the use of a ‘pause’ button to input relevant commands. This places it somewhere close to a ‘party-based cRPG’ (e.g. Baldur's Gate) in terms of gameplay, which requires little in the way of ‘reflexes’ compared to an RTS or a MOBA. The deliberately ‘pause heavy’ combat however, offsets the game’s complexity. Like an RTS game, Freedom Force can involve ‘micro’ (appropriately ‘using’ the pause button, selectively using certain attacks to get a hit in before an enemy does, energy management, navigating elevated terrain, and/or dodging ranged attacks whilst running to or away from an enemy) and ‘macro’ (choosing which heroes to take to a mission and when, choosing which powers to level up and when, and how best to complete a mission from beginning to end in terms of the order of enemies/objectives). It’s quite the balancing act, and it makes Freedom Force a unique game to play. So: It’s 2026, the ‘superhero fad’ has since died down from the Marvel-movie heyday of the 2010’s, and barely anyone plays this game anymore (in part because the Steam version is buggy ... whilst the GoG version I use works fine [www.gog.com] ). Why make a comprehensive guide for a ‘dead game’, and what makes this guide different from the others written 20ish years ago? For context: I grew up playing Freedom Force as a kid, and recently revisited this game out of nostalgia ( thanks Wadsworth and the YouTube algorithm! ). My memory of Freedom Force’s campaign was that it was a blast to play and a unique experience … and also that once Custom Heroes were available, the game became significantly easier, even at the highest difficulties. A fast & tanky Stone character with a ranged Acid damage attack, counters most of the enemies found in the game at this point (i.e. Flesh enemies with melee attacks & Acid Vulnerability), and this Custom Hero could then be gifted extra attacks later on to deal with specific acid resistant enemies. The remainder of prestige points could then be spent on a 2nd Custom Hero just before the final mission (also Stone skin with favourable damage types and/or crowd control), and make the Timemaster sequence a total cakewalk. Given this: I set myself a ‘challenge run’ this time around for the Vanilla Campaign, and gave myself the following restrictions: 1. Vanilla Heroes only i.e. No Custom Heroes allowed (recruitable Heroes such as Man’o’War were fine). This limited what damage types and powers were available (amongst other things). 2. Maximum Difficulty (which in the Vanilla game is Very Hard , not Impossible, as the Impossible difficulty is the same as the Easy difficulty in the vanilla game by mistake). 3. No obvious exploits (such as sharing Energy X canisters, Deja Vu clone or ‘infinite spawn’ prestige farming, etc). Having no access to Custom Heroes also reduced the ability to exploit, as a lot of effects can be exploited when attached to powers that they weren’t designed for (e.g. Mercy as an AoE projectile can grant your team infinite health). 4. Complete all Secondary Objectives & kill as many enemies as possible (i.e. ‘aim for 100% completion’). 5. As little save scumming as possible (rather than ‘zero’ save scumming … ). Some of the mission stages can take up to 30 minutes to complete on Very Hard difficulty, and restarting an entire sequence due to a bad decision (or , more likely, horrible luck, see Chapter 1.1!) sounded like spending a lot of time that I didn’t have. ‘A little bit of quick save’ was therefore tolerable. 6. No heroes are allowed to faint (any hero fainting = load save or restart mission). Before starting the run, some research was done into the ‘Freedom Force guide literature’, to best determine how to approach this challenge. Here is a list of the resources used to write this guide. Freedom Force Forum Damage Charts/Calculations [www.freedomreborn.net] Character Creation Stats [gamefaqs.gamespot.com] Freedom Force Guide 1 (includes good general tips, enemy stats & missions): Walkthrough - IGN Freedom Force Guide 2 (primarily missions) [gamefaqs.gamespot.com] Freedom Force Guide 3 (includes Hero stats) [gamefaqs.gamespot.com] Steam Guide on Damage Types As for ‘this’ guide, it is split up as discussed below. My previous guide for ‘another 2002 game’ was intentionally written in a ‘handbook’ style, containing sections that are divided into chapters such that bits of information could be accessed when needed. This guide will follow a similar format: Part 1: An overview of ‘Very Hard Difficulty’ and how it differs from Normal Difficulty, followed by an in-depth look at each of the Vanilla Heroes used in the Original Freedom Force Campaign on Very Hard Difficulty. All 16 available heroes ‘can’ be made to work on this difficulty setting (some more than others…), and this guide assumes that all of them are playable in some way at some point. Info on each hero includes their general strengths and weaknesses, their useful attributes/powers on Very Hard difficulty, and a recommended level-up order for said attributes and powers. Once all the heroes have been covered individually, there’s also a Tier List. Because why not. Part 2: This section focuses on the Campaign itself, including an in-depth look at the enemy types encountered, and some common matchups between heroes & enemies for particular missions. Given that Freedom Force is a dynamic game, this section serves as a ‘How To Fight X Enemy’ section and a ‘pseudo-written walkthrough’ for the missions where particular enemies are found. There’s also a short ‘intermission’ at the end. Part 3: This section combines information from Parts 1 & 2 together. Freedom Force has a retroactive element to its campaign, such that XP obtained by heroes depends on: time of recruitment, mission attendance, and XP canisters. All of this influences their power level for the final mission where all enemy types are faced, and as such, it’s a good idea to ‘backwards plan’ a final squad in advance. Thus, some examples of hypothetical end-game team compositions are provided, as well as hero selections for particular missions and levelling sequences , with the aim of attaining 'smooth mission play' + ‘maximal XP gain for the final 4 heroes’ at the same time. After that, given the ‘inevitable lengthy length’ of the guide by this point (late edit: almost 40000 words...), there is a collection of video walkthroughs of the Campaign from beginning to end. This walkthrough uses one of the teams discussed in Chapter 6 ('The A-Team'), which I consider to be amongst the strongest possible team combinations of Vanilla Heroes, both for the campaign run itself 'and' for the final mission. And with that, let us begin from the beginning! Part 1: The Challenge & the Challengers Chapter 1: Max Difficulty Overview 1.1 Freedom Force is an Undeniably Luck-Based Game 1.2 Reliable Tactics for Very Hard Difficulty Chapter 2: Heroes Overview on Max Difficulty 2.1 Heroes: Roles & Archetypes 2.2 Minuteman 2.3 Mentor 2.4 El Diablo 2.5 Man-Bot 2.6 Blackbird (Hire) 2.7 Man O’ War (Hire) 2.8 Sea Urchin (Hire) 2.9 Alchemiss 2.10 The Ant 2.11 Iron Ox (Hire) 2.12 Liberty Lad 2.13 Law & Order (Hire) 2.14 Microwave 2.15 Bullet (Hire) 2.16 Eve 2.17 Supercollider (Hire) Chapter 3: Tier List: Vanilla Heroes on Max Difficulty Part 2: The Opposition & How to Defeat Them Chapter 4: The Missions at a Glance Chapter 5: Foes, Minions and Matchups 5.1 Mobsters & Pinstripe 5.2 Frozen