Other Sites

In my ongoing mission to keep the masses entertained during the writers' strike, I've been seeking logical Mac gaming replacements for the shows you can't live without during these dark days. Tonight's very special episode:

Heroes
Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama
Premise: A bunch of mostly boring people discover they have some sort of super power and can't quite figure out what to do about it other than form clubs and be sad.

David Bowie once sang, "We could be heroes, just for one day." I think he was singing about the power of youth and love in the face of oppression. If the line had gone, "We could be heroes, just for one season," it would've been about the TV show Heroes.

If ever there was justification for the writers' strike, this is it. The show has become such an ugly mess of illogical plot lines and boring characters that creator Tim Kring has issued an apology. So, the writers' strike conveniently allows them to kill off the season early (and hopefully a couple characters) and attempt to get back on track with season three. Good luck, guys. I'm rooting for you.

However, if you're one of those gluttons who managed to suffer through Heroes season two, what do you now do until next fall? You play Freedom Force.

Now, this is going to be a difficult game to find; it was published in 2003 by MacPlay. Both 2003 and MacPlay are no longer with us, but if you're still watching Heroes, you're obviously used to frustration and disappointment. In fact, just trying to find a copy of Freedom Force may be more Heroes-like than actually playing the game (currently there are new and used copies available from Amazon).

Like Heroes, Freedom Force centers around a group of individuals who suddenly find themselves with amazing powers. Some can fly, some have super strength, some can shoot fireballs from their hands, etc. Thankfully, none of them have the power to make me throw up my hands in frustration and boredom every time they appear on screen like those Mexican kids in Heroes season two. What is that girl's power, anyway? She makes tar come out of peoples' eyes? Apparently, tears of boredom are thick and black.

The story in Freedom Force makes about as much sense as a lot of what happens in Heroes, so fans should feel right at home. There's this alien race that wants to take over the universe, and their plan for conquering the Earth portion of said universe is to give our villains Energy X so they grow more powerful and can't be stopped. Thankfully, aliens aren't much for thinking things through. The obligatory good alien tries to stop the Energy X from reaching the Earth, but only succeeds in scattering it about, so now just anyone can find it. And you know, thinking about this again, I'm wondering if this really did just happen, and all the canisters landed in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Regardless, just like with Heroes, the story unfolds very much in comic book style as each hero aquires his/her powers and has to quickly come to terms with it. It's very stylized and very cool and also quite a bit brighter than Heroes. For instance, none of the powers in Freedom Force require the weilder to be high on heroine to use them. Also, the amazing thing about this Energy X is that not only does it give people superhuman powers, it gives them super colorful tights. Yes, these are comic book heroes in the truest sense of the term, right down to their spandex, capes, and names such as Iron Ox, Liberty Lad, the Ant and Minuteman (who, ironically, dresses more like a Revolutionary War era British soldier than a minuteman, but what are you gonna do?).

Also faithful to the Heroes pastiche, Freedom Force begins with mostly unrelated scenes that are more about introducing new characters than about bringing the current heroes together in the story. After a while, the game does focus on allowing you to determine which heroes to take into a particular mission, something Heroes should to, too. Cheerleader? Check. The Petrelli boys? Check. Hiro and Ando? Check. Everyone else, stay home. Especially you, angry stripper. You haven't been interesting since you put your pants on at the beginning of season one. At least Eve knows to leave her pants off throughout all of game.

Just like Heroes, Freedom Force is not without its troubles, but it can be a fun ride if you're in the mood for it. Discovering the news heroes and their powers is quite fun, and deciding who to use on the various missions makes an interesting little strategy game out of what it is otherwise your basic RPG. Also just like Heroes the game showed a lot of promise, but didn't follow through—Heroes, because of bad story decisions and pacing; Freedom Force, because its sequel was never released for the Macintosh. Pick up a copy if you find it, because I'm afraid the franchise is forever lost to Macintosh users.

And hey, speaking of Lost...

See full list of shows.