The Cold War wages on. In the alternate reality of Freedom Fighters, Russia remains a growing superpower, its reign extending over all of Europe and much of Asia. Meanwhile, the people of Manhattan carry out their lives in ignorant bliss, giving the Soviet threat as much thought as they spared the homeless on the streets. That is, until Russian submarines begin to surface in New York harbor and armed forces pour into the city, seizing local authorities and red flags begin to fly all over town.

This third-person, squad-based shooter from IO Interactive places you in the boots of Christopher Stone – brother, plumber and accidental hero-to-be. In the course of earning a day's meal, you inadvertently find yourself taking up arms against the invaders and allying with an underground (literally) resistance to liberate the city. Even though the premise may seem short of ground-breaking, it serves as an authentic backdrop against which a series of progressively more challenging missions are set. These missions are punctuated by some stylish and cinematic cut-scenes that advance the surprisingly coherent, albeit thin, plot which documents the progress of the revolution through a satirical Soviet news broadcast.

Freedom Fighters eases you into its hybrid mix of shooter/stealth-lite/squad-command action by holding your hand through an introductory mission, which sees you signing up for the resistance as well as running through the basic actions in the game. Operating from a third-person perspective, movement during the game is governed by the left analogue stick, while the right stick maneuvers the camera. The system may seem slightly awkward at first, especially when you see your character looking and running in entirely separate directions, but will quickly become second nature with a bit of elbow grease applied. Otherwise, the control scheme is meticulously mapped to the Xbox controller, allowing you to easily perform such feats as jumping, climbing, crouch-run to avoid detection, as well as a lot of auto-aim assisted weapon firing. And for those with an adverse dislike for the auto-aim (there is always one or two), you may also zoom in for an over-the shoulder view for a precise shot when necessary.

With a smooth control scheme in place, the developers saw fit to throw at us some of the most original and enjoyable missions I have played in recent times. Aided by the rebels, your goal is to recapture key locations in the city to gain control of arms supplies and vantage points that serves to weaken the enemy forces. The game is broken up into several chapters, each containing a group of missions that take place in adjacent locations. Each mission contains its own objectives, and herein resides the ingenuity of the mission structure, as completing tasks from one location may have consequences that carry over to neighboring missions. For example, by destroying a bridge in one part of the city, you can cut off the route for enemy troop reinforcement in the surrounding areas, hence simplifying some of your work later on. Sometimes, it is a requirement for you to move between areas on a map in a particular order, such as when an object from location A is needed for use in location B, but for the most part, you are placed at the helm to plot your own progress within a chapter.

Traveling between locations on a map is as easy as finding manholes scattered all over the city, which can either return you to the underground base for a little R&R or to the mission map where you can select another destination. These manholes also serve as in-mission save points that retain your progress for as long as you stay within a mission. This acts as a satisfactory compromise between the "save anytime” system and the harsh "no in-game save” system commonly associated with console games.

The levels themselves again adopt a very open-ended design philosophy. The locations are not only constructed in manners that are authentic to the progression of the story, but also offer the player many possible ways to complete each objective. Abandoned city blocks cruelly eroded by urban battles are believably rendered and benefits greatly from an incredible amount of attention paid to such minute graphical details as graffiti, collapsed walls and fences and debris of various structures and objects strewn about the environments (that are often interactive, mostly in a KABLOOM! kind of way). These give way to many back-alleys and shortcuts through buildings to reach destinations, as well as an incredible amount of creativity in being able to get the jump on your opponents by sneaking up on top of, under, or around them. Often you will also find that weapons and tools of destruction are left in convenient locations that reward your creative approaches. Thankfully, the missions are also accompanied by detailed location maps that shows your exact location at any given time, as well as that of your objectives.

All of these elements add up to a very competent shooter that shines with a lot of polish, but what truly elevates this game far above most titles of its ilk is its amazingly simple and yet effective squad command system. Although you begin the game as a lone fighter, you earn charisma points through completing objectives and sometimes by aiding fallen comrades, and as these points accumulate you earn the ability to command more and more troops (of up to 12) that will follow you gladly to hell and back. To do this, you simply approach a recruit and press the action/use button to get him/her to join your cause. There is no shortage of recruits as they can be found scattered across the city, often huddled around burning barrels for, what I presume, physical warmth, and much dramatic coolness. Plus, a first-aid kit will easily put the spring back into the steps of your wounded allies.

The command system is extremely simple, as you can only give your comrades three orders: attack, hold or follow. Each of these commands is associated with a face button on the Xbox controller and cannot be easier to execute. This deceptively simple scheme is actually built in a way that allows for quite a lot of micromanagement. For starters, depending on how long you hold down a button for a given order, you can either command the soldiers closest to you to obey or the entire group. Also, you can pinpoint targets by placing enemies or locations in your cross-hair while barking out an order, ensuring that your troops attack or defend a precise foe/place. As well as being a well-executed system in and of itself, there is a great sense of accomplishment and shift in gameplay style as you progress from a one-man army to an actual army.

A well-done friendly AI is in place to facilitate some very intelligent behaviors on the part of your comrades as well, whether it is in keeping up with your movements or in following your commands and taking environmental obstacles/vantage points into consideration. For example, when ordered to defend a location, soldiers will take cover as well as man gun turrets left by enemies automatically. This level of intelligence carries across to the enemy side as well, making for a great degree of unpredictability and believability in their responses to your attacks.

Right about now I am sure some of you are hoping I would tell you about some robust multiplayer features that would cause you to bleed from excitement. Well, the good news is that there is a multiplayer segment to the game, and the not so good news is that there is not a lot of it. Multiplayer takes the form of 2-4 player split-screen capture-the flag type action on one of several maps, where each player can choose to side with either the Soviets or the Americans. The same excellent level design makes these multiplayer sessions much more frantic and fun as I would have otherwise imagined possible with only 4 players. Still, it would have been fantastic to be able to play through the single-player portion of the game in a co-op mode, or to have the ability to take on friends and foes using Xbox Live. But what is present here I can happily consider as a nice bonus to a superlative single-player experience.

I cannot possibly end this review without mentioning as well the outstanding use of sound and music in Freedom Fighters. For much of the game, the score is quite understated, opting to let the ambient noises immerse the player into the game world. And it works brilliantly. As you make your way through dilapidated city blocks, you hear distant voices in Russian, gunfire, and a lot of less distinguishable sounds that evoke tension as well as an immediate sadness that seem to linger in the air itself (except there is no air, but you get the idea). When the action ramps up, so do the sounds, as the screams of wounded soldiers, the hiss of bullets ripping through air, explosions, helicopter propellers, and Christopher Stone's voice barking out orders all congeal to make the firefights entirely believable. The score also adds a lot to the game as well, as it favors some haunting and majestic orchestral pieces that will sure stay with you even after you have switched off the game.