Chains of Freedom Review: Darkness and Strategy Gameplay Collide!

Chains Of Freedom, like its name, is less generic than you might think; this gritty turn-based tactics game promises an action-packed adventure across a post-apocalyptic world, backed by a ‘gripping’ storyline right out of a B-movie. There’s resource management, soldiers that can hit shots from a mile away—yet somehow not at point-blank range—and enough green herbs to show Leon Kennedy a good time. So, if you too like rigorously exploring environments for ammo, flipping through comic-book cutscenes, and fighting turn-based battles, stick around.

Chains Of Freedom takes place in a ruined society in which the most privileged of the population reside in the rainbows-and-sunshine, most certainly totalitarian, Sovereign. Unfortunately, there’s trouble in supposed ‘paradise’: an enigmatic scientist who loves talking real slow and spreading ‘propaganda’ has decided he’d also like to try experimenting with mind control, and it’s up to you and your rag-tag team to bring him down.

We’ve got Fidel, who seems to have stolen his look from a certain Castro, we’ve got Corban, a two-dimensional GI Joe with a can-do attitude, and Sola, whose voice remains perpetually jovial in the face of nightmarish creatures. Make no mistake, you’ll meet more scrappy teammates as the game goes on, but we won’t talk about them here.

Chains Of Freedom is all about collecting ‘stuff’ and fighting bad guys. The collecting of ‘stuff’ is done in real time. The bad guys are fought in a strictly turn-based manner. If you’ve played Mutant Year Zero, you’ll get the gist pretty quick. And, like Mutant Year Zero, Chains Of Freedom allows players to sneak around and ambush enemies, deciding when and where to begin combat. Unfortunately, many of the combat arenas allow for little expression, as they’re just too big and too heavily populated to risk splitting up the crew.

In between fights, players collect various resources for crafting, along with your usual medical supplies, ammunition, and the occasional weapon. Among these lootables are also the game’s main form of character progression: biocrystals. These shiny gems allow players to outfit their characters with extra active abilities and passive boons, allowing for a bit of build-crafting throughout the journey. These biocrystals are many, and Chains Of Freedom is relatively generous with these. I particularly loved using them to turn Corban into an elite sniper, scoring some devastating critical hits that simultaneously healed the squad.

Combat itself will be wholly familiar to fans of typical tactics games, with plenty of time spent managing action points and weighing up the odds of hitting a target. It’s competently made, but—at first—about as tense as a romantic comedy. Most encounters revolve around finding cover with a solid line of sight, hunkering down, and firing at anything that comes in range. Don’t get me wrong, some encounters forced me to retreat, to be careful with my action points—especially later in the game. But this leads me to Chains Of Freedom’s biggest flaw: its glacial pace.

Like the slow drawl of the game’s antagonist, Chains Of Freedom takes an unfortunate amount of time getting to the point. I’m talking about a truly plodding tutorial, complete with an unwinnable combat encounter. Once the training wheels come off, Chains Of Freedom does spike in both difficulty and engagement, suddenly unafraid to throw veritable hordes of gunslinging foes at the player. But again Chains Of Freedom stumbles here, all too often dragging out its encounters with bullet sponge enemies and repetitive waves.

The biggest crime of all, however, is the complete lack of a speed control—at least, none that I could find; it’s not uncommon to have over a dozen characters in each encounter, and watching each of them plod around before finally getting to actually play can be more than a little frustrating. This gets even worse when multiple factions are involved; without the ability to skip enemy turns or at least speed them up, the game will often force you to watch entire gunfights play out.

The potential saving grace to all of this is the narrative, which is clearly where much of the effort went. In and between this relatively standard affair unfolds a twisting plotline via character dialogue and cutscenes. These cutscenes, though built from static panels, remain engaging and surprisingly dynamic thanks to stylish visuals and occasional sparks of evocative audio. I won’t speak much on the actual story beats, as I’d like to avoid spoilers if I can, so just know that the plot does thicken, however slowly.

The voice performances, while a little up and down, also help to sell this spinning narrative. Though, more on that later. Fans of sci-fi B-movies and twisting conspiracies will surely get a kick out of this simple but effective story, and it’s a key factor in what kept me playing Chains Of Freedom for as long as I did.

While it provides ample tone, Chains Of Freedom’s soundtrack does little for the imagination, offering up a meandering ambiance strung together with lingering riffs. Though it lacks variety, it also does little to distract, somehow never grating my nerves despite its repetitive nature.

Sound design is also nothing out of the ordinary; punchy gunshots, meaty explosions, thwacks, and grunts abound. It does what it needs to. The voice acting is where things get a little all over the place. The constantly aggravated performance of Fidel is one-note, but so is his character at first - Corban’s actor plays your average suave, cool-headed guy, and Sola, as mentioned, always sounds like he’s in his happy place, offering a little lightheartedness along this violent and rather grim journey.

Svetlov is the clear standout, providing a wonderfully hammy performance that really nails down his enigmatic nature and the overall tone of the game - he’s easily one of the most interesting characters, and this performance only elevates his character. These performances remain relatively consistent during cutscenes. In combat, however, the frequent shoutouts can be particularly off-putting, with many of them coming across as awkward, even forced.

Chains Of Freedom looks great, but it lacks style. Its environments are rife with generic post-apocalypse imagery, occasionally spruced up by glowing crystalline structures. However, the comic book panels that tell most of its story make for a great palette cleanser, also describing the occasional point of interest with stylish artwork that pairs nicely with the quiet narration and committed performances.

In my twelve or so hours with Chains Of Freedom, I had no issues with performance outside of the occasional visual bug. No crashes, no real problems - this is, if anything, a smooth experience. Again, though, options are extremely limited, so expect little in the way of customization.

Overall, Chains Of Freedom is a sturdy, competently made turn-based tactics game with polished visuals, intuitive UI, and an engaging but simple narrative. It’s bogged down, however, by an unfortunately slow pace, standard combat, and monotonous exploration. Die-hard fans of tactics games such as XCOM or, more specifically, Mutant Year Zero, are still likely to enjoy this title, though it can take time to find the fun.

GOOD