Strategic Mind: Fight for Freedom
- May 21, 2021
- Starni Games
- 15h median play time
Get on Steam"Strategic Mind: Fight for Freedom" is a turn-based strategy game set in WW2, where players fight across Europe, Africa, and Burma. The game features history-driven scenarios, encouraging strategic decision-making, and various tactical options, such as reconnaissance, weather manipulation, and local aid. The objective is to save democracy and freedom in Europe from totalitarian regimes, with the freedom to choose how to approach each mission.
PC
Playstation 4
Windows
Xbox One
PlayStation
Xbox
Reviews
- The game features two full campaigns with a variety of scenarios, providing a substantial amount of content and strategic depth.
- Unit customization is a highlight, allowing players to tailor their forces with different equipment and abilities, enhancing the tactical experience.
- The graphics are visually appealing, and the tutorial is well-designed, making it accessible for new players to the turn-based strategy genre.
- The voice acting is poorly executed, often detracting from the overall immersion and quality of the game.
- The game suffers from significant technical issues, including crashes and poor AI behavior, which can disrupt gameplay and frustrate players.
- Mission design is inconsistent, with some scenarios feeling poorly balanced or overly reliant on trial and error, leading to a tedious experience.
- story35 mentions
- 9 % positive mentions
- 83 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game is a mixed bag, with some players praising the engaging narrative and cinematic elements that enhance immersion, while others criticize the mission design as repetitive and lacking depth. The game features two main campaigns (USA and UK) that incorporate historical figures and context, but some missions rely heavily on trial-and-error gameplay, which can detract from the overall experience. Despite these issues, the developers have made strides in avoiding controversial themes and providing a more balanced challenge, making the campaign enjoyable for many players.
“The story, cinematics, and voice-overs combine to bring added context and immersion to this franchise.”
“The developers try to create a storyline for each game, and it's fun to see historic figures interact with the player character.”
“Campaign is excellently done by the developers; attention is paid to everything, all the moments, missions, and steps.”
“The missions and factions aren't represented properly.”
“Defense missions in particular seem to rely too much on you retrying until you know where the enemies are going to come from.”
“The missions you do can take a long time to beat, even more so later on in the game where it might take you several hours just to beat one map.”
- gameplay31 mentions
- 19 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by its tactical and strategic depth, retaining familiar turn-based mechanics while introducing minor variations and enhancements. Players appreciate the polished mechanics and attention to historical detail, although some note that the gameplay feels similar across installments, leading to a sense of repetition. Overall, the game offers engaging and immersive experiences, particularly for fans of the series, despite some criticisms regarding the lack of significant innovation.
“The mechanics have been polished, the campaign maps and their objectives are fair and challenging, there's alternative history, not many bugs, and the dialogues and unit voices are pretty solid as well.”
“It retains the same turn-based mechanics and tactical gameplay as before.”
“Excellent detailed graphics help you fully immerse yourself in the gameplay; the battle mechanics are extremely simple and are classics for this genre.”
“But the gameplay on these is more tactical and scripted.”
“There's a lot of neat mechanics in this franchise, but a refusal to put any serious limits on the player means that the scope for strategy is minimal.”
“Fight for Freedom is another entry in the series that is only really differentiated from the others at the gameplay level by the colors of uniforms and the models of the aircraft; the flavors change but the dish underneath doesn’t.”
- graphics23 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 30 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising their beauty and realism, particularly in 3D and zoomed-in views. However, some users note issues such as dated visuals, limited resolution options, and minor bugs. Overall, while the graphics are generally considered stunning and immersive, they may not fully align with the gameplay experience.
“As far as the game itself, the graphics are beautiful especially zoomed in.”
“Very enjoyable game that is graphically stunning.”
“Top notch graphics and music that immerses you in military action.”
“The visuals are very deceptive here and the rest of the game doesn't match.”
“While the graphics look okay, the developer weirdly decided to lock the number of resolution options you can get... now, if you have a modern GPU, you'll probably get a bunch of super-resolution options (to render the game at a higher resolution than your monitor... brute forcing anti-aliasing if you like), and these are the only options that appear, because the developer decided there's no need for you to scroll through the resolutions available to you.”
“The graphics, and especially the hexes, are extremely shiny and weird looking, like everything is constantly soaking wet and neon lit.”
- music7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its excellence and ability to enhance immersion, with some users highlighting its quality as a key factor. However, there are criticisms regarding the historical accuracy of certain tracks, as some players feel that the inclusion of era-appropriate music would better align with the game's setting and maintain immersion.
“Oh, and the music is legitimately excellent, no exaggeration, if that’s a key factor for you.”
“Top notch graphics and music that immerses you in military action.”
“There are numerous WWII era music tracks that are much more fitting for the Allies and the Axis.”
“If I have any negative feedback so far, it is with the music.”
“If developers are going to use music, it should be era-appropriate tracks.”
“For me, the wrong music departs from immersion.”
- humor3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by a lighthearted tone, with players finding amusement in the overpowered heroes and the unexpected nature of secondary objectives. While some may question whether the humor is intentional or not, it contributes positively to the overall experience, making the gameplay enjoyable and endearing.
“The heroes are hilariously overpowered; air heroes with the overrun trait can easily take out 3-5 AI squadrons on the first turn, and by missions 2-3, you'll have 2 of those heroes.”
“I can’t say that these 'flaws' really ruined my experience, as I’ve come to expect them. I’ve found myself endeared to the series, even if I still struggle to figure out whether I’m laughing with or at Strategic Mind.”
“The secondary objectives are always surprising, and in general, there is a background of good humor that is evident in the videos.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is viewed as limited, with many users noting that scenarios offer little incentive to play through multiple times.
“Yet reducing the replayability of scenarios.”
“While considerably limiting replayability.”
“Don't expect a lot of replay value, though.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is noted for its surprising lightness and entertainment value, even within the context of World War II. Players appreciate the realistic portrayal of battles, enhanced by effective sound design, graphics, and dialogue that collectively immerse them in the experience.
“That said, these parts come together to make a surprisingly light and entertaining atmosphere for a game about World War II.”
“The game perfectly conveys the atmosphere of battles with its realism, sound, graphics, and dialogues.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its excellent optimization, allowing it to run smoothly even on older hardware like the GTX 750 Ti, while delivering impressive graphics and a large, detailed game world.
“This game is well optimized - the GTX 750 Ti performs exceptionally well given the expansive world, realistic graphics, and demanding visuals, resulting in a great experience.”
“The optimization in this game is severely lacking, leading to frequent frame drops and stuttering during gameplay.”
“I was disappointed with the optimization; it feels like the game was rushed and not properly tested on various hardware.”
“Despite having a powerful PC, I still experience lag and long loading times, which indicates poor optimization.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players appreciate that while grinding in the game is less tedious compared to others, it still requires strategic thinking and careful planning of moves.
- stability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Users report that the game exhibits excellent stability, with no noticeable glitches or lags, particularly when played on high-performance hardware like an i5 with a 1080ti.
