Freedom Fighters and War Games

 

Recently I've had a massive increase in free time and a major reduction in income, so I've been playing old games again. When I was younger I really liked Freedom Fighters, a 2003 squad based game. The setting is an alternative Cold War where the Soviet Union has successfully conquered the United States. The aim of the game is to liberate New York and drive out the invaders.

Now, Freedom Fighters is part of a proud tradition in Cold War fiction, where the Soviet Union is a powerful force for evil and oppression but aside from the flag and the red stars has no real political resemblance to the actual Soviet Union as it existed. They don't talk about socialism or the works of Lenin, you could swap them out with any generic imperial power. It also has a slightly cynical satirical edge to its humour. It's not a serious game with a serious political message other than freedom is good and invading other nations is bad.

 At the time it was heavily acclaimed for exceptionally good squad AI, they would largely do what you told them, and would be very effective if you ordered them about appropriately. It also had an interesting approach to levels, each level was broken into multiple blocks with the objective being the destruction of all Soviet army forces within them. The unique twist was that you couldn't or at least weren't supposed to boot up the level and then just shoot your way to the end, walking over a pile of corpses. The game wanted you to act like an underdog urban guerrilla. 

Playing it again, it reminded me a lot of a controversial military theory called Foco theory or Foquismo. Foquismo has largely faded from memory, but there was a time in the 1960s-80s in the midst of the Cold War where it was a popular strategy that inspired dozens of small groups of revolutionaries in Latin America and other parts. It's closely associated with Che Guevara, but was codified by Regis Debray, in the years before he became a comfortable member of the French establishment and adviser to French governments. Debray was an admirer of Guevara and based his military ideas on the experience of Guevara, which confuses me a bit because the Cuban revolution doesn't really reflect the ideas of Foquismo, but that's a discussion for another day.

Anyway, the way the game's combat mechanics work seems like it was originally designed as a training tool for a school of Foquista soldiers. Obviously that isn't the case and its just a coincidence, but nevertheless the parallels were striking to me.

A brief summary (simplified) of Foquismo:

1. It is possible for a small band of dedicated and skilled armed fighters to defeat a standing army.
2. By fighting against the army of a regime, this group can inspire and ignite a popular uprising.
3. This means that the Foco, the Guerrilla army has replaced the party as the revolutionary vanguard and can exhilarate and establish the necessary conditions for social change and revolutionary struggle.

Again this is a simplification, Debray and every other advocate of Foquismo I've encountered added more to it and some qualifiers. A common one is that this strategy is only viable for "developing" nations with a still small proletariat, or in colonial and immediately-post colonial societies whose rulers haven't had time to cement their rule and establish their legitimacy fully. But these three points are what distinguish Foquismo from more orthodox Leninist and Maoist military strategy. 

How did it work? Well to cut it short, terribly. They failed everywhere they tried, the People's Revolutionary Army in Argentina were exterminated, and the military used their failed campaign as justification to launch a general war of extermination against all dissident groups.

But of course Freedom Fighters isn't real, it's a video game, so things turn out a bit better for the Foco there. After the tutorial level you meet a skilled survivor called Mr, Jones who takes you to an already prepared base area hidden in the sewers. From there, you plan your counter-attacks. Each block is divided into three or four sections with detailed locations of Soviet forces, their checkpoints, armouries etc. What's interesting is that these sections while split into sublevels still have an effect on each other. Say you find yourself ripped apart by a Soviet Hind and cannot advance further, checking the map will reveal that in another section there is a helicopter refuelling station, moving to that part and blowing it up means the Hinds are no longer an issue. Or perhaps you keep getting spotted by snipers and patrols at night, in another section there's an electrical substation that's powering the search lights. 

Instead of just marching to point A to point B, the game wants you to stay mobile using the sewers to constantly move between areas picking vulnerable enemy positions and thus whittle down their strength before finally driving them out of the area. Foquismo like most over theories on Guerrilla warfare stress the need for the outnumbered Guerrillas to stay moving and pick their battles, only taking on fights they should win. The weapons are either improvised, a wrench, a Molotov cocktail or taken from the enemy. 

The way it handles squads is close to the logic of Foquismo. In addition to a green health bar, there is a yellow bar, this yellow bar is called charisma, and it governs how many freedom fighters you can recruit into your squad. You get charisma from fulfilling objectives, i.e. inspiring the population with your military exploits. In later levels you will find wounded Soviet soldiers, by healing them they come over to your side. This shows how the guerrillas have been inflicting more damage on the occupiers and have successfully demoralised some of the enemy troops.

Narratively speaking this is also mirrored, as you go on completing missions you become known as the "Freedom Phantom" a mythic hero who inspires the downtrodden. At one point in the game, your characters' brother leaves the base and New York as part of a mission to link up with other groups of freedom fighters to escalate the fighting into a general uprising.

 The final act of the game involves the freedom fighters seizing a Soviet run TV channel and broadcasting messages to launch an uprising throughout New York. Then launching a final assault on the Soviet army base on Governors Island. You've gone from a tiny band of committed fighters to seizing most of the territory and leading a popular revolt.

 And that's it, apart from an unlockable bonus level fighting on the Statue of Liberty, that is where the game ends. It never got a sequel or follow up, so we have no idea how the freedom phantom handled the fallout.

 

For la Ĉinaj Agresuloj el Vjetnamio! - Away with the Chinese Aggresion Against Vietnam!

  

 

Declaration 

 By the Central Board of the Bulgarian Esperantist Association.

 

Bulgarian Esperantists have just learnt of the invasion by the Chinese army into the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with great anger and indigination.  This insidious attack by fascist means shook all honest people throughout the world and has only brought joy to reactionaries. There is no evidence of any provocation by the Vietnamese people against Chinese territory. But there are other facts. They speak of China's relentless pressure on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This pressure began immediately after the total failue of US aggression in Vietnam. This pressure is exerted because of the ambitions of the Chinese party and state leadership to impose hegemony. China wishes to be supreme in South East Asia, and because of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's allegiance to its socialist ideals, the socialist community, and the Soviet Union, the powerful pillar of socialism and peace in the whole world. The armed aggression by China is the culmination of this pressure. By this abominable war, which China has instigated, by the barbarous murder of Vietnamese women, children and the elderly, and through its destruction of Vietnamese cities and villages the Chinese leadership has shown the whole world, that it has nothing in common with peace, humanity, and internationalism. It more closely belongs to the world of Imperialism and the blackest forces of reaction. These barbarous attacks against the liberty, sovereignty and independence of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is an indignant injury to every kind of legal and moral international norm, it endangers the peace and security of the world, and it also brings misery to the Chinese people itself.

In the name of all Bulgarian Esperantists - sincere fighters for friendship and understanding between the peoples, and for peace and security in the world - the Central Board of the Bulgarian Esperantist Association together with the whole Bulgarian people angrily declare "Get your hands of Vietnam! Immediate withdrawal of the Chinese army from the land of the heroic and free Vietnamese people! Long live the front of peace and socialism in the whole world!"

CB of BEA

 

Telegrams protesting Chinese aggression came in the editorial board of the annual meeting of the Bulgarian Esperanto Co-operative, of the North Bulgarian Esperanto Youth Conference in Varna (II. III. 79) and from many other Esperanto organisations. 

Source:

Bulgara Esperantisto. Jaro 48, n. 3 (1979)

 

DEKLARACIO
 

de la Centra Estraro de Bulĝara Esperantista Asocio

Kun granda kolero kaj indigno la bulgaraj esperantistoj eksciis pri la invado de la ĉina armeo en la teritorion de Socialisma. Respubliko Vjetnamio. Tiu insida atako laŭ fasista maniero skuis ĉiujn honestajn homojn en la mondo kaj ĝojigis nur la reakciulojn. Ek- zistas neniu fakto pri ia ajn provoko de la vjetnama popolo kontraŭ ĉina teritorio. Sed esta aliaj faktoj. Ili parolas pri senĉesa premo de Ĉinio kontraŭ Socialisma Respubliko Vjetnas mio. Tiu premo komenciĝis tuj post la sengiora fiasko de la usona agreso en Vjetnamio- Gi estas farata pro la ambicio de la ĉinaj partia kaj ŝtata gvidantaroj trudi la hegemo. nion de Ĉinio super Sudorienta Azio kaj pro la fideleco de Socialisma Respubliko Vjetnamio
al la socialismaj idealoj, al la socialisma komunaĵo kaj Sovetunio — la potenca pilastro de Sa paco kaj socialismo en la tuta mondo. Kulmino de tiu premo estas la armita agreso de Ĉinio. Per tiu abomena milito, kiun Ĉinio iniciatis, per la barbara mortigado de vjetnama virinoj, infanoj kaj maljunuloj kaj per detruado de la vjetnamaj urboj kaj vilaĝoj la ĉina gvidantaro montris al la tuta mondo, ke ĝi havas nenion komunan kun la paco, Ia humanisma kaj la internaciismo. Ĝi pli intime aliĝis al la monda imperiismo, al la plej nigraj fortoj de la internacia reakciularo. La barbara atenco kontraŭ la libero, suvereneco kaj sendependoj de Socialisma Respubliko Vjetnamio estas indigna rompo de ĉiuj kaj ĉiaj internaciaj juraj- kaj moralaj normoĵ, ĝi subfosas la pacon kaj sekurecon en la mondo, portas malfeliĉon an- kaŭ al la ĉina popolo mem. 

 

En la nomo de ĉiuj bulgaraj esperantistoj — sinceraj batalantoj por amikeco kaj kompreniĝo inter la popoloj, por paco kaj sekureco en la mondo — la Centra Estraro de Bulgara Esperantista Asocio kune kun la tuta bulgara popolo kolere ekkrias:“ For la manojn disde Vjetnamio! Senprokrastan eltiron de la ĉina armeo el la lando de la heroa kaj liberama vjetnama popolo! Vivu la fronto de la paco kaj socialismo en la tuta mondo !“.

 

CE de BEA Telegramoj proteste kontraŭ la ĉina agreso venis en la redakcion de la jarkunveno de Bulgara E-Kooperativo, de la Konferenco de Nordbulgara E-Junularo en Varno (11. III. 79), ĉe multaj E-societoj.

 

Thatcher’s Tech Base | Red & Black Gamers

 This is a copy of my review for Organise! Magazine's Red & Black Gamers section.

 

Thatcher’s Tech Base (TTB) is a Doom II modification that was released on Friday the 24^th of September, with the help of the websites how to install guide after ten minutes of downloading and extracting I managed to get the game working. Six hours later I had made it to the end screen and a sequel hook. My final runtime was just over an hour, the other five hours were me reloading after dying. I’ve enjoyed Doom, Doom II and Wolfenstein 3D for years, ever since I found them installed on a computer in my town’s internet cafe. Though sadly I was never very good at them, so if you were an old school Doom pro you’ll probably beat my time, and if you’re not a pro then copy my strategy of saving in rare moments of peace from slaughtering everything in a room.

TTB feels like Doom II, its pacing, its maze and gauntlet mix for level design, the soundtrack is original but aside from a few tunes inspired by old British patriotic jingles like Land of Hope and Glory are just like the soundtrack to the original Doom II. The webpage has a bandcamp that plays some of the tracks and I’ve been listening to them while writing this. The levels are covered and I do mean covered in detailed sprite work that’s gory and gross, and full of highly detailed 1980s propaganda posters and graffiti. The only parts of the game that show that it's a 2020's modification and not from the 1990s (when shareware mods were common) are the things it does that were simply impossible back then. Other than a short opening section in a demon prison where Thatcher and her acolytes have escaped, the entirety of the game including boss battles and secrets is in one level. That’s over an hours worth of gameplay with dozens of unique assets with no loading in between. The sprite work that covers the walls of this world is just too crisp and clear for an older machine to have run, you can read most of the gravity and text on the vote Tory posters.

The plot is very simple, Thatcher has gained control of a part of hell and is attempting to return and bring an army of demons and party activists with her. Its the players task to go to the tenth circle of hell ie. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to stop her. The demonic horde is quite diverse, most of the roster of enemies from Doom II are here but have been given a light blue makeover. Jokes aside the world of TTB does look like a hell version of the late 1980s/1990s UK. Apart from some very brief text boxes the old Doom games told their stories through environmental design and TTB maintains that tradition. You can tell Thatcher has escaped because the prison at the beginning has a lot of corpses of guards and busted open cells and damaged machinery. You can tell you’re getting closer to the final confrontation the more closely the scenery resembles a Tory party HQ and the British government. The final showdown with a Cyber Thatcher (see the box art) is in the House of Commons complete with both aisles full of sycophants willing to fight to the death to protect her.

Though this does mean that the game has a target audience of people who are already intimately familiar with the legacy of the Thatcher’s government and her successors, something the game acknowledges by being dedicated to them, and since this is a modification of a licensed property, instead of payment which is illegal due to copyright law, the game devs at Doom Daddy Digital recommend that you donate to one of several charities on their webpage. The charities are ISWO support for Mining families, Stonewall, The Hillsborough Justice Campaign, ICTJ The International Center for Transitional Justice, Living Rent, and the Scottish Refugee Council. This might at first glance seem a bit of random list but they all represent some of the victims of the Thatcher government, Mining communities were ripped apart and occupied for over a year, queer Britons were left to die through AIDs with the UK government only taking action once it had definitely started affecting heterosexuals, but even after that gay people were still criminalised and scapegoated (Ed. Google Section 28), Hillsborough was of course where the police managed to kill 97 Liverpool FC fans, which was covered up by the government in 1989 and to this day the families of the deceased are still battling government indifference and inertia, the ICTJ campaigns to expose systematic human rights abuses and given that Thatcher’s administration escalated the conflict in Northern Ireland and turned parts of Britain into militarised states. Living Rent is one of the many groups dealing with the ugly aftermath of one of the Conservative government’s flagship policies, mass selling off of council housing and deregulation of the housing market, and the Scottish Refugee Council, well in addition to using Scotland as a test bed for most of their reactionary policies before rolling them out to the rest of the UK, the Tory party of the 1980s was also openly hostile to refugees, which to be fair is an example of the continuity of British government rather than a break with tradition.

I’m old enough to remember the lingering effects of the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s partly because the Labour governments that followed did very little to change or counter act that legacy. So I ate everything TTB was serving me. I understood that the NUM stickers on the walls were about the 1984-85 Miners strike, I understood the graffiti that were references to the IRA and the fighting in Northern Ireland, I understood why the 1% health pick ups are milk cartoons and why the words “you’ve snatched some milk” flash on the screen when you pick them up. I also chuckled a little when I noticed that the evil base full of dripping acid and exploding barrels has health and safety at work signs. And I understood what the red baiting vote Tory posters were getting at. But I don’t think that’ll be easily understood by someone playing this without that prior knowledge.

 

To take just one example, there’s a really clever part of the level that’s a BBC communications room, in it there are two banks of monitors with images of the UK and groups of blue uniformed soldiers at the desks. I enjoyed seeing this, but if you didn’t know just how overtly pro government the BBC was during this period and how the Conservative party used it to manipulate the population I think a lot of the messaging is lost. I do wonder what a Doom completionist who plays TTB with no real knowledge of Thatcher but loves the game and its modding scene would think. Hopefully the strengths of the game and the sheer never ending examples of just how hated Thatcher and the Tory party were will pique their curiosity and they’ll learn more about it when they’ve made it to the end screen or gotten a 100% of the secrets. On my first full playthrough I only managed 11% of secrets, and there’s an entire path of the level locked behind a series of doors that needed a red key card to access which I never even saw, so after finishing I dived back in, though I will probably have to wait for someone else to write up a walkthrough.

In summary, if you like the old Doom games you should play this game its in the top tier of mods and games inspired by them. If you remember the Thatcher administration and its austerity and police state actions, you should play this game even if you don’t like Doom games. It’ll take a few minutes for you to adjust but once you’ve got the hang of using a Winchester rifle and grabbed the Trident missile launcher you will find some catharsis. If neither applies to you, I would still say give the game a go, even if the game play doesn’t click and you don’t come away with an in-depth understanding of the damage the combination neoliberal economics and patriotic traditionalism and respect for authority can do to a people, you will at least get a taste of how varied and visceral the resistance to it was.

 

Reddebrek
www.reddebreksbowl.blogspot.com

You can learn more about Thatcher's Tech Base and play it yourself via their Github.
https://thatchers-techbase.github.io/

 

 

Bonus Screenshot gallery