would later be renamed Freedom Fighters, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The concept for the game originally involved a turn-based strategic mode as a major element of gameplay. Developed using the Glacier 3D engine, Freedom Fighters was released in the U.S. on October 1, 2003, a full week after the UK release. An EA spokesperson stated that retailers in the U.S. had requested the delay. The game is one of the few developed by IO Interactive that was not published by Eidos Interactive. Audio The Freedom Fighters original soundtrack was composed by Jesper Kyd and released on September 29, 2003, by Sumthing Else Music Works and Nano Studios. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 14 and 16 feature the Hungarian Radio Choir, with Russian lyrics written by Gaelle Obiegly. Reception Freedom Fighters received generally positive reviews, with an average scoring of 81.5/100 overall by Metacritic and 82.69% overall by GameRankings. It was praised for having an excellent AI for squad tactics, which served to enhance the sense of immersion in the "extremely detailed" environments and maintain the illusion of working with a team. The game's sound quality was also of note, both for the realistic combat noises and the game's Russian-influenced music, which "adds a perfect level of drama to the proceedings." GameSpot named it the best GameCube game of September 2003. Critics noted that while the game "does a marvelous job" of creating a realistic environment, the story was lacking in substance and fairly predictable, and while the squad AI is good, the enemy AI was lacking. Another source of criticism was the game's length. The game can be cleared relatively quickly, but offers little replay value. According to Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot, "The only real problem with Freedom Fighters is that there simply isn't enough of it. " Sequel On April 6, 2004, Eidos UK revealed plans for the sequel. Eidos announced it would distribute the sequel in the latter part of 2005. However, IO Interactive announced development of a new game, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, casting the future of a Freedom Fighters sequel in doubt. In 2010, when asked about a potential sequel, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days director Karsten Lund refused to comment. In 2011, IO Interactive's official Twitter account tweeted that Freedom Fighters 2 is "definitely something a lot of us are interested in doing". In 2017, IO Interactive split from Square Enix