Liberal Crime Squad, the Forgotten Game from the Dwarf Fortress Developers

Liberal Crime Squad was a game spawned out of the politics of the early 2000s about a rag-tag band of liberal guerrillas fighting tooth and nail to oppose early 2000s Conservatism. It's pure political satire and it's very funny to play in current year.
The game may not be truly forgotten, but I doubt anyone beyond the Dwarf Fortress oldheads are very familiar with it.
Unity Version:
the-cheshire-c...
Articles:
S. Ankel, "Meet the KHive: Kamala Harris' army of online fans who are fiercely loyal but can also turn nasty, critics say" (2021), retrieved from:
www.businessin... (30.05.2023)
J. Nesbit, "The Secret Origins of the Tea Party" (Unknown), retrieved from:
time.com/secre... (30.05.2023)
Music:
British Sea Power, Precinct 51 (2019)
Konami, Metal Gear Solid 2 Theme (2001)
Astronautalis, Bella Ciao (2020)
#lcs #bay12 #dwarffortress #df
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If you enjoy the video, please leave a like, I'm told it helps. If you have questions or suggestions please leave a comment, I do my best to read them all!

[@Illegiblescream]

Recruiting a janitor is far from worthless. You can Juice them up with embezzling and then have them recruit someone else. Don’t build large sleeper networks until you have four sleeper judges, and 5k for ace liberal attorney, or a sleeper lawyer you want to buff up.

[@FreddaYT]

normal sentences that could only exist as a result of very normal games

[@zorthomis6497]

As a union communist Janitor IRL; yep

[@loveroffunnyy]

This is what happened to get obama elected.

[@FreddaYT]

It's true

[@MayTheFay]

can confirm, i was agent n37

[@BigHomieGayAss1917]

Community organizing McCain voters into camps

[@M-Soares]

@@MayTheFay I was the janitor, sorry, I wanted to help but the Eagles were playing so...

[@sarcasmenul]

we need a sequel so hilarry gets elected, ITS HER TURN 😤😤😤💅💅💅

[@FreddaYT]

Thinking about what mechanics this would have in 2023 gives me a headache

[@byronritchie5449]

Probably a mini game about making memes or something

[@cravinghibiscus7901]

drone assassination of prominent conservatives? Like the freaks tried on Maduro?

[@greyish7212]

​@@byronritchie5449 "It's too late, woke moralists! I already depicted you as soyjacks and myself as the Chad" - Liberal Crime Squad mission failure screen, 2023

[@byronritchie5449]

@@greyish7212 lol that definitely would happen

[@McCbobbish]

Gods, I want somebody to do that someday

[@belltowersubductions5104]

This feels like a really, really frustrated shriek into the void that the developers probably look back on with mixed emotions.

[@XSpamDragonX]

It went from mocking a Republican strawman to being a literal power fantasy for Redditors.

[@12halo3]

@@XSpamDragonX so warhammer 40k.

[@s7robin105]

Finally I can live out my crime squad fantasies of revolution in a safe digital early 2000s setting

[@petersmythe6462]

"Cyberpunk terrorist horde strategy" Ultraleftism reaching levels that shouldn't even be possible.

[@cookingwithtool159]

What the actual fuck does this have to do with Bordiga

[@hellcat2533]

That version of Bella Ciao is killer but it feels wrong to have it playing while Liberals win in the American congress hahahaha.

[@FreddaYT]

I thought it'd be funny since the game is about going around committing acts of terror, infiltrating the government, controlling the media so that on election day everyone will go to the ballot box and vote in the liberal democratic elections.

[@hellcat2533]

@@FreddaYT Broke: Anti electoral polemicizing Woke: Pro electoral terrorism

[@danielomar9712]

​@@hellcat2533the only based Liberal is when you mailbomb conservatives

[@enider]

”We must perform a protracted people’s war at the ballot box”

[@villentretenmerth11]

Pro electoral genocide when

[@RealPeoplePerson]

Perfect game to play between episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

[@FreddaYT]

Lmfao

[@BigHomieGayAss1917]

In the Trevor Noah dlc, you try to string together joke combos as miners get beaten by police. The final boss is a cry-off with post-Colbert Report Stephen Colbert

[@pizzacheeseman2854]

I’ve never found a game that captures the “insurgency simulator” gameplay of LCS

[@FreddaYT]

Same

[@atpyro7920]

not a lot of developers are willing to match the toady one in simulating EVERYTHING

[@gabrote42]

Word. I have found a few that capture the resistance movement lone stealth operator one, but never one where you can build it from literal scratch!

[@MisterFoxton]

1980s gaming: Fighting in the post apocalypse of the near-future 2000s 2000s gaming: Fighting in the late stage capitalist nightmare of the near-future 2020s. 2020s gaming: Either of the other two please, anything to escape reality.

[@kafkaesque6459]

Started playing the game just yesterday. EXTREMELY fun game, really hope people start playing it! Stroke of absolute genius to make a Symbionese Liberation Army simulator.

[@ANunes06]

I have unironically tried (and failed) to start a "WE NEED A SLOGAN!" chant. This game lives rent free in my head forever.

[@Dr-Jesus]

Do you ever find a wikipedia page that makes you at the same time want to devote hours to investigating it and completely wipe it from your memory?

[@madquack6449]

Basically, this is what watchdog legion wishes it was.

[@byronritchie5449]

My playstyle is by getting a hacker to get documents for me to sell to the pawn shop to get a lot of cash then get the printing press and business front and consistently use the documents (except for corporate secrets i almost exclusively sell those) for both the liberal guardian and to sell to the pawnshop to buy arms and further upgrade the safehouse so i can defend myself if the authorities try to pull a Waco Then I recruit a bunch of gangsters and crackheads to serve as my actual crime squad and to rob banks Also I find it funny how the gun laws each side supports actively goes against them

[@FreddaYT]

Yeah the gun law thing is interesting, you could do something really cool and dynamic if you were to work a lot of these mechanics into a game.

[@byronritchie5449]

@@FreddaYT yep, I hope the developer behind the unity versions adds the option for the lcs and liberals to support gun rights, although that might screw with the game balance

[@LethargicScientist]

I think it would make more sense if the conservative government started out supporting gun rights but then clamped down on them as they gained more power and you became more of a threat. That's a natural difficulty curve that also follows the history of actual fascist politics.

[@byronritchie5449]

@@LethargicScientist pretty good idea

[@hypotheticalaxolotl]

@@byronritchie5449 I don't know if they'd do that. Both the Arch Conservative and Arch Liberal sides of LCS are (deliberately) over-the-top stereotypes, so making the Arch Liberal side do like... rational things in their interest would go against the parody, same as if they made the Arch Conservative side go for rational actions in their interest.

[@xenn4985]

This is hilarious. It also makes that healthcare fiasco a while back make SO MUCH more sense.

[@typical_name8682]

Shit, I had heard of this and remember it every now and then, but somehow totally forgot that it was developed by the same dude who did Dwarf Fortress. The mechanics were pretty interesting in that sometimes success - forcing the government to enact liberal policies - made the game more difficult. On the hardest difficulty, the police have such impunity that, if you manage to snag a cop uniform, you can literally break into people's houses right in front of them because they'll just assume that a cop breaking into their home must have some legitimate reason to be there (or they're too afraid to question it). Also, it turns out that armed revolution is easier when you can literally walk into walmart and buy bazookas with no questions asked.

[@algorithmgeneratedanimegir1286]

That's kind of the purpose of the Second Amendment. It's to allow armed revolution lmao.

[@fat6776]

we need a steam release and remaster of this masterwork

[@Flow86767]

Agreed

[@theoceansandbox2712]

That is a dope rendition of Bella Ciao

[@FreddaYT]

It's insanely good

[@guyguy7634]

I’m here to vote blue and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubble gum.

[@alecciarosewater7438]

This looks more then a little like Streets of Rogue. Lone troublemaker talks, sneaks, and/or shoots his way through a bizarre town to accomplish specific goals on their quest to defeat the Mayor

[@noelmacapinlac4441]

I have wasted 60+ hours on liberal crime squad thanks to this video, playing every archetype from sneaking as a master thief, robbing banks as a deadly gangster, beating up hicks in a protest as a martial artist, to the pacifist playthrough recruiting a writer's guild with a charismatic leader. Also hacking and publishing classified documents as a gifted student with computer skills, the possibilities are endless with this game!

[@snrken]

this game looks fucking awesome

[@fungus-og]

dark brandon rises

[@FlaminFaux]

Yo, Grimith there at the end! Was going to mention how I learned about this game from some members of the Voltron Army, Grimith and Jef specifically. Thanks for reminding me to re-download it for the nth time.

[@96hi]

it would be nice to se a remake of this tbh

[@pizzacheeseman2854]

It’s been under continuous community development on a few different forks

[@highlordkatuunko6878]

one of my favorite early moments was realizing the American army base in my world was named after Leon Trotsky

[@meijiishin5650]

Bro…I forgot about this game. I first saw it on the goonstation sub forum thing for Space Station 13 in like 2009, to give you an idea of who was playing this…

[@FreddaYT]

That's so funny

[@Dexter037S4]

SS13 is literally the only place in the world where you can find, Nazis, Furries and Communists all trying to work together. It's fucking brilliant.

[@meijiishin5650]

@@Dexter037S4 this was a long time ago. Before all the furries and russians, if you can believe that. SomethingAwful was basically the main server to play on for a long time because they were the only branch that improved the laggyness of the game. They had 3 servers that was probably like 75% of the playerbase.

[@Dexter037S4]

@@meijiishin5650 I know, I was one of them lol, back on the old Cogmap1 days.

[@lemonynora]

I love how you measure time. Truly beautiful your mind is

[@missmollyrmc]

omg! ive been playing this game for more than a decade. a real hidden gem!

[@birbeyboop]

im gonna do this irl

[@frocco7125]

This is like the American version of "Through the Darkest of Times", where you play as a resistance group in Nazi Germany. I love it!

[@JeiJozefu]

"Last bugfix came out in 2013" I released a bugfix last month (not too long after you made this video) T.T You used Grimith's footage of 4.12.51, the version I released in 2020 We're up to 4.12.67 now I need to spend some time on the wiki

[@JeiJozefu]

I'm not angry, just sad this keeps happening Tone is difficult in text

[@gabrote42]

We appreciate the effort

[@dawn_oh420]

something I love about this game is how seemingly incomprehensible the viewpoint of the developers is.

[@loosepolygon]

wow this is the best possible introduction to this amazing game, thank you!!!

[@edspace.]

It looks interesting, I wonder how it would be received if it was released today (or a Definitive Edition).

[@FreddaYT]

Probably not well lol

[@junkjack1015]

Probably about as well as a brick to the face

[@edspace.]

@@junkjack1015 Which makes sense, perhaps its too near the knuckle.

[@edspace.]

@@FreddaYT I can imagine conservative outlets dubbing it something like "Leftism Government Simulator" or something.

[@cdru515]

Would be a big shitstorm if it gets popular

[@OingoBoingo--nice]

This is quickly becoming my favorite channel haha, such a fun and interesting collection of topics.

[@user-jq1mg2mz7o]

the utopia if obama told congress his last name:

[@SpyralHax]

"A strange dystopian universe called... America." Weirdly funny but sad at the same time for its accuracy as a statement.

[@ShadowDragon1848]

Tbh most liberals would most likely ally with the conservatives ^^

[@frocco7125]

"Liberal" in america just means progressive. And no

[@rosefeather_]

The game was made at the time when the word "liberal" wasn't tainted by the concepts of modern liberalism - aka when the word "liberal" stood for civil liberties, not for the protection of status-quo. This is why the policies that the Liberal Crime Squad tries to advance are the ones which the modern liberals oppose. And I don't mean "liberals" in the way that the right-wing uses it, aka anyone to the left of being an actual fascist, I mean actual liberals.

[@theculturedjinni]

Oh this brings back memories.

[@thundercheckov9782]

What a frigging legend

[@user-bn5df6hl1d]

"We do all this- now go vote" lmao also love the 37/13 end vote- just fucking shy one fucking hell

[@JundlandBanshee]

I remember bringing the Conservatives to tears with my guitar squads, playing music and singing until they renounced conservatism and all its empty promises. I also remember the best recruits were often Yoga Instructors (who had best Strength and Agility in the game) and Art Critics (because there was a chance that any given Art Critic was in fact a Professional Thief in disguise). There was also Mithril Armor that you could buy from a hobby store... and was completely useless. XD

[@ryleynadhir4685]

Game actually looks kinda cool, but pretty complicated. I was wondering, why does it say at 2:34 that it's 2017, but at the end of the video, the elections are for 2012?

[@rclipse1985]

Probably footage from multiple playthroughs. Although his run must have been going really badly to last until 2017.

[@FreddaYT]

@@rclipse1985 that version actually starts in 2017

[@rclipse1985]

@@FreddaYT Ah, damn, my mistake.

[@FreddaYT]

@@rclipse1985 No worries! My run was not going well though lmao

[@Thorite_Gem]

This game looks insane - I love it.

[@abx_yenway]

I loved this thing and I'm glad people still remember it.

[@potatoesstarch2376]

Grimithr! I used to watch him all the time. Still do every now and then. I think I watched all of his LCS playthroughs at this point haha.

[@gungholio3416]

Love this game thanks for upload

[@bamboozled9127]

"Babe wake up, new Fredda video dropped"

[@RuneForumwalker]

Oh shit, a GrimithR reference!

[@FreddaYT]

I used to watch him a lot actually

[@RuneForumwalker]

@@FreddaYT lol, same.

[@HurpMuhGurp]

I still watch him. I know he said the last one was his final playthrough but I'd love to see him play it once more at least!

[@gec-tree8035]

jagged alliance but deranged.

[@tritoner1221]

I always knew it existed and have been waiting for a quality video to be made about it. Great job!

[@Mestrecker]

I discovered this game today after someone said its playerbase is comprised of "boomers who think theyre cyte twinks"

[@ProfLakitax]

Will play that one

[@SpyralHax]

Maybe its just the way you describe it, but this game sounds like a riot to play.

[@deadfishy666]

it's their second best game in my opinion and it deserves more love. it's funny, great and just as obtuse as dwarf fortress.

[@hardesthardcoregamer]

I played this game prolly more than Dwarf Fortress, World War 1 medic was cool too

[@hughquigley5337]

This looks great! Thanks for highlighting it.

[@Merluch]

The game was remade recently btw too

[@junkjack1015]

Wheres the download for the version you've got?

[@FreddaYT]

My bad, I had issues with the description updating for a while, forgot to re-add it.

[@GreenGiant400]

Libeal crime squad basically sounds like American Leninism to me. Wild that somebody though this way back in 2002. That was pre-occupy wall street.

[@user-jq1mg2mz7o]

but post.... well, decades of suppressed american radical movements

[@jacksmith-vs4ct]

I love though need more

[@tymofo2540]

Holy shit there's a version with better than ASCII graphics? I've been an idiot this whole time. Also guns blazing playthroughs are always best playthroughs. Best dungeon crawler.

[@MayMayo]

[@roterotevideo]

😮holy moly, this is genius.

[@kloa4219]

this was way better than watchdog legions

[@banenation]

Love seeing Grimithr getting some love!

[@padajsiloinepravdo6299]

We need a new version with modern graphics

[@allancastellon9248]

Brandon Squad activated

[@isaacwojo3273]

The game looks fun and I’m not even left leaning.

[@pivomanslovensko]

Neither are liberals

[@nescius2]

@@pivomanslovensko čau čau čau! not these days, but in ancient times they were the original left side. (what was that song on the end??)

[@pivomanslovensko]

@@nescius2 Astronautalis - Bella Ciao

[@Ma_ksi]

Very cool

[@gabrote42]

Started playing a while back. Only on the 2nd month due to having like 40 liberals XD. I wonder where I can get some professional thieves

[@barney10240]

This is what being a resist lib look like.

[@lordofthewasps8583]

Fox News Network at 2 am

[@mfcolston]

VOTE!!!

[@degurkin]

GrimithR Mentioned :v

[@thegenericguy8309]

play workers and resources do it

[@SleepyGaryBASS]

👍👍

[@stekra3159]

Ok this is based

[@danloh5005]

Bruh

[@profeseurchemical]

lmao

[@MMenyan]

:D

[@bomba1905]

First

[@srmuffin4210]

ZZZZzzzzz