IGN did a preview on Freedom wars.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/06/11/e3-2014-freedom-wars-vitaas-most-promising-new-exclusive
The only people who claim PlayStation Vita has no games are those who don’t pay much attention to its ever-growing library. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to deny that it needs something big. Its most console-quality game, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, launched alongside the handheld. Big names like Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty came to Vita early and completely underwhelmed. And then there’s Borderlands 2, a late port that... well... we didn’t like very much.
Good, meaty titles have come and gone – think Gravity Rush, Danganronpa, or Killzone: Mercenary – but few games outside of the impressive indie realm really make those who don’t already own a Vita stop and pay attention. With slick-looking, fast-moving Freedom Wars, that might all change.Freedom Wars comes by way of three Japanese studios – Sony-owned Japan Studio, Shift, and Dimps – and their collaboration has spawned something truly enticing. At the core of the experience is a riveting plot (at least in premise) that revolves around a futuristic, post-apocalyptic society where resources are extremely scarce, too scarce for an ever-growing population. To combat these issues, just about anyone in this world can be saddled with million year prison sentences for the most minor of crimes, subjugating countless people to a faceless government.
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The entire premise of the game is, frankly, brilliant...
To lessen and ultimately escape a given sentence, prisoners have to complete tasks on behalf of the state, a state split up into massive, isolated cities known as Panopticons (you may recall that the game was originally teased in 2013 with Panopticon as its title). And this is where you – the player – come in. By taking control of someone strapped to an unfortunate million-year prison sentence, you must begin completing quests for the so-called Central Authority in earnest to slowly-but-surely lessen your time behind bars until it reaches zero.
The entire premise of the game is, frankly, brilliant, and I love that the storyline ties so intimately into what you’re trying to do when you’re actually playing the game. By undertaking what will likely amount to a dense number of quests, you can slowly whittle down your character’s prison sentence, making the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel draw closer and closer with each and every victory. This simple idea – of giving you a plot-driven reason to continue in addition to new items, weapons, and more for completing quests – puts Freedom Wars in the same company as likeminded Vita-exclusive titles like Soul Sacrifice and Soul Sacrifice Delta.
What makes Freedom Wars stand apart from the Soul Sacrifice games, however – and what makes Freedom Wars appear to be something more exciting and more promising than Keiji Inafune’s hack-and-slash titles – is the combat itself. I was impressed with the depth of combat in Freedom Wars. Each player can have equipped on him or her a firearm in addition to a blade, and you can seamlessly switch between the two mid-fight by using the Vita’s directional buttons. Combining melee attacks with ranged strikes in such a fluid manner gives Freedom Wars a fresh feel.
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The trump card, however, is your Thorn, a move that’s both a mode of transit and a devastating attack.
The trump card, however, is your Thorn, a move that’s both a mode of transit and a devastating attack. By pressing the R button in combination with aiming, you can launch the Thorn across the screen. If it hits a stationary item – like, say, a shipping container – you can be drawn towards it rapidly, and then jump on top of the shipping container. This gives Freedom Wars a unique sense of verticality. If you dare use the Thorn as a weapon instead of a means of transportation, however, you can critically cripple and injure the massive, boss-like foes you’ll regularly do battle with in a risk-reward gambit where you’re temporarily exposed to enemy attacks.
I was told by the game’s producer that there are many types of quests – each one containing its own victory conditions, items, difficulty level, and, of course, years shaved off your sentence – but the quest I undertook brought me to a sprawling, industrial map in one Panopticon where I was set loose on a trio of hulking monsters who abducted innocent civilians. The idea here isn’t necessarily to kill the beasts (though you can do that if you want). Rather, what you want to do is free these monsters’ prisoners, prisoners encased in their chests. You can extract these prisoners mid-fight while the enemy is still living, carrying your undoubtedly injured friend to safety while your buddies protect you.
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…[Freedom Wars] is built to be played with others...
I say buddies, of course, because while Freedom Wars can easily be played as a single-player game with some help from the AI, when necessary, it, like Soul Sacrifice, is built to be played with others, whether ad hoc or online. Freedom Wars supports four player co-op, and will also support a competitive mode that allows for up to eight friends to play at once.
Freedom Wars is due out exclusively on PlayStation Vita later this month in Japan, and will launch in the west – including in North America and Europe – later in 2014. And it’s definitely a game worth keeping an eye on moving forward, both for current and would-be Vita owners.
