Freedom Wars

 PlayStation Vita
  • Publisher: SCEA
  • Release Date: Oct 28, 2014
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 297 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 239 out of 297
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 297
  3. Negative: 26 out of 297
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  1. StriderMatu
    Oct 31, 2014
    6
    Freedom Wars is a mixed bag. On one hand the combat has the potential to be really good. But it's hampered by dumb as hell AI. I could deal with this if the objectives in a lot of the missions didn't require so much teamwork. For example, when doing rescue missions against other panopticons, your teammates will not revive you if you go down. Even if they're standing right in front of you.Freedom Wars is a mixed bag. On one hand the combat has the potential to be really good. But it's hampered by dumb as hell AI. I could deal with this if the objectives in a lot of the missions didn't require so much teamwork. For example, when doing rescue missions against other panopticons, your teammates will not revive you if you go down. Even if they're standing right in front of you. Only your accesory will revive you and that's only if he/she is nearby. Many times, my accesory wasnt nearby even when I gave the order to Cover Me. Too many times I've seen teammates simply standing around while the other team was attacking directly or attempting to flank. It left me yelling "what are you doing?" as we failed yet another mission because of idiot AI.

    This is really a shame because the combat has the potential to be excellent all the time instead of sometimes. The grappling aspects of the thorn are awesome and very much like Lost Planet. Combat can be fast and furious at times. Being able to switch from melee to gun based combat instantly is a welcome addition. But the designers made some really queationable design choices by not using the touch screen more intelligently. For instance, in the heat of battle it would make more sense to select the frag grenade, then touch and drag it to where you want to throw it. The manual way can be too slow resulting in death because the throw button is also assigned to the thorn button while also pressing R in the config I use. The lack of full customization of the controls simply sucks and I have no idea why some game designers are clueless in this regard. The preset control variants help but there are some layout choices that i wanted to change but couldn't.

    If developers are going to make hunting games for the Vita, they simply need to hire better artists and monster designers and animators. Freedom Wars isn't the worse in this regard but it's not close to the best. The run animation for the character is good, but the animation for sword combos stinks. The animation for some of the melee attacks with other weapons range from okay to hilariously bad. The great sword's combos make no sense and cause them to not flow well. This can affect your timing. Animation quality control wasn't high on the list of priorities with this game.

    Other positives would be the story and the concept of your 1,000,000 year sentence with the inclusion of the other panopticons around the world. This sets up great possibilities for DLC and a sequel. The music is also really good and the customization level for you character is incredibly high considering this isn't a console release.

    Sony needs to come better with Vita releases that are clearly trying to make up for the loss of Monster Hunter to 3DS. Dimps, Shift and SCE Japan Studio developed Freedom Wars but it's no were near as polished as Soul Sacrifice or Soul Sacrifice Delta by Comcept. Maybe users will get an update that will fix the horrible AI, give better animations to the melee attacks and include Aductors and monsters with better designs.

    I still give Freedom Wars a 6 instead of my original thought of a 4 because when it works, it's excellent fun some of the best on a portable when playing with friends. But when it doesn't work, it's a bumbling disgrace.

    Its a shame because Freedom Wars has the potential to be great...someday.    … Expand
  2. BobCat51
    May 22, 2015
    5
    Although it looks fantastic on the Vita's wonderful screen, the game mechanics are shallow and the upgrade system is obtuse. As a dedicated Monster Hunter fan I was highly disappointed in the game. Everything the game copied felt sub-par and all original mechanics were interesting but failed to deliver on the great potential. There are many games on the Vita I would recommend to any fellowAlthough it looks fantastic on the Vita's wonderful screen, the game mechanics are shallow and the upgrade system is obtuse. As a dedicated Monster Hunter fan I was highly disappointed in the game. Everything the game copied felt sub-par and all original mechanics were interesting but failed to deliver on the great potential. There are many games on the Vita I would recommend to any fellow gamer, unfortunately, this isn't one of them.… Expand
  3. loadstone007
    Dec 17, 2014
    5
    Didn't like the game. Too Japanese for my taste, in a sense that they talk a lot. So for every ~20 minutes of action you have an hour of horse ****...
  4. Ehriggn
    Jan 21, 2015
    7
    I'm really glad that i bought a copy and played it because it made me laugh, it pissed me off, it depressed me, and it made me put down my Vita and think deeply about society and its future and all within the first 30 minutes of the game.
    But then I just really didn't enjoy it, I can't say exactly why but i just wasn't having fun. the combat well, it just doesn't feel impactfull. I get    I'm really glad that i bought a copy and played it because it made me laugh, it pissed me off, it depressed me, and it made me put down my Vita and think deeply about society and its future and all within the first 30 minutes of the game.
    But then I just really didn't enjoy it, I can't say exactly why but i just wasn't having fun. the combat well, it just doesn't feel impactfull. I get bored and then I get killed a lot and i don't really care to try harder or get better at it.
    Still, I want to see more from this IP in the future, It had some really interesting concepts that were very creative and were implemented directly into the gameplay rather than just attached to it.    … Expand
  5. Tophatcat
    Nov 15, 2014
    7
    After sinking about 90 or so hours into the game, I feel this is a mediocre game overall. The combat is fast paced and exciting but the lack of variety of enemies makes it sort of bland after a while, to make up for this thought the large number of weapons as well as different move-sets for weapons of the same type lets you mix up game play quite a bit. The enemy humans are way tooAfter sinking about 90 or so hours into the game, I feel this is a mediocre game overall. The combat is fast paced and exciting but the lack of variety of enemies makes it sort of bland after a while, to make up for this thought the large number of weapons as well as different move-sets for weapons of the same type lets you mix up game play quite a bit. The enemy humans are way too accurate with their guns (seriously, you'll die to them more often than the abductors) and this is post patch where its been nerfed a bit. Although not impossible to get, the top tier weapons involve a lot of save scumming, which sort of detracts from the game. Online play isn't the worst, there are frame drops here and there but nothing really terrible aside from disconnects and what not depending on who's hosting, and as you would expect online play is several times more efficient than bringing the AI characters. I found the story really poorly written, maybe it was lost in translation, like some of the item descriptions (seriously clip size up and carryable ammo should be flipped). Character customization is great, you get lots of options and you can make your character really stand out if you put some effort into it.

    tldr: Its alright    … Expand
  6. blimble
    Nov 3, 2014
    5
    FW tries to put a new spin on hunting games and just doesn't really manage it

    The world has no life at all. Percy Proppa is pretty cute but for a world fighting to survive the hub area is boring as. There is just nothing really going on in it and the few funny tricks to oppress you at the start go away about an hour n. None of the characters stand out and any missions for them are a    FW tries to put a new spin on hunting games and just doesn't really manage it

    The world has no life at all. Percy Proppa is pretty cute but for a world fighting to survive the hub area is boring as. There is just nothing really going on in it and the few funny tricks to oppress you at the start go away about an hour n. None of the characters stand out and any missions for them are a chore sneaking mission or quick travel around and talk to people.

    The character creation/customisation is pure trash, horribly limited in every fashion. This is especially annoying in clothes that you can't mix and match and at best let you have 3-4 variations. It is also very rare you get new clothes so I hope you like the ones you get

    Fighting the big monsters is enjoyable at first especially the verticality of this game. You get a sense that you really work as a team with each doing different jobs. The problem is you'll just keep doing the same, the enemy variety is abysmal especially for a hunting game. I don't care how many different orders or pairs you put them in you fight the same handful of monsters is dull. In MonHun you do fight the same ones but out of choice (and if you do fight a new type they have a significantly different thing to them) and to actually move forward you fight different ones, you aren't constantly forced to fight a Great Jaggi but now with new part taped on every mission, this is what FW feels like

    This is made worse by the annoying human mobs that aren't interesting to fight and are just time consuming. This just gets worse and worse as the game goes on. The monsters get weaker and don't change much but the human enemies get tougher and more in number basically meaning the game gets **** as it goes on. It goes from a hunting game to a deal with annoying mob oh and maybe kill the big thing as well

    The crafting is badly done as well. You never really know what you are getting from missions or what you are putting in to weapons. You just do it as you usually have it. In other hunting games it is much clearer what you are getting and what you need. The timer on making and upgrading is also pointless and I really don't get what it is meant to add to the game. It feel like they were going to add cash shop to reduce the time but didn't

    Also there is a paper in the game that tells you about events but it doesn't as they only did that for the Japanese version, yet the button to try and update is always there!

    Cut out the human mobs and the game is just dull, with them it just becomes a chore and not even a hard one    … Expand
  7. mririshfox
    Nov 18, 2014
    6
    while containing a great premise and a good hook to which to get me involved in the game, in 1 hour the cracks in the game started to show. the ai controlling your device is stupid, and seems more either eager to follow you around in a battle rather than fight the actual enemies, or borderline suicidal, attacking enemies well above its level. the grappling hook is wonky, the controls forwhile containing a great premise and a good hook to which to get me involved in the game, in 1 hour the cracks in the game started to show. the ai controlling your device is stupid, and seems more either eager to follow you around in a battle rather than fight the actual enemies, or borderline suicidal, attacking enemies well above its level. the grappling hook is wonky, the controls for the hook are wonky and i find myself doing stylish flips off enemies, landing on the ground, then sent flying in one hit because my character is too slow.
    to top that off,
    non combat areas are large, open and boring and you cant travel anywhere fast, even with sprinting. you want to go from block a to block c? it's through a wall to your left but because of stupid you have to sprint all the way through A, B, then c just to get the area, then sprint all the way back. it's called padding, and it's unnecessary, especially when this game will kill a vita battery in 3 hours, and it take 15 minutes to go anywhere.    … Expand
  8. HoundDoom
    Jun 8, 2016
    5
    This game is a mixed bag.

    Positives: The game's atmosphere of a totalitarian dystopian penal colony is unique and executed well. The character customization is very deep. The combination of guns and melee is really cool. Negatives: The AI: I hate the AI in this game. It is game-breakingly bad. When you go out on missions, you have an accessory accompanying you at all    This game is a mixed bag.

    Positives:

    The game's atmosphere of a totalitarian dystopian penal colony is unique and executed well.

    The character customization is very deep.

    The combination of guns and melee is really cool.

    Negatives:

    The AI: I hate the AI in this game. It is game-breakingly bad. When you go out on missions, you have an accessory accompanying you at all times unless you get a certain perk. Your accessory is more of a liability than anything. It gets downed all the time and if you don't revive it, it will be captured and you have to go on a mission to retrieve it. There have been so many times where I am trying to chop off an abductor's arm only to have to disengage in order to revive my accessory.

    Difficulty spike: after a certain point, the missions ramp up in difficulty. I am a veteran of numerous monster hunting games, but it became impossible in the latter parts of the game.

    Weapon upgrading: Farming materials is a chore in this game and effectiveness of upgrading depends a lot on luck.

    Repetitive abductor fights: Not only are they a chore to fight, there isn't much variety in abductor design. This is a problem inherent in the monster hunting genre, but it is especially apparent here.

    Timed missions: I wouldn't have a problem with this if my accessory didn't get downed every 2 minutes.

    Overall, this game is a giant slogfest that became too tedious for me to finish. If you want a good monster hunting game, play the far superior Soul Sacrifice Delta.    … Expand
  9. samiscool30
    Feb 1, 2016
    6
    WARNING: SOME ANGER, BUT REVIEW IS STILL REVIEW. This review was shortened due to the character limit.

    DO NOT EXPECT MH FROM THIS GAME, IF YOU DO YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED. STORY: Very generic, anime story. With anime plot twists, and what not. Not for me but maybe for you. The premise of the game, is **** awesome! It's unique in the way that it works into the motives of the    WARNING: SOME ANGER, BUT REVIEW IS STILL REVIEW. This review was shortened due to the character limit.

    DO NOT EXPECT MH FROM THIS GAME, IF YOU DO YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED.

    STORY:

    Very generic, anime story. With anime plot twists, and what not. Not for me but maybe for you.

    The premise of the game, is **** awesome! It's unique in the way that it works into the motives of the characters. The premise does nothing for the robots and monsters. I say robots because that's what you'll be fighting 70 percent of the time in the game. I'll get into this with the "GAMEPLAY" section along with how another aspect of the story plays into GAMEPLAY and DESIGN/ART sections. But, the story doesn't explain whatsoever how these enemies came to existence. Are they robots, or monsters from another realm? They look like robots but.. Who knows, I think the studio just got bored with the story, as did I.

    DESIGN/ART:

    The character's all like like they were straight outta Digimon or SAO. Okay, but the boring design of the environment makes me disgusted. You think it's okay since most of the time you'll be spending a majority of your time hunting, but no. Due to the beginning of the story, you'll be running from one place to another, leaving the player feel like like they're running in circles, due to the environments looking so **** similar.

    The "robots", not monsters are absolutely boring. Due to the gameplay of the game, you'll be fighting the same enemy over and over. This is what you'll be expecting from a hunter game, but the lack of diversity within the two-legged abductors leaves the player feeling like they're playing the same part of the game over and over again. The monsters are good, I guess. You'll be fighting the a tiger, a spider, and a dragon, along with the final boss. All pretty generic but better than the same tall lanky robots.

    The weapons are somewhat unique. The "vast" and "plethora" of weapons is comical though. You'll be left with about 6 weapons of each style. Each can be upgraded into the elemental version of their prior versions. The ONLY thing that changes is their color, not added scopes, barrels or anything. You'll be fine with this, but after playing MH, you're expecting a MASSIVE upgrade tree. I'm telling you man, MH has got me wrapped around its fingers.

    GAMEPLAY:

    You'll be fighting with three things: a thorn, a melee weapon, and a gun. You'll also have an accessory with you, which I feel has it's uses but due to **** AI design, makes it annoying. But, MH had **** AI as well but at least you didn't have to revive them over and over again. Due to the concept of team mates being able to revive one another, the idea of potions and first aid kits are useless.

    Each weapon has their own weapon pattern and combos, which I loved about MH. But the guns really ruin the gameplay. Because of the design of the tall Abductors, which you'll be fighting for the majority of the time, you'll be spamming your gun trying to hit it. You could use your melee weapon, but from lots and lots of gameplay, is not very effective. the thorn is the funnest part of gameplay. you'll be able to grapple around buildings and even pull down abductors. you can even grapple onto a abductors parts and cut it off, another aspect which I liked from MH. Each thorn even has it's own abilities, albeit some useless.

    Weapon upgrading is where most of your hours will go. Is it rewarding? No. After spending 10+ hours on getting the perfect weapon, I lost it all due to **** RNG, which I have to say is "WTF is wrong with the creators?" There is nothing satisfying about the RNG factor due to the risk of losing something you worked so hard for. You can make, upgrade, and modifiy at facilities, all of which can be upgraded. This is fine with me. But the User Interface of the game is stupidly lazy like the environments.

    Missions. You'll have three basic missions. Kill abductor. Kill tiger or spider or dragon. Kill 2 abductors. Kill 2 tigers. Rescue citizens. Rescue more citizens. Get here. That's about it. You have 4 basic ideas of missions; kill tall boring abductor, fight more fun animal monster, rescue citizen, and go here. Though most of the time it the kill boring abductor and rescue citizens. No resource collecting outside boring home base, no kill x amount of robots.

    WHAT KILLS THIS GAME:

    The anticipation of the hunter series. Or Monster Hunter addiction. Do not think you're getting Monster Hunter, or you'll be thoroughly disappointed like me. Repetition. And not even the good kind, the extremely boring kind. Boring and crappy design. The story was meh, the characters were meh, so were their designs. The design of enemies were awful. No diversity. So overall, LAZY GAME DESIGN.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

23
#23 Best PS Vita Game of 2014
2
#2 Most Discussed PS Vita Game of 2014
1
#1 Most Shared PS Vita Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 39
  3. Negative: 0 out of 39
  1. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Dec 28, 2014
    60
    Freedom Wars can't match the series it aims to ape, but this is almost as worth checking out for its bizarre, clever conceit as its satisfying, if shallow, combat mechanics. [Christmas 2014, p.87]
  2. Riot Pixels
    Dec 22, 2014
    63
    For game that wants you to spend hundreds of hours playing it, Freedom Wars is depressingly shallow.
    Read full review
  3. Eurogamer Italy
    Dec 16, 2014
    80
    Not only is Freedom Wars one of the best games available for PlayStation Vita, but it will keep you busy for months with great gameplay and the superb 4-player co-op mode. A must-have for any action/RPG fan.
    Read full review
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