Freedom Wars Remastered – Review

I must confess that I knew practically nothing about the original version of this game. I knew that it came out in 2014 for PlayStation Vita (a console I never owned) and I once read that it was compared to Monster Hunterbut that's all. I finally got to try it in the form of the new Freedom Wars Remastered and the truth is that initially I felt very interested in him. After all, I am a fan of the Capcom franchise and this title was introducing me to one of my favorite settings: a dystopia critical of authoritarianism.

The experience was bittersweet. Although it is a good game, many of its systems are outdated. Its story seems ambitious, but it has little to say about the social issues it addresses. Despite that, it can be quite fun, especially when enjoyed in company.

The plot takes place in a distant future in which the planet's resources are completely depleted. Humanity is confined in authoritarian cities called Panopticons where the majority of people are 'Condemned' without rights. They are forced to fight against the Damned of other Panopticons to gain small freedoms and gradually lower their sentences of hundreds of thousands of years.

After being injured on a mission, our Condemned Man or Woman loses their memory. This causes them to take away all the freedoms he had won and his sentence to be increased to a million years, but he also begins to be visited in his dreams by a mysterious woman who tells him that “the great transformation” and the end of life are approaching. this terrible regime.

In the world I live in there are always four corners

There is something that I loved about Freedom Wars Remastered and it's the way its authoritarian, dystopian world is reflected in the gameplay. We are Condemned without rights and consequently, anything we do is reflected in an increase in our punishment. Do you move for more than five seconds at a time? Take 20 more years in prison. Do you lie down to rest? 10 more years. Are you asking something you shouldn't? Be 30 years old.

Little by little we will gain small freedoms that allow us to perform more actions in the Panopticon, but the beginning of the game – in which we are afraid to make any movement – is brilliant.

This system would be perfect for a game that examines the ideologies behind authoritarianism, the way the population is controlled, and class separation. Freedom Wars He makes some light comments about it, but does not commit to those issues. He quickly diverts his attention to the war between Panopticons and towards supernatural ideas with other dimensions, letting the theme of rebellion and freedom become secondary.

Fellow prisoners, people of all classes

But most people don't play these kinds of titles for their story, but for their gameplay. As in the Monster Hunter with which it is compared, we have to go out on “hunting” missions in which we must defeat the enormous Abductors of other Panopticons and rescue citizens. To do this we have different types of firearms and melee weapons that we can improve and customize, as well as a 'Thorn' – basically a hook that allows us more mobility and special attacks – that defines our role as an attacker, healer or advocate.

The fights are fun and can be exciting and intense, but Freedom Wars Remastered It lacks the wide variety of weapons and enemies that other similar games offer and that makes it more easily repetitive. As if that were not enough, the “farming” of the objects necessary to improve the team can become long and tedious, especially if we do not have a team of friends to play with.

Speaking of playing with other people, this game has an excellent matchmaking system and during the period I was testing it I had no problems finding matches with strangers. It also has good tools for choosing the kind of lobbies we want to join and when creating one ourselves. There are ranking systems between Panopticons and competitive duels that add even more life to the multiplayer, but they add a theme of tribalism that doesn't fit the narrative purposes of the game.

Alone, with my sorrow. Alone, it's my sentence

But even if they don't have friends to play with, Freedom Wars Remastered It can be enjoyed perfectly alone. When going on missions, we can choose a team with some NPCs and we will also always be accompanied by an 'Accessory': a robot guard that watches over us and also joins the fights. The Accessories can also be customized to our liking and we can even create voice expressions for them… but this turned out to be somewhat controversial and I will explain why later.

Companions controlled by artificial intelligence are usually competent and know well when to attack, when to heal us, and when to try to rescue citizens. Although they cannot be compared to real players, it is viable to play with them. If we still need more specific help, we can give orders to our Accessory. This gives the battles a strategic side that is interesting at the beginning, but is eventually overshadowed by the repetitive gameplay.

The most dedicated players will find a very rich postgame that makes Freedom Wars Remastered be potentially infinite. If you enjoy farming items, customizing equipment, and creating a build, you'll feel great playing game after game and becoming more and more powerful. However, there are other modern games that offer the same experience in a more polished way. That makes me worry about the future of online gaming.

Hey, I'm talking to you from prison

From what I've read about the original version of the game, one of its most striking gimmicks was the use of a voice processor that allowed you to create custom phrases for Accessories. This system wasn't available in the Western version then, but it is in the remastered version… and it's terrible.

It's not just the lines of dialogue that we create. All the dialogues of the Accessory, who is the character who speaks the most in the game, are created with this automated system that really ruins the atmosphere. I understand why it's there. After all, these characters are machines and it's okay for them to sound like machines. But in a world where there are such talented actors capable of creating great personalities for robots (as Ellen McClain did as GlaDOS in the saga Portal) and when there is so much controversy over AI voice generation, using this system that is no longer novel feels wrong.

The voices of the other characters, played by real actors, are fine. Many of them fail to make us believe that they are prisoners who are condemned for hundreds of thousands of years. They have overly animated attitudes.

Damned forever, in this horrible cell

Freedom Wars Remastered It's a good game and thanks to it I was able to participate in some very exciting games, but I can't imagine a world in which I would prefer to play it over a Monster Hunter. Its setting and totalitarian world was a very strong card that it presented with a lot of promise, but in the end it did not know how to use it and wasted its play.

We also cannot forget that this is a game originally made for PS Vita, that it is a decade old and that it is not a remake but a simple remastering. Visually it is not ugly but you can feel the age in its graphics and it suffers from other problems such as very slow loading times. It may be a good alternative for those looking for a different multiplayer title and who do not enjoy hunting games, but the truth is that it will have a hard time shining in 2025.

---

Review made with a digital copy of Freedom Wars Remastered for PS5 provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment. This game is also available for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC through Steam.