Freedom Wars Remastered is broad satire done right

★★★★ | Double-plus-good, citizen.

Reviewed on: PC (Steam)
Distributor provided a review copy.

It’s hard to believe Freedom Wars is over a decade old at this point. Well, perhaps the dated controls and mechanics are a giveaway. But very little else of the PS Vita cult classic feels aged. In fact, though the satire is big and broad, one could argue that its dystopian vision of a technocratic future gone rogue is more timely today than ever before.

In the story, you play as a Sinner, an ordinary person who wronged the Panopticon in one way or another, and now serves a mammoth 1,000,000-year sentence as penance. Every little transgression adds hundreds of years into the sentence, including walking when you shouldn’t, or even asking questions. In this world, control takes the shop of almost religious dogma, and your deities are machines pretending at being a human.

To work off your sentence, Sinners are tasked with venturing into the wastelands, where demonic Abductors roam in search of new victims. Each hunt is in a strictly limited zone within a city or its immediate outskirts. There, you salvage gear and relics, rescue other humans, and take down monsters with your team. Upon return to the Panopticon, your overlords demand tribute from the salvage, which lowers your sentence. The more you chip away at your punishment, the more lenient your captivity. Soon, you’ll even be allowed to sit and sleep.

Freedom Wars Remastered is like a cross between Monster Hunter and a Paul Verhoeven movie. It’s a loud and often clumsy satire that is so audacious you can’t help but fall in love with it. This includes the dated control mechanics which, while never downright awful, take some time getting used to.

Similarly, the level design and graphics are a product of their time. Despite the Remastered-title, don’t expect a massive overhaul on this part. Sounds, sprites, and textures do look better than on the original Vita, but only just. Certain elements, like aiming and running, should deserve another pass for ease-of-use.

At the same time, the big fight sequences with the Abductors are a blast, and there’s still a huge thrill in removing their Cores and cutting off their limbs. It reminds me of Attack on Titan in the best way, and the fantastic creature design delivers nightmare fuel even with the limited resources available.

Elsewhere, the soundtrack is still a banger, and the voice acting is surprisingly decent, especially thanks to a new English dub. One of the more controversial elements is the use of text-to-speech bots to indicate who is a machine. The result is an interesting experiment, but it grows grating after a time, especially when forced to listen to exposition like this.

As for accessibility options, this is a product of its time, and there are none to be found. I get why even a Remastered copy wouldn’t update itself with anything extensive, but it’s still a bummer. This is a niche title, after all.

Even with all the caveats and compromises, I had a blast returning to the world of Freedom Wars. I originally played the Japanese-language version on the PS Vita back in 2014, and it’s wild to see how well the handheld title has aged. The PC version is now my preferred platform, yet I still wish it were a more thorough remaster than what we have now.

Nevertheless, if you’ve never played Freedom Wars before, or you have a hankering for a Monster Hunter/Attack on Titan hybrid with a demented sense of humor, this is an easy recommendation.