Review: Aot Wings of Freedom

G’day there guys and gals!

It has never been a secret that I am a huge anime fan, and I will admit, that this release has been the  hardest to review from a neutral standpoint. Attack On Titan: Wings of Freedom follows the first season (one OVA and the smallest of hints at near current events manga wise) of the anime throughout the Attack Mode of the game. Players can expect to play as Eren, Mikasa, Armin and Levi primarily during this campaign mode, while your character choice becomes optional in the Expedition Mode; a near freeroam mode where players can undertake optional tasks and objectives throughout the world.

As any fan of the series can tell you, the record of AoT titled games has been incredibly lax and disappointing. Many buggish, unfinished or simply disappointing. Wings of Freedom is a refreshing new look on the series, and it certainly blows the previous titles out of the water.

Story wise is told mostly directly from the anime; while large sections of scenes are missing (Most notably the training/court hearing scenes and other long exposition parts of the anime) or replaced with narration and text, fans should have no problem picking up where the game leaves off, while newcomers may get lost in the world and its lore. To that, I would highly encourage you to read the manga or watch the series beforehand. To those unfamiliar with the lore, Attack on Titan is based in a world where humanity is on the brink of extinction, hiding behind three large, circular walls keeping their greatest threat at bay – the Titans. However, out of nowhere, a Titan larger than any other suddenly appears and destroys the wall’s gate, allowing them to flood in, as another Titan destroys the inner gate, forcing humanity to flee behind the second wall. The story primarily follows Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert as they join the military with three varying goals in mind, to only discover human has got more skeletons in the closet.
The two newer parts (a hint towards Ilse’s Journal OVA and the epilogue) add more background to the Scout Legion and their journey beyond the wall both during and after the events of the first season. By now, the story has been told to death, but is still enjoyable in its different forms and comes off at least revamped and fresh, showing both remade scenes directly inspired by the anime and new, more in depth scenes.

The game’s biggest strength is by far the gameplay. Players control their characters through their device known as an ODM, allowing them to swing and soar through the air via cables attached to solid objects in order to kill Titans by slicing at their nape. The controls, admittedly, take a LOT of time to get used to, but players will turn into Titan slayers with ease once mastering this system. Entire maps are destructible and a falling building due to a sudden-crashing Titan will force you out of the ODM animation and cause you to fall, the exact same for a failed hit on the enemy. Players will instantly start seeing familiar maps and maps with similar layouts, but this is excusable due to the sheer amount of detail, not only in the characters, but the world, its destruction capabilities and the mass amounts of titans.
In saying all this, gameplay does get stinted after a while, even to the most veteran of fans. To be blunt, the gameplay can be boiled down to a few objectives in each mission; protection route, score limitations, target takedown and movement specifics. This also applies to the side missions, where characters will require your help to give out supplies, save civilian, escort to a safezone or simply kill the titans around them. These tasks feel truly heavy handed by the time you repeat missions, secure zones and play in the Expedition Mode. And while players can also (SPOILER ALERT) play Eren in his Titan form in specific missions, past this the mode only lasts for approximately 30 seconds during freeroam, the same amount of time as the assistance option from followers. Titan Vs Titan NPC is incredible and is utterly fun to destroy buildings while slaying titans at a whim, but fighting main characters (hint hint) at the end is a huge disappointment. The final boss battle with Eren Vs *redacted* and those alike earlier on, are incredibly short, even on harder difficulties. Players will have no problem finishing off said opponent before the in-game narration is over. The best battles are human Vs Titan Boss, as the stakes get much harder; limbs are incredibly harder to dismember, all of them will fight back much more ferociously and have natural armours that need to be worked around to attack and so on. It’s here that the game does shine, but these missions only appear twice in the game.

Musical score is completely brand new and none of the original soundtrack makes a comeback. While this may sound depressing, I enjoyed the new sound to the series, although I was disappointed in being unable to scream/sing the opening lyrics. Voice acting is very well done, as the original Japanese cast makes a return to record new lines for the series. I am disappointed with Eren’s titan roar (it sounds more like a dad roaring like a lion to his kids with the sound of gravel rustling in the background) to be fully honest, but otherwise the cast did well, especially Romi Park as Hange. Sound effects were just as good and sound crisp and clean during the gameplay and cutscenes. I gush over the shrill sounds of the blades extracting, the collapsing of buildings and the Titans themselves.

As previously stated, this title has been incredibly hard for me to personally detatch and review with an open mind and thoughts, and I have been fairly critical on this title. The gameplay is tricky to begin with and slowly does become to stale slightly, the voice acting is good but off, and the ending itself is incredibly lackluster and disappointing. While there were a few physics issues here and there, I did not experience any crashes or bugs during my playthrough.
With all this in mind, as I write these words, I must remind you all of the previous titles in this IP. Without a doubt in my mind, AoT: Wings of Freedom is by far the best title in the franchise thus far and makes some brilliant contributions. This is an absolute must-own for fans, and for those looking for a gruesome bloody game with spiderman-like manoeuvring, you may want to consider picking this up for yourself. A well-crafted and fun addition to the popular series.

Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom – 8/10

This game is out now for the standard price of $80