Review: AoT2

When the first Wings of Freedom title was released, I was unexpectedly blown away by the level of detail, care and passion that clearly went into the title. Brilliant controls, excellent voice acting by the original cast, the game was well made and, despite a few bugs here and there, did well to hold itself up on its entertainment value.
A few years later, its sequel known as AoT2, has released to fans eager to continue the story of the popular series with a fresh new take as a customisable character of your very own. That was a massive appeal to me; inserting yourself into one of your favourite series is a utter delight for many fans and at first glance, I was smitten with the game. But despite it's appeal, gameplay and more, AoT2 seems just a bit too familiar to returning fans of the series.

Starting off with the story, you are the "Unnamed Hero"; your character is a citizen of Shiganshina just like Eren, Mikasa and Armin, and survived the breach of the walls, but at the cost of your parent's lives. By Eren's influence, you too swear revenge on the Armored Titan, the titan responsible for their deaths, and begin to train for the Scouts to kill every last titan between you and Shiganshina. From here, your character takes place in all the key moments from both seasons of the anime and plays a small role in each event in the story. While they stick to the canon of the manga, the only addition to the series is the final mission in the story as well as the cutscenes including your character.
Admittedly, I was smitten by this feature alone; any fan of any series, be it anime, movies, books or otherwise, dream of putting themselves into the story and have a small place among the heroes. The customisation options are fairly well done, giving players plenty of options to make their character. The smallest nitpick I can find is that having a chubby, purple haired, bearded Scout of your own cannot be chosen, despite the fact that some characters have facial hair in the game.
From here cutscenes are played in first person with you interacting with the main characters of the series. These in turn transition into the gameplay.
The gameplay is almost exactly the same as the previous game in the series, but with slightly updated controls. Maneuvering has been updated with further control over your character and their direction, but anyone who has played Wings of Freedom can immediately pick the game up and start without hesitation. The Titan targeting system has also been updated, but unfortunately for the worst: often the targeting likes to pick a target at random once you've locked on, and controlling your direction can be a pain. Pushing the right analog stick does target specific parts of a Titans, but it often snaps to the original targeted body part, resulting in crab-clawing both the right analog stick and the Y button to attack while keeping yourself afloat with the ODM gear. It's incredibly frustrating to continuously readjust your character in the heat of battle, especially when you're on a time limit.
Speaking of, mission types have also slightly expanded: players can now capture titans for research if they so choose and unlock better equipment to use while fighting. Missions can also have timed objectives, fail is specific parameters aren't met quick enough or if key characters die. However your main objective, kill as many titans as you can, is still the overall goal of each mission, but the additional objectives at least help span out the fun of the missions.
The heavy customisation is back and bigger than before; as mentioned before, players can customise their character's clothing and hairstyles to a large degree, but also can choose what colours and style they're aiming for. Weapons and ODM gear is also vast and varied and need to be unlocked with a monetary and crafting system and can be improved the same way with Upgrades or Reinforcements, however Upgrades still are your primary way of significantly improving your tools.
You also have the ability to upgrade yourself with specific skills that you unlock with Titan capturing or Friend upgrades. By buying gifts, talking to and selecting correct responses, each character can be leveled up and show you new skills such as more strength, dexterity, more items when dismembering titans, longer blade durability and so on. The further higher your ranking goes, special missions also unlock with that character (Christa needs a plant from outside the walls, Sasha wants to go hunting, Levi needs more to a guard etc) which in turn give you further benefits in upgrading gear.
Scout Missions have returned and allow you to open further parts of the map and improve your skills. These also give you special items needed to upgrade your gear further, however this mode is also the primary online mode that you can play with friends outside the game. 

This brings me to a significant flaw in this game that, while unavoidable, is a major flaw. AoT2, a sequel of AoT Wings of Freedom, replays the entire first game from start to finish. And when I say replays, I mean down to the bone: The maps are exactly the same, the controls are the same, the story is exactly the same, the twists and turns are the same, all the iconic lines are the same. It makes sense to do this, to be sure, with your character's introduction into the series, but it completely negates your previous game (especially considering the price is only $20 less than it was at release).
 True, the map's destructive buildings work fairly better, but when maps play out the exact same, and in turn makes owning your previous game pointless, it draws attention to your future works. Does that mean once Season 3 is released, will we replay the previous seasons again? Don't get me wrong, I adore this game, as a fan and as a gamer. The player's interactions and leveling up your favourite character's Friend Status, the cutscenes, putting you into the key moments of the series, it's incredibly uplifting to play. But these are facts that need to be shared.
The game overall is about 25-30 hours, which would be something to celebrate if the majority of time wasn't spent in Season 1. Season 2 of the anime is shorter than S1 to be sure, but even more time spent with the upcoming storyline would have been appreciated. In short: the gameplay is fantastic but it has so many little faults that they do take away the charm from the game after a while. But I digress.

Musical score and sound effects are incredibly well done; the epic orchestra has made a return, with small nods to the series and previous game here and there. The animation and graphics quality is also sublime. The animation looks as if it's a 3D rendered world of Attack on Titan, and the first person view in cutscenes does help to completely immerse you in this world. Voice acting was brilliant, with a few spots here and there that did seem a little off, but otherwise the additional scenes with your favourite character and yourself make it all the more better. Learning more about Mikasa's past, Annie's person sparring training, learning about how shy Sasha is about her accent, each one on one helps build a bond even further than the show or manga can do.
Finally, while I experienced no major glitches, small moments of the camera clipping through the floor or players busting down buildings by titans Dragon Ball Z style did somewhat take the illusion away a little bit. The ending storyline is non-canon to the series overall and does an excellent job ending the game and setting up the next one, but hardcore fans may not see a lot of replay-ability outside the main story (with Inferno Mode or the gallery information).

In my first few hours of the game, as I have said before, I was immeasurably delighted, and in some small ways, I still am. Fans of the series will rate this game incredibly high, and I wish I could as well. In a lot of ways, this game could absolutely score a 9 or even a 10 out of 10, but only if I never played the original game. The repeated maps and story, the return of the repetitive modes and gameplay, those small complaints do hold down the game from achieving a higher score.
*Spoilers for AoT2 Storyline/manga ahead*
Admittedly I hope that the game continues the story of the Unnamed Hero. His/her story is open ended and is clearly meant to lead into AoT3, so if this turns out to be, I really hope it picks up from Season 3 and continues on past into the manga. Many manga fans are awaiting for one particular arc: the Shiganshina Arc and its events. Imagine your own character, living through hell, fighting through everything and this story's ending, only to be there with the Beast Titan and Erwin at his side, charging into oblivion as an orchestral string of the OG opening plays. That is what I hope for for this series.
*Spoilers end*

To conclude, this game still holds up very well and cannot score lower than the previous game as it improves in so many ways, but the similarities that are here do keep it down from achieving so much more. An addictive and clearly beloved game to the developers, but I await to see where this series goes with caution. 

AOT 2 - 8/10

Click here to read my original review of AoT: Wings of Freedom