When I first saw footage of Omega Force, they were famous for their Dynasty Warriors series, tackling the video game adaptation of Hajime Isayama’s even more famous Attack on Titan franchise, my heart skipped a bit because the game looked like everything a fan of the show or manga would dream of. Sure, there have been attempts in the past to bring a successful game (I’m looking at Humanity In Chains), but you can’t blame them for being limited by their platform. Wings of Freedom, on the other hand, takes the signature mechanics introduced in the anime and brings them to life. The game is incredibly appealing but in moderation. And therein lies the Achilles heel, so to speak.
Initially, the game is enchanting, with its fluid controls, fast-paced action sequences, and adrenaline-pumping battles. But after a few hours of slashing past random assortments of titans, you quickly become sensitive to the fact that these same mechanics that you adore are mind-numbingly repetitive and offer little to no impr- Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s take it from the top.
For those of you who are new to Attack on Titan, it’s a story set in a dystopian world where giant human-eating, human-looking, definitely naked creatures called Titans roam freely, leaving actual humans to cower behind giant walls to protect themselves. Everything else is shrouded in mystery – where they come from, why they’re not eating their veggies or how the last remnants of civilization aren’t already extinct. Now, what makes the series one of the best franchises to date is its veritable ensemble of characters, brilliant story-telling and iconic art direction. But the real clincher that makes this ripe for video game adaptation is the innovative and downright unrealistic combat system in the series. It revolves around the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear, which allows you to swing around like Spider-Man using gas propellant, grappling hooks and iron cables. And a healthy dollop of anime physics of course.
Here’s how it works in the source material. The titans have a weak spot which can be found on the napes of their neck. If you manage to cut off their limbs, they simply regenerate them back like a jacked up Deadpool. So, the military combatants have to carefully maneuver around the titans using this mobility gear which basically marries the concepts of jet packs and grappling hooks. In concept, it makes no sense whatsoever. In practice, this looks like wicked fun and it is one of the defining features of the franchise.
And as you can see from the short clip of me zipping around as Levi, Omega Force hits it out of the park in this department. Rappelling around the various battlegrounds is one of the most exhilarating experiences a video game has ever managed to give me, partly due to the fact that I’ve been dreaming of this since watching the anime. Swinging, boosting, latching on to surfaces, running up walls all have a natural feel to them that, prior to playing the game, I would not have expected to be possible. And it is incredibly cathartic when you decimate a titan and the big golden Complete Subjugation notification comes up. You latch onto the neck of a titan, build up momentum then viscously rip through it in what has to be one of the most satisfying attack animations in any hack and slash type video game. Especially Levi, who adds a spinning blade attack on top of the already over-the-top finishing attack.
There are a few small caveats though, which you come across after putting in some time learning the mechanics. The gear tends to face a lot of trouble when you’re latching onto titans that are rubbing up against a wall, leading to some buggy behaviour. But this is just minor nitpicking really.
The game has a system of upgrading equipment and leveling up characters to unlock passive abilities, which is where things start getting a little… wonky. When battling titans, you can collect material that is used for upgrading equipment by targeting their limbs rather than just going straight for the kill. These crafting ingredients combine to nab you some items that can increase certain stats like deadlier swords, more fuel capacity, increased propelling and reeling speed. But as you learn quickly enough, these upgrades aren’t really doing much for you.
After a certain point, which may differ from person to person based on how much of an Eren fangirl you are, the game starts to drag on. The combat mechanics that you once found impressive and breathtaking take on a repetitive nature. Finding crafting materials, which was interesting at first, becomes part of a laborious grind to get to the next upgrade. And the minimal benefit you get from maxing your equipment has an almost jeering impact on the actual difficulty of the game. Once you understand how the scoring and objectives system works, even on the hardest difficulty, it’s quite easy to get the highest ranks in every mission. Once you unlock the right skills, Eren becomes an unbeatable powerhouse, with his ability to constantly transform into a One Punch Titan slayer. And Levi remains Levi, an unbeatable powerhouse.
The game beats itself down into a tedious affair, where you go hunting for red and green marks on the minimap, slice into the nape of any visible titans and then repeat elsewhere. When you’ve mastered the combat system, it becomes child’s play to beat titans using the basic gear, giving you little motivation to scavenge for materials and upgrades. And then we get to my next point, and the reason why I’ve placed massive spoiler tags on the article: The Epilogue.
In order to play through the Epilogue in its entirety, you have to complete a vast majority of the side missions, which are all repeats of missions you’ve already done throughout the main campaign. Monotonous is one way to describe them. Another is incredibly boring, as you can simple skim through them by rushing to the final subjugation target and finishing it off. There are no unique objectives or interesting twists, but rather a not-so-delectable plate full of cookie-cutter missions.
And oh, the epilogue. What was heralded as an expansion to the plot that the season 1 of the anime ended on turns out to be a menial series of boss fights. Again, not much progression in actual story that manga readers can look forward to, but it does hype up some of the mystery surrounding season 2. If you haven’t read the manga, perhaps you can find it more appealing than I did.
One way to alleviate the grinding of the side missions is to do it in Online Co-op mode, which allows you to team up with up to 3 friends online. This doesn’t really do much since you can’t really coordinate much with other players and the objective just becomes easier than it already was. It was a bit disappointing to see that they didn’t put in leaderboards or an online score system for kills or fastest times since that did feel like an appropriate fit for the game mode.
Regardless, after hours of slaying titans of all sizes and days of deciding whether Mikasa truly is ‘best girl’, we have come to the conclusion that Wings of Freedom is the video game adaptation of Attack on Titan that fans have been waiting for. Omega Force has done an excellent job over all and the game is worth picking up if you’re a fan of the series. But to emphasize, this game is only worth the price tag if you are an Attack on Titan fan. The tedious nature of the side missions and the dwindling interest in the initially novel gameplay mechanics makes it difficult to suggest to a casual player. Perhaps on discount it would be worth a shot but at a triple-A price, the game has a little less than a titan leg to stand on.
