Freedom Wars does nearly everything right thematically. From the first moments, you’re slapped with a million-year sentence for a mysterious crime you allegedly committed. You must now live out your sentence in a post-apocalyptic penitentiary known simply as The Panopticon. A notice explodes onto the PS Vita’s screen explaining this fact, with a space in the lower-right-hand corner where you must deposit your fingerprint. In a nice touch, you can simply press your finger to the screen.
Playing the prisoner is not merely part of the story, however. You are immediately assigned an artificial humanoid overseer — an “accessory” — who explains that you must always remain close to them and they will monitor your every breath and step. You must go where and do what you’re told until you earn enough Entitlement Points to claim Entitlements.
The Entitlements system is the strongest indicator of the developers’ commitment to Freedom Wars‘ theme and how it translates to gameplay. The second I depressed the “run” button to get to my first objective within the Panopticon complex, a violation notice blasted onto my screen, notifying me that jogging before earning the corresponding entitlement was a transgression worth a few more years of jail time. Inside my cell, my Accessory recommended I rest to better contribute to “the greater good.” When I lay down on my concrete cot, the game slapped me with another violation for lying down before earning the right to do so. I slept sitting up in the bed. In both instances and many others, I dutifully pressed my finger on the on-screen reader to indicate that I received the punishment.
The granularity and specificity of the Entitlements system regularly crosses the line into abject absurdity, and for that reason alone, Freedom Wars is a strong work. The fact that the game is so fun to play is almost irrelevant.
Deliciously little is known about the outside world. Vague hints about rival Panopticons suggest that the world largely consists of prison metropolises, and they regularly wage war against each other. Your Panopticon is no different, and thus you often find yourself deployed to fight for your oppressors.
Since you’re a jailbird with few rights, there’s the obligation to carry out your assigned missions. Completing these objectives is the meat of Freedom Wars’ gameplay. The third-person shooting action is fun and heavily RPG-flavored. There are also clear influences from Monster Hunter here since you often fight giant robotic monsters called Abductors. These battles see you jumping onto the Abductors to sever parts of them and deploying a whip-like “thorn” to drag them to the ground. All the while, you must fend off enemy criminals representing their own Panopticons and gather resources for research, manufacture, or donation to your Panopticon, which shaves years off your sentencing. The battles are fierce and fun, with the ability to use your thorn to climb buildings and traverse terrain quickly. While it’s a little awkward by today’s standards, it’s impressive how they represented these battles and this kind of gameplay on the Vita.
Even as you gain Entitlements within the prison society, you are not allowed to forget that you are a prisoner. No one discusses much about the outside world, and at some point in the story, fellow prisoners might let their frustrations boil over. This leads to the possibility of dialog choices or associations with certain characters tacking years onto your sentence. The jump scare of the violation screen never failed to evoke that feeling of passing a speed trap going ten mph over the limit. Each time it happened, I dejectedly deposited my fingerprint onto the document with my heart pounding from surprise, guilt, and frustration.
This frustration is not born of lousy gameplay. It results from unfair scenarios, but not in a gameplay sense. It’s the unfairness of my character’s lot in life, the unfairness of not knowing my crime and how I lost all my rights. It’s the core thematic strength of Freedom Wars.
Whether or not Freedom Wars attempts to provide commentary on penal systems is not clear. Some of the desperation and frustration in the dialog may suggest awareness of the topic or a desire to comment on it, but it could just be a unique setting the developers thought was cool. The combat sections are fun, and this helps give a feeling of camaraderie with the other characters, but then a piece of dialogue suddenly causes your mind to snap back to the fact that you’re in prison. It can be jarring, especially when you do something wrong and the violation splays over your screen with a loud audio sting. Still, I wonder if it points to something real.
As someone who’s never been to prison, I wonder if the small daily tasks, the little victories and success in completing them don’t give a sort of personal fulfillment in the moment. I wonder, at times, if cooperation in some of these tasks doesn’t increase camaraderie among inmates. I wonder if, with confinement as the reality of the person’s life for so long, contentment might occasionally set in, only for an act of brutality by the guards or harsh punishment for lackadaisically forgetting a rule might provide a harsh reminder of reduced rights and humanity.
I do not know what happens if you reduce your sentence to zero and earn freedom. It appears attainable because the further you progress, the more your actions and successes reduce your time. Some reading I’ve done suggests that you can complete the story without gaining your freedom, which intrigues me even more. Still, Freedom Wars contains such a fascinating plot experiment that I’m happy to leisurely enjoy this version of penitentiary life.
