Freedom Wars – Lots of Musings

Freedom Wars is a title I’d probably never purchase but because it was among the free titles in this month’s PlayStation Plus line up, I decided to give it a go. The game was slow to start but once I claimed a bunch of entitlement permits, things started feeling a lot more fun. Monster Hunter clone-type games are not something I’m very good at so I’m surprised I’ve gotten pretty far. And I did it without needing to request for co-operation from other live players from around the world. Go me! ^^;

As of now, I’ve put 89 hours into the game and I only just passed the CODE 7 exam yesterday. The reason for the lengthy play time isn’t due to my constant failing at missions — in fact, I hardly see the game over screen — but instead, continually replaying stages to grind for resources and Entitlement Points.

There were some hurdles along the way though like the Retribution during CODE 2. I became afraid to fight the Ramosa after that battle. ^^ However, after progressing a bit further into the game, I went back and started farming it for materials. :B

Another stumbling block was 5-3, but after two replays, I figured out what had to be done to survive it.

Finally, there was this:

That led to a lot of this:

I’ll post my strategies for 5-3 and the CODE 7 Exam for the heck of things. :3

CT5-3: Illumination: Eliminate Enemy

The keywords in the objective are “engagement not mandatory” which is referring to the Abductor. Your main goal is to whittle down the opposing Sinners. What I did was issue a Suppress Personnel order to the team and once all or most of the enemies were down, I switched to Cover Me and then ran toward the east side of the map through the large automatic gate. You have to make sure the party follows so don’t go through the gate without them or else they will die quickly as they’ll become overwhelmed by enemy forces.

If done properly, there shouldn’t be any reinforcements in the area. Once they appear, switch to Suppress Personnel again. In fact, it’s very important not to keep the order on Cover Me when there are enemies around since no ally will react unless enemies get within a certain amount of distance near your character. With the amount of opponents using the gun that shoots sticky grenades, you really don’t want a bunch of bodyguards that are sitting ducks for them.

For the sticky grenades that end up on you, I believe you can dodge roll them off. Sadly, only one comes off at a time. =__=

The biped shouldn’t factor into the operation anymore so focus on defeating all the Sinners until their sustainability counter reaches 0.

CODE 7 Exam

I’ve read a few suggestions and advice on how to go about this mission such as dropping turrets or camping out in a corner on the second floor. Most of them didn’t work for me but they might have if I had better reflexes and could actually aim easily. Actually, I never watched any walkthrough videos on this. Maybe I should have but I really did want to figure it out for myself rather than relying on copying someone’s tactics.

Anyway, this was my set up.

For me, the second weapon didn’t really matter, and aside from the First Aid Kit and Auto-Resuscitator, the other two combat items didn’t matter much either. 😛

For augmentations, if you’re good at evading attacks from throngs of enemy Sinners (both melee and ranged), then you can probably focus on attack-based ones instead. I beefed up on defense since I get hit easily. .___.;

Now here are the steps to my chicken strategy. :3  I call it that because it’s based on constantly running away from everything. The target enemy will not be named since I consider it a spoiler:

1. Defeat the first sniper on the left of your character where you start. This is really important.
2. The target will be beelining for you at this point, defeat it.
3. Kill the other sniper. Again, getting rid of these kinds of Accessories is a must.
4. Drop down to the ground, keep picking off the target until reinforcements appear.
5. Kill the two OPS Agents and then camp out by them. When the target reappears, pay attention to where it is and where the shots are coming from. Evade or attack if you have a weapon capable of reaching it as it usually reappears on the second floor. Otherwise, wait until it drops down and go after it when it nears.
6. Soon, laser gun-toting bastards will appear along with another group of OPS Agents. Get rid of the laser ones as soon as you can.
7. By now, there’s a big group of enemies along with the target and here’s where the fun begins. 😀
8. Stay on the street level/main floor and run circles around the place. Try not to move the camera when doing this. The enemies are stupid. They will NOT wait for you to come at them but instead, simply tail you. If you have Acceleration and a light weight weapon, you should be able to keep a decent distance. At one point around a corner, with the camera in front so you’re seeing your character’s face, you should see the enemies behind you. It’s during this time that you should be able to let out a few shots. Good aiming will net you a kill or two.
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   The target is usually in the inner area around the central structure. Try and aim there. It will usually only move away from that vicinity if it has to revive an OPS Agent. If a revival is happening, be aware that you will most likely be running toward the newly resurrected enemy and the target itself. For anyone that’s quick on the trigger, you may be able to get a headshot in to take it out.
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   Alternatively, you CAN move the camera to face the enemies and keep shooting but I found that difficult to do. ^^;

These were the only set of steps that allowed me to win the fight because every time I stopped or fought the Agents, I would die quickly. 😐

If all goes well, you’ll get the good news that you’ve passed and Percy will praise you about being a model Sinner and rising so high in the ranks. Of course, he’ll immediately remind you of your worth afterward; like so:

Now that all that’s out of the way, I can get around to complaints. 😀

• The weapons modification system is beyond horrendous. Who thought it was a good idea that modules could get randomized to the point that melee weapons can end up with mods meant for ranged weapons — even when the fodder weapon is melee too with no ranged modules that the target weapon could inherit!? I ended up doing some save scumming — i.e. backing up a save file and then using it again once the results of a modification ended up being terrible — on one weapon to make sure I didn’t end up with several shitty modules because the chances of getting shit are extremely high.
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• The higher level cell gardens can be a pain. I really hate the one with the walls in the corner areas that can push you off.
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• The game designers loved stealth missions way too much. Also, are there no cameras in those high security areas you keep sneaking into? And why is it that no one comes looking for the trespasser? Considering security forces get destroyed or knocked out (or killed?), they should take a breach much more seriously! For a place that prides itself on 24-hour surveillance, it’s really lax when it comes to places where secrets from the masses are kept. 😛 The only exception seems to be the holding place of Beatrice.
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• The second dialogue choices can be pretty useless. This is especially true when you’re forced to choose the first one after anyway.
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• I’d complain about the grind but I don’t mind it too much since I enjoy the combat gameplay. Although I have to say that needing to target specific parts of Abductors to get their spoils kind of sucks. I’ve yet to get another talon from the Ramosa. 😦 Apparently they come from attacking the claws and it’s hard to deal enough damage on those things, what with all the slashing the creature does as well as the pouncing about.
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• The AI allies can be dumb. They’ll all stand around attacking or do a drag down even when the Abductor is obviously rushing toward them. It’d be nice if they could adapt to attack patterns like live players do. :E
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I think this is all I have to say about the game. I’ll end it with screencaps of my current rap sheet as well as the previous one.