With all the crazy excitement surrounding the Xbox One announcement, it’s easy to forget that Sony Japan planned to shed some light on their upcoming project, codenamed Panopticon, the very same day. After last week’s teaser site appeared out in the wild suggesting an official announcement was just days away, Sony Japan has since renamed the project Freedom Wars. The announcement was accompanied by the following trailer:
Sony bills the upcoming title as a “Recovery Multiplayer Action” game (your guess is as good as mine.) From what’s been shown, I get a very Monster Hunter-y vibe. Perhaps the genre is meant to be taken literally; as in the game will be about teams going out on missions to recover treasure or items from large beasties. As for the ticking timers counting down just above everyone’s heads, turns out my initial speculation was close, but incorrect. Freedom Wars takes place in a post-incident setting where most of the world is basically under lockdown. The countdown is actually representative of how much longer an individual’s prison sentence is. Whether or not characters go on missions to reduce their prison sentences remains to be seen. With such little detail about the game, it’s the best time to let loose some speculation; so I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing turned out to be an M. Night twist where the end message is that life is a prison.
Freedom Wars will be a PlayStation Vita exclusive coming sometime in 2014. We’ll have more details as they are announced, so stay tuned. The Vita doesn’t get a whole lot of love, but the software lineup is surprisingly solid, featuring a number of high-quality exclusives. I’m sure Sony Japan is hoping Freedom Wars takes off as their answer to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, drawing in a huge crowd with a group-focused, team-based franchise.
Are you folks excited for Freedom Wars? Would a multiplayer-driven experience like this be enough to justify purchasing a Vita? Or would you rather the game be brought to consoles? Let us know in the comments section,and don’t forget to like IGXPro on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or give us the ‘ol +1 on Google+.
