I only played Freedom Wars in SP, and really enjoyed it.
I used a machine gun and chainsword all the way through. My default action was to sever everything that could be severed, particularly shield and artillery pods and abduction pods, as I couldn't rely on the AI to do it consistently. If there weren't any mechs in a mission, I'd experiment with the bigger melee weapons for killing humans. If you have a weapon that can sever, there is no reason not to as it seals enemy abilities and attacks and leaves them vulnerable, allows you to inflict even more damage. Sometimes I'd be so busy cutting a mechs claws, shoulder hardpoints and face off that it would be dead from the sheer damage inflicted in the process!
Learning to use the thorn abilities to grapple enemies, pull them down, to get into position to sever, and set up healing points was really good fun, and completely different from other hunting games.
Giving the AI orders is easy and really make a difference too- in rescue missions as soon as a citizen is dropped, you can tell the whole team to focus on escorting them back to the evac point while you find the next one, which saves you doing the boring slow walk as you carry them back. Having the orders on the Vita touch controls worked nicely too, it was a good use for them- nothing critical, and unlikely to get in the way of entering urgent commands.
What it needed was at least double the number of enemy mechs, as the biped/quadroped/spider/wolf variants all became largely the same after a while.
If anyone is just starting it and finding moving around the city very slow, fast travel opens up a bit later.