The latest mammoth, time-devouring MMORPG to arrive from Korean mega-developer NC Soft, Throne and Liberty on first glance at least is a highly impressive looking entry to the genre that would seem to elevate the genre much closer to its offline equivalents in terms of its visual presentation, despite using the now increasingly creaky Unreal Engine 4. Visual and technical presentation merits aside however, it’s also clear that Throne and Liberty is also full of assorted highs and lows and that your mileage will absolutely vary depending on your tolerance for some of its less innovative mechanics.
Throne And Liberty PS5 Review
An Opulent, Somewhat Innovative MMORPG Let Down By Dull Combat & Quest Design
Unfolding in the mystical realm of Solisium, Throne and Liberty is a sprawling MMORPG that allows players to cut across the surface of a gorgeous, patchwork world that stitches together a varied fantasy landscape filled with idyllic forests, coastal regions, mountains and so much more besides. The story, such as it is, revolves around Kazar. The war-mongering ‘Wraith of Conquest’, Kazar seeks to cement his power by tracking down the fragments of a shattered star and has dispatched squads of sorcerers and hunters to track down the individuals that happen to find themselves in possession of these extremely powerful trinkets. And that’s really it – there’s no real hook here, engaging cast of characters or compelling plight to keep you engaged from a narrative perspective – since all of it feels like it has been manufactured to serve Throne and Liberty’s sizable PvPvE endgame scenario, but we’ll get onto that in a bit.
At its core, Throne and Liberty plays similarly to other MMORPGs on the market already. This means that you’ll be spending a sizable chunk of time roaming the world, grinding monsters into dust, collecting better gear, completing quests, conquering dungeons and things of that ilk. Where Throne and Liberty does set itself apart from its peers in this regard is in the matter of traversal.
As the holder of a star fragment, you are bestowed with the ability to shapeshift into a number of different forms, all of which can make travel a heck of a lot easier. Clicking the right stick down for example, will have your character morph into a land animal (a panther like creature in this case), greatly improving your movement speed and looking darn cool in the process. Hopping into a body of water meanwhile will transform you into a semi-adorable seal-creature-thing, resulting in faster aquatic movement, while finally jumping off of a ledge of any height will permit you to shapeshift into an eagle, allowing you to glide around the world fairly effortlessly. You don’t need mounts in Throne and Liberty because, well, you are the mount.
Beyond all those shapeshifting shenanigans, Throne and Liberty also leans somewhat into the Sekiro way of traversal too, as dotted all around the world players can find hook points which can be latched onto with a grappling hook before slinging you high into sky. All good stuff then from a traversal perspective and certainly not something you see too much in this genre on console.
Where things begin to dip somewhat is when we reach the combat side of the equation. A largely pedestrian affair, Throne and Liberty embraces the auto-attack mechanic that quite a few other MMORPGs have done, which essentially means that you lock onto an enemy, click the R1 button and then just let the game take control for you as you smash away at your foes. While there is *some* agency involved here, such as dodging AoE attacks and timing perfect parries to stun your enemies, it’s unfortunate that Throne and Liberty’s combat is a largely banal and unexciting affair to say the least.
That said, the class-free system upon which the combat of Throne and Liberty sits atop is actually rather refreshing. Rather than just having players pick a class and then play a character that exists within those bespoke functional boundaries, in Throne and Liberty players can adopt a loadout style system for each of their characters, allowing them to switch between combat styles in an agile fashion. It’s a neat system as it means players aren’t constrained by a choice that they made at the beginning of the game, but rather can evolve and adapt to any battle.
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One aspect of Throne and Liberty that feels decidedly under baked is the questing. Pretty much borne from the most uninspiring class of quest design, the quests in Throne & Liberty are cut from a simplistic cloth and often border on the mundane, usually consisting of killing a certain number of enemies, fetching an item or talking to an NPC and all of it has a huge amount of backtracking thrown in there for fun (though the ability to fast travel between many locations is welcome all the same). It all feels done to death and is hardly fresh here.
Somewhere else that Throne and Liberty doesn’t exactly cover itself in glory is its UI. With sluggish navigation, far too many menus, too many different currencies (which I’ll speak about shortly) and just a poor use of the on-screen real estate, NC Soft’s latest UI attempt is much too cluttered to say the least and will likely prove to be a touch overwhelming for anybody who is playing an MMORPG for the first time.
At this point I also have to make a point about the voice acting in Throne and Liberty in that it’s absolutely atrocious for the most part. Between stunted performances and non-British voice actors attempting to affect a British accent but coming off like an elementary school version of A Christmas Carol, you’re much better off going text only from the get go.
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While Throne and Liberty would seem to be flooded in all manner of different currencies and microtransactions, just about all of them are cosmetically focused and don’t offer any real benefit in real-terms. Sadly though, while much of Throne and Liberty is driven by cosmetic microtransactions, not all of it is. Lucent is the premium currency in Throne and Liberty and is used to purchase shiny goodies from the auction house and as you might expect, is largely designed to be bought with real-world money. This essentially means that while you can quite happily play Throne and Liberty for hours on end without spending a penny, you’ll need to reach into your pockets if you want to be able to afford the gear to meet the steeper incline in difficulty later on in the game.
Beyond Lucent, another key currency that you’ll want to keep an eye out for is Abyss Currency which is leveraged to increase your gear cap in order to ready yourself for Throne and Liberty’s massive endgame battles. Thankfully, Abyss Currency is fairly abundant thanks to special contracts that can be taken out on a daily basis that awards the stuff hand over fist. Again, despite the UI clutter, I’m quite happy ultimately with the implementation of multiple currencies in Throne and Liberty, it’s just that having a premium currency in Lucent that can be used to purchase to performance changing gear, isn’t an ideal situation and does little to dissuade the pay-to-win pitchfork wielders from their path.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Speaking of the endgame, another point of clear distinction that Throne and Liberty boasts in relation to its genre counterparts, is the massive ‘world event’ battles that occur. Often pitting huge numbers of players against a single, massively powerful boss style enemy, there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had in taking down one of these big bads with a group of folks and even in its current, relatively limited content form, Throne and Liberty’s world events are an enjoyable highlight nonetheless.
Visually too, Throne and Liberty is certainly impressive. Even though it uses Unreal Engine 4, it boasts beautifully detailed and varied worlds together with stylish character models that put to shame a great number of the MMORPGs on the market. That said, it’s also true that during gameplay in busier world events and city environments, the framerate can plummet somewhat (though conceivably a potential PS5 Pro enhanced update could help with this).
There’s no denying that Throne and Liberty is a visual treat and certainly one of the best looking MMORPGs to come along in some time. Furthermore, though its massive world event battles impress, as does its innovative take on shapeshifting traversal, Throne and Liberty’s flair-free combat, banal quest design and cluttered UI all weigh down a genre effort that deserves better.
Throne and Liberty is out now on PS5.
Deluxe edition code kindly provided by PR for the purposes of this review.