Throne & Liberty Lets You Transform Into Wild Beasts to Accomplish Your Goals
I love sword-wielding adventures, so Throne & Liberty is addictive. Not only is it really gorgeous, but it has some hooks that I enjoyed, such as the ability to transform into different creatures to accomplish different goals. The trailer promises that you’ll also be able to take the form of defeated bosses, which we didn’t get to experience first-hand in the demo, but it’s definitely a very interesting concept.
step out
The Throne & Liberty Days of Play demo kicked off with an opening cinematic before entering the character creator. As someone who can easily spend half an hour with him tweaking settings, I was pretty happy with the level of options available, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Due to time constraints, we randomized character appearances and worked on the introduction of the game.
It deployed as expected from the tutorial. We met some important NPCs, including a bargain Harry Potter lookalike, and learned the basics. Combat, inventory, movement, and of course transforming into beasts were all laid out in the opening area. This opening period naturally meant that I didn’t have much to explore, but I felt pretty confident when I completed it. One of his devs had to direct me, so I must have looked away for a second during the commands to switch to wolves and back, but with a simple keystroke I can switch to wolves Transformed into and moved through several tight areas. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get through it in my human form.
timing matters
Fighting in Throne & Liberty should be familiar to anyone who has played an MMO. Combat involves targeting enemies and using attacks and buffs. But it was the timing-based defensive moves that made it stand out. Basically, enemies looking to attack you will see a target, and hitting defenses at the right time will block the attack and give you a buff. It felt like it was going in a good direction to shake up what felt like a fairly standard combat system and make it more exciting.
Perhaps what impressed me most about Throne & Liberty was its graphics. It looked great and worked very well, but I also noticed that the demo was running on pretty solid hardware. I say “your mileage may vary” if you run it with your own personal setup. I think it’s stylistically gorgeous, but there isn’t much that stands out. The art direction is great, but there’s nothing like the “Throne & Liberty” style that defines it. In other words, at least from what little I’ve been able to experience, it leans towards something a little more generic. It’s still amazing! Stylistically, it felt too safe.
If you are interested, you can try Throne & Liberty yourself. Sign up for a spot in the testing phase, However, an Amazon account is required.
