Throne and Liberty

Throne and Liberty has a lot going for it. Engaging combat, a stunning world, and a wealth of content for both PvE and PvP players to dive in to make for a rich and deep experience that has the potential to occupy players for hours on end. It’s just impossible to shake that niggling feeling that to truly get the most out of this world, NCSoft wants players to lose hope with the torturous mess of menus and upgrade systems in the name of paying to progress. To its credit, NCSoft is at least generous at the outset with how it dishes out currency to keep progression moving, even for a free-to-play player, but as the game expands and moves into the future, it remains to be seen whether that generosity is kept up.

Throne and Liberty is a good MMORPG with a well-constructed narrative, combat system and progression, excellent visual quality and a vast amount of content to explore for solo and guilds players. Its only limitations come from what one would expect from a free-to-play game and the story that ends up falling into several clichés.

Throne and Liberty features beautiful graphics, various activities, emotional moments, and a lot of variety, but it still needs improvements in FPS rates, general optimizations, and, in addition, the more deliberate gameplay mechanics may cause mixed feelings among console players.

Throne and Liberty from developer NCSOFT and publisher Amazon Games is starting on the right note. The game offers a bevy of content, a fun and complicated backend, and enough motivation to keep exploring and grinding its lands. It does need better direction and connection with quests, as well as balanced PvP. As it stands, the start is good, and the future looks like it could be better.

Throne and Liberty has some solid ideas, but it’s mostly held up by the combat and exploration, rather than the actual MMO elements.

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.

WoW can rest easy knowing Throne and Liberty won’t steal its crown any time soon. But NCSoft’s RPG has a light touch that has clearly taken many lessons from its inspirations, brought some new ideas to the table and won’t constantly nag you to open your wallet.

Throne and Liberty might end up being a fine MMORPG in the long term, but currently, it has little in the way of new or interesting ideas to draw players away from other heavyweights in the genre.