Throne and Liberty Review – A Solid and Free Start

NCSoft is no stranger to the MMO genre, with both Guild Wars and Lineage under the developer’s belt, among other notable series. Indeed, their latest MMO, Throne and Liberty, has been out in the Korean region since December of last year, and in the Asia/Southeast Asia regions since July 24 2024. It’s now finally been released in North America, Euope, and Japan. We’ve spent some time in Solisium these past couple of weeks, and have our Throne and Liberty review ready to let you know if this free-to-play MMO is worth your time.

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before

The story for the single-player campaign is a bit blasé, with common tropes such as a big baddie and their army of undead soldiers, with your custom character standing in as the only hero who can save the world of Solisium. Despite this, it is an entertaining campaign which serves its purpose as an extended tutorial of sorts. Though characters are well-voiced, both the lip syncing on the models and the subtitle text often don’t match what the character is saying. Sure, the overall point still comes across, but it leaves the cutscenes feeling a little unpolished. For instance, when you first meet a majestic, mythical beast, they refer to you as a “Starchild,” while the subtitle (and, in fact, the rest of the game) reads Star-born. It breaks immersion just a little bit.

Outside of the cutscene awkwardness, a couple of other issues crop up from time to time. In busier parts of the world, the frame rate can take a hit. With this release, NCSoft has targeted the current generation of consoles, along with Windows. On PS5, the Unreal Engine 5 keeps things running pretty well, but even it has issues with large player counts. That being said, Throne and Liberty looks very nice, with well-detailed environments, especially when it comes to the game’s many buildings. Dynamic weather and time of day effects are a nice touch, though talking to a vendor who is simply standing there, unfazed by the pouring rain that would no doubt render some of their goods unsellable is unintentionally hilarious.

This is also where Throne and Liberty feels a bit old school, for better and for worse. While there is a marketplace that has premium currency and things you can buy with it, none of it is really necessary unless you are gearing up for endgame content or fighting against equally-leveled players. The game’s mission system also seems to award copious experience points, as you’ll find yourself leveling up and earning new skills and perks on a regular basis. It doesn’t feel grindy, which is awesome to see with a free-to-play model that couldn’t be blamed too much if it were a tad grindy as a subtle way to encourage making a run to the in-game store. Throne and Liberty also uses regular old waypoints to show you exactly where you need to go next on your currently-selected quest. Some players will be annoyed at the hand-holding, though there is an option to disable your HUD entirely if you really want to test your navigation skills. I for one appreciate the simple navigation, because as a reviewer I’m often juggling multiple games, and usually can’t remember exactly where I am at on a given map.

Become Your Own Mount

A lot of MMOs offer mounts as buyable accessories, whether through premium or freemium currency, or simply finishing a particular mission. In Throne and Liberty, however, mounts are simply built into your character. Rather than riding atop a best, you transform into them. You start with a wolf-like creature for overland traversal, an eagle-like bird for aerial transport, and an otter-like being for swimming along bodies of water. Transforming into these creatures is as simple as pressing L3, double-jumping with a high enough jump, or automatically upon entering any body of water. This seamless mount mechanic is pretty unique, but most importantly it’s also very quick. Naturally, there are other creatures you can unlock, but functionally everything remains the same no matter which animals you choose to transform into. As a bonus, you can also transform into enemy characters, which allows you to blend in if you don’t want to fight a particular group of creatures but still wish to travel through a pack of them.

Combat in Throne and Liberty allows you to equip two separate weapons, with different move sets, skills to unlock and level up, and weapons to strengthen and upgrade. The currently-equipped weapon will cause your character to repeatedly perform a basic attack so long as an enemy is targeted. You are then free to pepper in any equipped special moves, which are executed by holding a shoulder trigger and pressing the corresponding face or directional button.

Guilds make up a significant portion of the online aspects of Throne and Liberty. While technically an optional activity, joining a guild is all but necessary for anyone looking to make the most progression. Simply joining any guild unlocks no fewer than five additional game modes, including the largest 48-vs-48 inter-server wars that only occur every other Friday, and only active guilds that have earned a particular resource can even join in the first place. Those kinds of requirements may limit player counts somewhat, however, those that do join at least know what they are doing, so the fights can be dynamic and engaging, with all kinds of action leading to an epic finish.

Verdict

Throne and Liberty is off to a strong start, especially with a price of free. The campaign may be derivative, but it does serve as a great intro for the game’s various systems. Transforming into other creatures is a versatile ability that offers a unique way to play. Whether turning into a four-legged beast as essentially a free mount, or an otter-like creature to traverse bodies of water, or even as defeated enemies to blend in or bosses for extra power in battle, the options are numerous and each change the game in interesting ways. With such a heavy focus on guild warfare, the best time to play the game is probably now, when the crowds are largest. NCSoft isn’t new to the MMO genre, though, so provided a healthy gamer population remains in place, then this game should be supported for a while to come.

Final Score: 7.5/10

Pros:

• Not very grindy
• Campaign serves as a decent tutorial for the game’s mechanics
• Involved guild gameplay
• Free!

Cons:

• Main campaign feels a bit phoned-in
• Some performance issues on PS5 (also reported on other platforms)
• Hand-holding feels like much older games at times

Throne and Liberty bonus review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

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