Throne and Liberty Review (Xbox Series X|S)

Reviewing a new MMO at launch is always a difficult task. You often feel that you barely scratch the surface of what the game offers. NCSOFT’s free-to-play Throne and Liberty (T&L) is a big undertaking in this regard. Over the several days I spent with T&L, I was slowly taken over by its scope, guild-focus, presentation, technical ability, and potential to become an MMO worthy of your time. However, T&L is also rough around the edges due to its safe story and combat, intimidating UI, and a plethora of bugs at launch.

T&L cannot currently measure up to its big brothers World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV in terms of gameplay mechanics, lore, world-building, and performance stability. In most respects, it is perhaps unfair to judge it by those standards, especially at launch. Rather, T&L and its setting represent a spiritual continuation of NCSOFT’s venerable Lineage 2. If you are a Lineage and Guild Wars fan, then T&L is right up your alley. Nonetheless, I recommend T&L to all MMO enthusiasts since it is free-to-play and the pay-to-win model skips some of the progression, although it is not game-breaking. NCSOFT has built a solid foundation here upon which T&L can grow. Let’s see where NCSOFT takes it from here.

Welcome to Solisium

T&L is set in Solisium, a medieval high-fantasy setting reminiscent of Lost Ark meets Lord of the Rings. The story follows your character as you seek out fragments of the Star of Sylaveth to defeat the evil Kazar. The story rarely strays from the generic “special hero out to save everyone” trope, especially since your character possesses the Star Fragment powers. The pacing of the story is fast and serves as a vehicle to guide your character through new zones. Nonetheless, the ability to engage with new characters and companions is rushed. This is why T&L only has a few memorable characters. I do, however, appreciate the robust character creator and the main quest tracker and the TL;DR voice over which make it easy to follow the fast-paced story and not lose track of progress.

Side content is also played safe. Side missions are narratively used to provide background and some world-building to individual zones. For the most part, they do a good job at making Solisium feel lived in. Nonetheless, side missions don’t stray from the typical MMO formula of fetch and kill quests.

Fortunately, the scope and setting elevate Throne and Liberty. NCSOFT has done an outstanding job at making Solisium a place you really want to explore. The first hub of T&L is the medieval city of Kastleton. You can explore its cobbled streets, shop from vendors, visit the auction house, and traverse rooftops. You can reach Kastleton’s highest points and take in the surrounding views thanks to the technically impressive draw distances. The scope of the T&L world becomes clear and you soon realize NCSOFT put in the effort to entice you to explore as far as the eye can see. T&L also has scattered pieces of lore around, including books, notes, and more to round-up the world-building.

Not bound by class

The gameplay largely follows the standard MMO formula, although with some differences. You still get the repetitiveness of zone to zone exploration, crafting, jobs, and other standard MMO elements. However, T&L features auto-attacking and a timed block mechanic. This blocking mechanic stands out compared to most MMOs that don’t feature it. Nonetheless, I felt the blocking mechanic was not implemented in a compelling way. Rather than being a defining feature of T&L, blocking seems to be optional and of little consequence. I never felt I was missing it in most fights and it served to clutter the already overloaded UI. I hope NCSOFT can improve this mechanic and make it more engaging and even a defining mechanic in raids and PvP.

T&L changes the typical MMO-class based system with one revolving around seven weapon types, including greatsword, shield and sword, crossbow, staff, and more. This allows more flexibility in terms of using different weapons and associated skills and you can swap weapons as you see fit. During combat, you can use two weapons and their skills. I went with the tried-and-tested greatsword and longbow for a mix of close and ranged combat, although you can experiment to your liking. I appreciated not having to be restricted to pre-determined classes as I normally would be in other MMO.

The mount and traversal system is also different from the average MMO. Traversal is done by you, as in you are the mount due to animal morphing abilities. Since your character has special Star Fragment powers, you can morph into different animals with different traversal features. For example, you can morph into a wolf form for fast ground traversal or an eagle to gracefully glide from high points. Animal morphing is serviceable as traversal goes. However, I would’ve appreciated more commitment to make these morphs special and engaged in actual gameplay. I would’ve liked to see different combat forms or abilities that can be used for each animal morph.

I appreciate how T&L embraces guilds and social questing, taking me back to the good old days of guild interactions. There are opportunities for guild-to-guild combat, PvE guild contracts to complete various objectives, guild reputation and rankings, and much more. There is also the opportunity to participate in grand scale PvP combat called Castle Siege as timed events. During my early access with T&L, I already experienced a sizable amount of guilds forming. This is also because establishing your own guild is encouraged and fairly easy to do. In this sense, the T&L guild system and community looks promising.

Let’s turn our attention to the big elephant in the room — pay-to-win. T&L is free-to-play, but pay-to-win is to be expected. Fortunately, the T&L pay-to-win model at launch is not as predatory or game-breaking as other Korean and even Western MMOs. Monetization is still mostly based around cosmetic items. There is also the opportunity to buy the Lucent premium currency used at the auction house. With Lucent you can purchase the highest rated weapons and items, although you will still have to grind for these items before having the opportunity to acquire them. You will also have to put in the work to level up what you acquired, so this is not a simple case of just buying yourself the very best. Players who don’t want to spend real money can also grind for Lucent and participate in the auction house. In this sense, T&L seems aware of the importance of limiting unfair pay-to-win elements for a more accessible experience.

Beautiful, but rough presentation

T&L is one of the most visually striking MMOs out there. The Unreal Engine 4 does its magic and produces stunning visuals, especially true for landscapes and draw distances. The world of Solisium is teeming with color and the art style is great at emphasizing the specificity of various zones. Character models look good and armor sets are presented in great detail. The original score is beautiful, often reminding me of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.

Throne and Liberty’s presentation and technical ability go beyond visuals and music. T&L has some of the quickest loading times I have experienced. This is especially noticeable when fast traveling between different zones. It can take about 4-5 seconds and nearly rivals the fast travel speeds of Spider-Man 2. For an MMO with thousands of players on one server, this is an impressive feat.

There are, however, several issues that make T&L feel rough at launch, especially on the Xbox Series X|S. The UI and menus are overloaded with information and can feel intimidating and a chore to navigate. The Xbox menu layout is also challenging to navigate and menu controls seem to not always work, needing a quick reset of the menu. In terms of localization, I found some Korean rather than English text still appearing in some menus. Overflowing text in menus and UI also show that NCSOFT still has plenty of work to do to make the Xbox version polished.

In terms of framerate, the Xbox Series X version of Throne and Liberty aims for 60fps. This target is mostly met outside of main areas and cities. The framerate dips substantially to under 30fps when in cities and during larger raids. I also encountered frequent server crashes and maintenance downtime during my playthrough on European servers. As I understand from the community, North American servers have been more stable during early access. While none of these challenges have resulted in game-breaking experiences, there’s plenty of work left for T&L to improve upon in terms of menu layout, polish, and performance.

Summary

Throne and Liberty impresses with its scope, guild-focus, presentation, technical ability, and potential to become an MMO worthy of your time. However, it is also rough around the edges due to its safe story and combat, intimidating UI, and a plethora of bugs at launch. In this sense, Throne and Liberty cannot currently rival its big brothers World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV. Despite this, I believe NCSOFT has developed a solid foundation. With time and effort, Throne and Liberty can grow to become a popular MMO. In the meantime, I’ve seen enough to want to return to Solisium in time for the official launch.

Throne and Liberty launches free-to-play on October 1 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.