So Throne and Liberty had been making some waves in the MMO-space for a while now. Firstly it was boasting about graphics and incredible action combat. On the surface the game looked really good, if a bit generic in terms of setting and whatnot. Basically Fantasy MMO number 258, so whatever. Then it gains headlines for charging people $40 for beta access, but then at the last minute that changed to a 5 day early access which people were pissed about because they wanted to play a beta and have a chance at giving feedback. Well that didn't happen and now the game is fulling launched as a free to play MMO.
Let's start with the basics, there are no classes or races in the game, you make a human character and your class is determined by your weapon choice which is very much like Guild Wars 2. You can have two weapons equipped and you have access to a set of abilities for each weapon usable when you swap between them. This does NOT allow you to use magic without your staff equipped for example. Say you have a sword and board equipped along with a staff for magic. You can have 8 abilities on your bar however you want, but the abilities for each weapon require you to have that weapon active, so you aren't using shield block while your staff is active and so on. While magic requires mana, melee skills are simply cooldown based, so I went sword and shield based with a bow for back up ranged attacks.
The game is not as action based as the trailers would have you believe, you do not have an attack button. Your auto attack is just that auto, you can use skills whenever they come off cooldown and you'll autoattack in the meantime. There is a stamina system for dodges and blocking though. Enemies with sometimes attack you with big attacks marked with a purple circle and a ring, the ring closes towards the circle and when they touch the attack goes off. You have a defensive block button that if you time it right will parry these attacks massively reducing the damage and granting you a bonus effect depending on what "class" you are. As a tank character when I perfect block I get a big heal and the damage is reduced by 99%. Seriously these attacks would otherwise hit me for 100-200 damage but when I perfect block I take about 7 damage plus I get healed for about 300hp. Which had effectively made me immortal for all the early game content thus far, I'm sure things get more complex later because they always do.
Other wise the game feels very Tera-like in the world and quest design, it's a very pretty game but optimization kind of sucks. With my 4080 the frame rate struggles to stay about 60 on max settings, however if I lock the fps to 60 it stays locked at 60 pretty well with only minor dips. Shame that I can't overpower the game with my rig, but maybe that'll get fixed later.
There are plenty of crafting and gathering systems, upgrade systems and such to get into as usual for an MMO. But I can't help but feel like the whole thing is really just kind of generic. There is nothing charming about it, no characters that stand out, the story isn't particularly interesting, it's just something to play I suppose. It's alright for what it is, but if you aren't interested in MMO's this isn't going to be a game to win you over.
Let's start with the basics, there are no classes or races in the game, you make a human character and your class is determined by your weapon choice which is very much like Guild Wars 2. You can have two weapons equipped and you have access to a set of abilities for each weapon usable when you swap between them. This does NOT allow you to use magic without your staff equipped for example. Say you have a sword and board equipped along with a staff for magic. You can have 8 abilities on your bar however you want, but the abilities for each weapon require you to have that weapon active, so you aren't using shield block while your staff is active and so on. While magic requires mana, melee skills are simply cooldown based, so I went sword and shield based with a bow for back up ranged attacks.
The game is not as action based as the trailers would have you believe, you do not have an attack button. Your auto attack is just that auto, you can use skills whenever they come off cooldown and you'll autoattack in the meantime. There is a stamina system for dodges and blocking though. Enemies with sometimes attack you with big attacks marked with a purple circle and a ring, the ring closes towards the circle and when they touch the attack goes off. You have a defensive block button that if you time it right will parry these attacks massively reducing the damage and granting you a bonus effect depending on what "class" you are. As a tank character when I perfect block I get a big heal and the damage is reduced by 99%. Seriously these attacks would otherwise hit me for 100-200 damage but when I perfect block I take about 7 damage plus I get healed for about 300hp. Which had effectively made me immortal for all the early game content thus far, I'm sure things get more complex later because they always do.
Other wise the game feels very Tera-like in the world and quest design, it's a very pretty game but optimization kind of sucks. With my 4080 the frame rate struggles to stay about 60 on max settings, however if I lock the fps to 60 it stays locked at 60 pretty well with only minor dips. Shame that I can't overpower the game with my rig, but maybe that'll get fixed later.
There are plenty of crafting and gathering systems, upgrade systems and such to get into as usual for an MMO. But I can't help but feel like the whole thing is really just kind of generic. There is nothing charming about it, no characters that stand out, the story isn't particularly interesting, it's just something to play I suppose. It's alright for what it is, but if you aren't interested in MMO's this isn't going to be a game to win you over.
