Amazon has been trying to break into the games industry for years, yet despite using the vast resources at its disposal to hire some of the best designers in the business, the company struggled for years to make headway. Lately, however, Amazon has found success publishing massively multiplayer online games. First came 2021’s New World, Amazon Games’ homebrew fantasy with an emphasis on survival and player-built settlements. The following year brought Lost Ark, developed by Korean studio SmileGate, which combined large-scale multiplayer with Diablo-style fighting. Critical reception was mixed, but both games proved popular with players. This week, Amazon publishes its third MMO in four years, Throne and Liberty, also developed in Korea. Here’s everything you need to know about this latest free offering.
What is Throne and Liberty?
It’s a massively multiplayer online game in the vein of World of Warcraft. Set across a large and richly painted fantasy world, it sees players creating their own character and embarking on a series of adventures, playing either solo, with friends, or as part of a larger guild. Players can follow the main story, cooperate with friends to battle through dungeons, or battle against rival players to claim ownership of the game’s regions.
Throne and Liberty is notable for its long gestation period. It was originally announced in 2011 as an extension of the Lineage series of role-playing games, under the name Lineage Eternal. After a turbulent development that saw multiple delays, a technological overhaul, and a change in leadership, Throne and Liberty released in Korea last December. Amazon is the game’s global publisher, having acquired the rights in February last year.
How does Throne and Liberty differ from other MMOs?
There are a couple of features that lend Throne and Liberty its own flavour. The most obvious of these is the ability to “morph” into different animals. Instead of sprinting to travel the world faster, players can transform into a speedy land animal such as a wolf, leap from cliffs and “glide” across the landscape as a bird, or turn into a cute otter wearing a leaf as a hat (or another aquatic animal) if they wade into deep water.
It’s a fun gimmick, but it’s not that deep. Throne and Liberty’s combat and character development are more notable. Unlike most MMOs, there are no specific character classes. Instead, your character’s skills and abilities are defined by the weapons they wield.
There are six weapon types to choose from, each of which comes packaged with abilities. Since players can equip two weapons at any time, you can synthesise your own class. I spent most of my time wielding a sword and shield that allowed me to push enemies around, and a magical staff that let me throw fireballs and summon lightning bolts from the sky.
Is Throne and Liberty any good?
Parts of it are. The world is enjoyable to explore, thanks to those Animorph-esque powers, and partly due to the impressive environment design. And while combat is traditional for an MMO (for instance, characters attack automatically while special abilities are triggered by the player), fights are fast-paced and surprisingly muscular, with flashy, tangible character powers. One of combat’s more interesting flourishes is a dodge and parry, letting you block, avoid and deflect attacks. It adds an extra layer of reactivity to battles, an interesting hybrid of classic MMO combat and more modern action-oriented play.
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Outside this though, much of what Throne and Liberty does is familiar, sometimes to the point of being trite. Although its fantasy world has some weirder edges, such as the giant whale that floats around the sky, it’s largely a traditional hodgepodge of wizards, warriors, orcs and goblins. Storytelling is basic, the characters superficial, and quests mostly involve pressing “F” on a lot of different items, with few meaningful interactions outside of combat. Finally, as is common with many free-to-play online games, the crafting and upgrade systems are unnecessarily convoluted, and improving your weapons and armour can be tedious and confusing.
Should I play Throne and Liberty?
Throne and Liberty is free-to-play, and while it doesn’t break much new ground, there’s enough baseline quality to its world and combat to make it moderately diverting. And what it lacks in depth it makes up for in pacing, so you don’t have to sink dozens of hours into it to see a decent chunk of the world.
That said, if you only have time to play one Korean MMO published by Amazon, I’d recommend Lost Ark over Throne of Liberty. While Throne and Liberty’s combat can be spectacular, Lost Ark’s throwdowns are truly off the chain, starting you off with the power of a god and building from there. Likewise, its story takes wilder swings than Throne and Liberty: its adventure transports you to an island populated by Borrower-like pixies, and pits you against an army of demonic clowns. It’s structurally and thematically similar but offers a bolder, weirder experience all around. And like Throne and Liberty, it can be played for free.