The Third Hour Review - Throne and Liberty

By now you may have seen our YouTube video about the first two hours of gameplay of Throne and Liberty. For those unaware, we do a series called "The Hour Two Review" that is all about giving the first impressions of new games during the standard return/refund period. If you watched that video, you know that I gave the game a fairly glowing review, all things considered.

However....

I'm going to be direct here. I have uninstalled the game. And I did so with an attitude near to "good riddance" and I almost feel bad about it. Let me explain.

Almost all of the things that I really loved about the game during the initial two hour period all still ring true; beautiful map, great 'town life', interesting characters, and much more. The graphics are genuinely enthralling for an MMO and as someone with as many hours in World of Warcraft as I do, that is a welcome change. But good Lord does that take a plunge into the deep end. This is the point where things get a touch negative.

First off, that beautiful map remains beautiful but gets extremely unstable. I don't mind adjusting things to make for a more enjoyable experience and yes, it's always a trade off - fidelity or frames. However, it never mattered how high or low I set the graphics because there was always some level of instability. There comes a point in the game about 4 hours in where they start giving you quests that force you to explore the map. Now at face value, I love that. There are two problems with the way it's done here: the instability of the areas you travel in regards to frame stutters and general graphics issues and poor quest quality. We will cover the quests soon, trust me. For the most part I can forgive performance instability on a new release; as someone who has worked in game development, I am a little more forgiving. That is why I am leading off with this critique as it's just lower on my "gripe" list. However, the crashing is where I draw the line. I understand that this is the first time the game and its servers are under a full load but the consistent crashing started to get real old real fast.

Now, let's talk about the quests. I am going to start with some nice and positive comments because I am about to rip into this game for a minute. They genuinely wanted to make a true-to-form MMO that MMO fans and noobs alike could enjoy and for that I really appreciate the way they structured the quests early on. That's all I got for the positives on the topic of quests; it seems to me the really cared. However, I feel as though that "caring" was heavily pushed to other things because the quests sucked. Everyone hates fetch quests. This game is nothing but fetch quests for the first 5 hours. I genuinely could not make it past this point in the game before uninstalling because the fetch quests became so mindless and uninspired and when mixed with my final issue with the game it made it such a poor quality experience. It doesn't matter if the game is gorgeous or runs smoothly or has a unique new mechanic or anything like that. If the core of the game sucks, the rest of the game sucks. The quests were so boring and mindless that it actively drew me away from caring about whatever overarching story existed thereafter.

Before continuing on, let me make something clear. I am not walking back any of the comments that I made in the Hour Two Review video, as I still stand by all of that. They made a heck of a first impression and that is great! However, the game sunk so fast after that it is borderline deception. This is the EXACT reason we do these articles after making the videos about the first two hours of gameplay. Many games take this formula to heart of making the the first two hours exceptional so they do not get hit with a bunch of refunds. I get it, you have to make money, and yes, I understand that this game is free but this mentality of vapid development has to stop. Anyways, moving on....

My last and biggest gripe: the UI. I know this may seem strange to be so heated about but let me make it clear about just how many hours I have in MMOs. From WoW, to SWTOR, to New World I have hundreds and hundreds of hours playing the largest and smallest MMOs. I know full well that MMOs are known for being 'busy' and having a lot of things to juggle at once. They typically have some level of visual inundation because the whole point is that there is a lot to do and take care of all at once. I understand all of these things and do take issue with any of it. As a matter of fact, I actually enjoy how games like World of Warcraft and New World handled this stuff. Yes, it was a lot to look at at once but they paced it out in a way that was understandable and manageable. Thank you for bearing with that preamble because I want to be firm and direct here:

Throne and Liberty has the single worst User Interface that I have ever seen in a video game. I am not going to spend an obnoxious amount of time breaking this down because I know there are many who would say "meh, doesn't bother me" and that's great! Here's what it all boils down to for me though - it's overwhelming. I am fairly competent about handling a lot of things at once but this game gives you so much constant inundation and mixes it with forced upgrade and crafting elements that are all variations of each other that make it borderline impossible to actually understand the difference between them. It is so much similarity of mechanics mixed in with a constant stream of inundation of buttons, sliders, upgrade points, armor upgrade points, weapon upgrade points and a general litany of information. You'll notice my repeated use of the word "inundation" and it is for good reason. It is the most accurate word I can use to describe this game. It got to the point where I genuinely could not make heads or tails as to whether or not any of this had any impact on my character or the game as a whole and it went from managing skill points and nuance to an outright chore.

I realized at that point that I was dealing with all of this inundation and was feeling genuinely anxious and overwhelmed just be dealing with a constant stream of fetch quests and poor performance. It just was not worth it. And if I am honest, it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I do not see me making an effort to come back.

At this point, I can no longer recommend Throne and Liberty.

Logan Byrd is a writer and content creator for Challenger Gaming Network and Rightside Media. He is available for reviews, speaking engagements, and general contact at challengergamingnetwork@gmail.com.