Developer: Superstatic
Publisher: Anshar Publishing
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Liberté – Review
Sometimes it’s hard to spot new and original games, as many games are starting to look rather identical. Still, there are a lot of developers out there that take well-known formulas and add a few original twists of their own to them, creating something unique in the process. Sadly, a lot of these games fall into the abyss, only gaining mild popularity thanks to fans who actively seek out games in their specific genre. When we first glossed over some gameplay footage of Liberté, we were under the impression the game was a Roguelike Diablo clone, but the more we delved into the game’s mechanics and presentation, we were very excited to try out the game. When we finally got our review copy, we were rather surprised by the result.
Story
It’s hard to explain Liberté’s story without spoiling things, so we’ll keep things rather simple. You’ll play through the story as René, who seemingly lost his memory. Not only does he find himself in a pickle in the midst of the French Revolution, but he is also hearing voices. When the voices lead him to the carcass of an otherworldly creature, René is uncertain what to do next. The creature, which is called Lady Bliss, guides him in his journey, and soon after, he learns that he is in fact also linked to the creature and he will follow its commands. You’ll meet a varied cast of characters as you slowly uncover what is going on, while also trying to figure out who and what you are. Overall, the story is interesting, but we felt that the pacing was a bit too slow.
Graphics
Graphically Liberté looks quite good, albeit with a fair few rough edges still being visible. We loved the overall character designs, the different environments, and even the skill animations were quite cool to look at. The character portraits have also been designed with a lot of care. The same can be said for the artwork on the cards in your deck. Sadly, while everything looks spiffy, there are only a limited number of environments to explore, many of the assets are reused over and over again, and the NPC variety is extremely low. When reaching the edge of the small areas, you’ll see black walls, which in turn breaks the immersion by quite a bit. Other than that, enemy skill animations do not always render and you can just run through civilian NPCs.
Sound
While the music of Liberté was quite good at first, it soon became rather annoying due to the fact the soundtrack is extremely limited. Songs are looped constantly, and we found ourselves turning down the volume. The voice acting, however, was superbly handled. Many of the game’s key dialogues are voiced, and the voice cast does a formidable job bringing their characters to life. We do regret that not all dialogues are voiced, as this would have added a lot more charm to the game.
Gameplay
Liberté is a hack-and-slash Roguelike with deck-building elements. The game is played from a top-down perspective, much like a Diablo game, where you must complete different scenarios in order to progress. You’ll often get the same scenarios to play through, but there is a bit of story progress sprinkled in between. The game is played like an action game, and thus you’ll be attacking, dodging, and using your skills. Skills in this game are synced to your deck of cards. You can equip skills (cards) which will consume mana to be equipped. To gain mana, you’ll need to burn cards from your deck. You’ll be able to equip skills and consumables, and you’ll also have Talents, which are basically your passive skills. The cooldown of your skills in battle depends on how many times you hit your enemies rather than regular time-based cooldowns. We actually liked this mechanic a lot.
The above might sound as if the game is a bit of everything, but it’s actually nicely made into one coherent experience. In the game, you’ll be able to play with different classes of characters who have different main attacks, but you’ll first have to unlock these. These are basically skin variations of René for his different reincarnations. When you start a new run in the game, you’ll be able to choose what deck of cards you’ll be using. These decks can be constructed in the so-called nursery where you will respawn after dying or after completing a run. Cards are also divided into types, where some may have to do with poison damage, others with strong melee attacks, and others with ranged skills. There is quite a bit of card variety, and as you play through the game you’ll find blueprints to craft new cards. Most cards can be crafted with the basic materials you find while playing. Material gathering goes slow, however, so the game offers the Endless Bliss mode, where you can play through short battles in order to gather some materials quicker.
Even though the game’s core loop is very enjoyable, Liberté is not without flaws. Our main issue was with the extremely slow story progress, as we were just playing the same small scenarios over and over again to get a few lines of actual story progress in the middle. Sadly, just like the very slow story progression, crafting new cards goes extremely slowly. You do not find that many blueprints during longer runs, and even though the Endless Bliss mode was added to the game for some quicker material gathering, the game’s pacing still feels very slow. We went through the same handful of scenarios countless times to just add a few new cards to our decks. Things are then made worse by severe hitbox issues in the game that may cut your runs short, which is a shame as this again slows down progress. More than once we took damage while not in range, or enemies simply cast their skills instantly making dodging their attacks impossible. Sometimes the actual skill casting of enemies is also not shown, again resulting in unfair damage. Add to this that the game adds curses where enemies get stronger buffs the further you progress during a run, and things can go from amusing to annoying in only a few moments.
Conclusion
Liberté is a fun action Roguelike title with card game mechanics. We loved the overall atmosphere of the game, but the story pacing and the speed at which you collect new cards both feel off. Nonetheless, Liberté has a very enjoyable gameplay loop and it’s fun to play this title while also trying to crank up the difficulty. It’s clear that some kinks still need to be ironed out, but we reckon a few minor patches would do the trick here. If you’re looking for a decent Roguelike with an interesting setting, then this one might be a title for you.
Liberté - Review,
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