Review – Liberty – Gamerview

In , the developers took on the great responsibility of reinterpreting the milestone that was the French Revolution, one of the most fascinating and important periods in world history, mixing real facts and the dystopia of a chaotic and alternative Paris.

Developed by Superstatic and published by Anshar Publishing, this release, which arrives at the end of 2024, brings in its proposal a mix of elements of deck building, hack and slash, and horror in a very bold proposal in an attempt to break away from the norm and transform the end of Old Regime in a unique game.

Freedom, equality and cosmic horror

In Liberté, you take on the role of René, a young man caught between revolutionary forces, a decadent monarchy and a fantastic element: a supernatural force that distorts reality. In the role of René who, for unknown reasons, ends up being connected to Lady Bliss, a Lovecraftian creature who decided to invade Prince Phillip’s coronation and leave France without a king. Taking inspiration from real history to develop an alternative version in which the French Revolution was interrupted by this bizarre event, as you struggle as a slave to the gigantic plant woman to find the perfect ruler for France.

The plot is simple and the story flirts with reality to play with elements that are part of Lovecraft’s Cthulesque mythology, but without worrying too much about the veracity of facts or personalities, as many AAA games do (hello, Assassin’s Creed). The important thing is to keep in mind that this initial plot serves as a justification for the developers to choose the roguelite genre as a base, as René will be resurrected, whenever he fails in his mission, due to his bond with the cosmic creature.

Since the market standard requires a deck building style for games of this type, Liberté also uses cards to complement his style while also deciding to give his own touch to the game. The protagonist’s actions follow the hack and slash style, using both directions due to the superior view (almost isometric), but his special moves, skills and items are defined by the cards you win and equip to the character.

This factor also influences the skins you can equip during the game, transforming the protagonist’s look and gameplay style and changing the type of attack. René uses a sword, Ana has dual weapons, Victor attacks with his axe, while Flea is equipped with a bone spear. To do this, at the beginning of each act, René must choose a faction to earn influence points by completing objectives for the Church, the Tribe, the Prince and the Rebels, receiving skins and other items, as well as many cards, as rewards.

What’s different about this is how you use your deck, which can contain up to 40 cards, but which will not be fully used during an act or run. You will receive random cards, when looting debris, defeating enemies or leveling up, and to use them the cards themselves will need to be burned to obtain mana, making their cost the amount of energy available for you to add the card to the character. . It seems complicated, but it’s not! However, this extra level of strategy made the game unnecessarily complex and made the roguelite factor even more difficult for each run.

Add the fact that you will need to go through very similar streets and dungeons several times, whether to increase your level, get better cards or even complete tasks, finding projects to create new cards along the way, to get the feeling that Liberté is very repetitive. Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t have much diversity among its enemies, after all the main enemy is the French crown. With combat that is very reminiscent of Diablo, Hades and more recent games that follow this same style, with a superior vision, Liberté’s story is still the most interesting point compared to the combat, which suffers from hitbox and mobility problems, or the level simple, dated design.

Even as the game progresses and the increasingly strong presence of Bliss’s corruption over Paris, the creatures that appear, taking the place of the French forces, do not offer much of a challenge throughout the phase for an immense jump in difficulty against the boss of each act. As if that weren’t enough, René also receives a curse from Lady Bliss that adds extra factors to the game, with effects on enemies that accumulate, completely unbalancing the game due to the limitations you have in your deck or run. Regardless of whether you opt for local multiplayer, which adds valuable assistance, the difficulty curve and challenges imposed on René can be a major limiting factor to the game.

If the gamer is hungry, let him eat brioches

Liberté is far from being a perfect game, but it shows the courage and dedication of independent developers in creating visual solutions that can keep up with the game’s highlight: the narrative. The way they explore the consequences of the revolution, questioning the ideals of freedom and equality, resonating with modern dilemmas, ends up being very interesting. The art style, especially when worked in static art, demonstrates a very high level of care in creating this Lovecraftian dystopian world.

We can also see this dedication when reinterpreting the combination of Paris architecture with dystopian touches, creating scenarios that are both enchanting and oppressive, but still limited and repetitive. The dynamic lighting and details in the costumes are a show in itself, creating an interesting combination to be enjoyed during dozens of hours between different runs. However, Liberté’s performance is far from perfect, with constant drops in frame rate and glitches that make your character or NPCs get stuck in the scene.

The soundtrack doesn’t impress, but it doesn’t disappoint either. Trying to simulate a characteristic sound style of the time, with a more sinister feel in moments of tension during combat or even in interactions with the unknown, brought by Lady Bliss, the immersion is more due to the strategy always present throughout the run and how gameplay requires attention to avoid deliberately pressing buttons. Just like the various invisible walls or abruptly ended scenarios, the music accompanies the repetition and superficially accommodates the narrative.

In the end, Liberté is an ambitious attempt to mix history, horror, fantasy and different gameplay styles to escape the sameness, delivering an extremely challenging game. The innovation sought by developers, which should be valued, ends up getting halfway through technical setbacks. The narrative remains the highest point and main interest for those looking for a good action RPG with this roguelite feel, but which does not always deliver the desired impact.

Standing out for its creativity and the way it portrays one of the most significant moments in world history, Liberté is a good option for those who want something different and unusual, but who don’t mind the irregularities of René’s journey through the dark streets of this dystopian Paris. After all, a game like this needs to assert creative freedom to be treated equally among other titles.