At 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Summer Game Fest earlier this month I played two of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Amazon's MMOs, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:New World: Aeternum and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Throne & Liberty, having previously dabbled in their other MMO Lost Ark, while the company has also announced, cancelled, and re-announced anew a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lord of the Rings MMO. This isn't all Amazon publishes (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Blue Protocol is on the way, Crucible was scrapped, it picked up 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tomb Raider recently too), but it’s definitely a trend. So when I sat down with Daniel Lafuente and Merv Lee Kw🗹ꦇai from Amazon to discuss Throne & Liberty, this trend was on my mind. Though, apparently, not on theirs.
"There's definitely a quality bar that we strive for in the titles that we're bringing to market," Lafuente tells me. "And it just so happens that we have MMOs right now, but our portfolio intends to be broad over the next couple of years. Maybe you've heard the news about the Tomb Raider game. It's not just MMOs that we're bringing to market. It does happen to be the focus of the moment, but we have broad ambitions."
Tomb Raider is currently in the driest spell the series has ever endured since it launched in the '90s, while Blue Protocol was widely expected to be available by now and still has a vague 2024 release date, and Crucible, as mentioned, was released to a poor reception, shoved back into beta, then killed altogether. So it might have eyes on a broader roster, but aside from The Grand Tour Game, MMOs are all Amazon has right now. What has Amazon learned from Lost Ark and New World that it is channelling into Throne & Liberty? That's a topic it's remaining curiously tight-lipped about.
"Running games at this size and scale is very difficult, mostly because of the games as a service and the operational components" Lafuente says. "And I think we're setting ourselves up for success by starting with these more challenging titles, and then creating an infrastructure and a framework to support any of the other games we bring to market."
He's right that MMOs are typically one of the hardest games to launch and make stick, and there's some logic to 'if we can get this right, Tomb Raider should be easy', but after Lost Ark seemed to squander its momentum and New World 🎃has opted for a hard reset as it comes to console, Throne 🐓&♑ Liberty fans might have been hoping for greater depth on how T&L can avoid the fate of its wounded (if not fallen) comrades.
However, Throne & Liberty is not really a new game coming out. Though Summer Game Fest was the first time it could be played in the West, the game has been out in Korea since 2023, and maybe some more concrete lessons have been learned there. Amazon is keen to stress that while the West is getting the game later, it's not getting a different game, but the same as the Korean one, made with a "global audience in mind".
There have been some tweaks to the game since it launched, as is to be expected for a new MMO, and Lafuente explains that these come from both active players in the game in Korea and beta testers around the world giving targeted feedback. "The changes that have taken place in Korea are this summation, if you will, of feedback from our beta tests, and from their live version," he says. "And so as we put it in front of global players, we're getting strong feedback from them. We're learning new things about the game, and same thing on the Korean side, and those changes are making it into the Korean version... There's one game that we're trying to release globally and all of the feedback, it's making its way into the game for that matter. So yes, there are some changes that are more targeted towards the more global audience, and maybe some things that players aren't used to as much in Korea, but that's still going into this one version of the game that we're working on."
As for the game itself, one of the things that most interested me was the class system. Rather than a standard build of 'Rogue' or 'Warrior' or 'Mage', every character dual wields. You can choose to make this consistent (my preview character was an all magic build of Wand and Staff), or mix and match, pairing Dagger with Staff, Crossbow with Greatsword, Sword and Shield with Longbow, or any combination thereof. This makes playing the game more varied, and offers greater flexibility when approaching dungeons. As far as Amazon and NCSoft are concerned, it might be their ace in the hole.
"The dual weapon system is what determines what your abilities are," Lafuente tells me. "I think you can have more unique opportunities to build these crazy classes, potentially, where someone is carrying both a sword and a staff. And that gives them access to magic abilities, and the 'I'm going to swing my big sword at you' abilities, so you see some pretty unique types of builds that are created by players. And so what I think is most important is that players can experience more than one play style."
I told the duo that I had requested Wand and Staff for my own playthrough at the behest of one of TheGamer's resident MMO expert, and they laughed - clearly, the team behind Throne & Liberty is aware of the importance of the mage class to MMO history, and the natural curiosity players will have for it here when magic usage is far more flexible.
"I have a long history with Korean MMOs," Lee Kwai tells me. "There are certain expectations around classes based on that legacy. It's important to strike a delicate balance. But when you're fighting one v one, or one v six, or 50 versus 50, or 200 versus 200, the abilities are used in many different ways and the strategies of combat change drastically. And one thing that mage classes are known for is area attacks, so during combat like sieges or massive battles there's usually strategies that arise based on how to coordinate magic attacks, and that's where they really get a lot of that reputation."
In our preview, there were eight of us in a dungeon taking on a handful of enemies at once, culminating in a final battle against one giant boss. But this is not the typical Throne & Liberty experience, and even the example tossed out of 200 versus 200 is, I'm told, more on the "low side". So what is the standard Throne & Liberty experience?
"Everything about Throne & Liberty, from day one, was built with, I would say, the right word is 'massive'," Lafuente says. "Massive scale, everything about it, the world, the buildings, everything. And the tech being built is going to allow things like the castle sieges that have thousands of players participating in a castle siege. That's not an exaggeration, that's already something that has been seen in the Korean life service is thousands of players participating in this castle siege. That's probably the biggest event that we have. And then there'll be other things that have hundreds of players, going down even to guild vs guild battles, which will be more along the 50 v 50, 60. v 60 type of range. Scale is a big part of what we expect in Throne & Liberty, particularly when it comes to PvP battles."
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Throne and Liberty
- Top Critic Avg: 73/100 Critics Rec: 54%
- Released
- October 1, 2024
- ESRB
- ꦿ T For Teen // Blood, Mild S🌌uggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- NCSoft
- Publisher(s)
- 🍌 NCSoft, Amazon Games
- Engine
- Unreal Engin❀e 4,🌊 Unreal Engine 5
Join the battle and immerse yourself in the exhilarating world of THRONE AND LIBERTY, a free-to-play game that revolves around guild-focused combat. Engage in thrilling battles against dozens to thousands of other players and fantastic creatures in group battles and massive Castle Sieges. Quick thinking and active decision-making are critical because every choice you make in the ever-changing world of Solisium carries weight and directly shapes your gameplay experience.
THRONE AND LIBERTY captures the essence of classic MMORPGs while introducing new gameplay elements, adding depth and excitement at ever🌸y turn. Choose your dual-weapon loadout to customize your approach on the battlefield, or morph into creatures of the land, water, and sky to traverse the vast and seamless world, or even take temporary control of a defeated boss to turn the tide of battle in your favor. Prepare for an unforgettable adventure where you’ll need to gather your guild, pr🔯epare for battle, and claim the throne.
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