There is certainly no shortage of live-service games and MMOs available, but NCSOFT and Amazon Games’ Throne and Liberty makes just one more. Originally intended to be a sequel to 1998’s Lineage, Throne and Liberty is a free-to-play MMORPG that has been nearly 13 years in the making, having suffered numerous delays due to shifts in leadership and changes to the game’s engine. Nevertheless, it is finally here, and interested players are wetting their feet in its weapon-based class system, extensive exploration, and colorful, saturated visuals.

Throne and Liberty is the latest in an increasingly long line of live-service games to grace the stage, making it yet another title in the vast library of games belonging to a genre that has garnered an exceedingly poor reputation in recent memory. However, Throne and Liberty may be able to avoid that stigma with its somewhat fresh approach to the free-to-play model, making it at least worth a try, even in the earliest days of its lifespan.

Why Throne and Liberty Is Worth a Shot

Throne and Liberty Is Free-to-Play and at Least Worth Trying

One of the greatest benefits of Throne and Liberty is that it is a free-to-play game. While the free-to-play model has often been held in contempt for sometimes merely allowing a game to masquerade as a free experience while employing subtle tactics to get into players’ wallets, it still means that anyone can play those games without spending anything but time on them if they so choose. As a free-to-play game, Throne and Liberty does give players opportunities to spend real money, but it takes a more relaxed approach to the increasingly scorned model and more openly embraces providing a free experience to all players. This all means that, at the very least, those intrigued by Throne and Liberty‘s concept should give it a try, as they may enjoy it.

As a free-to-play game, Throne and Liberty does give players opportunities to spend real money, but it takes a more relaxed approach to the increasingly scorned model and more openly embraces providing a free experience to all players.

What sets Throne and Liberty apart from other free-to-play games is its balance of grind with monetization. Certain live-service games heavily lock progression behind a paywall, and while paying real money to Throne and Liberty can certainly help players get ahead, like in its Diablo 3-esque auction house, its grind is not nearly as tedious as that of some other games on the market.

Of course, this is a sentiment some players may not find to be their taste, but Throne and Liberty ‘s differences are easily noticeable when directly compared to other games like it.

Throne and Liberty Is Currently Performing Admirably on Steam

Despite the live-service fatigue that has plagued the gaming industry as of late, Throne and Liberty appears to be performing admirably on Steam. Currently, it is sitting at a “Mixed” review rating with over 5,000 reviews, with many of the negative reviews labeling the game “pay to win” — the same criticism Lost Ark, another free-to-play game, has received in the past. However, it is nonetheless entirely possible to play Throne and Liberty successfully without shelling out any real money at all, and many of the game’s positive Steam reviews help to confirm that.

Saying a game with a “Mixed” Steam review rating is worth playing might seem like a hot take, but the current reputation of the live-service and free-to-play model in the gaming industry may suggest otherwise. Specifically, some modern games that observe such models have proven to almost immediately plummet, and yet Throne and Liberty seems to be holding its own, with many of those who have already spent dozens of hours with it taking the time to write a Steam review that claims the game is worth playing. As such, anyone even remotely interested in Throne and Liberty should consider giving it a try, as it might just surprise them and hold them captive for hours.