Liberated (Switch) Review
Release Date: June 2, 2020
Publisher/Developer: Walkabout Games/Atomic Wolf
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PC
Price: $19.99
Liberated takes a fairly traditional story trope and attempts to splash some uniquity in it’s presentation. A noire-style action platformer, Liberated presents like you are reading a gritty graphic novel. Entirely in black and white with occasional splashes of lights and color, you literally open a novel and begin reading. The living novel develops on the page as you read, and platforming levels or quick time events litter the pages as the story progresses. It’s a little bit Blade Runner, a little bit Sin City, and a splash of Comix Zone, though I wish that a little more focus was made on general gameplay, as well as integrate that gameplay into the pages a bit more.
Liberated is timed just right, much like how Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out at a perfect time for humanity. Animal Crossing offered outdoor, freeing experiences full of meeting up with new friends and being creative at a time that everyone was told to huddle up indoors. Recent tragedies in America definitely invoke the feelings portrayed in Liberated’s story, revolving around a nation on the brink. After a terrible tragedy, a strict government starts literally watching everything you do, with a very Minority Report meets V for Vendetta feel. Social media is monitored, with major repercussions for anyone who goes out of line. A group of revolutionaries, the Liberated, seek to overturn this government, destroy the programming that allows this overarching regime to monitor your every move, and return society to a freer state. Across the four chapters of the story, you actually get to see both sides, both as a member of the Liberated and as an officer looking to bring the peace this overarching government promised before it took a step too far.
Starting Liberated, players get a chance to state whether they are a “gamer” or a “reader”, which effects overall difficulty. People in it for the story are going to find enemies easier to hit and faster to go down, whilst gamers get a challenge with the extra twitch gameplay. As a blank set of pages opens up in the novel, the camera pans in to actively read each panel. Panels are filled in with ever-so-slightly animated portraits, representing the action in the panel. It reminds me of a black and white version of the Twisted Metal 2 animated cutscenes, with almost paper-doll like quality at times. As you come to an action section, the panels transition to 3D character models that look faithful to their original 2D counterparts. Gaming is a combination of stealth and action shooting, with some minor platforming and shoving boxes to reach new areas kind of gameplay. QTE sections show action scenes with timed button presses.
Other gameplay elements include basic puzzles, like connecting circuits in an app to override a lock or basic choice options. While it seems like some of these choices seem huge (like the cops bust in: do you surrender or run?), they don’t do anything to change the main story, more that they choose whether or not you deal with a particular action scene. I surrendered, and a couple blank pages flipped by without stopping on them. I can appreciate being able to change the story, but watching blank pages flip by just makes me feel like I’m missing out. I enjoyed the mini puzzles, but they suffer from the traditional gaming trope of not understanding why they make whatever needs to happen occur. This translates to the platforming as well: if I’m busting into an underground bunker of a rebellious organization, why is there a button two floors up and two rooms over to open a trap door on the floor which just happens to be where I need to go next? Why do I need to raise and lower water levels and swim through areas nearly drowning to find the next small packet of rebels? Just how deep is this bunker anyways?
I appreciate the graphic novel presentation of the game, though I wish it were more integrated. In the classic Genesis game Comix Zone, the protagonist jumped between frames, literally using the boxes of the comic as platforms toward the goal. In Liberated, you get to a point in the game that is interactive and we stop on an HDTV-shaped square. You can see them coming as you are “reading” the novel and know that you should get ready to play. Unfortunately, keeping the feel of the novel means you are still looking at the “page” and seeing the frame of the window surrounding it. Playing handheld inside a letterbox with tiny characters in black and white leads to a lot of guesswork. Also, the full-run is so fast you end up alerting the guards or falling off of a ledge, whilst the walk feels agonizing when there’s no enemies in sight. Shooting is difficult: you have to aim the gun with the right analog stick (while walking, not running) and pull the right trigger. Perhaps it’s just my hand grip, but I felt the sensitivity was too tight, so I’d end up tweaking the analog stick grip when pulling the trigger, frequently turning into a miss. Firefights boil down to either you get a headshot or the enemy turns on you and first to get three bullets in wins. Enemies are pretty straightforward in attacking: once an enemy walked off a cliff trying to get to me. Other areas require a prediction of what the developer wanted to happen: at one point I was climbing a rope up a broken elevator shaft and a platoon of enemy soldiers began walking on screen, but I couldn’t get off the rope before they would shoot me, then the save is at the bottom of the rope with no way back to find an alternate route. Moments like that make me wish I could play this review game with the benefit of an online walkthrough that isn’t gonna be out until the game has been on shelves a bit longer.
Still, though, come to Liberated for the story and presentation. Whilst it doesn’t reinvent the wheel on gritty noir storylines, the quick transitions from gameplay to story and active “reading” of the comic make for good entertainment. While it has some flaws in the gameplay experience, they are tolerable, and can be made easier to handle in “reader” mode, so you can enjoy this tale of overthrowing a totalitarian government without worrying about the gamer issues too much.
Pros:
-Excellent presentation feels like you are playing a graphic novel
-Swapping back and forth feels like seeing both sides of the story
-Great combination of platforming, shooting, choice making, QTEs, and storytelling
-Reader Mode allows you to minimize below “cons” and enjoy the story
Cons:
-Shooting is sloppy, simple AI makes firefights lackluster
-Hard to go fast, annoying to go slow
-Box-in-box framing of platforming sections shrink action unnecessarily
Special thanks to Walkabout Games/Atomic Wolf for providing a code for review!