Liberté Review

The French Revolution is, undoubtedly, a fantastic setting thanks to the political implications and street fighting. However, I would never have considered it the best place for a Hades-esque roguelike. However, that is where developer Superstatic has decided to go with their latest title, Liberté. The question is if we should hear the singing of angry men or if they should go and eat cake.

Liberté’s plot revolves around Rene, a Parisian who has become the avatar of Lady Bliss, a plant-like alien. Through the patronage of Lady Bliss, Rene has the power of rebirth and must work to gain the trust of the four factions to help spread the Plant’s influence throughout Paris. It’s an interesting concept, although the addition of an alien feels a bit odd, but it gives a reasonably good inciting incident at the least. Rene will also meet the leaders of the factions; be they rebels, nobles, or something else. I will now state that none of the main characters are historical, which is a turn-off. 

The problem is that it really has little to do with the French Revolution and might have been better set in some fantasy reality. I wasn’t being glib when I mentioned Hades either, as Liberté borrows more than just some gameplay mechanics. As you perform runs you will occasionally meet the characters talking to each other and arguing. The problem is that, in Hades, these characters were immortal beings, and it made sense for them to speak in Hades’ palace. Meanwhile, it just feels odd to see a noble prince talking with the revolution's leader. Added to this is the way you complete missions for the characters. For instance, I started the tutorial helping to save the resistance leader, and then the next mission had me running around for the prince, whose army I had just beaten, with no mention from him or the game about what was happening. 

In terms of gameplay, Liberté uses a card-based system where you find and unlock new cards that offer new abilities. You always have a basic attack and a simple dodge but have slots for a ranged attack and a melee, a special move, and items. These later sections are filled by the cards, alongside cards that offer buffs, which you are offered at the end of each fight. The system works, but the cards themselves have no real balance and there’s no reason to really experiment on new cards. However, I will say that I like the mechanic for equipping the cards as it adds a bit of strategy.

Rene has a set amount of mana slots, which each card requires to be added to your character. To get mana, you have to burn cards you don’t plan on using, which gives you the cost of the skill back. It adds a bit of strategy but is again let down by the simple fact that the quality of the skills isn’t equal, so I never debated what I was getting rid of. The other issue is that Liberté doesn’t have a stamina bar, so there’s little reason to bother using the card attacks when your basic slash and dodge will do most of the work. In truth, the main card I used was the one that gave me armour as it was the most useful over the long wind-up of some of the melee card attacks. 

Combat is, again, very much like Hades with enemies being pretty numerous and healing items being sparse at best. You will have to be fast, and while dodging is pretty easy it quickly becomes difficult as more enemies arrive. Thankfully, you get plenty of breaks to think, as missions are split into sections, much like Hades’ islands, that only have 1-2 combat encounters on them. You will also gather money that you can spend when you find the market area in each mission. 

Finally, there are bosses, who run the gamut from a challenging encounter to just a slightly tougher basic enemy. Like most roguelikes, it's rare to just win on the first run, instead, you have to build up your deck and find items that let you craft more powerful cards. You can also, as you happen to be a walking shrubbery, take on the skin of the leaders you find and use their abilities and skills on a run instead of being Rene. So if you happen to want to be a leader of the liberation, you can. However, doing so doesn’t affect the story. 

Part of the joy of the French Revolution is the visuals, the sites of the city being full of barricades and riots. That was something that Assassin’s Creed Unity showed perfectly. Liberté kind of gets this down, with the city appearing suitably dishevelled and the image of normal life working around the fighting. However, it’s hampered by a weird camera angle that makes it easy to get stuck on a building. There’s also a lack of real variety in what you see for a long time, with all parts of the city looking pretty much the same. I will say that the voice actors do their best, but all of them being very English-sounding kind of ruins it. 

Liberté is not a fantastic game, but it does what it can to try and make itself entertaining. The issue with the cards, and the lack of a stamina bar, really makes combat too easy at the best of times and most deaths come more down to just getting bored of tanky enemies. Honestly, if you want to try this kind of game then I’d recommend playing Hades, or Hades II. If you’ve completed both of these and are looking for a new fix, then Liberté might be worth a look.