Liberation (2023)

Liberation is a compact spacefaring RPG that draws heavily from the spirit of early science-fiction games while using a more modern foundation for its combat and presentation. Developed and published by Classyk Games, it casts the player as the pilot of an advanced stealth spacecraft fighting against the Galactic Federation, commonly called GalFed. Rather than asking players to become traders who spend most of their time comparing commodities and building wealth, the experience concentrates on exploration, ship upgrades, battles, missions, characters, and the gradual liberation of an oppressed galaxy. The resulting adventure feels deliberately focused, embracing a smaller but more purposeful universe instead of competing with enormous procedural space sandboxes. The setting is one of its strongest qualities. GalFed is presented as an authoritarian society where artificial intelligence has been outlawed, powerful individuals manipulate events for their own benefit, and ordinary citizens are often treated as disposable. This creates an appropriately bleak backdrop for a rebellion, although the tone is not relentlessly serious. There is a streak of humor and eccentricity running thro…

Cool concept. Menu controls make no sense. Needs more work

Liberation 80's retro

I suspect that Blake, Avon, Vila, Jenna, Cally, Gan, Zen, and even Orac would enjoy this (alright, perhaps not that egotistic electronic maniac Orac)-all that's missing is the Supreme Commander, her lapdog Space Commander, and a lot of sexy Mutiods. Well done to the studio, and thanks for the top-notch memories of the good old days of British Sci-Fi. For those of you who don't know or understand, this game pays homage to our anti-Trek SF telly series "Blake's 7" (1978-1981) and original computer game "Elite" ( 1984). I thoroughly recommend it to you all, regardless of age. The controls are simple as are the setting and graphics, but in this age of GPU-busting overpriced rot, this should keep you busy for a few hours. And if you die, then the Federation wins, and we can't have that, can we?

The graphics remind me of ELITE Frontier II - a game I have played for a long time. Simple 3d objects and giant planets are all you need to make a representation of the galaxy. Sadly... the rest of the game is not up to the task. The basic controls are easy to learn, but everything else lacks proper feedback for the player. Are you currently in a fight? How could you tell? How do you target a specific thing? How do you land? How do you use the hacking tool? The only hint is the one in game overview screen and it doesn't tell you. Sometimes you can select buttons with the mouse - most of the time it is safer to just use the keyboard. I'm quite sure once the game let me safe with "S" after Enter didn't do anything, another time it was the other way around. It's very weird how different screens overlap with each other... Well, you can shoot lasers and dock at stations - that is good enough to advance the plot a few systems. You always have exact one next task that is displayed at the top of the screen. Docking leads you to news you can read or ship systems to buy/repair, but it feels very bare bones. There are no side quests or jobs to pick up, there is no way to trade - there isn…

I am well used to indy games and a fan of retro title. And I am a big Blakes 7 fan. Liberation is unplayable on game pad and the keyboard - and response in general - is real poor. I was looking forward to this based on reviews.