Liberated – PAX East 2020 Preview
Liberated is a new playable graphic novel from Polish developer Atomic Wolf. By combining a novel comic book inspired and esoteric form of narrative delivery with side scrolling action stealth, Liberated is set to captivate audiences. We took a look at a demo of the game at PAX East 2020.
Liberated utilizes an incredibly unique film noir and graphic novel visual aesthetic. It is set in a dystopian near future where surveillance rules over society like a mysterious and hidden iron fist. Every aspect of your life can and will be monitored – from your social status to income and personal relationships. A clandestine group called the Liberated has formed as a rebellion against this hidden big brother. They operate under the philosophy that “the system chooses free when the free should choose the system.”
Cutscenes and certain gameplay sections play out within the panels of a graphic novel. These panels are both still and animated and serve to provide a distinct personality to the game. The entire game occurs over four issues – two of which we played in part during our demo. Each issue has you take control of a different character central to the narrative. Our first character in the demo was being newly initiated into the Liberated rebel group. He is tasked with infiltrating a security hub to hack into a mainframe. The next issue had us take control of a seasoned detective. His goal is to take down an extremely militant band of Liberated fighters.
The gameplay in Liberated boils down to three main aspects – side scrolling gun based combat, stealth, and puzzle solving. The combat and stealth are mostly interchangeable. Players can choose to take a slower approach to dealing with enemies by hiding behind columns or walls and performing stealth kills. Written comic book sound effects like BLAM and POW are cleverly woven into the combat, corresponding with stealth melee attacks and weapon fires.
Conversely you can also go guns blazing with a varied arsenal to quickly dispatch enemies. During our demo, most stages housed around half a dozen foes – meaning a combination of stealth and combat hit a sweet spot for the best experience. Puzzles in our demo were limited, but did include one cryptic number solving challenge. Here we had to unscramble a series of four numbers. Each random combination you input provides you with hints as to how close you are to the correct code. The system seemed obtuse at first, but provided enough direction that you could get the correct code with just a bit of concentration and trial.
What Liberated provides is a unique method of story delivery combined with varied game play and smooth action. We’re looking forward to seeing how the full story plays out after its full release in Q2 2020 on PC and home consoles.
