Liberated

The premise of Liberated is great and I really want to love that game. However, the clunky controls, some frustrating scenes and save points and the weird level design makes it hard to recommend. The best part of the game certainly is the story. It revolves around a totalitarian state and how some people try to start a revolution against it. The great comic-styled cut scenes feel a lot like "V for Vendetta". I must admit that I didn't see some plot twists coming and I enjoyed the story. It took me about 4h to finish the game and another 30mins for the DLCs. Moreover, I really liked the art style and the comic atmosphere. Most of the time, the gameplay elements blend well into the comic frames. However, sometimes the animated scenes felt a bit off (especially in Issue/chapter 3) but that might just be my personal taste. The gameplay is the weakest spot of the game. I was expecting some kind of stealth game like "Mark of the Ninja". However, you should expect an action game more similar to "Deadlight". That is not a bad thing, and I did enjoy the gunplay after I got used to it. But do not buy this game if you want to play a stealth game. The stealth mechanic is inherently flawed and no fun at all. Shooting enemies in the head, in turn, is very satisfactory in a weird way. Lastly, the level design, which aims to be a bit like Limbo. And in many ways it succeeds. Often times the backgrounds are gorgeous and very fitting. Nevertheless, some design decisions simply didn't make sense, like when you climb from the basement to the first floor, which is completely flooded. Then you climb around and flood it a bit more until you finally reach a door that lets you go back down to a perfectly dry basement. For some reasons it really put me off to see such an inconsistent building design. All in all, you only play this for the story and the art. If you like the premise and the style and don't mind the gameplay, give it a try. Everyone else better waits for a sale.