Games Happy

Within the final decade or so, the German growth crew at Deck13 is primarily recognized for a handful of Soulslike motion RPGs, beginning with the unique Lords of the Fallen in 2014, adopted by two The Surge entries. The studio’s latest challenge is Atlas Fallen, which abandons any main Souls affect and is as an alternative a extra conventional open-world motion RPG. I used to be reasonably happy with The Surge and its sequel, so I used to be keen on seeing Deck13’s tackle a special taste of the style.

Nevertheless, Atlas Fallen doesn’t make first impression, in any respect. The opening sections of the sport are, plainly put, crummy. After a fast fight tutorial, you’re all of a sudden dropped right into a desert caravan as an unnamed slave, apparently throughout a sandstorm of types. Not solely is the general aesthetic to this part of the sport tedious with quite a lot of murky visible noise (suppose like ‘cloudy nightfall whirling sand all over the place’), however the introduction to your character and predicament feels narratively disjointed. The tempo of tutorials feels additionally too prolonged, and the sport locks off quite a lot of recreation techniques for an prolonged time period earlier than you *truly* get to the true recreation about an hour later. You do not have a map, and you’ll’t even save throughout this portion. It is very clunky and truthfully a horrible vertical slice of the sport.

Fortunately, when you move by way of this crummy opening, issues start to make extra sense. 

The fundamental premise of the sport is that this. Your customized character is an unnamed slave who stumbles throughout a magic gauntlet that successfully shape-shifts into ethereal weapons. You set out into the world to be taught extra concerning the mysterious voice behind the gauntlet, in addition to to cease an oppressive monarch and tyrannical god.

Atlas Fallen is an open-world sort RPG, however not so enormous to be unwieldy (and sure you ultimately get a map). The explorable zones you go to are usually not overwhelmingly mammoth-sized and every of the sport’s 4 main zones solely takes just a few hours to discover totally. In actual fact, Atlas Fallen is a comparatively brief expertise general, beatable in 10-15 hours with 100% completion doable in about 25 hours. When so many RPGs right now simply push previous 50-60+ hour endeavors, I am going to readily welcome a extra bite-sized RPG any day.

So far as the open-world design goes, it is entertaining in the way in which these types of video games sometimes are. Outdoors of the principle questline, there are a number of mini-events to come across on the earth — numerous puzzles resulting in chests or lore with every numbered as a kind of guidelines on the map — alongside extra concerned characters and sidequests to find. Since these zones are manageable in measurement, finishing these numerous mini-objectives and quests is not in any respect overwhelming and does not really feel like a chore. A lot of this exploration remains to be non-obligatory, after all, and you’ll simply beeline the principle narrative if you wish to.

The map itself is comparatively dense in comparison with different current open-world RPGs (in comparison with, say, Forspoken) with a notable quantity of verticality constructed into the world design. I recognize this on its face, however I do want the sport gave be the next vertical leap to extra simply navigate by way of these places somewhat than depend on considerably finicky platforming to realize top in sure areas.

Atlas Fallen’s most original and defining gameplay mechanic is the Momentum Gauge, which is the blue meter that sits under your well being bar within the nook of the display screen. While you encounter enemies, this bar begins empty and slowly fills up as you land assaults in your foes. Because the bar fills up, it’s going to move numerous nodes on the bar that can unlock each passive and lively skills in that struggle. The quantity of harm you’ll do additionally will increase because the meter fills, along with your shape-shifting weapons even rising in measurement.

As you may count on, which means each battle within the recreation begins out with comparatively fundamental combo assaults, and you will get progressively stronger with extra advanced skills as a fight encounter drags on. The longer the battle, the stronger you may change into. You’ll be able to sort of consider this Momentum Gauge like hitting the fuel pedal in your automotive; you begin at relaxation however will steadily climb to quick speeds, altering gears alongside the way in which.

The sport’s primary character-building mechanic can also be tied to the Momentum Gauge. The nodes you set on the gauge are as much as you, for each passive and lively skills. For instance, in my playthrough of the sport, I had one of many first nodes on the meter merely set as a passive harm improve, that means I’d hit the node early on in each battle (to proceed my automotive analogy, think about getting a energy increase when you reached 10 MPH throughout your acceleration). Afterward the meter, I set nodes for acquiring higher loot (say, 30 MPH), and on the finish of the meter, I had nodes that activated automated parrying (say, 60 MPH). There are some restrictions on which skills might be positioned on which nodes, however finally that is the way you tailor your character to your playstyle.

When you stand up to hurry, fight turns into fairly energetic and various, and this element is definitely Atlas Fallen’s greatest energy.

This momentum system is genuinely fairly cool and novel, each permitting for a major quantity of flexibility in character builds whereas additionally retaining fight feeling participating in every battle. There’s a little little bit of a ‘ramp up’ to every encounter earlier than you get to full throttle, however I feel the sport does a fairly good job by no means making it really feel just like the Momentum Gauge takes too lengthy for issues to stand up to hurry.

Nevertheless, fight design is a little more tedious in different methods. Usually in video games like this, one in every of my least favourite battle gimmicks is when a giant boss monster summons little underlings to harass you when you are preventing, and boy Atlas Fallen simply occurs to like this kind of battle design. Virtually each medium-to-big measurement monster within the recreation will periodically summon a gaggle of mooks to affix the battle — you may see this continually all through the course of the sport.

There’s a purpose for this, which more-or-less boils all the way down to how the Momentum Gauge fills sooner when you’ll be able to hit a number of enemies directly. It appears, to me, that momentum in opposition to singular larger foes does not work out as effectively mechanically because it does in opposition to teams of 4-5 small enemies, so the sport makes use of this kind of underling-summoning design as a crutch to acquiesce to the sport’s underlying mechanical philosophy and retaining momentum going. Regardless, this finish result’s considerably exhausting, and I actually want they approached dealing with fight in opposition to bigger enemies in another method.

Atlas Fallen does not use expertise factors typical to the style, however it successfully works out equally regardless. Slightly than getting expertise to stage as much as enhance your stats, you may achieve supplies to enhance your armor, which can in flip offer you new stats and perks. 

Atlas Fallen’s narrative parts are sadly one of many recreation’s weaker elements. There are just a few doubtlessly fascinating concepts conceptually involving just a few characters, and I truly drastically recognize the range of characters you encounter within the recreation. Nevertheless, the precise outward narrative & battle may be very done-before with none fascinating wrinkles, and it leaves no lasting impression. The sport’s visible presentation additionally feels a bit dated on the subject of character fashions and dialogue, which admittedly takes a bit little bit of getting used to.

There’s merely nothing to latch onto right here, both in superficial or extra significant methods. In case you primarily play RPGs for his or her story parts, Atlas Fallen might be not the sport you’re on the lookout for. That is maybe not too stunning, given how narratively lean each The Surge titles are, however I nonetheless can not help however really feel the trouble right here missed the mark.

One important further consideration to Atlas Fallen is that the sport is totally playable in cooperative multiplayer with one different individual. As is the case with many co-op video games, issues get a bit tough if two gamers try to play collectively after they have individually made considerably completely different progress within the story, as development is usually locked off in co-op. Nevertheless, in the event you needed to play Atlas Fallen with a buddy, you are able to do so, and I’d recommend taking part in the sport in lockstep to keep away from mismatched story development affecting co-op periods.

Whereas taking part in in co-op, every participant is mainly free to discover the map on their very own, preventing enemies, finishing quests, looting chests (which is shared), fixing puzzles, and the like. So, in the event you have been on the lookout for a comparatively brief motion RPG expertise to play with a buddy, Atlas Fallen is price a shot. Even when Atlas Fallen is just a so-so title in single-player, taking part in with a buddy can at all times make any expertise that rather more fulfilling.

Atlas Fallen is a median motion RPG with some fascinating Momentum fight mechanics, a decent open-world design, subpar presentation, and a disappointing narrative. In some methods, it appears like a step down from The Surge titles, and I am going to at all times look ahead to what Deck13 works on subsequent, however Atlas Fallen did not land as strongly for me as I hoped it might.

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