Whereas it was The Surge that put Deck13 Interactive’s title on the map, it is Atlas Fallen that may henceforth be thought-about the studio’s greatest recreation to this point. Switching the Souls-like construction of its previous titles for a extra conventional open world journey with issue choices, it boasts of fantastic traversal and a enjoyable fight system in a sandy setting dominated by an evil god. Lingering AA jank holds it again from greatness, however Atlas Fallen holds its personal in amongst the yr’s extra vital hitters.
A few of that weighty power from The Surge 2 continues to be felt right here, notably within the fight system. Having created a personality, you defy your oppressors (your variety are primarily slaves referred to solely as Unnamed) after discovering a Gauntlet with the ability of a god trapped inside — it is this that provides you magical powers to glide throughout the sands and take down Wraiths patrolling the dunes. Whereas motion feels so extremely liberating, it is the talents the Gauntlet grants you that really feel heavy and deliberate. In tandem, the 2 options strike an amazing steadiness that makes gameplay in Atlas Fallen the true king.
It is form of like Forspoken meets Monster Hunter, with double jumps and triple air dashes making traversal really feel responsive and finely tuned. Then, fight is all about focusing on particular limbs to down enemies and earn higher rewards. The Gauntlet can be sentient in the identical manner Frey Holland’s Cuff is, however it’s nowhere close to as annoying or quippy. In truth, it takes your character fairly severely for the roughly 12 hours wanted to roll credit.
What extends your playtime is aspect quests, odd jobs, and enjoyable open world actions, all of which check your expertise throughout the title’s two foremost focal factors: motion and fight. The previous is principally constructed upon with extra makes use of of every skill, sourced from upgrades buried all through the open world. They permit you to cross greater gaps, get about faster, and entry beforehand hidden areas. The latter, although, is far more experimental.
Regardless of residing beneath their tight iron fist in the beginning of the sport, there aren’t any human enemies in Atlas Fallen; solely Wraiths. Legendary beasts that take the form of burrowing snakes, birds, and more and more giant mammals, you could goal after which destroy every of their limbs earlier than they go down for good. With none stamina bars to handle, fights are far more offensive-focused than The Surge.
Benefiting from your nimble nature, you may sprint across the battlefield, shortly taking down enemies with sword hits, whip slashes, and highly effective slams into the bottom beneath. The sport is gracious with its skills, to the purpose the place merely hitting an enemy restores a use of your sprint, permitting you to remain within the air for lengthy durations of time and juggle your injury between foes. It feels so liberating and versatile within the second; there’s by no means a second the place you are held again.
Then, throughout three completely different tiers making up a complete of 9 slots, you may customise your protagonist with new assaults and skills. Named Essence Stones, they’re activated as you refill the Momentum Gauge by touchdown hits on enemies. Short-term buffs are triggered routinely whereas particular assaults could be saved for the proper second. From summonable hurricanes and large magical axes to break and defensive upgrades, there’s a whole lot of selection that provides aptitude to your base play fashion. With a satisfying parry additionally that freezes monsters in time and area, there’s a whole lot of enjoyment to be gained from enjoying round with what’s on supply.
There are nicely over 30 completely different powers to equip, which mixed with Idols that modify your base skills, actually provides you a whole lot of room to experiment with. The sport means that you can shortly swap between three completely different loadouts, letting you package your character out for particular conditions. It is a formidable stage of construct customisation that goes a protracted option to making your character really feel distinct from a good friend’s – a correct boon throughout co-op play.
The top result’s an expertise the place you all the time really feel such as you’re enhancing. This even extends to your character’s core skills: you are still unlocking new powers mere hours earlier than the top of the sport. This provides cause to backtrack and resolve conundrums you could not beforehand work together with.
Sadly, our compliments of the narrative’s foremost goals do not monitor fairly as positively. Notably within the second half of the story, some duties begin to really feel like repetitive busywork. You may have to carry out the identical actions at a number of factors throughout the map, or backtrack continuously between cities and the dusty wasteland. It slows the tempo of the sport right down to a irritating crawl, to the purpose the place the cracking fight and traversal cannot fairly paper over the cracks. Most of Atlas Fallen’s gameplay is a spotlight, however you’ll have to put up with just a few deeper valleys together with the highs.
Nonetheless, there are all the time the elective ventures of the open world to distract you. There are platforming challenges to grasp, elite Wraiths to beat, and timed duties to beat. It is nothing you have not seen earlier than, however they’re welcome interferences with assured rewards, supplies, and currencies on the finish.
It is possible the technical setbacks of the sport will get in the way in which sooner or later, although, because the title feels prefer it’s missing that remaining layer of polish. The visuals themselves aren’t notably nice, there are spelling errors within the menus, and the transitions between cutscenes after which into gameplay could be fairly clunky. Then there’s a whole lot of texture pop-in and UI parts that linger on display screen for thus lengthy that they begin to really feel like a glitch.
Load occasions on PS5 may very well be quite a bit higher too. They’re usually fairly acceptable throughout quick journey, however you will be ready fairly a bit longer than you need when returning to the motion following a loss of life. At the very least the body price stays largely regular all through, focusing on 60fps at 1440p on the default mode. The opposite possibility is a 4K decision at 30fps, however given the velocity Atlas Fallen strikes at, it is best to depart the setting be.
With pretty frequent points beneath the hood, the sport is not fairly as cohesive and constant because it may very well be. Whereas gameplay is fairly improbable, the connective tissue holding it collectively is something however.
The environments aren’t something to put in writing dwelling about, both. It is definitely cool to glide throughout the sands, however every location blends into each other with no actual distinctive options. You may be continuously referring to the pause display screen’s map because it’s nearly not possible to get your bearings just by taking in your environment. It is a whole lot of sand, just a few crumbling cities, and bits of rubble protruding of dunes.
Conclusion
Atlas Fallen is a valiant effort from Deck13 Interactive that may go down as its greatest recreation thus far. With improbable traversal and a enjoyable, participating fight system, the developer has nailed the gameplay in each sense. What holds the expertise again, although, is an absence of polish to iron out the technical points and doubtlessly lengthy load occasions. It is disappointing to return up towards just a few too many flaws, however when Atlas Fallen is on kind, its marriage of motion and preventing shines by.
