Whereas it was The Surge that put Deck13 Interactive’s identify on the map, it is Atlas Fallen that can henceforth be thought of the studio’s finest sport so far. 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 important hitters.
A few of that weighty vitality from The Surge 2 remains to be felt right here, notably within the fight system. Having created a personality, you defy your oppressors (your sort are primarily slaves referred to solely as Unnamed) after discovering a Gauntlet with the ability of a god trapped inside — it is this that offers you magical powers to glide throughout the sands and take down Wraiths patrolling the dunes. Whereas motion feels so extremely releasing, it is the talents the Gauntlet grants you that really feel heavy and deliberate. In tandem, the 2 options strike an excellent 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 concentrating on particular limbs to down enemies and earn higher rewards. The Gauntlet can be sentient in the identical manner Frey Holland’s Cuff is, but it surely’s nowhere close to as annoying or quippy. Actually, it takes your character fairly significantly for the roughly 12 hours wanted to roll credit.
What extends your playtime is facet quests, odd jobs, and enjoyable open world actions, all of which check your expertise throughout the title’s two most important focal factors: motion and fight. The previous is principally constructed upon with extra makes use of of every capacity, sourced from upgrades buried all through the open world. They let you cross greater gaps, get about faster, and entry beforehand hidden areas. The latter, although, is rather more experimental.
Regardless of residing below their tight iron fist firstly 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 will need to goal after which destroy every of their limbs earlier than they go down for good. With none stamina bars to handle, fights are rather more offensive-focused than The Surge.
Profiting from your nimble nature, you possibly can 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 talents, to the purpose the place merely hitting an enemy restores a use of your sprint, permitting you to remain within the air for lengthy intervals of time and juggle your harm 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 possibly can 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. Momentary buffs are triggered robotically whereas particular assaults will be saved for the best second. From summonable hurricanes and large magical axes to wreck and defensive upgrades, there’s quite a 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 quite a lot of enjoyment to be gained from taking part in round with what’s on provide.
There are effectively over 30 completely different powers to equip, which mixed with Idols that modify your base talents, actually offers you quite a lot of room to experiment with. The sport permits you to shortly swap between three completely different loadouts, letting you package your character out for particular conditions. It is a formidable degree of construct customisation that goes an extended method to making your character really feel distinct from a pal’s – a correct boon throughout co-op play.
The top result’s an expertise the place you at all times really feel such as you’re enhancing. This even extends to your character’s core talents: you are still unlocking new powers mere hours earlier than the tip of the sport. This provides purpose to backtrack and remedy conundrums you could not beforehand work together with.
Sadly, our compliments of the narrative’s most important aims do not observe fairly as positively. Notably within the second half of the story, some duties begin to really feel like repetitive busywork. You will must carry out the identical actions at a number of factors throughout the map, or backtrack always 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 at all times the non-compulsory 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 seemingly 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 ultimate 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 will be fairly clunky. Then there’s quite a lot of texture pop-in and UI parts that linger on display screen for therefore lengthy that they begin to really feel like a glitch.
Load instances on PS5 may very well be lots higher too. They’re usually fairly acceptable throughout quick journey, however you will be ready fairly a bit longer than you would like when returning to the motion following a dying. Not less than the body price stays largely regular all through, concentrating on 60fps at 1440p on the default mode. The opposite choice is a 4K decision at 30fps, however given the pace Atlas Fallen strikes at, it is best to go away the setting be.
With pretty frequent points below the hood, the sport is not fairly as cohesive and constant because it may very well be. Whereas gameplay is fairly incredible, the connective tissue holding it collectively is something however.
The environments aren’t something to write down house about, both. It is definitely cool to glide throughout the sands, however every location blends into each other with no actual distinctive options. You will be always 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 quite a 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 can go down as its finest sport to date. With incredible traversal and a enjoyable, partaking fight system, the developer has nailed the gameplay in each sense. What holds the expertise again, although, is a scarcity of polish to iron out the technical points and doubtlessly lengthy load instances. It is disappointing to come back up in opposition to just a few too many flaws, however when Atlas Fallen is on kind, its marriage of motion and preventing shines by.