Atlas falls Exactly the kind of game I need right now. I’m not quite sure how to explain why other than being slightly reductive, so indulge me: it has massive, glorious A-level energy. Not top three.only A. Sometimes, that’s all you need.
Now, before I get down to my brief time previewing Atlas Fallen in earnest, a caveat. Previewing games is always difficult. It’s not easy to form an opinion on an unfinished product in a short amount of time – but I tell you, it’s even harder when you’re stuck with technical issues. That’s my experience with Atlas Fallen.
This happens all the time in early builds, so it’s not really a wake-up call issue. A lot of the time, especially when I’m playing on PC, it’s about weird driver and hardware mismatches, things that get wiped out when the game gets closer to release. So when I play Atlas Fallen, I get my fair share of desktop crashes. But I keep going – keep playing, keep reloading, keep letting the autosave gods save me. You know why? ‘Cos Atlas Fallen is really a bit of a slap in the face.
I’m poking around for Atlas Fallen’s comparison points and struggles, but let me give you something broader: it has a powerful Darksiders energy. I’m not saying it’s The Legend of Zelda, although there are definitely Zelda elements. What I really mean is the general mood and feeling – the vibe of that game at the time. It’s not as extravagant or expensive as some, but it’s passionate and determined to bring together ideas and influences from different places and bring them to life in interesting ways. That is also the fall of Atlas.
Developer Deck13 is best known for The Surge and Lords of the Fallen, both titles in the “Souls” genre. It’s not one of them, wisely–but what you get is a funnier, looser third-person action-adventure game, just injected with a bit of crunchy, heavy Souls-style combat.
In fact, the star of the first game I played was a counter-attacker. Executed with the left bumper, it will “crystallize” enemies when the time is right – not only parrying their attacks, but freezing them completely in glistening rock, allowing you to face them for precious moments cry bitterly. In many games, counters feel precise and taut, but this is intentionally relaxed, in the form of a burst of energy emanating from your character.
A lovely sound effect accompanies a success counter, and you quickly dial in the time for each enemy. It turns encounters with multiple enemies into a delicious little dance: waiting for their attacks, crystallizing them, attacking before shifting focus in time to parry and crystallize their mates. feels good. I love so much.
Another interesting issue is Momentum, which itself feels like an inversion of the concept of stamina that dominates Souls games. Momentum is gained by attacking–though some weapons are better at building momentum than others. Special abilities and buffs that you equip in Atlas Fallen’s RPG menu become available in combat at a certain threshold of Momentum, indicated by the blue bar located below your health bar. The most powerful moves will require you to have a high Momentum level to use them, rewarding you with a strong literacy in the basic concepts of combat.
I really like this. You know how awesome it feels in Arkham games when you build up a great big combo and knock off enemies one by one without getting hit? There’s an element here, but the difference that the Momentum system offers is that now there’s a reward for keeping this kind of thing going in the form of temporarily unlocking more combat abilities. Weapons even change to become more deadly as you gain more power – so it’s in your interest to master combos and counters to constantly operate at peak efficiency.
The rest seemed interesting. The expansive area has treasure chests to find, dunes to fly through, traversal abilities, NPCs to meet, and a seemingly plethora of crafting gear and collectibles to acquire. All beautiful things. What I’ve seen of this world already makes it a thousand times more interesting than Forspoken, and this game probably costs many times more than that. A little dodgy voice work wasn’t enough to put me off either. But in a rather shaky build, it’s the combat that appeals to me the most — and for good reason. it’s great.
Also, to be honest, I really like old fashioned A-tier, no need for doubles or triples. With heart and soul, ideas here may not survive the beatings of a million focus groups and huge sales expectations. Like I said, it does feel a bit like Darksiders – and it’s certainly one of the great surprises of this generation. Atlas Fallen is fully on my radar right now – I can’t wait to play more – and the build is slightly more polished.
