Sand surfing and god breaking | Atlas Fallen Review – KWTX
WACO, Texas (KWTX) –
Sometimes you want a game where you can mostly turn your brain off and just beat up some monsters. No having to think “Am I the bad guy?”. No trying to max out stats or finding the optimal experience farm. Just beat the monsters and be the hero. That is what Deck 13 interactive, and Focus Entertainment have tried to deliver in Atlas Fallen. These guys have made both Lords of The Fallen and The Surge 1 & 2. I enjoyed all three of these titles and from the moment I saw the Avatar like sand sliding and the earth shattering heavy combos from giant sand fists I knew this was a game I would keep my eye on. In a genre that is known to weave fluid movement and hard hitting combos will this title rise to the level of gods or will it Atlas Fall to the sands.
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We start off as a nameless. A caste of people who are essentially serfs or slaves. A people who are thought of so lowly that they are denied even a name. Called instead by what they do or a description of a tool such as Tracker, Splinter, or Appleseed. When beginning a new adventure you get to create your nameless. The character creator has a decent selection to make who you want but unfortunately that’s about the extent of the depth of your character. Throughout the game I felt almost the entire cast fell flat. From the literally nameless NPCs to the emotionally flat voice acting. While your character does have options in dialog there are not any choices to develop the players personality just other ways to get basically the same information delivered. The story unfortunately doesn’t offer much of a reprieve either. The general story is something we have seen time and time again. A nameless underdog finds a strange artifact holding a peculiar power. Simultaneously two rival gods have been fighting for centuries and wouldn’t you know you’re suddenly in the middle of it. While you can pull off this story and keep it original Atlas Fallen just can’t overcome its baseness. Get this power fight the bad save the people. Minus a few points of flavor here and there it really boils down to this. Other than a few spread out interactions the story and characters seem to fade into the background
Speaking of backgrounds, the set design of this world leaves me… conflicted. On the one hand the harsh desert landscape makes the feeling of desperation and desolation evident throughout the land. On the other hand, while there are small areas where the biomes differ, the overwhelming amount of time you are in areas that seem to blend into each other to become one gigantic sandy mess. (Insert Anakin doesn’t like sand meme). Environments are dotted by small forest areas and ruins which do try to break up the monotony but in the end it still feels lifeless and empty. By deactivating watch towers you’re able to bring some life back to some places but it really doesn’t impact anything in a meaningful way. While I understand why the developers went this direction to fit with the tone of the story it just seemed to culminate in a lackluster world that left me not interested in exploring any more than necessary.
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Okay I know I may have been a bit harsh, but this game has some solid points as well. The music strikes a delicate balance fading unobtrusively into the background, to the point of not being noticeable. Then all of a sudden while fighting a large encounter the sound of grating sands and roaring monsters coalesce into a crescendo of shattering glass elevating the moment to new heights. After all, who doesn’t like the sound of breaking glass when you won’t get in trouble for it.
The landscapes while mostly barren and dreary are rendered beautifully. When looking at some of the skylines early on it really can be worth your time to use the photo mode to catch some great landscape shots as well. Performance-wise it runs consistently as well. I experienced no graphical errors or stuttering. The closest thing I had to issues graphically were some pop in of items outside of the render area. Surprisingly my run was bug free as well minus a small issue at the very beginning that was immediately fixed by reloading.
The shining jewel of this game is undoubtedly the combat. Though you start simple with only one available weapon and a few short combos. The game quickly expands with gauntlet upgrades, two additional weapons, and a unique momentum system. As you upgrade your gauntlet you gain more slots in order to use the various essence stones. These essence stones come in two major forms with five different categories. The major forms are active stones and passive stones. Active stones are your swapable skill stones that allow you to activate a variety of abilities. Passive stones are just that; passive abilities that can buff yourself, debuff enemies, send out projectiles, or even do special effects when certain moves are done. The five categories are damage, tricks, survivability, healing, and momentum. Damage stones allow you to either deal direct damage to enemies or boost the damage you deal. Trick stones give status effects such as slowing enemies or stopping the summoning of new enemies. Healing stones are straight forward and increase or modify your healing abilities. Momentum stones are all about effecting the gain and loss of momentum. What’s interesting about these stones is that they tie directly into the momentum system. You are able to slot in a total of eleven stones. Each active stone in bronze, silver, and gold as well as three passive in bronze and silver and two passive in gold. This allows you deeply change the way combat plays out to fit your personal gameplay style. You are only able to access the skills and abilities when your momentum meter is at the level the skill is slotted in or higher. This means as you do better in combat your skills will essentially become grander. There is a caveat however the more momentum you have the more damage you’ll take as well. This becomes a deadly game of balance as the choice between better damage or more survivability becomes vital in the later game.
I will say I had two true issues with the gameplay. The camera and the length. Often I found myself dying due to the camera going too close or through an object or creature. Normally locking on to an enemy can somewhat ease the issue but here the targeting system just doesn’t really work. Which is honestly a shame for all the hard work put into the combat. The combat was truly fun at times but ended up becoming a chore in the latter hours with more enemies. I use the term latter hours very loosely. This game is short there is no way around this fact. I finished my playthrough in just over 12 hours and that is after searching for most of the collectibles. Deck 13 have added plenty of side quests and favors but honestly only a few feel rewarding enough to be worthwhile. If you wanted to 100 percent this title it would probably be around 15 to 17 hours. To be fair the price point comes just shy of the normal full price for games at 60 so take that as you will.
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Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for brawler or hack n slash action games. Something about letting your brain take a back seat while you let your instincts dodge, parry, hack and smash away is just a good time. Atlas Fallen brought me back to what some consider the heyday of action games. Early 2000s games like Prototype, Darksiders, and even the original God Of War. Even with mid-level storytelling, unemotional voice acting, and a camera that made me want to toss my system. The fact that I still mostly enjoyed my time with the game says a lot about how good the game could have been. I truly hope Deck 13 and Focus interactive continue to do something with this IP because I really think with some work, polish, and a lot of love this could be a great beginning for a new action classic. For now though Atlas has Fallen to a 6 out of 10. Be sure to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this article and be sure to hit that bell so you don’t miss any of our upcoming reviews, news and previews.
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