Atlas Fallen review – Elden Ring meets classic God of War

Take the world-building of Horizon, the panorama of Dune, the fight of traditional God of Struggle, and you’ve got Atlas Fallen. Whereas the brand new Deck13-developed action game doesn’t fairly match as much as the identical degree of polish or depth because the video games it’s maybe impressed by, our Atlas Fallen evaluation finds it to be a difficult RPG journey that’s laborious to place down.

Set on this planet of Atlas, its inhabitants mine endlessly for Essence, a magical substance used to appease the Solar God, Thelos. Because of this, the once-green land has became an enormous desert with beasts now roaming round each nook. Upon transporting a cargo of Essence, you – an Unnamed – come into contact with a gauntlet that gives the facility to regulate sand, then are rapidly launched to a mysterious Avatar-like being referred to as Nyaal. From right here, it’s as much as the pair to rise in opposition to Thelos and assist free the individuals of Atlas.

Like many journeys of this magnitude, all of it begins with a personality creator display screen. Whereas it’s easy, it has every thing I must stamp my very own character, from hair and pores and skin tone to outfit shade, but not a lot that I misplaced hours deciding my eyebrow size. There are additionally 12 pre-made designs to select from.

Inside the first couple of hours, I used to be taking up monsters (referred to as Wraiths), conjuring buildings from beneath the land, and sand sliding by means of winding valleys whereas escaping armed forces. Outdoors of some mild platforming, stock administration, and fetch quests, that is what makes up Atlas Fallen – and it really works nicely. Sand sliding is cool and fast, which meant I used to be not often utilizing quick journey. Sure, among the quests are busywork, however the core parts of traversal and fight are immediately pleasing.

Atlas is break up into three open-world areas, every of various measurement and scope. Amid the sun-drenched sand dunes are hunters and warriors from totally different tribes, all with attire resembling the Horizon sequence… or dare I say Godfall. Contemplating I don’t possess probably the most highly effective of PCs on the market, gameplay ran fairly easily all through. Little issues just like the odd second of slowdown and a 20-second load time after a sport over had been small sacrifices to pay in return. It received’t win any magnificence contests when in comparison with what else is on the market, however that doesn’t cease it from being an intriguing setting to discover.

Transferring away from the developer’s soulslike gameplay in The Surge, Atlas Fallen is a third-person motion RPG that sits properly between the traditional hack-and-slash of the sooner God of Struggle video games and the satisfying parrying of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The weapon selections are a Dunecleaver for heavy harm, a Sandwhip for shaping sand into weapons, and a Knuckledust for combating barehanded. Two of those are used as major and secondary weapons, although I caught to the previous for almost all of my playtime, having most well-liked the Dunecleaver and Sandwhip together.

Fight revolves round producing momentum, which you do by hitting and defeating foes. When you’ve produced sufficient, your weapons can ascend, that means they develop in measurement and energy. It’s a double-edged sword, as momentum will each enhance the harm you deal and the harm you’re taking, rewarding dangerous play but in addition punishing it simply as simply. Every time an enemy assaults, both a blue or pink flash will seem. Blue is unavoidable, whereas pink you’ll be able to parry – a necessity to beat this sport. If completed sufficient instances, the enemy will change into crystalized, freezing them utterly and providing up an opportunity to deal vital hits.

As assaults will be fairly unrelenting, getting parrying down makes Atlas Fallen a a lot better expertise that also saved me on my toes regardless of how assured I turned. It’s powerful, sure, however very manageable. I died a good few instances throughout my 11-and-a-half hours with the marketing campaign. That by no means put me off, although. I immediately wished to leap again in, study from my errors, and take down no matter malevolent monster was thrown my method. Solely as soon as did I must grind in order that I may degree up accordingly. For anybody trying to quench the absence left by Elden Ring, laborious mode will definitely fulfill these wants. Co-op can also be accessible from starting to finish.

Air fight is one other facet that grows in significance the additional the marketing campaign progresses, with an air sprint transfer spearheading this, much like how it is best to by no means contact the bottom in Marvel’s Spider-Man. This continues into the platforming and sand sliding too, with you typically having to chase beams of sunshine from sealing totem to sealing totem to resolve a puzzle. All of that is very good. I simply wished extra.

Defeating enemies grants essence mud, which you should utilize to degree up armor or forge Essence Stones – trinkets that grant powers and results in fight. There are 4 varieties accessible: harm, tips, momentum, and survivability. I leaned in direction of harm, using the likes of Biting Sandstorm to ship out obliterating tornadoes and Ruthless Benefit to capitalize on crystalized foes. Tenacious Parry basically serves because the Mimic Tear of Atlas Fallen, tremendously rising the length of my parry and making fights way more winnable.

Nyall and the protagonist are the linchpin to Atlas Fallen’s story, one thing that begins nicely and poses some attention-grabbing questions however finally brings nothing new to the desk. Basically, it’s a play-by-numbers narrative that by no means dives deep into the attention-grabbing break up kingdom dynamic it presents.

What doesn’t assistance is that a variety of the voice performing lacks some edge. The one exception to that is the commanding Khendra of Bastengar (voice by Angel Maurnaé) who will get all the very best strains and is somebody I might fortunately comply with into battle.

Atlas Fallen has a lot to supply followers throughout totally different genres, bringing collectively an outstanding hack-and-slash fight system in an intriguing open world suffering from platforming challenges and easy puzzles that by no means overwhelm. Even with the disappointing narrative, Atlas Fallen does sufficient that I left not solely glad however wanting extra.