Atlas Fallen Assessment (PS5) | Push Sq.

Whereas it was The Surge that put Deck13 Interactive’s title on the map, it is Atlas Fallen that can henceforth be thought-about the studio’s greatest sport up to now. 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 12 months’s extra important hitters.

A few of that weighty vitality from The Surge 2 continues to be felt right here, significantly within the fight system. Having created a personality, you defy your oppressors (your sort are basically 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 a terrific stability that makes gameplay in Atlas Fallen the true king.

It is type 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 also be sentient in the identical approach Frey Holland’s Cuff is, nevertheless it’s nowhere close to as annoying or quippy. In truth, it takes your character fairly critically 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 take a look at your abilities throughout the title’s two principal focal factors: motion and fight. The previous is principally constructed upon with extra makes use of of every potential, sourced from upgrades buried all through the open world. They help you cross larger gaps, get about faster, and entry beforehand hidden areas. The latter, although, is way more experimental.

Regardless of dwelling 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 massive mammals, you should goal after which destroy every of their limbs earlier than they go down for good. With none stamina bars to handle, fights are way more offensive-focused than The Surge.

Making the most of 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 under. 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 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 totally 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 replenish the Momentum Gauge by touchdown hits on enemies. Momentary buffs are triggered mechanically whereas particular assaults will be saved for the correct second. From summonable hurricanes and big magical axes to break and defensive upgrades, there’s a variety of selection that provides aptitude to your base play type. With a satisfying parry additionally that freezes monsters in time and area, there’s a variety of enjoyment to be gained from taking part in round with what’s on supply.

There are nicely over 30 totally different powers to equip, which mixed with Idols that modify your base skills, actually offers you a variety of room to experiment with. The sport lets you shortly change between three totally different loadouts, letting you package your character out for particular conditions. It is a powerful degree of construct customisation that goes an extended method to making your character really feel distinct from a good friend’s – a correct boon throughout co-op play.

The tip 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 skills: you are still unlocking new powers mere hours earlier than the top of the sport. This provides motive to backtrack and remedy conundrums you could not beforehand work together with.

Sadly, our compliments of the narrative’s principal aims do not monitor fairly as positively. Significantly 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 always between cities and the dusty wasteland. It slows the tempo of the sport all the way 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 a couple of deeper valleys together with the highs.

Nonetheless, there are at all times the optionally available 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 best way in some unspecified time in the future, although, because the title feels prefer it’s missing that ultimate layer of polish. The visuals themselves aren’t significantly nice, there are spelling errors within the menus, and the transitions between cutscenes after which into gameplay will be fairly clunky. Then there’s a variety of texture pop-in and UI components that linger on display screen for therefore lengthy that they begin to really feel like a glitch.

Load instances on PS5 could possibly be loads higher too. They’re usually fairly acceptable throughout quick journey, however you will be ready fairly a bit longer than you want when returning to the motion following a dying. At the 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 pace Atlas Fallen strikes at, it is best to go away the setting be.

With pretty widespread points beneath the hood, the sport is not fairly as cohesive and constant because it could possibly be. Whereas gameplay is fairly improbable, the connective tissue holding it collectively is something however.

The environments aren’t something to put in writing 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 may be always referring to the pause display screen’s map because it’s just about not possible to get your bearings just by taking in your environment. It is a variety of sand, a couple of 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 greatest sport thus far. With improbable 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 return up in opposition to a couple of too many flaws, however when Atlas Fallen is on kind, its marriage of motion and combating shines by way of.