Atlas Fallen has the potential to shock lots of people. Though it’s launching in simply two months, we haven’t seen a lot about this new sport from The Surge developer Deck13 and writer Focus Leisure since its reveal at Gamescom Opening Night time Stay 2022. That’s a disgrace as a result of after going hands-on with an early construct of it, I’ve discovered that Atlas Fallen has the potential to enchantment to individuals who didn’t like one of many yr’s most divisive titles: Forspoken.
Sq. Enix’s open-world motion RPG featured some neat concepts with its fast-paced magical fight and releasing traversal talents, however many individuals couldn’t get into it. Whereas extra targeted on melee fight than magic, Atlas Fallen is a equally formidable open-world sport that delivers satisfying motion and motion that’s completely different from the norm. That makes it a sport that may scratch some itches that Forspoken didn’t totally attain attributable to its closely criticized writing. If it’s not in your radar but, you would possibly wish to know what Atlas Fallen has to supply.
Inspired exploration
Based mostly on my demo, I’m not totally positive what to anticipate from Atlas Fallen’s mysterious story but. The fundamental premise is that participant was an individual from the bottom caste on this world’s society who was bonded with an historical gauntlet. That gauntlet has an amnesic spirit named Nyaal residing inside it and is now making an attempt to save lots of the world from gods which have left it in desert-filled ruins. The narrative wasn’t an enormous focus in my preview construct, although, and the script is stuffed with jargon that most likely will solely make sense as soon as I play extra of the sport.
A speaking companion bonded to the participant’s arm and hand is already an sudden narrative coincidence between Forspoken and Atlas Fallen. However neither sport’s story is the enchantment of both to me: It’s their enjoyable traversal and fight that curiosity me. The few seconds of Atlas Fallen‘s sand-surfing and preventing in its Gamescom trailer caught my eye final yr, and each lived as much as the hype.
As I labored my means out of a cave at first of the demo, I discovered learn how to elevate giant buildings out of the bottom, surf throughout giant patches of sand, and sprint by way of the air with the assistance of my gauntlet. After I entered the sport’s open world, I might mess around with all my motion choices and located them to be a deal with. Open-ended video games with giant worlds like Atlas Fallen can dwell or die on how satisfying they’re to discover, and making motion enjoyable is an important means builders could make traversal gratifying.
Forspoken was in a position to seize a few of that magic regardless of its issues, and it seems like Atlas Fallen has too. In fact, that’s just one a part of the sport, as gamers will run into many enemy Wraiths and must struggle them. That’s the place Atlas Fallen’s partaking fight system comes into play.
Satisfying fight
Deck13 and Focus Leisure had but to enter a lot element about Atlas Fallen’s fight prior to now, so I used to be shocked by how distinctive it was. The core fight revolves round attacking, dodging, and parrying, with weapons shapeshifting as you utilize them in several methods. It’s faster-paced than I anticipated from a developer who beforehand made Souslikes, nevertheless it’s the Ascension system that basically caught my consideration.
In between fights, gamers can equip their character with Essence Stones that buff or add talents, assigning them to considered one of three tiers within the course of. As soon as they’re in a struggle, attacking and defeating enemies causes gamers to realize momentum, which fills a bar on the backside left of the display. As this bar fills, or “ascends,” gamers step by step acquire these Essence Stone talents, getting extra highly effective the extra aggressive they’re.
Ascending does include a catch: The extra momentum you construct, the extra harm you are taking. Gamers can counteract this by equipping defensive or health-related Essence Stones or utilizing “Shatter” as soon as an Ascension tier is stuffed to deal plenty of harm and crystalize enemies for a short time. To achieve Atlas Fallen, I wanted to struggle aggressively, however fights would rapidly flip within the enemy’s favor if I missed a vital parry or dodge after I had plenty of momentum.
This method provides every struggle a push-and-pull feeling not frequent in motion video games. More often than not, video games prefer to make gamers really feel considerably extra highly effective or weaker than all the things round them; Atlas Fallen does each. This distinctive system hasn’t gotten extra consideration and promotion, nevertheless it in the end is what makes Atlas Fallen stand out probably the most for the time being.
There’s one thing thrilling about how mysterious this sport nonetheless is to me, as which means there might be plenty of surprises when gamers lastly get to strive the entire thing in a few months. It’s shaping as much as be an sudden, nearly unintended different to Forspoken. In case you’re nonetheless searching for an action-heavy RPG with revolutionary motion and fight gameplay concepts, Atlas Fallen must be in your radar.
Atlas Fallen will launch for PC, PS5, and Xbox Sequence X/S on Could 16.
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