Atlas Fallen Evaluation (PS5) | Push Sq.

Whereas it was The Surge that put Deck13 Interactive’s identify on the map, it is Atlas Fallen that may henceforth be thought of the studio’s finest recreation 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 power from The Surge 2 remains to be felt right here, significantly within the fight system. Having created a personality, you defy your oppressors (your type are basically slaves referred to solely as Unnamed) after discovering a Gauntlet with the ability of a god trapped inside — it is this that offers 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 an amazing stability that makes gameplay in Atlas Fallen the true king.

It is kind 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 be sentient in the identical method Frey Holland’s Cuff is, however it’s nowhere close to as annoying or quippy. In truth, it takes your character fairly severely for the roughly 12 hours wanted to roll credit.

What extends your playtime is aspect quests, odd jobs, and enjoyable open world actions, all of which take a look at your expertise throughout the title’s two fundamental focal factors: motion and fight. The previous is especially constructed upon with extra makes use of of every capacity, sourced from upgrades buried all through the open world. They permit you to cross larger gaps, get about faster, and entry beforehand hidden areas. The latter, although, is way more experimental.

Regardless of residing underneath their tight iron fist in the beginning of the sport, there are not any human enemies in Atlas Fallen; solely Wraiths. Legendary beasts that take the form of burrowing snakes, birds, and more and more giant mammals, you will need to 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.

Profiting from 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 talents, to the purpose the place merely hitting an enemy restores a use of your sprint, permitting you to remain within the air for lengthy durations of time and juggle your injury 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 fitting second. From summonable hurricanes and big magical axes to break and defensive upgrades, there’s quite a lot of selection that provides aptitude to your base play type. With a satisfying parry additionally that freezes monsters in time and house, there’s quite a lot 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 talents, actually offers you quite a lot of room to experiment with. The sport permits you to shortly swap between three totally different loadouts, letting you equipment your character out for particular conditions. It is a powerful stage of construct customisation that goes a protracted option to making your character really feel distinct from a good friend’s – a correct boon throughout co-op play.

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

Sadly, our compliments of the narrative’s fundamental goals do not observe fairly as positively. Notably within the second half of the story, some duties begin to really feel like repetitive busywork. You will must carry out the identical actions at a number of factors throughout the map, or backtrack continuously between cities and the dusty wasteland. It slows the tempo of the sport right 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 just a few 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 doubtless the technical setbacks of the sport will get in the way in which in some unspecified time in the future, although, because the title feels prefer it’s missing that remaining 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 quite a lot of texture pop-in and UI parts that linger on display screen for therefore lengthy that they begin to really feel like a glitch.

Load instances on PS5 could possibly be lots 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 demise. A minimum of the body charge 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 velocity Atlas Fallen strikes at, it is best to depart the setting be.

With pretty widespread points underneath 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 jot down residence about, both. It is definitely cool to glide throughout the sands, however every location blends into each other with no actual distinctive options. You will be continuously referring to the pause display screen’s map because it’s just about inconceivable to get your bearings just by taking in your environment. It is quite a lot of sand, just a few crumbling cities, and bits of rubble protruding of dunes.

Conclusion

Atlas Fallen is a valiant effort from Deck13 Interactive that may go down as its finest recreation to this point. 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 probably lengthy load instances. It is disappointing to come back up towards just a few too many flaws, however when Atlas Fallen is on kind, its marriage of motion and preventing shines by.