I wonder sometimes if I was being too hard onTchiawhen I reviewed it earlier this year, criticizing it for its open-world design. In hindsight, I think part of the issue is that it felt like I hadn’t played many traditional action-oriented open-world games in quite a while, so I became overwhelmed when the game suddenly unloaded a ton of features, activities and mechanics in such a short amount of time. I bring this up because I experienced that exact kind of feeling again while playing Deck13’s latest action-RPG game, Atlas Fallen. But that being said, this is also one of either the best or worst kinds of video games to include a ton of features, depending on how it’s handled. Yes, the approach best known for experimenting by throwing in every mechanic possible and the kitchen sink when it comes to designing a game – for better or for worse – is here again, but does it result in something good?
Set in the fantasy land of Atlas, the game sees you initially stuck in brutal caste system where priests devoted to corrupted god known as Theros basically control everything, where the lower class are literally deemed “The Unnamed” and tend to wind up being forced to help mine Essence, a valuable material used for Theros' rituals, among other things. You start out as one of the Unnamed (after customizing your character), and through a twist of fate, find yourself coming across a magical gauntlet accompanied by a mysterious being called Nyaal, which gifts you with a variety of powers such as being able to construct weapons out of sand, lifting objects out of the ground, air dashing and more, all particularly useful given the desolate sand-filled landscapes that Theros has created over time. And now with your skills, a rebellion may finally be able to take the fight to Theros and take them down for good…
Atlas Fallen doesn’t exactly have the deepest story, or even the most well-acted one, but it’s still a nice fantasy tale with fun characters to encounter. But then again, the story arguably isn’t the star here. That goes towards the combat, with Deck13 moving away from the soulslike feel that their previous games have had in favor of something more faster and fluid for an action-RPG game, with more hack-and-slash stuff that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Platinum Games title. Players use one of three different weapons to battle a series of monsters known as Wraiths, getting into fast-paced skirmishes which can even go airborne thanks to the dashes, allowing for battles that can feature a good amount of strategy.
Allowing for even more strategy are the Essence Stones, which can either be purchased or crafted with Essence Stones with various ingredients, which come in one of three rarities and allow up to three different moves to pull off, and nine various passive effects, ranging from attacks that can damage more, heal more, allow for greater defense, etc. The vast majority of these can be upgraded as well with Essence gained from battles and quests, and with over a hundred and fifty of them, it makes for a ton of various combinations to experiment with, allowing players to find something that suits a preferred playstyle, nicely making things more accessible and fun.
You can’t necessarily use any of these moves just willy-nilly, however, as Atlas Fallen also has a Momentum system in play as well. Basically, the more hits you land on enemies, the more you build up a Momentum gauge, allowing for your most powerful moves to be performed at one of three tiers. Slow down or get hit, and the Momentum goes away. In addition, when you have enough Momentum, you also have the option of performing a devastating Shatter attack, which can wear down the health of any major enemies and freeze them in place, or even deliver a killing blow, the trade-off being that you lose all of your Momentum.
Typically, I’m not the biggest fan of combat systems where you need to already be doing well before you gain any tools to fight even better, but the Momentum in Atlas Fallen does add a nice twist and keeps things fun. The one part of combat that feels iffy is leveling up, as you’re able to only apply levels to the armor you have via more Essence. While I do like the twist of having to properly managing Essence to use for armor or Essence Stone upgrades, the fact that each set of armor requires quite a bit of Essence and caps out after three upgrades means that your level is defined by what armor you can gain which could see you stuck grinding at times. On the plus side, armor is also nicely customizable, to the point where you can transmogrify it into looking like other armor while keeping all the same states, a welcome touch.
And while there are a few other things I could discuss about the combat, such as the Idols or the limb-targeting system (a la Deck13’s previousThe Surgetitles), let’s get down to what’s important here: namely that Atlas Fallen has the type of combat that allows you to double jump into the air and attack a giant scorpion creature with sand whips, dashing through the sky and launching tornadoes at them as you also zip down to take care of minions with a set or blows while parrying attacks before heading back up again, all seamlessly. Does that sound like absolute fun? Then congratulations, Atlas Fallen is the kind of game for you. To top it off, there’s sand sliding, as the Gauntlet allows you to glide over the numerous oceans of sand that blanket Atlas. It also helps that Atlas Fallen has impressive-looking graphics as well, showing a good chunk of variety in its beautiful desert wastelands.
In fact, here’s my big tip when it comes to Atlas Fallen: just forget about focusing on every various feature that it throws at you, be it the optional Watchtowers to take down, the Watcher’s Fury that gives you battles to fight or escape from, hidden treasure, wildlife that can lead to them, or much, much more, and immediately zero in on what appeals to you. It’s a surprisingly accommodating game, again allowing you to mostly approach it in whatever way you desire. There are still a lot of fun activities, though, like surprisingly good platforming with a few challenges, so it doesn’t hurt to try everything out.
Atlas Fallen unfortunately falls victim to “jank” when it comes to a few bugs and issues, as well as a few questionable design choices (like locking off the first major map at a certain point in the story). There was one moment when a major enemy just froze in place, allowing them to be defeated without issues. Conversely, there was one moment where I had used a Shatter on a particular enemy that has a shield generated by enemies nearby them, and while it wiped out the enemies, the shield remained, making the battle impossible to win at the moment. And there was one moment where the game just plain old froze up. But one particular issue that harms things is balancing issues, with some bosses being too hard to beat on Normal difficulty, which puts a crimp in the otherwise nifty combat, and despite being a fun experience overall, marks one moment where Atlas has indeed fallen for now.
Closing Comments:
Atlas Fallen is far from a perfect game, but the important thing is that it’s still a fun game. Even when it can feel like it’s throwing a kitchen sink at you, there’s always something enjoyable to find in Atlas Fallen, mainly its impressive combat that leads to a lot of challenging, enjoyable battles (albeit with a few that could use tweaking), and its visually striking landscapes that allow for a ton of fun sand sliding. Even with a large coat of jank, there’s still a lot to delight here once you’re successfully able to dig it up, so give it a shot if you like to experiment and don’t mind a little roughness.
Atlas Fallen
Deck13’s Atlas Fallen is set in a fantasy desert world where gods once roamed. Armed with gauntlets capable of manipulating sand, heroes glide across dunes in search of monsters to slay and quests to complete. Boasting fast-paced combat and co-op, Atlas Fallen is an action RPG that seeks to be more accessible than Deck13’s previous projects like The Surge.
