Atlas Fallen Review - Buried Treasure?
Aug. 9, 2023Atlas Fallen Review – Buried Treasure?
In thisAtlas Fallen Review, I’ll be taking a look at Deck 13’s brand-new action-adventure game. What is Atlas Fallen? How does it compare to The Surge and The Surge 2? and is it worth your time? I’ll be covering these and more in this review.
Atlas Fallen takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been oppressed by the malicious power and influence of the Sun God, Thelos. A world that was once known to be a place where humans and wildlife prospered, has now turned into a desert of destruction ruled by Thelos and overrun by deadly Wraiths.
The story begins as you take on the role of an “Unnamed” human, a brave slave, who stumbles upon an artifact known as the “Gauntlet” that gives unimaginable power to manipulate sand with the help of a mysterious entity. Now as a Gauntlet Bearer, you set forth on a mission to destroy Thelos to save what’s left of humanity and to free the world from his corruption.
The pacing of Atlas Fallen felt appropriate and the story was relatively straightforward. Cutscenes show you the right amount of content that easily helps you understand the lore and backstories of notable characters, which includes secondary quests containing additional narratives, and this is further expanded by reading and listening to journals that you find scattered in the world.
However, the story is not original or dare I say, groundbreaking. The tone of the story is familiar and I couldn’t help but compare some moments to the game:Forspokenjust because of some similarities to it, like how the protagonist comes across an empowered gauntlet that houses an entity you speak to.
While it did succeed in reeling me in for the most part, I do believe that more could have been done in the way of exploration, including a bit more variety. There is no real motivation to continue exploring once you’ve completed the main story, other than some side quests, which are not extensive.
Deck 13 is a developer known forThe SurgeandThe Surge 2, games that both have exceptional gameplay and combat, and if there’s one thing that stood out to me, it was this. However, Atlas Fallen features basic character creation, 3Weapons, armor sets, various trinkets, and an easyCraftingmechanic, which left a lot to be desired.
Character Creationis pretty simple. You choose from a limited number of visual presets and alter some facial features like shape, size, and color. Personally, having any character creation at all is better than none, but it’s a pretty bare bones character creator, and you shouldn’t expect a lot of detail.
You’ll probably compare Atlas Fallen’s combat features to other games you’ve played but that’s not a bad thing because there are some unique ideas that players will find enjoyable. The core element of it all isMomentumwhich is presented as a blue gauge at the bottom of the health bar.
It is divided into three segments and it starts to fill when you are fighting. This is called Ascending which determines your effectiveness in battle as it will exponentially alter aspects such as the physicality of yourWeapons, Moves,Stats, and Skills. Ascending is only a temporary effect that is maintained in combat, but if you stop fighting or take specific hits, your Momentum starts to deplete and removes all the effects you’ve gained through ascending.
What’s great about Momentum is that it gives the player options on how to strategically approachcombat. The reason why I say this is because as you “Ascend”, you start to power up, but at the same time, you take more damage. And with that, the game puts you in a tug-of-war situation of choosing between risk and reward. Is gaining that much power worth it or is it better to play it safe?
But there is more to Atlas Fallen than just Momentum, and there is a decent amount of RPG customization that allows the player to create different builds by choosing from a selection of Armor,Perks,Essence Stones, andIdols.Armoris what it is, this mainly provides defense and each can be upgraded to increase the Power Level, Stats, and unlocks Perks which are Armor Trinkets that grant passive effects.
Unfortunately,Armoris limited to equipping a full set and it is not divided into different pieces, and I was quite shocked to see that there are only a few in the game. I wish there were more because I personally did not fancy some of them, aesthetically, but if you’re worried if you can customize your clothing, there is an option to visually change them through transmogrification, dyeing parts of the garment, and equipping cosmetic items.
Essence Stones are active and passive skills that also correlate with Momentum. There are 100+Essence Stonesthat you can find in the game, each having its own unique properties, and these are divided into three tiers that specialize in 5 categories. Each tier level of a stone corresponds to the first, second, and third segments of the Momentum gauge, meaning you can only equip Tier 1 Stones with the first segment of your Momentum.
How it plays out is you can equip 1 Active Stone and up to 3 or 2 Passive Stones per tier, and you will need to build Momentum and reach the position where the stones are placed for their effects to work. As long as you are able to maintain the progress of Momentum, the effects of the stone will always be active. I personally had fun trying out each Essence Stone and it allowed me to try different builds that work best with the weapons I used.
These stones are easy to find as you can locate them in many ways such as loot, enemy drops, quest rewards, or by crafting. I appreciated the variety here and I foresee that people who play this game will spend most of their time hunting down an Essence Stone that fits perfectly for their playstyle, and I can’t wait to see the different builds that people come up with.
And finally, there are about 20 Idols you can find and these are also trinkets that change the effect of your healing ability such as adding an extra charge, increasing the amount of health gained, and more. Overall, despite the lack of some itemization like Weapons and Armor, and the distinct gameplay similarities in some areas, I appreciated how you can experiment with different combat tactics that lie behind simplified mechanics.
The primary enemies you fight in Atlas Fallen areWraiths, monsters formed by sand and created by Thelos. And while they sound cool, they were rather lackluster as a whole. Fighting Wraiths is similar to the monster mechanics in Monster Hunter and they are divided into different types: Lesser, Greater, and Colossal.
Lesser Wraiths are small monsters that are usually seen in a pack while Greater and Colossal Wraiths are huge beasts that pose more threat and require you to destroy their body parts to make them vulnerable. The only difference, you can’t carve their parts for items, instead, you are rewarded with specific Essence Stones or Fusion Materials that are guaranteed drops when they are defeated.
Wraiths are also categorized into two groups, Regulars and Elites. Most Regular Wraiths commonly spawn in the world while Elite Wraiths are limited activities that you hunt down in specific locations. When I discovered that there were these elites, I was excited to fight different-looking monsters, but what I found instead were just slightly stronger versions of already existing ones, which was disappointing.
And while it is challenging when your first encounter a new wraith to be sure, over time you will fight them almost everywhere and you will easily learn their moves, which eventually drains the excitement and challenge from facing them. Variety is what’s lacking, and I really wish there had been more enemy types.
Let me begin by clarifying that Atlas Fallen is not an open-world game but it features a semi-open world that is divided into four regions. It’s important to set this expectation because some have previously mentioned that it is. My initial reaction when the world opened up was “Wow, there is a lot to do here” because you can find different activities, side quests, errands, platforming, and secrets, all that can easily distract you as you explore.
And that’s good! This means there’s something that you can expect to do other than complete the story, however, here’s where it fell short. If you finish the main campaign before doing all the side quests and exploration, even though you can go back and do them, there is no real reason to. There is no difficulty mode unlocked or aNew Game Plusmode, so you lack any real motivation to do this. And this can make an already shortish game feel even shorter.
I loved the sand surfing mechanic though, where you get to swerve and glide through the sands. The movement was smooth, and even the abilities that I eventually gained that unlocked more platforming piqued my interest as I was able to discover intriguing locations and handsome rewards.
I’ll start off by commending the voice acting in the game. All theNPCsare voiced differently and I enjoyed the conviction and emotion exuded by the NPCs, including whenever I listened to an audio log in the journal.
When it came to the background music, each area had a specific tone that felt appropriate, and I admired how it quickly shifted to a battle theme whenever I’d encounter a wraith. The sound effects were also good though, some of them like running on pavement didn’t quite sound right.
Additionally, occasionally whenever I was on the menu, I’d get an audio jitter that was distracting, or sometimes the battle music would stop while in the heat of the moment. These are probably bugs though, and should get sorted out soon.
The world of Atlas Fallen is gratifying to behold, and it surprised me with how “alive” it felt considering that the game takes place in a semi-open world that is completely filled with desert sand, remnants of structures, and whatever is left of flora and fauna. I found myself wandering around the ends of a map to find any secrets and to observe how each area looked different because it changes depending on your progression of the main campaign, side quests, and overall gameplay.
Visually, the game looks good, even though the entirety of the world is covered in sand and ruins, I appreciated the presence of vibrant colors coming from the mountains, trees, and even the sky. Each Wraith looked unique and it was designed well since it features a mixed inspiration of both creatures we know of and alien lifeforms.
What struck me most are the visual effects of the weapons and skills coming from the essence stones. I could see how smoothly my weapon transformed as I ascended and it was satisfying to watch the different effects like summoning a tornado, releasing a thunder wave, calling a massive hammer from the sky, and ultimately performing a flashy finishing move.
Atlas Fallen is developed using Deck 13’s in-house engine “FLEDGE” which was the same engine used in other games they’ve created such as The Surge 2. Playing on this engine, I did not have any issues with its performance on the PC, and I ran consistently above 60 FPS on a 3060 GPU, the game didn’t crash, and loading times were fair.
But there was texture pop-in which was distracting and disappointing. Lords of the Fallen and The Surge 2 had great graphics that had little to no pop-in, but I suspect it may have something to do with the more open-worldish nature of the game, and having to load more assets at once.
Atlas Fallen is a linear game but doesn’t completely limit the player with regards to which order you complete side quests and activities, but you are still bound to a straightforward path to reach the end. However, you can still return to the other biomes and clear out the additional content at your own pace after completing the main story if you desire.
But I’m afraid to say that, upon completing the main story and side quest content, there’s nothing left it has to offer but to join a friend through online coop or experiment with creating different builds using a variety of Essence Stones. There is no New Game Plus, as I mentioned before, andWeaponsandArmorare extremely limited, so there is no real reason to play Atlas Fallen a second time.
For 49.99 USD on PC via Steam, the price is a tad bit high for the amount and quality of gameplay you are getting, and I’d consider 39.99 USD a much better price to pick this game up at.
Atlas Fallen caught my interest initially with its unique core combat feature (Momentum), easy-to-understand mechanics, and visually appealing effects, but it wasn’t enough to completely impress me as I found myself constantly comparing it to other games it was clearly inspired by, but that it didn’t really innovate on. A lack of itemization in the weapons and armor department also move the game away from the RPG space a bit, and more into the action realm, which I don’t think was a great move.
I generally had a good time playing Atlas Fallen though, as I experienced its smooth combat and pleasing visuals, and I would consider recommending the game to players who just want something simple and fun, or to those looking for a decent coop game. However, I’m not sure I can recommend it at its current price, especially when there are just so many better games available.
Atlas Fallen is a title that misses the mark when it comes to originality and amount of content delivered, but just manages to save itself with solid combat, good visuals and audio, and pretty good PC performance. A day one buy for only the most diehard Deck 13 fans, while everyone else should wait for a sale, and some time to free up in their very busy gaming calendar.
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
