All views are that of the author and are not influenced by any copies of games provided by publishers for review purposes. Atlas Fallen releases on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on August 10th.
Atlas Fallen is a third person action RPG set in a desert-inspired fantasy world ruled by an oppressive god. You play the Gauntlet Bearer who is given the responsibility of mastering the gauntlet and the sands to defeat the god and free the people.
Emphasis on highly addictive combat gameplay and fast-paced exploration give the world and the game a dynamic feel that makes this the perfect game for anyone looking to experiment with their playstyle and find different ways to defeat their enemies.The game can be played as a solo campaign or a co-op adventure with two players.
The gameplay in Atlas Fallen is primarily focused on the combat. Collecting and fusing Essence Stones and equipping Icons all help to tailor your gameplay to suit your individual style allowing you to focus your combat on a number of different areas, from healing to damage to building your momentum for more powerful attacks and abilities.
There's a real emphasis on finding the best way to defeat each wraith you encounter with every Essence Stone and weapon coming with their own strengths and weaknesses and it helps to create an engaging and dangerous world.
The game isn't short of exhilarating action and the decent worldbuilding helps bring the world to life with recurring side characters helping the story to feel compact throughout its main missions, side quests and errands and some of these characters - like a thief who always ends up in sticky situations - are fun to interact with.
The compactness of the game does let it down in the long run however. The game's story is light on cutscenes, opting instead for characters to talk to each other in stationary dialogue.When I got towards the end of the game, I found myself wondering if there would be some twist but instead I was just left with a feeling that it had ended abruptly.
It's simplicity is fine for a straightforward playthrough but it means there's a lot of potential that fell through and the game never seemed too interested in making you root for or care about the player character who felt like more of a vehicle as opposed to some supporting characters who had real emotional stakes in the story.
It felt like there was a better story hidden within the game and that potential peeked through sometimes but it all ultimately went nowhere and was cut off before things started to get really interesting.
The breathtaking scenery of Atlas Fallen wasn't disappointing in the slightest. I was blown away several times by the stunning vistas and the game is breathtaking whether you're in the underground caves, forest woodlands or the sweeping desert landscapes.
I was also pretty impressed with the character design. There was a diverse range of NPCs and the visuals of the enemies was suitably varied and imposing. I liked the armour design as well and it was fun experimenting with the various cosmetics to build my own look.
The music in the game is nothing to write home about but it suited the environment well and the battle music was pretty atmospheric, immersing me in the combat. You can tell they wanted to make the combat experience as thrilling as possible and it worked though sometimes the music during exploration died out and you were just left with sound effects.
The voice acting for the various characters also helped to bring the game to life. Some of the characters are pretty memorable even if the vast majority of them don't get enough time to shine.
The game ran much better than I expected. The most vexing problem I encountered was the time the attack buttons stopped working but it was mostly just run of the mill slow texture loadings and environment details popping up randomly.
I've had faster load times on PS5 games but overall there was nothing immersion breaking and for the most part it was a smooth and an enjoyable experience.
There aren't too many accessibility features for Atlas Fallen. Most of it was standard fare such as having speaker names and backgrounds on subtitles and being able to reduce camera shake, adjust volume on different effects and adjust the intensity of motion blur and lens flare.
The game comes with three difficulties, easy, normal and hard, making it accessible to players who want a more relaxed experience as well as catering to those who want a challenge to kick the combat gameplay up a notch.
Overall, the game is a fun, energising experience that makes the most of its combat to provide challenging and rewarding gameplay that encourages diversity and experimentation to customise your playstyle to create the best experience for you. It's let down by the story but it's still worth diving into to experience the combat and exploration for yourself with plenty of fun little challenges throughout the world to keep you entertained.
Gameplay/Story: 7/10
Visuals: 9/10
Sound: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
Overall: 7/10
