It’s a shame we don’t see more open-world games set in the vast dunes of the vast desert, but Atlas Fallen takes the setting in style. As you make your way through Atlas Fallen’s golden oasis of destruction, it feels like you’re playing Journey all over again. That said nothing about the unique combat system that lets you fly through the air between explosive attacks. This often crushes enemies into a thousand pieces of sand and crystal dust. I mean it literally! Admittedly, the demo build I spent hours testing didn’t always feel as smooth as I’d hoped. Also, I couldn’t tell if it was an ultrawide monitor, or if something in my PC was causing random slowdowns and inappropriate frame drops for him. But it’s hard to walk away from the overall experience of Atlas Fallen without remaining curious and excited about what will happen when it finally launches on May 16th in a more stable state. got it.
Atlas Fallen centers around a unique custom character who acquires a magical gauntlet, a key piece of gear at the heart of the post-apocalyptic story. I really enjoyed the pacing here. A quick cutscene explains why the world is in its current state, introduces each major element of gameplay, and then jumps into the action. Atlas Fallen masterfully explained everything I needed to know in the first few minutes of play, and that early tutorial was about her, the mysterious being that lives inside my powerful and legendary gauntlet. It also served the purpose of connecting Nyaal with me.
As soon as we stepped into the sun-drenched world of Atlas Fallen, we were wading through the sand. The particle shards fly in all directions in response to my movements, and it looks wonderfully accurate. Movement is one of the best parts of Atlas Fallen and there are many ways to get around. For example, the Raise ability allows you to lift platforms and other buried points of interest out of the sand, while the Air Dash gives you a boost further forward in the air after consuming both jumps. can do.
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I would definitely love to explore this seamless open world, but I haven’t seen much outside of the area surrounding Castrum VII, the first village. Castrum VII itself is full of quests to complete and NPCs to talk to. Each with its own backstory, interesting dialogue. I also made a point of saving up and buying the first set of armor that the merchant in town sold. , gives you a reason to hunt and explore.
The open world is also littered with loose crafting resources and wildlife to find. There’s also a friendly traveling merchant wandering the desert, and it’s so nice to be able to identify him from afar by his brilliant flying kite.
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Atlas Fallen features action combat that is visually fun and challenging, rewarding me for thinking tactics while juggling Essence Stone abilities and momentum bars. The way it works is that unleashing basic attacks with transforming ax and sword weapons fills the momentum gauge and unlocks tier-increasing essence abilities to use in combat. The bar gets too high. It feels great to get into the groove, but it’s also where I ran into the aforementioned framerate drops and performance issues that stalled the action and even killed me a few times during tougher combat.
But when it works, it works really well. Interesting enemy designs keep me on my feet, like divers who dive into the ground and respawn randomly. The heavily armored, crab-like Shell Basher also needs to be parried in perfect sync with its powerful flanking attacks, strategizing larger attacks and vulnerable at just the right time for maximum damage. Attack the spot. My Arsenal is enhanced by adding a Shutter ability that can be activated by pressing both gamepads his triggers simultaneously when his bar of momentum is sufficiently full, freezing opponents in his way. Unleash a massive hammer attack that crushes. Its. This is quite the on-screen spectacle, giving justice to a wild array of sand effects as swirling storms of weaponry and movement move sand in all directions.
