A preview of God of War action from the creators of Atlas Fallen: The Surge

During Opening Night Live, which anticipates the 2022 edition at Gamescom CologneAmong the new games shown to the public is one of his new projects, Atlas Fallen. deck 13 On the occasion of the event, it was content to show itself in computer graphics with a long and intense trailer. One that makes you understand little or nothing about the type of project actually being developed.

However, among the spaces reserved for the exhibitors and press of the great German fair, we had the opportunity to participate in the promotion of the game: a meeting that allowed us to see the title in action, with real gameplay, and at the same time allow us to. to deepen a set of details and knowledge of its key features.

in this Atlas Fallen preview therefore, we will try to assess the situation and underline what concretely should be expected from the project, giving, among other things, a series of confirmations and evaluations about the gameplay and the mechanics that emerged during the presentation video. by one of the developers on the site.

So let’s start with the most important information: Atlas Fallen is an action role-playing game It’s set in a semi-open world that keeps a safe distance from soul-like mechanics and tends to offer a gameplay style that’s really much closer to the rhythm and feedback of God of War or a Horizon: Forbidden West. Let’s be clear, we’re not the ones saying that we can’t use pads in the first person singular, but Deck 13 wanted to talk about it from the beginning of the presentation to avoid any misunderstandings. Among other things, we are not dealing with a game with a huge budget and a huge production level, but rather the aim of the software house is to deliver a pleasant Double A that can entertain for about twenty hours with pure action in great fluidity. and the right amount of technical information.

Half open world?

This was the definition used by the developers to describe Atlas Fallen’s exploration framework. The game’s progression will, in fact, be marked by passage through different regions, somewhat MMOG-style World of Warcraft and part metroidvania-style, both providing a physical transition from one area to another. a tangible change in the level of the next and faced enemies, and the need to have some sort of advanced buff or special skill. The result will be the need to change the field to continue the narrative arc so that it strongly discourages you by offering no tangible usefulness if you decide to do so, while always keeping the possibility of retracing your steps active.

The goal of the game is not to significantly improve your character by grinding for hours, but to continue the fights by exploring the vast area that separates each zone, gaining improvements and unlocking new skills. there will be differences biomes and also the expansion between one region and the next, with sections where the visual horizon would visibly disappear, such as the desert shown in the trailer in computer graphics, but also smaller areas with more restricted boundaries, one of which would suggest a kind of underground city to be explored vertically in a manner often seen in spirit-like fashion. .

There will also be dynamic and random events that will periodically populate this. partial open world and this will show the side of the cooperative nature of the title. Atlas Fallen is, in fact, a completely stand-alone action with great satisfaction, but the purpose of Deck 13 is to present a valid challenge for those who want to play with a friend. The entire campaign includes dynamic acceptance and opt-out to instantly enter and exit a friend’s game by sharing game progress and collected loot, but there are two important limitations.

First, you have to be in the same area to join the game, and second, the game requires 2 friends to be similar in terms of character development. If 2 avatars have a level that is too far apart, the possibility of entering co-op will always exist, but there will be no progression in the story: there will be progress at the end of the sharing of the adventure. automatically disappears. All this to avoid balance issues and “carrying” dynamics that would lessen the biting sense of progression in a title like this that has a strong narrative pull.

A multi-action combat system

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Atlas Fallen is far from being seen as a spirit, in fact the developer’s idea is to offer a game and a game. battle system very complex and layered, but without overdoing it, trying to maintain the dynamism and “lightness” typical of adventure and action role-playing games. The 2 milestones noted by deck 13 are the Horizon and God of War soft reboot. However, in the author’s view, there are many more similarities to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: clearly setting aside all the components of Zelda-style power acquisition on which much of the last 38 Studios name progress is based. based.

Getting into details war Again, we haven’t tried it first hand yet, Atlas Fallen provides a mix of attacks based on 3 different weapons that are instantly summoned and swapped through the glove that gives the power to control the sands. Therefore, we can hit with a very fast dagger, turn into a kind of whip that “stretches” if necessary, and at the same time act as a hook, or switch to mid-range combat with a claw knife, or again perform very slowly. It attacks but is also extremely powerful, manipulating the sand into the shape of a hammer.

The 3 attack vehicles differ in attack speed and range of action, but best of all they allow you to manage combos, taking advantage of an additional Atlas Fallen proprietary mechanic: push. This momentum, highlighted by a special superimposed bar, defines our ability to accurately change the glove’s different transformations into ring combinations; Also, while filling up the gauge, we’ll have access to special moves that we can drop on unfortunate enemies in the quest. There are 2 other elements associated with this mechanic: first of all, each attacking tool can increase momentum by different amounts, for example the whip is the most effective and the hammer is the one that offers the “best blow for dumping”. “How much has been collected. At the same time, the increase in the indicator also brings an increase in our vulnerability, which will force us to constantly evaluate the right moment to take advantage of the bonus, so as not to take too much damage if we are unfortunately hit.

Another element of Atlas Fallen that is interesting to us is the large one. movement speed The story of the protagonist, which takes the title further away from other themed action: jumps, double jumps, the possibility to perform in flying dodges and surf the sand, there seems to be really ample room to move around the battlefield with ease, and all this adds up. a camera placed much further than the canons of the genre.

However, we must say that all is not looking bright, as the title betrays a double-A aspiration with a degree of cleanliness not as much as we imagined before joining the presentation. for the current generationi.e. PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X | Q. But on the other hand, there’s still time to fix the title, given that Atlas Fallen doesn’t have a firm release date outside of a general 2023 and it’s never been said that first-person testing might surprise us. feedback and combat system performance.