Sandy waves slowly overwhelm the ruins of forgotten cities, in which the last grain of civilization is hidden. No way, this is not Dune, but Atlas the Fallen, RPG a third-person shooter from Deck 13, the studio behind both the soul of The Surge and the lukewarm Lords of the Fallen. As part of the preview, I had the opportunity to try the game, and although my feelings are mixed, the foundation looks promising.
HERO VS GOD
In the role of a nameless hero, you find yourself in the world of Atlas, which is ruled by the sun god Telos. Most people live in poverty and must obey the orders of fanatical worshipers who covet the powerful essence mined from the endless sandy plains. Your task is to fight a cruel god, save people and become a legend.
Even if such a story sounds rather stereotypical on paper, the demo convinced me that at least the mythology of the world is here worth attention. As I played, I gradually opened up all sorts of records and conversations that revealed to me all sorts of details about the Atlas, be it local legends or the truth about why the earth is full of sand and what was behind this catastrophe.
But the hero himself did not excite me so much. In the demo, he acted as a typical protagonist challenging the system. Unfortunately, we have already seen dozens of them in different games, but this is only my impression of the preview version, and the full game may convince me otherwise. The secondary characters are already a little better. You will meet scientists, fearless warriors, simple peasants, as well as a friendly merchant who will always alert you to his presence with a kite. My favorite moments were when the magical character Niall appeared on the scene, always giving some interesting piece of information or part of the Atlas story. And believe me, you will meet him a lot in the game.
PRIM PLAYS A DUEL
Atlas Fallen offers amazing spreading a map, which, however, once again confirms that not every RPG should have an open game world. The place gives an unnaturally dead impression, even considering that we are in a country devastated by a natural disaster. I would have much more appreciated the more linear design, which makes the Atlas a little better in more enclosed spaces. Fortunately, the passage of the world is here and there animated by environmental puzzles and the search for chests with equipment. Ghost of Tsushima players will certainly appreciate that Atlas Fallen also offers the ability to hunt down animals. If you manage not to scare them, they will lead you to secret places where a reward awaits you.
Navigating the map was pure joyespecially in places where there is sand. Your character has one amazing ability – sand surfing. You will not only overcome the boring passages of the map very quickly, but also enjoy the movement. The passion for dune riding did not leave me even after several hours spent in the game. In addition, you can of course also jump, which was especially useful when exploring the ruins. Movement may not be entirely smooth, and jumping on buildings felt comical at times, but a bit of exaggeration in that direction speaks volumes about the game.
However, Prim in Atlas Fallen is definitely playing for real. great combat system. At first, I had a feeling that the Fallen of Atlas would be limited to mindless sword swinging and a combination of strong and weak attacks. Indeed so, but only until you get your hands on special abilities. Your hero has a magical gauntlet that allows him to use special sand attacks. At this point, the game becomes an RPG as you can unlock these abilities by playing as essence obtained from enemies to create your own play style. You can also learn some skills from merchants for a significant amount of money. For example, I focused on pure strength, where my hero can throw a hammer at an enemy or unleash a sand tornado, but there will also be passive and offensive abilities that give you various bonuses, such as increased resistance to attacks.
The demo gave me a lot of different sand skills to choose from, and it’s safe to assume the full game will offer even more.
Part of the gameplay is also crafting, which forces you to search the world for unique materials in a non-violent way. Some are needed for new attacks, others are used to modify armor and improve it. You can also modify the gauntlet with unique and very rare fragments that will give you completely new abilities. Then in anvilwhich work similarly to fireplaces in Dark Souls.
VARIETY OF ENEMIES WILL PROVIDE YOU
Less shocking to me was the way the Fallen of the Atlas treat their enemies. At the beginning, I encountered a fairly ordinary second sand monster, which was not too difficult to kill. But then other opponents appeared in the game, which not only have different and much more insidious attacks, but can also summon enemies and make your experience unpleasant by jumping out of the sand or attacking from the air. You will have to attack the strongest types strategic and target their weak points. Destroying such a location will deprive the enemy of his strength and inflict significant damage on him. In addition, you can interrupt his attack and avoid death. The creators took inspiration from all sorts of creatures when creating enemies, be it sand crabs, flying monsters, or huge armored snakes. Boss fights are also commendable, they are a real challenge and properly torture your gaming skills.
The Fallen Atlas could not be avoided in the preview. technical problems. I noticed a significant drop in FPS in several places, I even once had a title crash right in the middle of a boss fight, which meant restarting the game and repeating a difficult fight. So in the full version, the creators should avoid these problems. The visual side of the name may seem beautiful at first glance (the views of the sandy fields are beautiful), but upon closer inspection, everything is not so rosy. Textures are blurry, sometimes loading onto objects near your character. It’s a shame for a 2023 game and we can only hope it gets better in the full release. I was also surprised by one visual dissonance, which, unfortunately, greatly worries Atlas. For example, the protagonist’s model looks… just weird. The buildings seem ordinary and undeveloped. Compared to the creatively designed enemies and detailed sand effects, the graphics are simply inconsistent.
From the very beginning, I was very partial to Atlas Fallen. skeptically, but as the game began to open up to me more, my impression of it also improved. This is definitely not the best RPG of its kind yet, but the game itself will certainly not offend, although I’m afraid it may fall into the flow of all sorts of similar games. However, it offers a lot of interesting ideas, a great combat system, fun map movement, unique and insidious enemies, and a game world that fascinates with its mythology and story. I’m worried about optimizations that cause the game to crash and framerate to fluctuate. One can only hope that the full version will be more tuned and continue to surprise.
Atlas Fallen will release on May 16, 2023 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. They will be in the game Czech subtitles.
Source :Indian TV
