Atlas Fallen is a very ambitious title from developer Deck13. While overall it shares some similarities to their previous title, including Lords of the Fallen and The Surge 2, it's also their first step away from the Soulslike genre. At its core Atlas Fallen is a third-person action RPG that focuses on speed and fast-paced encounters. While you sometimes encounter groups of smaller enemies, the bulk of your enemies is giant hulking beasts, which quickly becomes a staple of the gameplay.

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Atlas Fallen (PC, PS5[reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Deck13
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Release: August 10, 2023
MSRP: PC: $49.99, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S: $59.99

In Atlas Fallen, the world lies in ruin due to the savage sun god Thelos. Most of the once lush landscape is now entirely sand dunes with the occasional dead tree or patch of dried-out grass. The inhabitants are forced to serve Thelos by extracting a powerful resource called Essence from the world and delivering it to him. Some people have pledged loyalty to the sun god in exchange for an elevated status or a more desirable job in the harsh desert. Others are tasked with performing slave-like labor, extracting Essence, and transporting it across the dunes.

The protagonist discovers a powerful ancient Gauntlet that is able to manipulate Essence to shape the sand, granting its wielder powerful weapons and powers. With this newfound strength, the player sets out to lead a rebellion and put a stop to the savage rule of Thelos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGQfhGubWns

All hope relies on the Gauntlet

The Gauntlet allows you to equip two of three potential weapons at all times. The Dunecleaver is a powerful heavy weapon axe and hammer hybrid. The Sandwhip is a fast attacking whip that also allows you to close distances quickly. Finally, the Knuckledust is a hard-hitting fist weapon that also allows you to grow additional arms as you pound your foe. Each weapon has its own specific attacks and combos that synergize differently with the other weapons. Honestly, the three weapons are unique enough, but once I found the combo of weapons that worked for me—Sandwhip and Knuckledust—I never really found the need to ever us the third weapon.

While beating up on majestic beasts in the desert, you'll also learn how to master Atlas Fallen's Momentum system. Momentum is a bit of a risk-reward system. As you successfully land attacks, you will fill up your Momentum bar. As its filled, you will be able to carry out more hard-hitting special attacks. However, the fuller the bar is, the more damage you take when you are hit.

It's a great premise, but it honestly feels like it misses the mark a little bit. There's not truly any risk to be had, because at the end of the day you're just going to be focusing on beating down your enemy. I never really stopped building momentum to consider the risk of doing so. Instead, I'd just try to land as many attacks as I could while also prioritizing not getting hit so I didn't risk taking additional damage.

Throughout the world you will find deposits of Essence, as well as from dropped enemies. With this Essence you can unlock new abilities and upgrade your Gauntlet, increasing its capabilities.

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A truly beautiful world

Visually, the world of Atlas Fallen is simply beautiful. I literally found myself stopping to look around the vast open landscapes, and admiring the beauty of the ruins scattered amongst the sands. The detail in some of the areas such as the Knights of Bastengard Stronghold is second to none.

As you progress through the world you will visit three different areas in total. Each one has a main hub that you will pickup the bulk of your quests from. Additional optional quests and collectables are peppered all throughout the area as well, in no short supply. Your Gauntlet also has the ability to raise buried objects up out of the sand, which can include chests and even structures that allow you to reach higher elevation areas.

Some of the colossal beasts that you encounter are pretty incredible as well, both in size and appearance. Fans of Monster Hunter will find familiarities here, as some of the bigger monsters have various body parts that you can focus on. If you deal enough damage to them, they will break, causing massive damage to the enemy and also dropping special loot. Unfortunately, I found loot to be mostly irrelevant throughout Atlas Fallen. I still tried to break as many monster parts as I could, but never found the materials I obtained for doing so to really matter.

In fact, this is perhaps one of the bigger issues with Atlas Fallen. A lot of the systems in place are great in premise, and even have their own intricacies to them. However, in most cases they fall short in terms of relevancy. In a vast open world action RPG like Atlas Fallen, equipment and itemization should be important. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. In fact, I think it would be quite possible to play through all of Atlas Fallen without bothering to equip anything you've obtained throughout the entire experience.

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But, not everything is beautiful

Unfortunately there are some pretty sizeable problems with Atlas Fallen as well. The biggest issue without a doubt is the voice acting. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect every title to have Baldur's Gate 3 level of voiceovers. But the voice acting in Atlas Fallen isn't even average, it's downright terrible. Some of the non-important side NPC's were alright, but the playable character as well as your main companion, Nyaal, were not great. It really took from the overall experience.

From a lore perspective, the weight of the world is on these two character's shoulders. But you wouldn't have known that based on their monotone line delivery. I know I'm emphasizing this a lot here, but can't stress how bad it is. We're talking worse than Peter Dinkelage as Ghost in Destiny 2 before they replaced him.

Overall the story of Atlas Fallen had a lot of potential, but it falls short and overall I think the voiceover was a big part of it. Furthermore, the story felt a bit rushed at times. In total it took me just over 14 hours to complete Atlas Fallen, but I did a good bit of the optional content it had to offer. If someone was beelining through the main story quests only, I would not be surprised to see a sub 10 hour completion. However, if you do choose to take your time and really explore every nook and cranny to obtain every collectible and complete every side quest, I could see it taking 20 hours.

Also, a lot of the potentially fantastic features in Atlas Fallen end up feeling tacked on. There's a feature called Watcher's Fury where once you've done enough to draw the attention of the eye of Thelos, he will create a massive sandstorm on your location. Inside the storm an onslaught of enemies will attack you, all while you have limited visibility. When I first encountered Watcher's Fury I was excited to see the outcome of it. You have the choice of running and escaping the storm, or fighting all the enemies to the end. At the end you get some rather basic loot...and that's about it.

All in all, the Watcher's Fury felt pretty lackluster in every way. Furthermore, I only experienced the Watcher's Fury a few times throughout Atlas Fallen, making me wonder why it existed in the first place.

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A flawed but good experience

Overall, I like Atlas Fallen. It's great to see Deck13 step outside its comfort zone and show us their take on an open world. It's a good time, but it could have been a great time.

This was honestly a tough title to review for me. In some ways, Atlas Fallen shows glimpses of a truly remarkable AAA title. The world is vast and beautiful and lively. But in other ways, it just makes me wish it had been more. The combat system had the potential to leave a memorable mark on the genre. But, in reality, it will instead probably end up being forgettable instead. It felt like perhaps Deck13 played things way too safe with their first non-Soulslike endeavor.

I do think there is reason enough to experience Atlas Fallen. Especially if you are a fan of the action RPG genre. It may not leave a lasting impression once you've completed the adventure. But it will be enjoyable enough along the way to hold your interest. Also, I didn't get the opportunity to try it out but you can play the entirety of Atlas Fallen co-operatively. Honestly, while I don't think that would fix any of the bigger flaws. However, I do think it could enhance the experience overall.

Perhaps the best words to summarize Atlas Fallen is this: I can't wait to see what Deck13 does next.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Atlas Fallen appeared first on Destructoid.

This RPG crosses time and space to end the year with a bang

Every now and then, a game arrives late in the year to surprise us, right as the calendar is coming to a close. We've seen it with games like Omori, Gris, and Gorogoa. And this year, it really feels like Chained Echoes is surprising folks.

Chained Echoes is a new RPG from developer Matthias Linda, a communication designer who started working on the game in his spare time after work back in 2016. The project went on Kickstarter in 2019, and launched on December 8, 2022 for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC via Steam.

It would be fairly easy to call Chained Echoes a love letter to the SNES' golden age. It wears its inspirations so prominently on its sleeve, it opens with a direct reference to the start of Chrono Trigger. There's no denying this RPG is a passion project from a fan of the genre.

But where Chained Echoes has stood out for me, in the roughly 12 hours I've played so far, is where it's forged a new path from the games that came before it. Chained Echoes isn't just a solid love letter, but an altogether smart, charming, engrossing RPG in its own right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uso2nGa4WQo

Acting out

From the beginning, Chained Echoes establishes a varied cast of characters that form your eventual party. Each has their own motivations and drives, with the story's chaos bringing them together and sometimes forcing them apart.

Glenn and Kylian are the last remnants of their mercenary band; Lenne is a princess in hiding, attended by Robb; Victor is a legendary artist and bard with an enigmatic past; and Sienna steals the show as the clever rogue on the run, like if Faye Valentine wielded a katana.

These six make up the core party early on, banding together when a fragile peace between nations is broken. Chained Echoes doesn't take long to really drive home how dark it's going to get. Schemes are set in motion, plots unfurl, and bodies belie more bodies as the war kicks back into motion, with our party as the one force who might be able to put a stop to it.

It surprised me how fast Chained Echoes gets underway, actually. RPGs can often have a reputation, earned or not, for having long, drawn-out introductions. And while Chained Echoes certainly builds up with each narrative beat, it doesn't waste time in getting to the good stuff, either.

You see the seeds of an evil scheme in the works? You'll see it come to a head sooner rather than later. Dialogue isn't just snappy, but well-written too. Each character slides comfortably into their roles, and there's a good job done of introducing the player to each "pod" of characters that make up the collective party. This gets even more effective when the story splits them up, pairing those who might butt heads together for some interesting moments.

Kick it into overdrive

Where Chained Echoes stands out the most for me, though, is its battle system. This is a turn-based RPG, with a turn order and list of commands you can pick from a menu as parties idle on either side of the field. It might seem a bit straightforward at first blush, but that's because systems will start to creep up underneath.

In the top-left corner resides the Overdrive meter, both a key to your success and a tool for your destruction, depending on how you play it out. Every character can either Attack, Defend, use Items, or activate a Skill for their turn. Skills are the most potent option, and they're what you want to be using whenever possible.

Skills also build up Overdrive, which pushes your arrow up the meter. When the party's in the yellow, they're neutral and everything's normal. Get into the green zone and you're in Overdrive, doing extra damage, taking less damage, and spending less TP (the resource spent on using Skills). But push it too far and you Overheat, now making you receive more damage from enemies.

This is carefully balanced by the indicator icon, letting you use abilities of a certain type to reduce Overdrive rather than increase it. Battles turn into strategic management of this gauge. I'd piece out the turn order, thinking about what options I had not just now, but four or five turns from now. Could I risk an Overheat and recover the next turn? Do I want to use a move that will take me back into neutral, or hold off on one big hit to stay in the green?

Building a party

Chained Echoes' systems get even more interesting as you start to build the party up and learn all their skills. See, there's no proper levelling system in Chained Echoes. There's gear, which can give you some helpful stats and can be outfitted with crystals for bonus effects. Then there are Skills, which you can learn from a board with special stones slowly doled out through the story, and SP, which lets you level up Skills you've learned.

It might seem a bit strange at first, but the idea is that there is no base level driving anything. Instead, everything you do cycles back into some amount of progression. Hunt a specific type of enemy, and you might clear off its ransom board entry, netting you some progression points to put back into strengthening the party. Maybe that monster drops some good loot that you can sell to the merchant; then the merchant unlocks a new deal, netting you some nice consumables or new equipment for a discount.

Add in fast travel and a surprisingly brisk run speed on the overworld, and Chained Echoes feels streamlined in a manner I don't always expect from a classically minded RPG. Nothing feels too shorn down, either. You just get to the good parts faster. I'm spending more time in careful, strategic bouts and good bits of story than I am wandering around a field, looking for the next town.

Echoes of the past

All of this combines to make Chained Echoes a huge surprise for me. I was already intrigued by the allure of giant sky mechs in a fantasy setting. But Linda's RPG has a lot of heart behind its overt influences. The art is carefully crafted with some intense boss designs and setpieces. And all the drama is heightened by the soundtrack from Eddie Marianukroh, which has some fantastic hits on it.

I've been picking away at Chained Echoes every night on my Steam Deck and just loving it. This RPG certainly has some rosy, nostalgic tint to it, but it uses those inspirations to rearrange and reorder it all into something new. I've delighted over campfire scenes, banged my head against some bosses that pushed me to reorganize my team and game plan, and been drawn in by all the teases it drops.

Safe to say, if you're an enjoyer of old-school RPGs and want something to while away the holidays with, you could do much worse than Chained Echoes. And with it being on Game Pass, there's not much reason to not at least give this passion project a try.

The post Chained Echoes is an end-of-year surprise RPG hit appeared first on Destructoid.