Atlas Fallen Preview | GamersGlobal.de

Atlas Fall is developed by Deck13 and published by Focus Entertainment. The final version is scheduled for release on May 16, 2023 for PC, Xbox Series X and PS5, but I’ve had the opportunity to take a look at the preview version for PC and, in addition to the mouse and keyboard, I also have the gamepad Tried control.

With the action RPG, developer Deck13 once again proves that they can handle action-packed and crisp fights. Who The Surge (In the test 8.0) and The Surge 2 (In test 8.5) played gets a glimpse of how dynamic Atlas Fallen could become. The difficulty seemed moderate to me and the accessibility is better.

Unlike the The Surge titles and Lords of the Fallen (in test 7.5) Deck13 left the path of the souls-like games with Atlas Fallen and concentrated more on role-playing and adventure. Set in a fantasy world, the preview invites you to explore with the sand gliding movement.

This starts a bit later in the game with its own little intro and takes me straight to the first area. Fighting my way through sand, rocks and ruins, I learn some game elements along the way and learn that the world has been ravaged by war and my hero’s gauntlet seems to have helped bring Thelos to power. The preview in the playable section doesn’t tell me exactly what my task will be, because first of all I’m supposed to stabilize and upgrade my glove. Besides, I raise ruins from the ground, surf through sand, fight against all kinds of creatures and help the inhabitants. But the fact that there is a bigger story lurking behind it becomes clear to me through the collectible LORE sections.

Atlas Fallen is a combative game. Your two weapons have different properties and combinations that you use to attack on the ground and in the air. With the air dash, the fights get really wild, because then there’s no stopping them. I quickly found that I fight almost exclusively in the air and that gives me the best chance of evading opponents. On the ground, movement feels a bit slow in comparison and I felt like I had more trouble dodging there.

Maneuvering in combat takes a little practice, but I got a feel for the timing pretty quickly. The only thing I found tricky was parrying with the sand skin, because it has to be triggered precisely, otherwise it’s ineffective. Between all the effects and camera movements in combat, the red glow of the opponents, which indicates an attack to be parried, is not so easy to see, especially since other aggressive opponents usually also jump around you. The somewhat complex controls can be learned just as quickly with a gamepad, mouse and keyboard. Especially with the gamepad it was even easier for me to build up a routine.

In addition to jumping and beating, skills are also part of the combat repertoire. This is where things get complicated, though, and Atlas Fallen is a bit too kind with the different elements. For example, you have 12 sockets that represent your combat skills and are divided into three tiers. However, these are only activated by a bar that fills up during combat at the bottom left of the screen. The four sockets of each tier have one active skill and three passive ones that you can upgrade as well.

New skills for your sockets are created from blueprints, materials and essences found in the world. Then there are your glove skills, for which you have to find splinters, and your armor, which you level up and get perk points that unlock other skills. In the combination, everything looks overloaded together. But the systems in between don’t get on your nerves and you can relax and do everything in one go at the next anvil.

The world through which I move is partly freely accessible. Like The Surge, there are sections I can move through, but they’re much larger and more expansive. I can’t get back to the cave from the beginning, but the area around the first small settlement is freely accessible and the tasks are distributed within it. So that the movement doesn’t take too long, the developers have also come up with something for the passages through sand: sand surfing – or sand gliding. As if on an invisible skateboard, you jet through the sand, dunes up and down again until you arrive at your quest area. I had so much fun that in between I just surfed through the desert for a while and looked at the world. It’s really nicely designed and remotely reminds me of the deserts and green spaces Last Oasisand the look of the NPCs and buildings Horizon Zero Dawn (In the test 8.5) and rises (In testing 7.5).

Author: Ramona Kiuntke (GamersGlobal