Atlas Fallen Launches - Enjoyable Combat in an Empty, Boring Sandbox [Update]
Atlas Fallen won't threaten Hogwarts Legacy, Elden Ring and other top-class sandboxes, but the new game from the makers of The Surge is a decent job.
Update: launch and reception on Steam
Atlas Fallen is now available for download on PC (on Steam and GOG), as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles.
So far, reviewers' opinions are pretty much confirmed, although players are less gracious in giving positive reviews. On Steam, the work of Deck13 has been rated 145 times, half of which are negative reviews.
The accusations mainly concern the bland storyline and world (some players compare the game to Forspoken), with moderate praise for the combat system and optimization on PC.
Original news (August 9)
The new game from the creators of The Surge and the original Lords of the Fallen will launch tomorrow. Atlas Fallen has already been reviewed, so we know what to expect from this production.
Atlas Fallen - selected reviews of the game
- GRYOnline.pl - 6,5/10
- Attack of the Fanboy - 4/5
- PCGamesN - 8/10
- GamingTrend - 7.5/10
- Destructoid - 7/10
- IGN - 7/10
- Push Square - 7/10
- Stevivor - 7/10
- Wccftech - 7/10
- XboxEra - 6.9/10
- COGconnected - 68/100
- Eurogamer - 3/5
- GamesRadar - 2.5/5
- TheSixthAxis - 5/10
- CGMagazine - 4/10
- DigitalTrends - 4/10
- OpenCritic - 66/100 (45 reviews)
Atlas Fallen didn't fare badly, but it didn't impress the reviewers either. It's just decent but average action adventure game with an open world. The latter turned out to be quite intriguing for some reviewers, but even they didn't have much praise for the narrative or characters. There is also no shortage of people who found the game's locations too empty and lifeless - even for being located in a vast desert.
The side quests - repetitive and without flair - also definitely failed to spark enthusiasm. On the other hand combat found a group of sympathizers, among others thanks to the Momentum system. Admittedly, even here there were complains (mainly concerning the abysmal camera work), but it's definitely the brightest point of the game, especially since it gives a lot of options for experimentation.
In addition, the platform sequences, some locations and sand surfing mechanics were decent. Although - according to several reviewers - the latter was somewhat underutilized.
Unfortunately, in addition to the aforementioned flaws, Atlas Fallen is also plagued by technical issues (albeit not serious enough to be worth discussing in detail in most texts). Some reviewers believe that the otherwise ambitious project was more than the German studio Deck13 could chew. Some of the interesting ideas turned out to be misses, while other elements came off as heavily budgeted (e.g., character voices, visuals). Similar accusations were levelled at another ambitious game by a smaller studio - the Polish Unholy.
Nevertheless, Atlas Fallen is a decent action adventure game. Whether the title will attract the attention of gamers, who definitely do not complain about the lack of more (or less) successful sandbox games, is another matter.
Atlas Fallen will debut tomorrow on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. If you are interested in the PC version of the game, check out its official system requirements.
