Dunes, giant creatures and dynamic battles with a unique style: Atlas Fallen review - an adventure RPG best played with a friend

Atlas Fallen is an adventure RPG by the German studio Deck13 that takes us to a fantasy world that is almost deserted and covered with sand, and is ruled by the god Thelos, who has established a tyranny, and now we must destroy it. But the game stands out most of all not for its story, but for its combat system. Thanks to the magic gauntlet that transforms into one of three weapons and the Essence Stones that allow you to add new combinations, skills and magic to your arsenal, we can destroy enemies the way we want, and there are no restrictions on this. And if you play the game in co-op with a friend, this epic doubles. However, it is not without its drawbacks. Most of all, the game suffers from a plot that is difficult to surprise and monotonous quests that force you to constantly collect different items and do not offer something new. However, thanks to the semi-open world, you don't spend a lot of time on it. So, to understand whether it is worth buying the game, the editorial team of gg will tell you about all the main points of Atlas Fallen that you should know.

5 Reasons to Buy Atlas Fallen

• You need a game where epic battles with mysterious creatures are constantly taking place
• Atlas Fallen allows you to create a unique fighting style thanks to a variety of skills
• You have been looking for a story-oriented game to play with a friend
• You are not ready to spend more than 20 hours in one game
• You have already forgotten what real sand looks like and want to see it at least in a game

3 Reasons Not to Buy Atlas Fallen

• You value an interesting story in games the most, and there are problems with this
• You have no one to play the game with
• You can't stand sand

Fast-paced

• From unnamed weakling to destroying a tyrannical god and saving people
• How to play it?
• Optimisation, visuals, and audio
• What we didn't like
• 5 things to know about Atlas Fallen

From Unnamed Weakling to Destroying a Tyrannical God and Saving People

It all starts with a screen grab of illustrations, where a mysterious woman's voice tells us about the world of Atlas Fallen. It is ruled by Thelos, the Sun God, who has established a dictatorship and forces ordinary mortals to collect the mysterious Essence, which he needs to implement his plans. For years, people have bowed their heads to Thelos and his army and fulfilled all his wishes. However, here, ordinary people are considered trash, they don't even have a name, and they are called the Unnamed. But the woman behind the scenes says that she is tired of this and that she must finally start acting. Just who is this woman and how will she fight?

Illustrations that tell about the world of the game and open the Atlas Fallen walkthrough

After that, we start playing as an incomprehensible blue creature that resembles an Avatar. We go through training, learn about the basic mechanics of the game, and now we need to create our own character. You can play as a man or a woman and customise all facial features as the player wants. This is just a cosmetic customisation, and your choice will not affect the characteristics, skills, character, or anything else. But what kind of role-playing game is it where you can't create your own character?

After creating a character, the main event of the game begins, where some aspects of the plot become clear. We play as one of the Unnamed Ones, who, along with his caravan, transported the Essence. But the Queen, the right hand of Thelos, told the caravan to follow a different route. They are attacked, the Essence is lost, there is a sandstorm outside, and no one knows what to do next.

But our protagonist decides not to give up, but to gather a small group around him and start negotiating better conditions with Morrath, the caravan commander. Morrath, according to all the laws of the genre, turns out to be as cruel as Thelos, and offers our hero to find the thief who stole an important thing from him outside the camp, and then, perhaps, there will be some dialogue.

And so, after walking a few metres, Unnamed finds a secret gauntlet, which is called Gauntlet here, and now he has magical powers that will help him a little later. Having found the thief, we return to the camp, Morrath wants to take the Gauntlet away from us, a fuss ensues, the hero keeps the Gauntlet, the game's introduction ends, and we find ourselves in the first large location of the Atlas.

The Gauntlet, as it turns out, hides many interesting secrets. It contains Nyaal, another god who was imprisoned by Thelos a long time ago. This is the same "blue Avatar" we played as at the beginning. And now our new duo has to stop Thelos and his servants and bring peace and prosperity to Atlas.

After that, players will have an adventure of about 15 hours, where they will have to get closer and closer to Thelos step by step and at the same time deal with the problems of the characters and settlements that we will meet on our way. It's hard to call Atlas Fallen an outstanding story. There are rarely any unexpected plot twists, drama, or emotions.

This is a story that most people have seen in films, games, or read in books - a loser hero turns into the strongest person in the world in one day, gives hope to humanity, and now everything will be different. And even in a long-familiar genre, you can introduce fresh ideas, as was the case in The Last of Us, where the theme of a virus that turns people into something like zombies offered a completely different take on the post-apocalypse. But Atlas Fallen can't boast of that. If you don't care about the plot and just want to run around, fight, and open all the chests, then you shouldn't have any problems. But if you value story in games the most, then the Deck13 project can quickly get boring.

Characters Who did not Fully Cope with Their Task

The story here is "interesting" with the characters. There are a lot of them in the game, but I don't even remember most of their names. They have their own history, conflicts, and different situations, but it's all not sufficiently revealed, and you're mostly presented with "talking heads" who give you a new quest and can discuss everyday things. The only thing that the developers have managed is that the characters here do not disappear and live their own lives. If I helped a woman at the first location, I will meet her later, she will tell me how she got here, what she does and can offer me a new task. And there are plenty of such situations here, if only these characters had charisma, because the only one I liked was a travelling merchant who could both joke and tell something interesting. It would be better for developers to reduce the number of characters and work on them more. For example, in God of War 2018, the game's world is also semi-open, but we don't meet a large number of heroes, although almost everyone we saw, from Mimir to Baldur, is memorable for a long time.

A Game World Hard to Find an Analogue To

A bunch of games with a lot of sand, except for Sable and Journey, you can't think of many games with a lot of sand, so Deck13 had an advantage in the setting, which was not used wherever possible, as happened with the same post-apocalypse or futuristic future. Thanks to the semi-open world, you can explore the area without spending dozens of hours and quickly navigate it, which is ideal for those who need to complete the game in 4-7 days. There are all kinds of chests, notes, secrets, castles, settlements, camps, caves scattered around the world, and there are plenty of them.

They don't want to overfeed you with hundreds of activities, but the map doesn't feel too empty either, especially since the Unnamed One slides on sand like ice, which makes movement fast, and the quick movement points in the form of anvils scattered every 200-400 metres help even more. And there are practically no moments when you don't understand how to get somewhere. The only thing I would like to see is random events when, for example, a small settlement is attacked by someone. This would definitely make the game world more alive, but in general, it is implemented well.

How to Play It?

And now the most interesting part of the game is the gameplay. In addition to exploring the sandy Atlas and collecting various little things, we will have to fight all the time, and this is the best part of Atlas Fallen.

Fight Until Your Boots are in the Sand and Your Hands are Sweaty

We will fight against the sand creatures that Thelos created. Most of them resemble animals: birds, crabs, lions and others, and are divided into two categories: small and large. In order to defeat them, we use our gauntlet, which can transform into three types of weapons:

• Dunecleaver - a heavy weapon that resembles a hammer and is suitable for delivering strong blows at short and medium distances.
• Sandwhip - the fastest weapon in the form of a sword. It is most effective at long distances and is suitable for keeping enemies at a distance and not letting them get close to you.
• Knuckledust - a fist weapon for delivering a large number of blows to one target at close range.

The player carries two weapons at the same time, but you can create three profiles to create unique sets and switch between them right in the game. However, you can't switch between profiles during combat.

But it doesn't stop with weapons. During the battles with creatures, players can dodge, fly into the air, and counterattack. If you deflect attacks in time, the enemies will be affected by a cold effect, and they will freeze like statues for a few seconds. This works with all enemies and is most effective against annoying birds and lion-like creatures that put a shield in front of them, forcing you to attack them from behind.

Some enemies' appearance

Against large enemies, the "parts" system works. You need to attack special areas to win. For example, a sand crab has a head and two claws. The screen on the side always shows these zones and how much damage we have done. There are yellow and red parts. If you knock down all the red parts, the creature will automatically die. The only thing that's not clear about this system is that if you knock off a conditional crab's claw, it will still attack with it. Theoretically, it should work like in the Horizon series, where the system is very similar, and if you knock off a body part of a machine, it won't be able to use it, but this point hasn't been fully developed.

And the cherry on top is Essence Stones. These are special perks that you can add to your arsenal and they will help you during the battle. There are passive perks, like damage enhancement, and there are active perks that create a tornado or create a blast wave around you. In total, you can wear 11 stones, 3 of which will be active (there is also an additional stone that cannot be changed and is responsible for health regeneration).

Stones are divided into 1, 2, and 3 categories. The higher the category, the better the stones. There are about 50 stones in the game, and you can get them by completing quests, finding them in chests, or buying them. However, in order for the stones to work, you need to actively attack enemies, which fills a special Momentum scale. A little Momentum is enough to activate the stones of the 1st category, and for the last one you will have to beat everyone in the arena.

Overall, the combat system in the game is epic and intense. You are not allowed to rest, so every encounter with the enemy is intense. Sometimes the battles can give you such emotions when you've been actively pressing all the possible buttons for several minutes, with a boss and small enemies around you, but you can't stop, and you need to come out victorious. And after the last blow, you exhale, glad to have completed this fragment and just want to catch your breath for a minute. You can also play the game with a friend, and when you two use different stones and weapons, it becomes much more fun and adds even more epic to the battles with these sand monsters.

Minimum Upgrade

Also, Stones can be upgraded to increase their performance. To do this, you need to collect all kinds of plants and ore that are scattered around the game world. To be more stylish in the Atlas, you will have to upgrade your armour. Of course, this is not the Witcher, and you shouldn't expect dozens of different armours, but the developers have prepared some interesting sets. Some of them will be given to you as you progress through the story, some can be purchased in the store, and the rest will have to be found by completing additional quests. Each armour has its own unique characteristics. One set improves your defence, while the other enhances your damage, so it's up to you to decide which armour to use to liberate this world. Sets can also be upgraded twice on the anvil, using essence that falls from creatures and is given for completing quests. All other items (including armour) are purchased with gold, which is scattered everywhere.

Explore the Atlas to Complete All the Activities

To diversify the gameplay of Atlas Fallen, the developers have added several types of activities. Not all of them will be mentioned here to keep the intrigue alive for those who will play the game.

• Chests - there are dozens of chests scattered around the world where you can find gold, essence, resources and Essence Stones.

• Treasure Maps - you need to find three parts of the treasure map to see the location where a special chest is hidden, which will give various bonuses.

• Magic Animals - sometimes you can find an animal that will lead you to the place where valuable resources are hidden, the main thing is to follow the animal quietly and not attract its attention.

• Gauntlet Shards - to open up new gauntlet features, you will have to look for special shards. Some are easy enough to pick up, sometimes you need to defeat enemies, and sometimes you need to quickly activate crystals to pick up a piece.

• Notes - there are many notes scattered throughout the Atlas that will help you understand the world of the game and discover certain details of the story.

• Anvil - a place where you can level up your weapons, save the game, and quickly move to another anvil.

Additional Quests That Sometimes Get Boring

We'll talk more about the monotony of tasks, but here, the additional quests (and sometimes the main quests) are a pain in the ass. It's 2023, and some games are stagnating in their quest development. I don't want to complete ten quests with the same type of fetch-and-deliver task. It's okay to complete such tasks a few times. But when all you can be offered is to collect 5 notes or bring 5 coins, it's not interesting. If you go back to God of War 2018, additional quests allowed you to open new regions, learn interesting stories, or reveal the character of the characters. There is almost no such thing here.

The only quests that allowed you to discover new locations and get emotions were the instructions to rescue miners or the choice to turn in a thief to be arrested or not. Everything else you want to finish as soon as possible to get your reward and move on with the story. It would be better if the game had only a few additional quests, and the focus was on the main story. Therefore, I advise you to complete all the additional quests in the first large location to get enough gold and essence, level up your equipment and move exclusively through the story so as not to waste time on the same type of tasks.

Optimisation, Visuals and Audio

There were no problems with optimisation on PlayStation 5. Several times, the FPS could drop to 50, but it lasted no more than 3 seconds. I'm sure that with the release of the first day's patch, this problem will not occur. Throughout the entire playthrough, I never encountered any bugs, didn't fall through the textures, and the game didn't crash. I hope that the situation is similar on Xbox and PC.

Sandy Locations with Elements of Stone and Wood

Most of the Atlas locations are sandy, but for a change, there are sometimes green locations with grass, trees, bushes and animals. Sometimes you will have to wander through caves and underground cities, where the emphasis is on architecture with large bookshelves, abandoned houses, and murals that resemble rock paintings. In order not to play a desert simulator, Deck13 added various camps, huge settlements, and rocks in the open area to explore the world vertically.

I especially liked the last location, where there is practically no sand, but swamps and trees everywhere, through which the sun's rays pass. The picture isn't bad, but it's clear that 65 people staff (as of 2021) is not enough to produce Horizon Forbidden West-level graphics, which was worked on by about 300 people. If you don't need ultra-realistic graphics on Unreal Engine 5, Atlas Fallen's visuals will be fine.

Picturesque Atlas

Audio

The sounds in the game are well implemented. Enemies scream and growl; before their attack, you hear a distinctive sound that helps you parry attacks. Weapons also sound good. Each blow is accompanied by a different sound, and you clearly realise that you have been hit. This works especially well when there are a lot of enemies around you and you can't always keep track of their health.

There are no problems with the music either. During battles, all the tracks are driving, which has its effect when you go to beat up another boss or a bunch of small creatures. When story scenes or illustrations are shown, epic music plays, immersing you in the events, and in the open world, light compositions play quietly in the background, and they do not annoy or bother you.

What We Didn't Like

The game has several serious flaws that do not always give you a good experience. Until the very end, you believe that maybe now it will be different, but the final credits begin, and you realise that you were hoping in vain.

Lack of Chemistry Between Main Characters

From the first minutes of the game, Unnamed wears a glove with the spirit of the god Nyaal in it. He can even be seen every time the player activates the anvil, and we can hear his voice almost always. The only problem with all this is that the relationship doesn't develop. It has never happened that our hero has one approach to a situation, and Nyaal has another, and then a conflict would begin, which could cause emotions and begin to feel for one of the parties, but this has never happened.

In 2013, Beyond: Two Souls was released, where the main character also lived with a spirit who was always there, and their relationship was constantly evolving, from the first to the last minute. They quarreled, helped each other, parted for a while, and this aroused empathy in the player. It's interesting to watch their story. Why something like that couldn't be added to Atlas Fallen is a big mystery to me, and I really missed it during the passage.

Monotonous Tasks

If one can somehow understand additional tasks in which you only need to collect items and that's it, then similar tasks in the main story are outrageous. The game gave me a task several times where I had to collect 3 pieces to upgrade a mitten, and each time it was the same. You're also asked to break 5 chains, destroy 2 towers, collect something else - and there's a lot of it. Couldn't you have sat down and come up with something interesting? For example, a task where a unique creature is sitting in a secret cave, protecting 3 fragments. This would be more interesting than switching on the crystals for the fourth time to speed up. I want to believe that games with a semi-open world will increasingly abandon such monotony and start to fantasise and offer something unique to players. There are interesting quests, of course, but it's a 3 to 7 ratio.

Not Always RPG

Player decision is one of the features that is inherent in RPG games. Here, it's a bit difficult. We are not given a choice as such, there is only one ending, and there are very few quests where we decide something. I mentioned above a quest where a thief stole apples, and we have to decide what to do with him: turn him in or let him go. I would like to see more of this. When you launch an RPG, you expect that you will have to make choices often, and they will affect the story. Do you remember the series of quests with the Baron in The Witcher 3? There, depending on our actions during several quests, the ending of the story was very different. That's what's missing here.

For example, in Atlas Fallen, there was a quest where you had to collect 3 notes and find the words that were the password to move on. And even if you answered it wrong, you would still be allowed to go through. Although here it would be necessary to let the player come up with a new way to pass if he failed such a task.

Better It Would Be an Exclusively Co-operative Game

I played the game alone, but I feel that it would be much more interesting to collect 3 crystals, bring 5 coins, and search the treasure map, chest and fight against everyone together with a friend. That's why the game should have been made only cooperative, and not always interesting elements of the game would have been perceived completely differently, and those that work well would have been implemented even better.

5 Things to Know About Atlas Fallen

• Atlas Fallen is an adventure that will take you to a unique sandy world where you can explore ancient ruins, deserts, cliffs and cities.
• The game has a very dynamic combat system that can give you a lot of emotions and adapt the style of fighting to your liking.
• It suffers from monotonous quests and a lack of chemistry between the main characters.
• Thanks to the semi-open world, the game can be completed quickly, and you don't have to spend 30-50 hours to reach the final goal.
• Atlas Fallen is best played with a friend, which will give you much more emotions than if you play the project alone.

Atlas Fallen
Genre	Adventure
Platforms	PC, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5
Number of players	Single-player/ Co-op for 2 people
Developer	Deck13
Publisher	Focus Entertainment
Time to complete	15-20 hours
Release date	August 10, 2023

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