Atlas Fallen Review – A Desert World of Squandered Potential

Atlas Fallen is the latest fantasy action RPG from developer Deck13 Interactive, the studio behind the hardcore Souls-like games Lords of the Fallen and The Surge series. This time, they’re trying something different – an open world-style structure in a vivid desert setting. You play as an unnamed hero who acquires a magical gauntlet, granting you powers over sand to glide across dunes and do battle against hulking wraiths. It’s a familiar premise, but does this shift into more free-roaming gameplay work for Deck13?

In this Atlas Fallen review, we’ll dive deep into all aspects of the game, from the expansive environments filled with ruins and secrets, to the fast-paced melee combat against creepy fantasy creatures. We’ll discuss how the game aims to blend action-adventure traversal with RPG progression and customization. And we’ll look at where it falters, like repetitive objectives or clunky gameplay. Deck13 games are known for their challenging combat, so has Atlas Fallen maintained that edge?

By the end, you’ll have a good sense of whether this sun-blasted world of sandy vistas and magical gauntlets is worth exploring. We’ll compare it to other entries in the genre and help you decide if Atlas Fallen’s mix of frenetic action, deep roleplaying mechanics, and open-world exploration lives up to its ambitions. So strap on your sandals and hang on tight – we’re about to dive into the deserts of Atlas Fallen.

Sandy Dunes and Crumbling Ruins

The world of Atlas Fallen spreads out before you like a vast ocean of sand. The game contains four open-style maps to explore, each one a sun-scorched expanse filled with lonely ruins, wavering mirages, and surprises tucked away in the dunes.

Deck13 has crafted some genuinely stunning vistas here. Cresting a dune to see temples crumbling against the sunset, or gazing out across forests and oases from a clifftop perch – Atlas Fallen nails that sense of discovery and natural beauty. The environments create an atmosphere that transported me to this mystical desert land.

But it’s when you start moving that Atlas Fallen’s world comes alive. Your magical gauntlet grants the power to surf across the sands, carving a wake like you’re snowboarding down a mountain. This fluid, momentum-based traversal is an absolute joy. Leaning into turns or launching off slopes, it’s incredibly intuitive and fun. I’d often go wandering just to skim around and take in the sights.

Zipping up walls, double-jumping chasms, it’s clear Deck13 poured immense care into the movement. This smooth freedom of mobility is easily the highlight of Atlas Fallen for me. Chaining together boosts and tricks to cross the world brought a constant smile to my face.

Of course, surfing around is about more than just enjoyment. It helps you discover mini-dungeons, hidden treasures, and side activities. The nooks and crannies of Atlas Fallen’s world are filled with rewards for curious travelers. Glowing artifacts lie tucked away in cavernous ruins. Strange puzzles and platforming challenges guard valuable loot. Even just cruising the dunes reveals resources to harvest.

It’s worth taking the time to veer off the critical path and uncover these secrets. That said, the repetitive nature of the environments means things tend to blur together. Without many unique landmarks or distinguishing features, locations can feel samey. I’d sometimes get turned around in a seemingly endless sea of sand.

More visual diversity between areas would have brought more character to the world. Though pretty, the different zones don’t stand out beyond aesthetic changes between deserts, jungles and badlands. A touch more vibrancy and personality throughout would have been welcome.

Still, I greatly enjoyed roaming this windswept realm on my magical sandboard. Atlas Fallen marries exploration and traversal together in brilliant fashion. Skimming across shimmering dunes or gazing out at the lonely grandeur from some forgotten tower delivered many memorable moments. The world invited me to chart my own course through the sands, uncovering adventures along the way.

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By the Book Fantasy

Atlas Fallen’s story hits some well-worn fantasy tropes – a lowly hero finding a mystical artifact that grants them great power, an evil god oppressing the populace, a band of freedom fighters looking to break the wheel. It’s a classic premise but unfortunately never rises above its generic origins.

You play as an unnamed slave who acquires the mythical Gauntlet, capable of wielding sand as a weapon. With the help of its guardian spirit Nyaal, you set out to challenge the cruel Sun God Thelos and his tyrannical rule.

It’s about as bare-bones fantasy as you can get. The characters you meet along the way, like the brash Bari or no-nonsense Xandra, are equally flat archetypes. I never felt invested in the rebels’ fight or my mentor Nyaal. There’s no real depth or nuance to latch onto.

The story hits the familiar narrative beats – gathering allies, defending villages, taking down lieutenants – without much spark or originality. A few twists are thrown in near the end, but they come across as unearned given the paint-by-numbers plot. I wish the excellent exploration gameplay loop had been matched with equally compelling fiction and characters. As it stands, Atlas Fallen’s narrative feels perfunctory, simply going through the motions.

The story’s pacing also struggles at times to align with the gameplay progression. Chapter transitions often lack impact when they are just gating abilities you already earned hours ago. And the final act descends into a repetitive grind at odds with the rest of the experience.

While the Gauntlet’s powers drive exploration and combat, the narrative fails to capitalize. The lore tidbits hidden in the world were often more engaging than the main story beats.

Perhaps if the premise leaned harder into the mystique of this dying desert world, instead of defaulting to a seen-it-before rebellion plot, Atlas Fallen could have wrung more magic from its setting. As is, neither the tale nor the characters leave much of an impression. It’s one area where the game fails to live up to its potential.

Frantic, Customizable Battles

Atlas Fallen’s combat is fast, fluid, and customizable – though at times, almost overly complex. With an array of weapons, skills, upgrades and combos to master, the fighting system has depth but occasionally collapses under its own density.

You start out wielding sand-based melee weapons, chaining together quick jabs and forceful blows against a variety of fantastical foes. The options like swords, whips and gauntlets provide different attack speeds and impacts to suit your style.

Stringing together hits builds Momentum, depicted by a rising meter. With enough Momentum stored, you can unleash devastating Shatter skills for huge damage. This creates a gratifying ebb-and-flow as you strategically spend your Momentum on mighty finishers.

But it gets deeper. You equip special moves and buffs via Essence Stones. These abilities let you unleash elemental attacks, regenerate health, increase damage – the possibilities are robust. With skill trees for both weapons and stones, you have ample room to customize your ideal loadout.

I enjoyed experimenting with builds to match my preferred hit-and-run tactics. The flexibility to tweak your powers keeps combat feeling fresh across the long campaign. Unlocking new skills at a steady clip feeds into that RPG sense of constant progression.

However, at a certain point the multitude of systems gets overwhelming. Between meter management, cooldown tracking, finicky camera angles and targeting issues, the action descends into button mashing chaos. There is a lack of balance to the frenzied pace.

The limb-targeting, a staple of past Deck13 games, also fails to make much impact here. While you can shred a wraith’s wings or armor piece by piece, it rarely confers a tactical advantage. The visual payoff outweighs any shift in strategy.

Still, successfully chaining skills and weapons into a seamless flow of destruction provides a real rush. The raw kinetic energy and visual effects keep you invested in the next big fight. Even after hitting max level, I replayed boss battles just to try and perfect my approach.

Progression could be deeper – the gear lacks impact and the world activities get repetitive – but the combat strikes a great middle-ground between action and RPG. There’s enough customization to feel invested, and enough chaos to keep you on your toes. That addictive core loop is the real draw.

Rough Around the Edges

For all its strengths, Atlas Fallen is hampered by some nagging gameplay issues that hold it back from truly excelling. Camera problems, performance glitches, and limited accessibility options take some of the shine off an otherwise enjoyable experience.

The biggest offender is the camera. It struggles to keep up with the wild, kinetic battles, often swinging wildly and obscuring the action. The lock-on feature intends to help but sometimes makes things worse, frantically jumping between targets. These limitations really come to the fore during tense boss fights.

The combat also favors open areas where you can utilize the full arsenal of dashes and area attacks. When forced into tight spaces, the system breaks down – you’re stuck awkwardly mashing buttons and hoping for the best. The free-flowing style depends on room to maneuver.

On the technical side, Atlas Fallen is not immune to glitches. I encountered floating enemies, broken animations, delayed inputs, and framerate hitches even after patching. They don’t tank the experience but do undermine polish, especially given Deck13’s pedigree.

Most egregious is the lack of accessibility options. Beyond remapping controls and toggling subtitles, adjustments for impaired players are nil. This omission flies in the face of industry trends toward greater inclusivity. Even adding basic colorblind modes or control aids would help immensely.

For a modern release of this scope, the absence of these settings is disappointing and feels like an unfortunate oversight. Here’s hoping Deck13 expands the options in future patches.

In the end, Atlas Fallen’s shortcomings don’t override what an enjoyable journey it provides. But the lack of combat camera options and limited accessibility in particular feel at odds with an otherwise stellar production. Addressing these lingering flaws would elevate the entire experience.

As is, technical quibbles and quality-of-life issues diminish some of Atlas Fallen’s luster. But its heart of high-flying combat and desert-spanning adventure still shine bright underneath.

Playing With Friends

Atlas Fallen supports 2-player co-op to let you traverse the sandy wastes with a friend. Fighting hordes of wraiths together is a fun, if chaotic, time. The increased action emphasizes the strengths of the combat system, though the lack of progression carryover is disappointing.

Teaming up is seamless – you can quickly join a friend’s game or have them drop into yours. The host dictates quest progress, but joining players keep all acquired loot and resources. Combat scales up appropriately to keep things challenging.

Fighting side-by-side develops a gratifying synergy, combining abilities and coordination to take down brutish bosses. Syncing up combos and shatter skills becomes almost rhythmic. The combat absolutely shines in co-op.

The catch is that guest progress in terms of world exploration and quests does not remain if you return to your own game. Given the breadth of customization options, not being able to retain your character build is a major oversight.

Beyond co-op, Atlas Fallen offers Replayability through its flexible combat. Experimenting with different weapon and essence stone loadouts gives incentive to re-run content. You can also chase faster boss kill times or optimized exploration routes.

That said, the post-game descends into repetitive grind. Recycling the same objectives and areas wears thin quickly once the story wraps up. The compact 12-14 hour runtime mitigates this however. Playing together breathed new life into Atlas Fallen for me. But the inability to retain guest progression hampers the co-op experience.

Visual Splendor and Auditory Atmosphere

Atlas Fallen impresses with its vibrant sci-fi fantasy visuals and atmospheric soundtrack, even if some graphical elements fall short. The environments shine through solid art direction, though janky animations and repetitive level design undermine the presentation.

Vast desert vistas bathed in the glow of alien suns instantly catch the eye. Lighting effects across cracked badlands and mushroom forests add real pop. The landscapes portray a dying world, accentuated by eroded ruins and windswept dunes.

Character models are also well-crafted, with intricate clothing and gear that fits the setting. Unfortunately, the actual animations are quite stiff – conversation scenes betray a lack of lifelike qualities. But in action, these shortcomings fade away within the flowing combat.

I preferred playing on Performance Mode for its tightened responsiveness, though both graphics options provide high resolution and steady framerates. The tradeoff comes in environment variety – while zones have unique themes, they blend together with few standout landmarks.

What truly brings Atlas Fallen to life is its orchestral soundtrack. Sweeping, melodic tracks tap into that sense of adventure perfectly. The music lends grandeur and mystique to exploration or rises in tempo to match high-stakes battles.

Spot effects like sand sifting as you surf or the crack of a colossal blow land impactfully. The audio design fully complements the aesthetic. Voices are a mixed bag – main characters strike the right tone but NPCs feel stilted. This uneven acting can break immersion.

In the end, Atlas Fallen succeeds more than it falters in crafting a captivating atmosphere through its visuals and sounds. Stiff animations and indistinct zones limit the graphics, while the stirring orchestral score provides an ideal backdrop.

Crafting, Lore, and RPG Systems

Beyond its core mechanics, Atlas Fallen contains a range of supplementary systems that provide depth. Crafting gear, uncovering lore documents, and lightweight RPG features offer incentives for scouring the world. But technical hiccups like long loads muddy the experience.

Harvesting plants and minerals while exploring lets you craft useful consumables at campfires. Brew buff potions, upgrade weapons and forge new garments using these materials. It’s a small but welcome touch that makes resource gathering feel meaningful.

Charming bits of lore are sprinkled everywhere, providing insight into cultures, historical events and figures. Letters, journals, and artifacts bring nuance to the people of Atlas. It incentivizes poking around off the beaten path.

Atlas Fallen also incorporates light RPG elements. Certain dialogue options open via Charisma checks, or completing tasks can improve your reputation with factions. These small touches make your character feel like part of a living world.

Immersive details like these ultimately get hampered by technical shortcomings though. Texture pop-in, frame rate hitches, and exceedingly long load times between areas break flow. Optimizing performance would elevate the whole experience.

Navigating the various menus and interfaces feels clunky as well. Item tooltips awkwardly cover other UI elements, and important mechanics are poorly explained. Streamlining menus would greatly improve usability. However, the fast travel system mitigates some slow pacing and repetitive objectives. Being able to quickly get around the world is invaluable for questing efficiency.

For all its strong points, Atlas Fallen still bears the scars of unpolished design in spots. But efforts to enrich exploration through crafting, lore, and RPG flavor are laudable. It lays the groundwork for a deep, interconnected world.

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An Adventure With Room to Grow

After over a dozen hours surfing the sands and battling colossal creatures in Atlas Fallen, I walked away mostly satisfied but hungry for more. Developer Deck13 Interactive has crafted an enjoyable action RPG flawed by significant shortcomings. For every excellent feature, a nagging issue lies in contrast. But the sum of its parts results in a fantasy romp that hooked me, despite room for refinement.

The sublime sensation of smoothly gliding across windswept dunes stands out as Atlas Fallen’s crowning achievement. Zipping around the open-style maps always placed a smile on my face, incentivizing exploration. Uncovering hidden dungeons and lost ruins fed my innate desire for discovery. The environments are picturesque, though repetitive in their design. This realm envelops you in mystery but lacks memorable landmarks.

Regrettably, the narrative fails to match that sense of adventure. The story hits every well-worn trope without flourish. Flat, archetypal characters inspire little investment. The lore tidbits scattered about ultimately prove more compelling than the main plot. You expect better fiction given the rich setting.

Of course, you’ll spend most of your time in Atlas Fallen’s hectic battles against fantastical beasts. Customizing your powers and chaining together combos brings a rush, though the camera and targeting issues often undermine the fun. When the various mechanics coalesce, combat explodes with kinetic energy. But when congested spaces or technical glitches arise, organized chaos devolves into button mashing mayhem.

Yet for all its flaws, Atlas Fallen kept me engaged with its compelling progression loop. Experimenting with different abilities kept combat fresh until the repetitive endgame. The charming lore and environmental puzzles rewarded wandering off track. Speeding atop the dunes in search of that next breathtaking vista never lost its magic.

Deck13 has crafted an enjoyable journey here that lays a promising foundation. Atlas Fallen falls short of realizing its full potential but succeeds in delivering a sufficiently compelling experience, warts and all. It leaves me eager to see how the developer could harness this world and gameplay to even greater heights with a refined sequel. For fans of RPG adventure, this desert realm merits a visit.

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