Deck13 is a Germany-based studio that built a bit of a reputation for itself with the release of the games soulslike as Lords of the Fallen and The Surge 1 and 2. Both series captured the attention of fans of the sub-genre and nothing else from the studio had been seen, until now. Atlas Fallen is the new open-world action game from the studio that changes the formula to take other paths.

The game proposes several mechanics that might seem interesting, such as the journey through its desert world and its intricate but interesting combat system. However, in the long run we will notice that the title lacks a little more polish and suffers from the same problems of open world games. If we keep our expectations at bay, we might like the game.

An unfair god and an even worse queen

The story takes us to a world called the forbidden lands, here a god called Thelos has as agent a queen who has submitted to the Nameless. The Nameless, are a kind of slaves that only serve to extract and transport Essence Powder, a precious asset that serves to worship Thelos.

As the protagonist we will be one of these Nameless that is part of a caravan that was stranded halfway through an attack by monsters. After organizing an uprising against our guards, by chance in life he found a gauntlet that gives him the powers of a mystical entity called Nyaal.

It is here where our adventure begins and we enter this desert world and at the same time intriguing. On the one hand we must save our kind from oppression and on the other discover who Nyaal is and why her essence lives in the gauntlet.

At the plot level, the game offers a story that meets, although it is not the most surprising that we have seen. It has a construction of its world through dialogues and some secondary missions that will reveal to us what this world we inhabit is.

Do you like surfing?

The gameplay of Atlas Fallen is divided into several aspects that will even remind recent games that didn’t catch on with the public (Yes, I’m looking at you Forspoken). After choosing how to create our character with a basic customization system, it really doesn’t matter what we choose, we will always have the same appearance with armor on, and then we go on to adventure.

On the one hand, we have sand surfing to cover great distances, in addition to doing a double jump and propelling ourselves forward in the air. The Forbidden Lands have a more or less considerable extension, with several divided areas that allow us to slide through the sand. However, we will feel that sliding is a slow and unintuitive process since we will only do it where sand is involved. This part feels wasted, though riding the sand dunes is still fun and rewarding.

The world hides many secrets and the map allows you to locate the important locations. We will have several cities or settlements where we can trade, talk and get secondary missions. The latter are always the messenger and beyond the rewards in the form of objects and lore, they will feel repetitive.

The missions are divided into three types: Main missions: the story missions that advance the plot; Secondary missions: allow you to interact with the world and its inhabitants and Missions: allow you to discover interesting and hidden places. Completing missions and defeating enemies yields us Essence Powder, one of the game’s currency that allows us to obtain new objects while improving our attributes.

The sands are my weapon

The gauntlet allows you to use various weapons such as Sword, Whip and Two fists that are formed from the sand, can be assigned to two buttons and used in combination with each other. Each weapon has a set of blows between normal and alternative that combine in a fluid way. However, this is not a Souls and weapon interactions are limited to the three I mentioned.

In addition to attacks, the player can dodge and defend against them. The enemies carry out two types of attacks, a red one that we can counter and a blue one that reduces our momentum bar. For a well-timed attack, it places enemies in a suspended state that allows them to attack without fear of retaliation. The dynamics of the game is in knowing when to do it, although the game requires a lot of practice to master the mechanics.

The game introduces a new mechanic rarely seen in games of the genre, the Momentum Bar. It consists of a bar that fills up as we hit enemies. This bar has three levels that imply greater damage to both enemies and the player. For each section that is filled, we can carry out a devastating attack to finish off our enemies or eliminate sections of their body. Another mechanic is abilities, which are related to the momentum bar. If we fill a section we can use the abilities chosen for that section and this allows us to create builds of varied characters since classes do not exist in Atlas Fallen. We will have more than 30 abilities with which to experiment.

Regarding the enemies, these are called Spectral and we will have them of different types such as flying, beasts and Esports Extrasntic. Each one requires a strategy to defeat, but the biggest ones have body parts that we must destroy, which, by doing so, we will obtain rewards and lower their health bar a lot.

with own engine

Atlas Fallen It is a divisive game in the graphical section, because it offers impressive views with the engine created for the game, as well as some interesting effects. We will see how the sand deforms under our feet and how he handles the issue of particles. On the other hand, it has a good lighting and shadow system. However, some textures take time to load, like the one on the chests. It has the Performance and Quality modes with all that that entails.

In its sound section, the game has music according to what the game transmits with pieces of epic cut. On his side, it is dubbed into English with actors that if we have a lot of time on this we will be able to recognize and it comes with texts in Spanish.

Verdict

Atlas Fallen is a game with which Deck13 tries to distance itself from the Souls formula of its titles The Surge 1 and 2, by giving us a game more focused on spectacularity and dynamism. As such, it offers some interesting and fun mechanics that lack some polish. We have a regular story that won’t surprise anyone but hides a deep world-building. Its combat system is the best in the game with the momentum mechanic that offers a lot of itself, in addition to the customization with which we can create builds of interesting characters. Graphically, it is one of lime and the other of sand, but the game knows how to maintain its foundations without falling along the way.

Note: This review was made on PS5 and the code was provided thanks to Focus Entertainment.