Among the many RPG games coming out in the coming months, Atlas Fallen, developed by Deck13 and published by Focus Entertainment, definitely has been on everyone's radar. Deck13 does have a bit of history with the soulslike genre and is renowned for The Surge, The Surge 2 and Lords of the Fallen, even though both the Surge games are mostly linear soulslike with sci-fi settings. On the other hand, Atlas Fallen is far more open but looks different from the usual soulslike games.

The game is more combat-focused; it's fast and responsive but with no stamina mechanism that slows you down during the battles. From what we've seen, Atlas Fallen is an open-world action-adventure RPG game focusing mainly on its action and combat. And the combat carries the game, especially with the versatility of the skills and abilities and character-build options the game offers.

While most RPGs are based on a fixed character, Atlas Fallen starts with character creation, which is great. You can make a male or female character with plenty of customization features. Even though it doesn't make much difference but being able to play with your unique character is always an extra attachment to the game. The cosmetic system in the armor customization lets you fine-tune each section of the armor sets which is pretty nice, but of course, this requires you to find different items during the gameplay. You can dye your armor sets as well, and the abilities you can unlock during the gameplay are pretty exciting and they really change how you can play the game.

Atlas Fallen puts you straight into a vast open-world desert. The world here is full of sand dunes and portrays the remnants of an ancient civilization clinging to life as mythical sand creatures have taken over the land. This open world's design aesthetic seems great, especially because of how you traverse around it. You literally surf across the sand dunes, making traveling across the dunes way more interesting. Not many video games put that much effort into how our protagonists move across the environment, so seeing something different is great. What felt even great is that despite being desert, none of the environments looked the same when moving from one area to another. A good amount of work has been done to design the settings, which we can further confirm after playing the full game.

For the most part, exploring the open world of Atlas Fallen was really enjoyable, and climbing and exploring these ruins actually feels like you're being rewarded with secret little chests or lootable items that can either be sold to traders for various components that you can use to upgrade your skills and abilities. Those who enjoy exploring every corner of a game's environment will surely be glad to see the many rewards they get from it. Many of the resources you gather can be used to purchase or craft and upgrade your armor and ability. Each armor set has free upgrades, and once they're fully upgraded, they unlock a trait that will enhance a certain playstyle. Some armor sets to boost the combo attacks, and some reduce the enemy's armor for a limited time allowing you to do more damage.

The reliance on gaming momentum sets Atlas Fallen apart from other open-world action RPGs. This momentum gauge down in the bottom left builds up from attacking, and the higher it climbs, the more passive buffs will activate, and the more of your active abilities will become available. You will find many essence stones as you explore, which slop onto this momentum bar to be activated. These could range from a passive defense boost, a sand tornado, modification to your dodge, or many other upgrades and abilities. Buffs also unlock more spots to the right. The rest of the system can be summed up as the higher your momentum gauge, the more damage you'll take. And along with those extra buffs and abilities, your attacks also become more powerful.

Combat in Atlas Fallen is literally the best part of the game. You start the game with a sword that turns into some sort of sand whip in the game, but you can also get several weapons, like the axe, saw, etc. You always have two weapons equipped, and each one of those weapons has several in-built attacks. You can switch between two weapons, but these are like several weapons in themselves. This weapon mechanic applies to all the weapon types, not just the sand whip. The single momentum gauge modifies your weapon's attacks and combo effects. Your passive buffs will trigger and enables more active abilities at higher tiers, but you take increased damage the higher it climbs. You can activate the shatter ability to return your moment to zero instantly. A shatter is like a big ultimate attack allowing you to drain your moment manually.

As usual, if you tap the attack button, your fast attack, and if you hold it longer, you will do a strong attack. Attacking comes from two primary buttons X and Y on Xbox, each tied to a specific weapon type you've assigned to them. And depending on how you combine a different series of those attacks, you do a specific combo. It varies how you chain your attack patterns. Each weapon has several different combos; you can combine some with other weapons and get a unique combat effect. For instance, you can use the sand whip, which also works as a grapple, to get closer to the enemies and perform a different combo, mixing the fast and heavy attacks.

These different variations of combos and attacks make the combat feel even more engaging and allow you to be more creative. Even if you don't memorize combo attacks and randomly smash buttons, there will still be some sort of random combo, and they all look great. As for the combat basics, tapping or holding either attack button will modify the sequence of attacks that comes out, and there's also a third attack button on the right trigger which is more focused on aerial combat. On the ground, this third button will become a launcher to jump attack up into the air, or if you're already airborne, that attack will send you slamming back down into the ground.

Like most soulslike games, Atlas Fallen allows you to parry enemy attacks. Even though the mechanism is similar but the animations are rather different. When you parry an attack, you cover yourself in sand armor that makes you immune for a second. It is also much easier to parry than Elden Ring or Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, where you must time it down to the right frame. In here, the eyes of the enemies glow red, and that's when you press the parry button to block their attack completely. But you can also rely on dodging if you don't want the parry. Since there's no stamina bar, you can dodge everything unlimitedly. You can also double jump and dash in the air when moving or attacking. Like the attacks, you can upgrade your Gauntlet on your wrist, enabling more parkouring abilities and allowing you to jump, dodge, and dash in different combinations to traverse the environment.

As for the open-world exploration part of Atlas Fallen, structures will rise up out of the sand to reach different areas, and there're some platforming elements, but combat is the main feature you'll find yourself in the game. There are a few puzzle aspects to the open world environment, like raising a structure from the ground to access a ruin. Otherwise, you have to climb and jump across that ruin to gain access to some treasure or rare ingredients that you can use to upgrade your weapons or unlock more skills and armor. You can eventually upgrade the number of times you can air dash, which allows you to access different areas on the map that you previously couldn't reach.

Your character is fully voice acted in Atlas Fallen, and also the Gauntlet you wear, embodied by a spirit that talks to you. You'll often be talking to your glove, which is similar to Forspoken. The Gauntlet also explains game mechanics to you, and it does it in a manner that might feel funny if you're already a pro in this genre. You can, of course, talk to many of the NPCs around the world to pick up various side quests, which are typically going somewhere to fetch or kill something.

There's nothing revolutionary with the side quests, but that's clearly not meant to be the focus of Atlas Fuller. There's also co-op, but it wasn't shown in the preview build. So this will also open the doors to different types of gamers who enjoy PVP more than the game's story mode. For those worried about combat, the game also has different difficulty settings. One of the best parts of the game is that the enemies look very engaging during combat, and you don't feel like you are just hitting an object.

Atlas Fallen is all about its combat and creating a powerful character despite not being a soulslike game. If you jump into the game with what that in mind, you're in for a fine treat. The combat seemed solid, and the exploration was fun. Skating and parkouring through the sand and exploring felt great. Of course, we only saw a small section of the game, and giving a full impression of the game and the storyline is difficult. We'll have to wait until the game is released on August 10th. One thing for certain is that the RPG fans will unquestionably love this game.

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Editor, NoobFeed