After the Fall Review (Crux)
I’m not sure I’ve ever been so split about a game. I really want to love ATF but it’s got just enough issues to make me hesitant about recommending it to others.
First of all though, the Pros:
- If you’re a fan of intense co-op shooters with a pretty steep difficulty curve this could be one for you. To master the higher difficulties and unlock the best weapons and mods you need to learn how different weapons excel in different situations, how to utilise throwables and wrist devices to their full potential and how to move quickly but safely through the missions. If you have a group of friends who enjoy a challenge then I think you will enjoy the moment to moment gameplay of ATF.
- There are regular updates to the game, both to fix bugs and exploits and to add new content and QoL improvements.
- Cross-platform support is very clean and easy. Steam users can team up with Quest users and Oculus users with a simple party invite.
- You can choose between quick reloading (slapping the gun against your chest) or active (realistic) reloading. You get a significant damage bonus doing active reloading which I like a lot. Unfortunately quick reloading is undoubtedly the superior choice until you can get extended magazines from higher difficulties.
Now the unfortunate Cons:
- There are some game-breaking bugs here. They are infrequent but if you’re unlucky, as I was, you can end up in situations where someone will get stuck in a wall or the floor which can mean the end of a run. Switching from smooth movement to teleport sometimes fixes this but other times the person stuck couldn’t access their menu to change this option. This is infuriating when it happens towards the end of a hard mission. If you fail missions in ATF you lose any unlockables you may have picked up, which is understandable, but it means that bugs like these need to be removed otherwise you’ve just wasted your time.
Other bugs include enemies getting stuck in walls. Enemies that need to be cleared in order to be able to progress to the next area, so you end up running around spraying up the walls hoping to clip them so you can continue.
- After passing a certain point the progression system is heavily weighted in favour of having a full team of 4 players to clear the higher difficulties. If you want to try it with fewer actual players (I have no interest in playing with randoms) you kind of need the weapon modifications that you can only get from those difficulties, so you end up in this awkward situation where the difficulty becomes a brick wall almost. I will admit the challenge of this can be exciting but then someone gets stuck in a wall and you wonder why you bother with this game at all.
- If you’re here for story or immersion I would advise that you give this one a miss. The story is wafer thin and the world feels somewhat empty and uninteresting most of the time. I get why that is, the game can create hordes of enemies to send at you which looks amazing and the engine can only do so much, but I never felt immersed or impressed by the world.
- You get bombarded with party invites from randoms in the hub.
ATF doesn’t have tons of replayability for me. It’s a game I come back to occasionally to see what’s new and I usually have a good time whenever I do. However, due to some of the bugs that are still present I can’t recommend it unfortunately.