Atlas Fallen Review (kicksandgiggles300)
First, the game. Then Deck13.
Game is gorgeous, open world, lots of sidequests and exploration. "Levelling" mechanic is upgrading certain abilities to do with a god-tier gauntlet affixed to your arm. Story is interesting and doesn't pull you away from the gameplay. The combat is where this game shines. You can fight the same enemies over and over and each time you feel like you could have improved something or pulled another trick out of your hat. Challenging, but not Souls-level. When you hit that magical parry or dodge just right and follow up with a tremendous hit it is satisfying. Lots of stuff to collect as well, so it scratches that itch too. Also just has an awesome sense of style. Very cool, new take I haven't seen in this kind of game.
I have a couple complaints about minor things: 1) the voice acting is very overwrought; breathy and soap opera-esque quite a bit of the time. 2) all the chests look exactly the same, the animation for opening them is always exactly the same, and you can find 20 in an hour if you want (there are quite a bit), so you get bored of the same animation over and over if you're looking for items. 3) There are other things, but I can't recall them at the moment. Will add if they come to mind later.
Overall, wonderful game worth asking price. 8/10
Now Deck13. I want more funding, more employees and more everything for this company. They have been on an exponential curve of improvement and never leave a game behind. Lords of the Fallen (meh), the Surge (good), the Surge 2 (VERY good), and now this (VERY good, but a completely different genre, so I give them a little bit of leeway for not exceeding my expectations yet again.) Each one of those games you can get relatively cheaply (in the case of the Surge and Surge 2 when they are on sale they're like $5 COMBINED) and they reward you with 30+ hours of game time apiece. Love, love this company. Check out their YouTube sometime.