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Sum-Up

In-depth analysis further down.
If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.


🟩 Pros
🟥 Cons



• Rewarding exploration and side-quests, that will award useful abilities and the bulk of resources needed to stay on-par with your foes.
• Good variety of abilities, active and passive, to equip and use to suit different playstyles. On paper, at least.
• You can share the pain in co-op with a buddy, who may decide to -not- be your friend anymore after such an experience!
• Adequate challenge level on higher difficulties, although rather easily overcome by specific skill and passive combinations.


• Disgusting optimization: 30-40 FPS avg. at minimum settings, despite running on a machine very close to recommended specs.
• Brain-fog-inducing, generic setting, complemented by a stale background lore that never gets interesting. One-sided, boring, token characters close the circle.
• Poor enemy variety in the long run, with very few unique variants that even themselves aren’t a game-changer, and one-time only.
• All quests, be them main or side, are a boring slog with terribly repetitive tasks, situations and objectives that get stale rather fast.
• Shallow combat system that, despite ‘on-paper’ variety, proves uninteresting and excessively focused on the same mechanics; without any evolution and much redundancy.





🟨 Bugs & Issues
🔧 Specs



• DLSS is unavailable, despite AMD’s inferior vaseline-coating solution, FSR, being present. Why? Sponsorship deals. Consumer choice be damned!
• Vantage points don’t highlight loot they detect permanently, nor mark it on the map in any way. Unsure if this is a (stupid) feature or a bug.


• i5 11400H
• 16GB RAM DDR4
• 512 GB SSD
• RTX 3060 6GB
• 1080p





Content & Replay Value:
It takes around 10 hours to just finish the main quest and a couple side ones, much longer to clear other content and explore all locations thoroughly - which I mostly did, though not 100%, as I wanted to retain a speckle of sanity, for now. The story is linear and all ‘builds’ can be achieved in the same run; there’s no reason to replay.


Is it worth buying?
No. The regular price of 40€ is already somewhat steep for this content amount; to this recipe, add the manuscript-length list of flaws and half-assed features - you’ll get a generous portion of reasons for not buying this junk.


Verdict: Bad
Rating Chart Here
With its insipid storyline, dry characters, arid worldbuilding, and a drought of engaging content, Atlas Fallen feels like rubbing sandpaper on your synapses at every dune. Sail on to better shores.


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In-Depth

Writing & Worldbuilding
After the umpteenth ‘deus-ex-machina’ clichè, making your otherwise-unremarkable protagonist the chosen avatar of a mysterious being called Nyaal - superpowers included - you'll find yourself being Neo on a budget; the last hope for what’s left of humanity to free themselves from Thelos’ shackles, the guy being an evil deity that pummeled the world into its present sorry state.
Your adventure through the monotone, dusty environs of the Fallen World will be contoured not by characters, but sketches of such, as calling these poorly-written caricatures NPCs would be an insult to games with actual proper writing in them. Even your symbiotic blue man, Nyaal, will be more of a nuisance than anything. There’s no turnaround, cliffhanger or pivotal moment in the entire story to elicit any marvel, pique any interest or hook players at any point whatsoever.
Wide as the ocean, deep as a puddle is the trite but apt definition I’ll assign to this world and its unremarkable structure. Not lore-wise, nor visually, and definitely not by sheer pathos, will your travels ever be more than an emotionless drift towards the next quest marker, enemy or chest. As lifeless as a world like this might be by nature, it could and should’ve been interesting for players to explore, but it isn’t in any way past the mechanical acquisition of resources.
Exploration & Secrets
You’ll be able to glide on sand not before long, a sad caricature of Silver Surfer grazing through a galaxy of boredom, rather than stars. This means of travel is brisk, but still inadequate for the sheer extension of the world; luckily, Anvils can be unearthed and, among their many utilitarian functions like saving or upgrading your gear, they also have instant fast-travel even between maps.
As you journey, you’ll come across Vantage Points that reveal nearby buried chests and other POIs - the only problem is that they don’t stay marked, so unless you have eidetic memory, you’ll have to backtrack to the Point each time to know where the stuff is. Random enemy encounters are common, but always relegated to the same areas and in the same numbers, easily-avoidable.
There’s a great number of hidden chests, collectibles, lore files and baubles to sell, scattered in the endless sands. If anything, exploring will give you the edge both financially and by skill, giving you more blueprints for active and passive skills to then use in combat. Taking extra time to explore is worthwhile, and will definitely make a difference on higher difficulty settings.
Combat System & Bosses
Combat plays out at a somewhat fast pace, and relies on the base system of dodge / parry / attack typical of generalist third-person action titles, but with its own twists. The one major mechanic is Momentum, a bar progressively filled as you deliver blows, that unlocks higher tier skills within the fight, but depletes if you get hit by certain attacks, or play too defensively.
This risk/reward system isn’t bad per-se, but also doesn’t reach its full potential due to the fact most active and passive skills are gimmicky, useless or at best, unremarkable. Just cram everything that makes you deal more damage, more healing and take less into your Momentum Gauge, spam parry, and you’ll be good to go. You’ll also be able to spend your momentum to trigger a powerful finishing blow, while parrying many attacks in a row will freeze even large enemies for a few seconds.
The repetitive nature of encounters starts wearing you down not after long: the few Elite bosses that show some variance over regular foes are few and far in-between, while the amount of recycling is high. Be prepared to fight the same fodder with minimal variations for most of your adventure, and it will always be ‘sand monsters’, not even a tiny-teensy human bandit - because suddenly, humanity became fraternal, apparently.
Bosses will be, mostly, the introduction of future, regular large enemies, with very few exceptions to this rule. Basically, save for the final boss and a few other instances, no enemy is really unique. They’re the same as their smaller brothers, just more health and more body parts to destroy. There’s no penalty for death, if you’re wondering.
Character Progression & Crafting
The standard MMORPG fare. Roam the world to collect generic materials, coins and enemy souls, spend them at traders or the anvil to improve armor and ability stats, or unlock more Gauge Slots to cram in more abilities. Buy materials if you’re loaded in cash, sell generic baubles, at generic merchants, for generic money. Repeat until tired.