Atlas Fallen

With the original Lords of the Fallen, The Surge, and its sequel, over the course of the last decade or so, Deck13 has delivered three solid (if flawed) Soulslikes, but with its next game, the studio is pivoting in a somewhat different direction. Upcoming action RPG Atlas Fallen is looking like a promising action RPG that prioritizes speed and style in everything from its combat to its traversal, and that, combined with its sandy post-apocalyptic setting, seems to be turning quite a few heads in the game’s direction. Ahead of its launch on August 10, here, we’re going to talk about a few of the most crucial details about Atlas Fallen that you should be aware of.

SETTING AND STORY

Atlas Fallen is set in a unique fantasy world that is languishing in the shadows of a cataclysmic event that happened a long time ago. Once ruled by all-powerful beings, these entities became corrupted and they unleashed their powers on the land, much of which now lies buried beneath an ocean of sand. In this buried fantasy land, players step into the shoes of a nameless protagonist, who must rise up and fight against the corruption of Thelos.

COMBAT

Atlas Fallen is emphasizing speed and style above all else in its gameplay, and combat is one of the areas where that seems to be most prominent, with the focus being on combining your abilities and fast attacks with combos, aerial attacks, dodges, parries, and the like. During skirmishes, your primary tool will be a magical gauntlet, which has the power to shape the sound around you into any weapon you want. Three weapon classes are available in the game, with a a large gauntlet, a battle axe, and a whip-like sword, of which you’ll be able to have two equipped at any given time.

ESSENCE STONES

Another crucial component of the combat system are the Essence Stones, which you’ll find scattered throughout the game’s environments. Each stone provides unique passive or active buffs and abilities, and with over a hundred of them to find, it seems players will have plenty of flexibility in how to build up their character.

MOMENTUM

Using Essence Stones’ abilities will also tie in with the Momentum mechanic. As you dish out attacks and basic combos, you’ll gradually fill up your Momentum bar, which will come with a unique risk/reward mechanic- though you’ll be more vulnerable against incoming attacks, the higher the bar fills up, the more (and better) Essence abilities you’ll be able to unleash. Fill it up to a certain point, and you’ll be able to use a special ability tied to whichever weapon you have equipped.

THE WORLD

Atlas Fallen isn’t going to be an open world game, but Deck13 is promising a large and expansive adventure nonetheless, and says the action RPG is the biggest game world it’s ever created. The world will be divided up into multiple open areas, and across these areas, players will be exploring castles, forests, oases, mountain ranges, caves and much more.

TRAVERSAL

Moving through the sandy world of Atlas Fallen is going to be central to the experience here, with players have access to a variety of unique abilities that will (hopefully) turn traversal into a quick and thrilling affair, from air dashing to sand gliding to the good, old double jump. Traversal abilities will also be upgradable, while players wil, of course, also be able to use them in combat.

EXPLORATION AND OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES

With traversal being one of Atlas Fallen’s key gameplay pillars, and with its focus on fast movement, its world has been designed a bit differently than what you’d expect from Deck13’s games- which, in a nutshell, means larger and more open areas to move across and explore. According to the developer, each of the game’s areas will offer “hours of content”, some of which will supposedly be the most challenging content in the game, for those not satisfied by the difficulty of the main quests.

RAISING BURIED OBJECTS

Exploration won’t just be a simple matter of moving from point A to point B in Atlas Fallen (though surely we can still expect plenty of that nonetheless). From time to time, players will also come across objects or environmental elements that will be buried beneath the sands, which you can raise from their sand-filled graves to open up new gameplay opportunities, from a newly opened path to hidden areas that couldn’t be explored previously.

CHOICE AND CONSEQUENCE MECHANICS

Though choice and consequence mechanics won’t be the main focus in Atlas Fallen, you can expect them to be at least an ancillary part of the experience. Primarily, these will come in the form of dialog choices, and the decisions you make will at times have major consequences, including whether or not certain characters die. That said, Deck13 has said that though there might be some diversions and tonal changes to the story based on your choices, the larger, more important story beats won’t be too heavily impacted.

PROGRESSION AND CUSTOMIZATION

Atlas Fallen is, of course, billing itself as an RPG, which means there will be plenty of focus on customization and progression mechanics as well. Plenty of that will be down to the previously mentioned Essence Stones, but in addition to that, players will also be able to able to equip different armour pieces, upgrade gear, and mess about with cosmetic customization options (not to include a character creator at the outset of your journey).

LENGTH

Clearly, there’s going to be plenty to do in Atlas Fallen, but how meaty of an experience will it be exactly? While Deck13 has yet to offer details on what the runtime of the game’s main story is, the developer has said that for those who seek out all of the game’s content, it will be roughly 25-30 hours long, which is a decent length (to say the very least). Of course, just as important will be how compelling that content is.

DIFFICULTY OPTIONS

Deck13’s previous games in recent years have prided themselves on the level of challenge they put up, being Soulslikes, but Atlas Fallen is casting a much wider net, which means it’s approaching difficulty in a different manner. On top of just being less gruelingly as it is, the game will also offer three different difficulty levels for players to swap between.

CO-OP

Deck13 says that Atlas Fallen was designed first and foremost as a single player experience, though those looking to go through the entire game with another player will have the option to do so, thanks to the inclusion of 2-player co-op. When playing co-op, both characters will also be present in all cutscenes and conversations with NPC, while the game’s difficulty will also be differently tuned.

PERFORMANCE AND FRAME RATE

Atlas Fallen isn’t going to be a cross-gen title, and it seems like it’ll be looking to leverage the more powerful hardware it’s running on with its frame rate and performance targets. On PS5 and Xbox Series X, the game will feature a quality mode, which targets 4K and 30 FPS, and a performance mode, which targets 1440p and 60 FPS. On Xbox Series S, on the other hand, only one mode will be available, with the game running at 1080p and 60 FPS.

PC REQUIREMENTS

Meanwhile, for those who intend to play on PC, the game’s requirements aren’t too demanding (at least on the lower settings). On minimum settings, you’ll need either an Intel Core i5-6600K or an AMD Ryzen 3 1200, along with either a TX 1050 Ti or an RX 470 (with 4 GB VRAM), and 8 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on recommended settings, you’ll need either Intel Core i7-9800X or an AMD Ryzen 5 3600, along with either a GTX 1070 Ti or an RX 5700, and 16 GB of RAM. On either setting, you’ll also need roughly 35 GB of free storage space.