Atlas Fallen

With exploration enhanced by fun traversal, a progression system that doesn't tie you to levels, and combat that never gets boring with flashy abilities and fast-paced movement - Atlas Fallen is definitely worth your time.

Atlas Fallen is a flashy, cool Action RPG where you can surf on sand! Though, if you want to do this on the Steam Deck, you will need to make some compromises.

Atlas Fallen isn’t a game that will push the action RPG genre forward, but it's so much fun to play it doesn't really matter anyway.

Despite all of its flaws in story, visuals, and even design, Atlas Fallen excels simply as a video game. Its exploration is rewarding, its combat is tense, and its sense of control is unrivalled by most of its competitors. Though its systems might lack greater polish, what's there ranges from serviceable to incredible, making for a title that's far more fun to try personally than to simply watch or listen to. For those willing to dive into the sand, Atlas Fallen is sure to be a glorious gem.

Atlas Fallen sees Deck13 make a mostly successful leap to a bright and bold semi-open world that's jam-packed full of excellent combat and some surprisingly slick platforming action. Yes the story is bland, the voice-acting is poor, there are some lock-on niggles and sand-surfing needs work, but ferocious battles, tons of swappable skills and well-designed Metroidvania and platforming elements more than make up for most of the failings here. This is the studio's best game to date for our money, and if you've played The Surge series you'll know that's saying something.

There’s a lot of potential in Atlas Fallen that, sadly, feels heavily bogged down by its forgettable and, at times, repetitive story. If you can look past that, you’ll find Atlas Fallen has much to offer. It’s a great callback to classic hack-and-slash titles, filled with hours of senseless, monster-slaying fun that can be enjoyed with another player online. It’s not without its faults mind you, but it does build a great foundation, one I’d like to see built upon with potential sequels.

While Atlas Fallen is a perfectly fine game, fine doesn't quite cut it in 2023. If you're dying to hunt down Wraiths, wait for a discount first.

It’s a shame that Atlas Fallen isn’t a little more polished – it’s clear that it’s a title very much held back by its budget – but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. While you’re not likely to be captivated by its story or wowed by its presentation, its combat and exploration, both buoyed by the skills granted to you by your mysterious gauntlet, are likely to keep you playing. Provided you make it through the game’s off-putting opening, that is.

Atlas Fallen is far from a perfect game, but the important thing is that it's still a fun game. Even when it can feel like it's throwing a kitchen sink at you, there's always something enjoyable to find in Atlas Fallen, mainly its impressive combat that leads to a lot of challenging, enjoyable battles (albeit with a few that could use tweaking), and its visually striking landscapes that allow for a ton of fun sand sliding. Even with a large coat of jank, there's still a lot to delight here once you're successfully able to dig it up, so give it a shot if you like to experiment and don't mind a ...

Atlas Fallen has a great premise with pretty enjoyable old-school combat when it works. Frustrating and unreliable mechanics might be a bit of a hindrance, but it works great as a gameplay-heavy title to pick up and play.

Atlas Fallen echoes other mid-00s slashers with fun melee combat and cool ideas, trapped in a run-of-the-mill open world.

“Atlas Fallen has some ambitious ideas for a game of its scale, but its poor presentation holds back a promising combat system.”