Atlas Fallen Preview: 2023’s Sleeper Hit?

2023 is a year that is jam-packed with some big-name releases, but Focus Entertainment’s under-the-radar action RPG, Atlas Fallen, is a game that many know very little about, but could very-well be one of the best games of the year.

Coming from The Surge and Lords of the Fallen developer Deck 13, this Unreal Engine 5-powered adventure is bringing a lot of interesting ideas, gorgeous visuals, and a very addictive combat system that will not only attract fans of familiar RPGs, but true action-nuts as well, with a lot of similarities to Devil May Cry popping up throughout our playtime.

What is Atlas Fallen, though? In a sentence, it’s something of a hybrid-baby between Monster Hunter and Marvel’s Spider-Man — sounds bizarre, but there’s reason behind this analogy. Atlas Fallen essentially tasks you with fighting giant sand-creatures across a huge open-world, whereby you can upgrade your skills, unlock new abilities, and level up your character. However, it throws in a very fast and agile traversal mechanic, which is also used in combat to best the beasts, making it a more fluid and faster action experience to other RPGs on the market.

While combat is central to the game, this movement element is extremely important to the experience. With a large majority of the world covered in sand (there are other regions), you’re able to ‘slide’ across the world, as you carve your way around like some sort of supernatural fantasy sandboarder — it’s pretty awesome. You also have an air-dash that acts as a temporary glide ability, and the power to lift old ruins out of the sand to create platforming opportunities. The variety of movement abilities on offer really does give the player a ‘superhero-like’ feeling in Atlas Fallen, which obviously ties into combat well, particularly with the larger enemies.

Sliding at pace through the sand, leaving into the air using the glide, and delivering some powerful melee attacks to enemies feels seamless, giving you a more acrobatic approach to combat, rather than being a powerhouse. Striking, moving, dodging, and zipping around all while chipping away at your enemy’s health bar captures that David vs. Goliath feeling that taking on the giant sand monsters conjures up.

The visual experience of this matches the concept, and provides quite the spectacle, as the fantastic particle effect capabilities of the Unreal Engine 5 sees sand flying everywhere, enemy parts breaking off, and some stunning firework-type effects coming from special abilities. Overall, Atlas Fallen is a very good-looking game and a testament to some of the fantastic enemy and character design that Deck 13 has become known for.

Being an action RPG, there’s also a lot to do outside of the main quest. You can upgrade your armour using items around the world or purchasing crafting pieces from a merchant, taking on side-missions at one of Atlas Fallen‘s many towns scattered around the map, or explore the world and find hidden tombs and items. Despite being set in a desert setting, it doesn’t seem like the journey through Atlas Fallen will feel like a sand-ridden vacuum, and from what we’ve seen, this could very well be one of the surprising and unexpected hits of 2023.

Atlas Fallen is launching on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 10 August 2023