Focus Entertainment’s ‘Atlas Fallen’ Gameplay Trailer Rises from the Sand
Deck13 shows off gameplay for their newest game in a brand-new sand-filled trailer.
Deck13 is a German video game developer founded in 2001. Most people know them for the Souls-like games Lords of the Fallen and The Surge. Especially since Lords of the Fallen was one of the first Souls-like games made after Dark Souls rose in popularity. They continued borrowing aspects from the Souls series into The Surge and The Surge 2 while making it more their own by pivoting away to a more modern-like setting.
Last year at Gamescom 2022, they revealed a brand new IP called Atlas Fallen. The game was announced with a nice cinematic trailer showing off the tone and hints at the main story involving fallen gods. The game itself was described as an “epic fantasy, super-powered action RPG” in its marketing. Not too much was known about the game outside of a release window of 2023 and the vague description of the game.
“Rise from the dust and liberate mankind from the oppression of corrupted gods.
Glide the sands of a timeless land, filled with ancient dangers, mysteries and fragments of the past. Hunt legendary monsters, using powerful, shape-shifting weapons and devastating sand-powered abilities in spectacular, super-powered combat.
Target and gather the essence of your enemies to shape your own custom playstyle, forging a new era for humanity in a fully cooperative or solo story campaign.
Rise from the dust. Unleash the storm.”
Atlas Fallen – Rise from Dust
We now have our first real look at the game thanks to Focus Entertainment. The publisher released a brand new gameplay trailer and one thing is clear–this is not like the developer’s last titles. The trailer has a voiceover for what is most likely the big bad, or at least one of the antagonists. The description of the game hints that they’re probably one of the oppressive gods who rule the lands. The rest of the trailer shows off the landscapes of the game, some cool sort of sand surfing, and a taste of the fighting system.
The game also got a release date of May 16th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
The fighting system seems to be leaning more towards the character action way of doing combat like Devil May Cry. The character is doing flashy and powerful-looking attacks with a variety of different weapons. The enemy designs are also top-notch and feel menacing while being really cool at the same time. This move away from the Souls-like gameplay in the past is an interesting idea for Deck13. Character action is easy to make look cool since it’s just making really cool things happen with some button presses. The hard part comes down to making the combat feel great when doing the amazing moves. I have seen games fail from making the game look great while just feeling boring to play. Hopefully, Deck13 is up to the challenge because this game looks promising so far.
PlayStation Blog Details
Deck13’s Sven Hammer, Principal Technical Designer, and Lila Grimaldi, Narrative Designer explained more of the game on a PlayStation.Blog post. They explained that the hero of the story starts their journey after finding a magical artifact that can control “Essence” called “The Gauntlet.” The Gauntlet is a centuries-old tool that gives its wearer total control over the “Essence” around them. The player will need to find “the Catalyzer and the Shards” to upgrade it because it was mostly dismantled.
They also talked about some of the weapons in the game called the Dunecleaver, Sandwhip, and the Knuckle Dust.
The Dunecleaver is a heavy weapon that does wonders when it comes to dealing very impactful area-of-effect damage to your foes. Depending on the attacks you are performing, it will take one of two different shapes. One of them is an axe—ideal to perform large sweeps which deal a good amount of damage while destabilizing your target; the other is a hammer—specialized in crowd control, it creates large damage areas when slammed into the ground.
The Sandwhip combines the fast swings of a sword with the wide sweeps of a whip. It’s your fastest, most efficient weapon at building up Momentum and offers a wide variety of mobility options. A great example of this is the Sandwhip Hook: a move which allows you to latch onto your target and pull yourself towards it. This makes the Sandwhip a highly versatile weapon in that you can either use it to keep your enemies at a safe distance while building up Momentum or use its high mobility to quickly in and out of a fight, allowing you to land devastating melee dagger hits that consume Momentum over time.
Finally, the Knuckledust is a fist weapon that covers both forearms and grows into additional pairs of arms as your Momentum builds up. The Knuckledust shines in dealing high damage-per-second on single targets, which makes it a perfect choice to swiftly take out selected threats.
via Focus Entertainment
The player can wield 2 weapons at a time, so play around with them till they match your playstyle. Players also will have different combat stuff that is unlocked throughout the game using “Essence Stones.” The Gauntlet will give players traversal abilities that will help with navigating the world with some seen in both trailers.
“Air dash can be used while airborne, channeling the Essence around you to propel yourself forward and dash through the air. Thanks to this ability, you can easily get to a specific target, reach the next structure to land on, surmount big chasms and cover great distances rapidly.
Raise enables you to lift imposing structures and objects buried in the ground thanks to the Essence in the sand. This ability is crucial for you to uncover hidden treasures and sunken ruins, as well as create new paths over raised structures and even reveal pathways that have long been forgotten.
Crush gives you the ability to rip magical seals and chains apart, which is how you’ll access forbidden grounds—a necessary step for you to progress in your journey and change the course of Atlas’ history.”
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Pre-Order Bonuses
The trailer didn’t show this, but Focus Entertainment also revealed the pre-order bonuses for the game. If pre-ordered, gamers will get a special gauntlet skin, shields, signets, armor dye to customize their character, and an “Essence & Idol Pack”. The game will also have a super-limited Signature Edition with pre-orders open now for them.
“Get your hands on the ultra-limited Atlas Fallen – Signature Edition, a Focus Entertainment Store-exclusive product available in only 100 copies. It includes a numbered laminated wooden frame printed with an exclusive artwork by Deck13’s Artistic Director, James Lowe, an official certificate, and a copy of the game that includes the Ruin Rising Pack DLC. The PC edition comes as a Steam key while console editions come as physical copies with Lowe’s artwork as exclusive box art.”
via Focus Entertainment
“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere.” – Anakin Skywalker
