Back in the day, taking the disc out of your PC was the end of the story. That videogame went back on the shelf, collecting dust until you felt the urge to revisit it. If the game wasn’t quite what you were expecting, that was it. Not anymore though, as digital platforms and patches mean a game can take on an entirely new form over time. 2023’s Lords of the Fallen is not the same game that launched last year, and Final Fantasy 14 1.0 is a far cry from today’s award-winning A Realm Reborn. Today Atlas Fallen joins that club, as the sand-surfing RPG gets a colossal overhaul.
From The Surge developer Deck13, last year’s Atlas Fallen is quite the mix of ideas. Combat is classic God of War, the landscape and exploration echo Dune’s Arrakis, and there’s an entire open world to explore. At launch, Atlas Fallen’s reception was mixed. We at PCGamesN loved it for what it was, but the overall reaction wasn’t nearly as kind.
That’s common for an RPG that spreads itself too thin, but as of right now new and old players alike are going to play a very different game. If you’ve already beaten Atlas Fallen, the new Reign of Sand update offers a New Game Plus mode to bring you back. Your equipment and character progression carry over, while enemies and further upgrades are rearranged to offer a fresh experience.
Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand also adds a plethora of new enemies to fight. You can find these opponents throughout the sandy wastes, as Corruption Breaches are scattered across the open-world game and offer up new challenges with various gameplay modifiers. There are also new attacks and upgrades across the game, which combine with the new enemies and encounters to completely revamp Atlas Fallen’s combat.
Reign of Sand also adds 25 new Essence Stones, which give you plenty of new combat opportunities. You can use these upgrades to unlock claws to tear through enemies, trade health for combat advantages, and synergize your build with a friend in co-op.
What caught my attention the most though is the new voice actor. Final Fantasy 16’s Ben Starr is taking up the mantle of Atlas Fallen’s male custom character, and if you haven’t seen his performance in FF16 yet, just know that Starr absolutely has what it takes for this.
Our own 8/10 Atlas Fallen review from last year praised the “superb combat, intriguing world, and fluid traversal” while enjoying the RPG for “what it is instead of what it could have been.” With the Reign of Sand upgrade, however, what it could have been is finally here.
While balance and quality-of-life changes are commonplace today, this level of revamp isn’t. Atlas Fallen is essentially an entirely new game as of right now, with massive expansions to existing systems and entirely new ones folded into the experience.
The free Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand update is available on Steam right now. Simply head here to download the patch if you already own the game. Deck13 recommends that you start a new game for Reign of Sand, but you can pick up from where you left off instead.
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