Germany’s Deck13 Interactive (from whom we last saw the two The Surge games) aren’t looking to Bloodborne or Souls games for their next project, so that it could be a significant change for the team.

Deck13’s The Surge titles and the first Lords of the Fallen were similar to FromSoftware’s games. Still, it looks like they’re going to move beyond that with Atlas Fallen, as at Gamescom, design director Jeremy Hartvick told VG247 that the game will be partially open-world full of mystery, and should be thought of more as an action RPG. Hartvick also cited two examples from Sony, comparing the German studio’s next game to Horizon (Guerrilla Games) and God of War (Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation Studios Santa Monica).

Atlas Fallen will have three difficulty levels: Adventure Mode will be recommended for adventurous players but not experienced in combat, and Standard Mode will be the average difficulty level. At the same time, Hard Mode speaks for itself: it will be the one to choose for players looking for a challenge. Hartvick also revealed more details about the combat on the PlayStation Blog :

“While keeping a visceral feel and certain moves which were core to The Surge series, Atlas Fallen’s combat is primarily defined by speed and fluidity. We’ve kept ideas like the body part targeting system and the implant system, using a different approach to best support the accentuated RPG aspect. We pushed everything further toward advanced character management and moveset customization, so you’ll get to approach combat your way. Game feel is our main concern when it comes to designing Atlas Fallen. We’ve put strict constraints of realism aside to focus on giving the game a thrilling, overpowering feeling. One of the chief design elements to achieve this is Sand Gliding, which is how the hero will move across the vast world of Atlas Fallen. It’s key to the game’s high mobility system, bringing amazing speed and verticality to the spectacular action of combats.”

Atlas Fallen is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC (Steam) in the first quarter of 2023 if the information in publisher Focus Entertainment’s investor presentation is to be believed… but a 2023 release date seems fixed.

Source: WCCFTech