Introduction
Babylon’s Fall is the latest game by PlatinumGames in the genre of looter, hack and slash games with a distinct stamp of its own. Published by Square Enix, the game will release on 3rd March, 2022 on PC and PlayStation 4 and 5.
Review
You start off in a ship along with a few other people who are then assembled on the deck of the ship in front of a crowd of people belonging to Babylon. Here, you are subjected to the process of becoming a Sentinel, one who climbs the Ziggurat in order to reach the summit and defeat Gallu in their way. To become a Sentinel you need to have a device called Gideon’s Corspe attached to your back which lends you a host of powers, enabling you to actively fight the Gallu and this is a painful process as the chances of survival are pretty low. You manage to survive and then the game makes you go through a tutorial detailing the basic controls and combat.
If I am being honest, my initial impressions of the story are not good, it might change later on when the full game releases, but what I saw didn’t interest me at all as it felt like your average run of the mill tale, save xx people from xx condition/problems sort of thing. Instead, it is the combat and the gameplay where the game redeems itself, to an extent, as even that needs some work. In the demo, you can choose between three classes, each having different strengths and focus points, and you can’t change them once you have decided. You have access to 4 weapons at a time, each bonded to a different button which makes switching between them seamless plus you can use two weapons simultaneously as your gideon’s coffin also allows you to wield weapons. The combos are good, there are light and heavy attacks plus, you can also do attack enemies in mid-air which adds another dimension to the gameplay. It is not all rosy though, as your attacks don’t feel impactful and punchy at all, like there is zero feedback from your attacks and this just dampens any fun that you might derive from the combat. Also, the gameplay loop is such that you will be moving in a linear path and in most of my missions, during my playthrough, I felt like I was in the same place, fighting the same enemies doing the same basic combat moves which gets boring really, really quick.
Coming to the visuals, the best thing I can say about them is that they are sub-par at best. There is this grainy quality to the surroundings which makes everything look so flimsy and low quality, it literally looks like a ps3 game which says volumes. There is enemy lock on, but it is not as smooth, as sometimes I was unable to lock on after taking an attack or when my camera was a facing a bit downwards. The movement is decent, the running and dashing, both on the ground and mid-air, feels slick but sometimes while jumping you might float for a few seconds which disrupts the combat rhythm. This makes traversal quick and you don’t waste much time while moving to an objective.
One things that they did not forget to add was a battlepass and consequently cosmetics, xp boosters, money boosters etc. There is also premium currency in the game so expect micro-transactions galore. There might be some changes for the better when the full game releases and we will find out soon enough. This game is meant to be a live service game and paying full price for this title feels much like throwing money down the drain as I feel it will get a price drop very soon. I would suggest avoiding this title altogether based on my experience with the demo.
Pros:
- Good combat variety
- Decent weapon customisation
- Good movement
Cons:
- The story, so far, as per initial impressions, feels run of the mill
- Bad Visuals
- Weapon feedback is almost non existent making for a poor experience
- Bad and repetitive gameplay loop
Summary
Babylon’s Fall demo experience feels like another Godfall with some Monster Hunter elements and fails to catch your attention with its low-effort mechanics, story and visuals. There is scope for a lot of improvement, this might change when the full game releases as the movement and some of the combat elements are exciting, but it will fade into obscurity if these issues aren’t addressed.
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Game & Developer Information
Developer Website: PlatinumGames
Developer Socials: Twitter
Publisher Website: Square Enix
Publisher Socials: Twitter
PSN Store Links: ₹3,999 India/ £59.99 GBP/ €69.99 Europe / $59.99 North America
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