Babylon’s Fall
Release date : 03 mars 2022
Developer: Platinum Games
I admit that I didn’t understand who Babylon’s Fall was aimed at, nor what the target audience is, as it seems to come from another inglorious era.
- A promising universe
- Gameplay that allows for lots of testing and variation
- It’s fluid!
- This awful paint filter hides misery
- A service game that doesn’t even try to give anything else
- Redundant as possible
- An absurd difficulty
- Environments that promise a lot, but deliver nothing
Platinum’s Fall
Babylon’s Fall – the latest collaboration between Platinum Games and Square Enix – is an action RPG set in Neo Babylon, where the Domitinian Empire attempts to steal the treasures it holds from the ruins of the fallen Babylonian civilization. As one of the Sentinels enslaving the empire, you will use your Dynamis powers to travel through the many layers of the Ziggurat, the only remaining tower from times past.
Right from the start, the art style of this game caught my attention. There is a clear intention to make this game look like a painting, and you can perceive brush movements and a canvas-like filter as you move the camera. Because yes, it is indeed a filter placed on top of the image who tries to give you that impression. A simple movement of the camera is enough to realize it, while a closer shot of the protagonists shows how much it serves as a hideout.
Take another title like the excellent Greedfall of Spiders. This is a studio that has succeeded in giving its game the air of paintings by the great Dutch masters by playing with lights and materials. In short, by giving his game a real artistic direction. In the case of Babylon’s Fall, this is just poor 3d with a photoshop filter applied not to the textures but just between the game and you. And it’s very disturbing.
That said, Platinum Games is better known for its combat system design skills than for its technical prowess., of which I will place the visual aspect a little behind. But still. We might talk regarding the enormous mess that the places represent, yet so conducive to visual craziness. We are talking regarding a gigantic tower, inspired by Babylonian myth, and we are only served pretty corridors without any inspiration, as well as arenas that must be rid of its monsters. Yes, a system that we already thought sucked in Dante’s Infernoif I dare the comparison.
Aesthetics aside, Platinum Games usually has the best combat systems and mechanics in action RPGs – just watch Bayonetta, Astral Chain Where Nier Automata. Most bad luck, this is not the case in Babylon’s Fallsince the combat is average at best and boring at worst, with enemies most of the time not seeming to react to our hits, while most of the time they turn out to be just absurd PV bags.
One of the few positives is the functionality of the weapons you equip, which varies depending on where you place them. Because it affects how you use them in combat, it allows you to experiment with a lot of combos and lets you adapt your playstyle as you see fit, at least until you replace them with better weapons.
Other systems come in the form of elemental damage, and certain traps such as slippery floors or lava, which make combat a little more varied following a few hours of gameplay. is enough evidence to make a big difference.
We’ll quickly pass over the fact that you’re just a war slave., real cannon fodder of the empire who stuck Gideon’s Chest in your back, which already had every chance of killing you. Now endowed with colossal power – which you don’t think you can turn once morest your torturers – you fraternize somewhat with your executioners while trying to reach the top of the tower. Because the empire told you that not only did the summit contain a way to get rid of Gideon’s chest, but also the way to heal the local population, truly devoured by an evil emanating from the sun. Or something like that. Short…
If only it was just that… You can of course play Babylon’s Fall alone, but it was designed as an exclusively multiplayer game, with 4 players per team. You will have a few scraps of cinematics between missions, but it is heartbreaking to see that you are systematically dropped in the Hub of the city and that you have to constantly join the quest panel to launch a contract and continue the adventure. Presented as a service game, Babylon’s Fall additionally revolves around seasons with a mass of cosmetics and equipment chests to be purchased for real money. And we will soon shower our hopes when the forge presented in game is only a simple place of discussion without any hope of crafting. You had moaned regarding Godfall ? Wait till you see Babylon’s Fall.