Katharine and I shook hands with The Fall of Babylon Last week, PlatinumGames’ online action RPG came out and lost its memory as the years passed. However, when I received an invitation to participate in the third phase of the ongoing closed beta test, I couldn’t help but rejoice. These are the people behind NieR: Automata and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, after all, and now they’re doing a live, co-op service killer. Sign. I. Upward.
As it stands, the closed beta only shows a very small, very early build of the game, but we have some thoughts. Combat, exploration, and co-op are all offered here, and there’s a fair amount to unpack. Look beyond the initial build phase and there’s definitely potential.
You probably don’t understand the fall of Babylon very well, so this is the lowest outcome. Set in a fantasy world with an oil painting aesthetic, this is NieR: Automata meets Life. You play as a warrior known as the Sentinel who is tasked with overcoming the Tower Of Babylon. There were a lot of hacks, a lot of hacks, and a lot of looting. Don’t forget your Gideon Coffin, which is a fun name for what are essentially two weapons floating on your back. More on this in a moment.
In this build we were able to create a character from three races: Huysian, Agavian and Geleilion. Currently, there isn’t much to distinguish them beyond their original weapon type. I chose Huysian based on swords because they look like a humiliation NPCs at the masquerade ball; snobby but elegant. Katharine has been looking for the Geleilion archers that live in the woods, mainly because their bird-like feather outfits look a lot more interesting than the boring gray armor of the hammer Agavian man, but we don’t need it in the end. have to worry about their looks, since both of our characters end up wearing the same boot armor.
The Geleilion did have one more trick up their sleeve, though, and that’s two Gideon Coffin abilities, not one. My refiner has a “Soul Vault” which allows me to launch myself in the direction of a tied enemy if they can be unlocked in this build, while Katharine has a “Soul Snatch” (which will allow her to do so). absorbs HP from bound enemies) and “Soul Corrupt” (ability to channel dark energy into the souls of tethered enemies to weaken them over time).
After we picked our Sentinels, we were brought into a central space, like something like the Tower of Destiny, where you could see other players running. This is where you will trade with NPCs and get quests from the Quests board. A blacksmith wields his hammer and several guards block the towering gates. There’s a feeling you’ll eventually be able to change gear and upgrade your Gideon Coffins here, as well as get into other parts of town in some way, but again, we’ll have to wait and see how that develops in a future test.
During this beta, we got to sample a quest type from the “Civic Cloister” section of the Tower Of Babylon, which dropped us into a baroque-style dungeon divided into several “chapters” – increasingly arenas difficult to do. with waves of enemies. Your job? Slash multiple elves with shields and slouchy archers and ugly fire bombers to advance. Often there will be a big boss in the end. Sometimes these are just larger versions of monsters we’ve seen before, but other versions, such as “Lord Igigi” swing more hammers. The latter often goes into rage, and we’ll have to expend a separate bar to stun him before we can go back to whaling for his health.
As expected, battles have a crunchy Platinum feel – here alone you can wield up to four optional weapons at once. You have one for light attacks and one for heavy attacks, both of which can be combined and combined. Bow, staff, hammer, sword. Whatever is your favorite. They are then combined with two Gideon Arms on the left and right sides of your gamepad (keyboard controls are not supported in this version), allowing you to wear a pair of weapons when those magical extras , this float is worn on the back. As a result, fighting is a give-and-take relationship. Attack enemies with your basic light and heavy combos to eat your “Spirit” meter, which in turn allows you to dodge and use your Gideon Arms to deal than injury.
Combat is quick and fluid, and with the four weapons attached, combos look super cool. With melee weapons, it’s a fighting style that feels crisp and stylish. The button combinations aren’t particularly complicated – if you’ve played the Platinum game before, Babylon’s Fall uses the familiar combination of following light attacks with strong hits, and then hitting one fancy Gideon Arm finishing blow at the end. It’s nowhere near as complicated as Devil May Cry 5, assuming (try as we can, for example there’s no efficient way to launch enemies into the sky) but it’s definitely a step up from the autopilot of Final Fantasy XV.
Pick a ranged weapon, though, and that’s another story. I found the magic staff clunky and dull, dependent on repetitive hanging orbs, and didn’t have much else to attract. Katharine doesn’t have much positive to say about the bow either – especially since her first mission lumped her in with four of the scary stuff. They are a good choice when combined with swords and hammers, but on their own, they turn into a lot of tedious editing while hurling the same arrows over and over at the oncoming monster skulls. .
But hey, Gideon Arms is fun. Activate these, and depending on what you’ve equipped, you’ll see a spectral sword slashing at your enemies or a staff that unleashes a massive magical missile. The hammer proved to be very satisfying, as holding the trigger would allow me to deliver a massive hit that would knock multiple enemies to the ground and leave them vulnerable.
However, I would not say that there is much strategy involved in these wars. No matter how I cut and diced, as long as I keep doing it I will. And what awaits me? Much the same, just harder. You see, Babylon’s Fall does the Fate thing when you have the character level and the power level. The first is determined by the EXP you earn in battle, while the latter increases or decreases depending on the equipment you have equipped. The more difficult encounters in Civic Cloister require higher power levels, so you need to crush these by completing lower ranked quests.
Thankfully, loot drops seem pretty generous in our day with the Fall of Babylon. Complete the Chapters and you will earn various valuable and rare Relics. At the end of each mission, you’ll unlock them, earn sweet gear, and in turn become stronger. Like combat, the armor and weapon sets also look very pitiful, really. There’s also a fair amount of stats to absorb, such as increased Spirit healing, health, etc. I imagine these would play a larger role in the overall game, where success the team section could be more important.
While it was a slim taste of what was to come, the fall of Babylon showed promising signs. Questions still surround the progression and whether there will be more ways to reach those levels, other than climbing the Civic Cloister continuously. And of course, the way they will handle the game content ends when everyone has reached the level cap. But overall, I’d say we had a pretty good time. An expected thumbs up from us, and fingers crossed the developers successfully turned this crunchy battle core into a more dungeon crawler.
