Atlas - Not What Anyone Was Expecting

SBFord · January 2019

Atlas - Not What Anyone Was Expecting

Is it fair that Grapeshot Games is charging folks for a game so early in its development cycle without warning of its crude state? On a broader note, is the whole Early Access system being abused?

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BlueThunderBear · January 2019

I was expecting an unplayable mess besieged by griefers.

Maurgrim · January 2019

Trailer was a lie, It showed a living breathing world, not hitting trees on emty islands.

Khegobier · January 2019

"Is early access being abused?"

Is water wet?

Aeander · January 2019

I expected it, because Studio Wildcard have already shown themselves to be incompetent, greedy, cynnical hackjobs with Ark's various controversies and optimization failures. Anyone who wasn't expecting exactly what we got hasn't been paying attention.

elveone · January 2019

Really? No one expected a big pile of an early access survival mess from the guys behind Ark?

Blinkenn · January 2019

It's the DayZ model, using early access to get your initial sales and then you don't need to finish making the game at all.

Asch126 · January 2019

Khegobier said:

"Is early access being abused?"

Is water wet?

Is ice cold? Find out at 11.

Siris23 · January 2019

This is why I give all early access games on steam a hard pass no matter how good they look, alpha testing is rarely fun and they're asking you to pay for the privilege.

Panther2103 · January 2019

Siris23 said:

This is why I give all early access games on steam a hard pass no matter how good they look, alpha testing is rarely fun and they're asking you to pay for the privilege.

Makes sense. I personally enjoy some Early Access games, but usually only ones that have a good enough base gameplay loop that you can still have plenty of fun while seeing all the changes happen over time.

casdegere · January 2019

Hmm, I've been playing this on our HBS server and I enjoy the game. We host our own server and though it has been a learning curve for our hoster at first, we've been able to modify the default settings and it is quite fun and playable on a 4x4. Harvesting, hunting, making structures, ships and exploring is very doable today. Cannons, pistols, bows, swords, fists and ship to ship combat also is nice. There have been quite a few updates recently and I find the game is fun to play. Taming is more complicated which is nice as well.

Oije64 · January 2019

Is was playing ATLAS for many hours and I had fun. Was playing on a PVE Server. Though the first 2 days had been rough, the devs handled the problems quite well, by patching with a high frequency. The game, compared to its contents is rather cheap imho.
Still don't get it why people do not understand an EARLY ACCESS concept, but whining and nagging seems to become a solid sport

Octagon7711 · January 2019

I've learned to be beware when you have marketing videos with little or heavily modified actual game play.

Tuor7 · January 2019

'but is it really the consumer's responsibility to circumvent the traps of false advertising on Steam?'

Yes. It is. Especially when Steam warns you about it. People need to take responsibility for the choices that they make.

Mackaveli44 · January 2019

All I see in this article from Jordan is him crying that things didnt work out of the gate and that the SERVERS themselves were overloaded with hundreds of thousands of players hitting the servers at once and not working correctly on day 1 of EA launch and also animal settings needed to be toned down. ANY game would have problems with so many hitting the servers. If people were to play it just 3 days after day 1, it would have been a night and day difference once they got the servers under control, for the most part. They still lag today but it's in a muuuuuuch better place than it was day 1, or even week 1. It's called PATIENCE. On top of that, you buy an EA product knowing, hell they even tell you in the description of the game that its bound to have problems.

Thing that people have to realize is that it was SERVER related issues the game was having, not the actual game itself. Yes, there's graphic issues and some other things but the SERVER issues was where they were getting destroyed and they fixed it QUICK especially while doing it over christmas holiday week.

meonthissite · January 2019

I've given all games 100% passes on early access and presales. I've basically stopped all purchases of any kind at launch as well as at early access. SWTOR LOTR STO GW2 Diablo III all of these launches taught me never to get a game at launch.

Kyleran · January 2019

Oije64 said:

Is was playing ATLAS for many hours and I had fun. Was playing on a PVE Server. Though the first 2 days had been rough, the devs handled the problems quite well, by patching with a high frequency. The game, compared to its contents is rather cheap imho.

Still don't get it why people do not understand an EARLY ACCESS concept, but whining and nagging seems to become a solid sport

I wasn't aware there were official PVE servers, or were you playing on a private server?

Kyleran · January 2019

casdegere said:

Hmm, I've been playing this on our HBS server and I enjoy the game. We host our own server and though it has been a learning curve for our hoster at first, we've been able to modify the default settings and it is quite fun and playable on a 4x4. Harvesting, hunting, making structures, ships and exploring is very doable today. Cannons, pistols, bows, swords, fists and ship to ship combat also is nice. There have been quite a few updates recently and I find the game is fun to play. Taming is more complicated which is nice as well.

Except this review is about playing Atlas the MMO, which you really weren't part of so your experiences aren't really comparable.

WargfootYV · January 2019

My last game purchase was an early access game.

I bought early access on purpose with the expectation that I'd learn about the game as it developed instead of jumping into a perfectly formed world with 100s of new variables I'd need to absorb in order to be effective. I guess I'm saying that I'm of a mind to exploit one of the few benefits of early access so I'm willing to put up with the downside of it.

So you have to think about what you want out of a game - you may decide early access has some benefits.

psiic · January 2019

LOL I went in expecting a pile of shit and that is what I stepped in on my way out the door.

Dreadmill · January 2019

I have almost 200 hrs in this and I absolutely have had exactly the experience that I was hoping for on NA PVE. I purchased 4 copies of the game on day 1 for my family and we have laughed more than any comedy show I have ever attended. We have been thrilled when we went from 100yr olds to our 20’s. We have cried when griefers have sank our ships with weight exploits. This game makes me feel the way I did when I got my first ship in Ultima 4 and sailed off to parts unknown. Maybe it’s because I have never had to play it alone or I just love pirates but this has been a great experience which I would do again in a heartbeat.

Wizardry · January 2019

EA is big time being abused,not just by this game but the entire industry.Even the games that are not using the Early access tag are just as bad because they are released with very little content.
So what's the difference,one says early the other looks like it is too early.

IMO this game will keep you busy for a very long time and also imo ,never becomes too easy.

It really says how sad sack the industry is because Atlas was released way too early but still has more to do and keeps me more busy and interested in playing than any other game i have played in the last 10 years.The only other game in last 10 that i wanted to play everyday for weeks was Dishonored and i did and finished it several times.

My point is that this game is mildly fine just the way it is but needs a LOT of tweaks and optimizing.tweaks are not bugs of course but are part of the testing phase to make sure the game is setup to keep most people happy.

I look at MANY other game releases and i see NO potential no matter how long they spend on the games.This game is a really nice start,if it gets better it is icing on the cake.I think people should give it a chance and not go in expecting easy mode ARPG style,this game has you play realistically and immersive.

Barab · January 2019

Been having a blast on the pvp servers, it feels like a mix of darkfall meets eve meats sea of thieves

WargfootYV · January 2019

Barab said:

Been having a blast on the pvp servers, it feels like a mix of darkfall meets eve meats sea of thieves

Meats?
Methinks you're taking the PvP thing too far.

BlueThunderBear · January 2019

WargfootYV said:

Barab said:

Been having a blast on the pvp servers, it feels like a mix of darkfall meets eve meats sea of thieves

Meats?
Methinks you're taking the PvP thing too far.

If its red its dead my friend.

RexKushman · January 2019

I would really love to know when the OP played the game, as this review sounds like it was written a month ago.

I play Atlas every day, I've got a small claim on an island where me and my buddy have been building. We've got a Schooner decked out in cannons for taking on Ships of the Damned and a Brig for resource runs and a Galleon currently under construction. I tamed an elephant, a bear, 2 pigs and 2 sheep along with countless monkeys that have each unfortunately fallen in battle. We are having an absolute blast playing it.

I simply don't and haven't had the terrible experiences that people like the OP constantly go on about. I have a decent rig, i7 and a 1080ti and play games at 2560x1440. I don't have performance issues, being at or above 60fps at almost all times. I don't have game crashes or lag issues.

Right now we are working on gathering resources for the Galleon build, collecting treasure maps, leveling up, farming and building up our base. We've gone to the Fountain of Youth and rejuvenated our characters for the permenant buff.

I've got tons of awesome memories just from our short time with the game so far, the best being losing our first Schooner to a SOTD and us having to abandon ship with nothing but our pets monkey and chicken. As we swan away from the wreckage and sharks began to circle. Just then a rainbow painted Brig sailed past and we clung to it's emergency ladder until the captain got us near an island that we could swim to. We never did make it home though and lost a very brave monkey and chicken to an Alpha Pig.

People can hate on the game all they want, it's grabbed us in a way that most other games simply fail to do.

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Atlas - Not What Anyone Was Expecting

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"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

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Atlas - Not What Anyone Was Expecting

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV