Atlas Reactor. I remember seeing ads for this on YouTube back when it was first released as free to play game although Wikipedia said it was a “trail until you buy” game which I think is just a more complex way of saying free to play except comes with a few changes and it apparently went properly free to play at the start of season two. I didn’t get into the game until the start of season four when one of league friends was like “Mate, we should try playing Atlas Reactor” and I was like “Oh, is that the one with the robo dog?”. So we started playing it and after like a month, I was the only one who was still playing it on the side and it over took Smite as my “break MOBA”. At time of writing, it’s nearly the end of season five and the player base is pretty god damn small. I mean, check the steam charts for this and at its peak in 24 hours at time of writing, it had 228 players online and that’s just bad for a MOBA to have such a low player count and this is why I am writing this review. I mean, I hope can generate some form of interest for the game but yet again, I am just a wannabe reviewer with zero readers so I’m just banking on the fact someone is going to read this and consider playing the game. I care a lot about this game and I been sitting on the concept for this review for a while now so I think it’s worth talking about it plus I thought I would get it out of the way now rather than later so let’s get stuck in or should I say get stuck like a pig? (Sounded a lot better in my head)
Atlas Reactor is a turn based MOBA where four players on each team take control of a freelancer where the goal of the game is to either hit five kills before the enemy team does or have the most kills by twenty turns and the phrase “turn based MOBA” sounds pretty weird, right? I checked and I don’t think there is any other turn based MOBAs in existence at time of writing but you are welcome to correct me, non existent comment section. I do like the turn based approach because unlike other MOBAs, you actually have time to think and communicate with your team during combat situations but it doesn’t stop it from being as stressful. For each turn, you have fifteen seconds to dictate what you are going to do and the game allows an extra five seconds two times per a match if you really need it but it’s something I personally rarely have to dip into it but it’s nice it’s there. Each turn is split into five phrases. You have your decision phrase which is where you decide what to do, prep phrase which is mainly just applying stat changes like might, healing or just shields. You then have your dash phrase which is where you can move out of danger or as a repositioning tool and then you have your blast phrase which is pretty much the combat section of the turn which is then leads into the move phrase where you move to where you decided to go during decision phrase. The only time you can do something in these matches is in your decision phrase of each turn. So that’s just the base mechanics of the game and we haven’t touched the freelancers but I’ll save that for next paragraph. I am a fan of the turn based tactics mainly because I can’t think in the moment so having that time to think is nice but yet again, fifteen to twenty seconds isn’t enough for me. I’m the sort of guy plays Civ VI and continues to take one to two minutes per a turn to even consider something and you are asking me to condense that thinking process into a small time frame but that’s something inherently wrong with me and I can’t fault the game for that. It’s just a slight turn off for me or anyone who is like me but it ultimately doesn’t subtract from the game so let’s just go and talk about the other main selling point which obviously the characters.
So the playable characters in this game are known as “Freelancers” and I honestly don’t know why they are called that. There is an actual ongoing plot about different trusts and necrolancers but if you are like me, you won’t give it a second thought because this is a MOBA, not a narrative driven story but it’s there if you want to read something during the long queue timers. All the freelancers are divided into three groups for ease of understanding. We have the firepower lancers who are the main form of DPS (or DPT in this case) and are mainly ranged but there is some melee ones and then you have frontlines who are pretty much more tanky firepower lancers with a focus on just harassing the enemy team or protecting the team, depending on the lancer and finally, you have supports who’s job is to keep everyone on the team alive with a combination of shields and heals. Now this sounds like a very basic line up for any MOBA set up so like any good MOBA, each lancer has a gimmick and a unique personality but I think that would only apply to half of the lancers. There is some real bores of characters that are just really standard like Asana who can be described as a chick that has a reflective shield and can fly across the map and Kaigen if you like teleporting ninjas and then you have Tol-Ren who is just a samurai who sliced people up (although, he has one of the best taunts in the game) and then you have Blackburn who is just like every sci fi soldier. I do find them boring because they don’t bring anything unique or fun to the gameplay formula but they are still solid picks for any newbie but for every Blackburn, there is a Nev-3 so let’s talk about the interesting ones starting with Nev-3. Nev is a cat girl that throws rings and that’s all you need know and she is only my second favourite character because the one I enjoy the most is Grey who’s main gimmick is she is pretty much a hunter with a drone called Rio and although that does sound standard on paper, in practice is arguably more fun than playing someone like Asana since you can just have fun using Rio to scout the map and get low health enemies. There is a lot of interesting characters but if they were to be grouped by their Trusts, I would say the Evos trust is the best trust in terms of interesting characters. Each trust has its own little gimmick and Evos gimmick is animal themed champions since they gave us Nev, Dr Finn who is pretty much a talking fish and every line out of his mouth is a sea pun, Gremolition Inc. which is pretty much two gremlins flying around in an hovering artillery unit and launching mines everywhere, Isadora who is pretty much a evil squirrel who shoots people with twin laser cannons and their boss is a cyborg dinosaur who is pretty much The Godfather and I love it. There is other trusts like Hyperbiotics who is pretty much robots as their gimmick and their only notable lancers are Oz and Rampart but that’s only because they are robots with attitude. There is Helio Corps which just seems like a way to dump “unique” characters that can’t fit into any other group and the only notable ones who work here is Lockwood who’s only gimmick is “I bounce bullets off walls and I’m the puckish rogue type” and PuP who is a robo doggo. And finally, we have the Omni Corporation who have nothing notable about them. Like, I looked through the list of Omni freelancers and none of them were interesting since their main gimmick seems to be martial arts but I don’t know anymore. If anything, they gave us Asana and Kaigen but they are classified as wildcards so they technically don’t belong to them. There is other stuff to mention like there is mods that allow you change the different abilities of your lancers to have different effects and the fact that they have abilities but one of them is a given for any MOBA and the other is just too boring to discuss so let’s just move onto the rest of the criticism I have.
I know I said that I want to do this review because I care about this game but since I care about the game, I need to give it criticism in order to make it better plus if I didn’t do it, this review would be extremely bias and I’m not a IGN reviewer so let’s move onto the first bit of criticism which is the content or rather lack of content. For a game that has been through five seasons and approaching its sixth season at time of writing, it really lacks a lot of content and it almost feels like the game is pretty much abandoned at times. Unlike other MOBAs like League who get patched every two weeks, we are lucky to get one every month and when that patch drops, it’s not much in terms of content. It’s usually just some changes to stats and bug fixes and actual new content is rare. Barring skins which shows up in most patches, we are lucky to get a new freelancer or even a new map in these patches. Within its current lifetime, it has dropped only dropped 6 maps and one of them isn’t even complete yet and that’s just poor and the same applies to new freelancers. The latest lancer called Vonn was dropped at the start of season five and it seems like new lancers only drop during the start of new seasons and with seasons only lasting half a year, we are pretty much getting two new freelancers per a year. I mean, there has been cases like Isadora who got dropped during the middle of the season but that was long ago. The devs has been trying to improve their release rate on terms of maps as they recently held a suggestion thread on the Atlas Reactor subreddit for new maps which is progress but it’s not enough in my opinion. If they were to aim for the league standard of a new champion every two-three months, that would be nice but there is still other issues so let’s tackle the grind.
Atlas Reactor is very much like Smite which is a game that I like to call “Thirty To Actually Play” since in both games, they feature grinding to get new characters or you could just drop thirty to unlock all current and future characters but unlike Smite where the grind isn’t that bad, Atlas is just horrible and it got so bad, I actually forked over money to get the character pack because the grind section of the game is just really badly implemented like the micro transactions (we will get there soon). There is two factors to this problem and the first one is the drop rate of the standard currency known as Flux. The drop rate of Flux is really poor since you get an average of three hundred flux per a match and in a game where the mods cost five hundred, it’s really not that bad but the factor is the main issue and that’s the pricing of flux related items. There is some items that cost ridiculous amounts of flux but they don’t really do anything in terms of gameplay so they are just there for bragging rights and the mods are pretty cheap which is good but the main problem stems from the pricing of Freelancers because seriously, it gets expensive. The pricing tiers start around ten thousand flux which is a bit of a grind but isn’t too bad but then they jump up to twenty-five thousands which is a bit of demand in grind but then it doubles to fifty thousand and finally, seventy-five thousand for only the newest of the newest champions and reaching that point is ridiculous. Granted, when starting the game as a newbie, you can get a free freelancer of your choice after filling the requirements and after that, you can get other bonuses on top of that and there is somewhat generous flux drops from just leveling up your account during each season and playing champions and yes, there is a weekly free freelancer rotation but it’s still a grind and even if you are enjoying the game, it’s still not a fun experience. You can point at Smite and say “Well what makes Smite different?” and the answer to that is quite simply “Because Smite fixed both factors to not make it feel like a grind.” The drop rate of favour (Smite’s standard currency) is higher without too many bonuses needed and the pricing isn’t too high unless it’s a newly released god with the normal price at five thousand five hundred so if we were to compare them to an average play time of someone like me (five hours during weekdays and ten during weekends and yes, I did time myself for this), you can get a new god in Smite per a week (two if you are lucky) while in Atlas, it would take you one to four weeks, depending on the price of the desired freelancer. Keep in mind, this was compared to my own stats over two months so if you are skeptical of my data, I don’t blame you and encourage that you do your own research as well but in the end, my point still stands. Atlas Reactor can be a grindy slog for those who aren’t willing to at least pay thirty bucks and I do feel like this puts people at a disadvantage for ranked games with a limited pool of freelancers and can serve as a turn off for anyone who wants to play ranked (other turn offs includes massive gap in skill and long queue times).
I could also just waste the rest of this paragraph talking about the microtransactions but it’s just the standard Overwatch model. You have your loot crates which give you cosmetic stuff and you can get by doing quests and leveling up and if you really want to, you can buy batches of them for real money and they do have the standard system of dupes giving you a special currency which is used to buy the cosmetics you want and blah blah blah, I am bored of this sentence. The only real difference is the fact new release skins can only be brought with real life money for a very long time and I am completely unsure about the fact they even available in loot boxes since I haven’t seen one yet but I can’t find any data for it so I can’t really comment on this but as per usual, when a game features microtransactions, I am going to be deducting points based on how intrusive they feel and what they offer in exchange for your money so just keep that in mind when it comes to scoring.
Despite the flaws I pointed out, I still stand by the fact that Atlas Reactor is a underrated MOBA and it does deserve some attention and unlike Smite, I think Atlas Reactor is a game that can be enjoyed not only by newbies but also by veterans of the genre. I am giving Atlas Reactor a 7/10 with no score deduction because unlike Smite, the microtransactions aren’t over the top expensive or excessive and unlike Overwatch, it’s not a pointless system for publishers to grub more money out of their player base. Atlas Reactor is like any good MOBA: it’s unique in it’s own way and can be enjoyable by yourself or with friends so why not try out Atlas Reactor, it is free to play after all and if you are already a player of the game and need a way to convincing others to try it, why not show them this review if you found it convincing.
So next week, I am going to be starting that Saints Row series of reviews as promised and afterwards, I do have a new instalment of “The Undiscussables” for those who want more manga reviews, I got your back and maybe after that, I might be talking about a Japanese comedy or I might actually tackle some good marvel movies and for those who think it’s going to be Infinity War, it’s not and for those who want me to talk about Infinity War, my response is simply “HA HA HA HA HA, AS IF! Here’s your 6/10.”
I know I said that I want to do this review because I care about this game but since I care about the game, I need to give it criticism in order to make it better plus if I didn’t do it, this review would be extremely bias and I’m not a IGN reviewer so let’s move onto the first bit of criticism which is the content or rather lack of content. For a game that has been through five seasons and approaching its sixth season at time of writing, it really lacks a lot of content and it almost feels like the game is pretty much abandoned at times. Unlike other MOBAs like League who get patched every two weeks, we are lucky to get one every month and when that patch drops, it’s not much in terms of content. It’s usually just some changes to stats and bug fixes and actual new content is rare. Barring skins which shows up in most patches, we are lucky to get a new freelancer or even a new map in these patches. Within its current lifetime, it has dropped only dropped 6 maps and one of them isn’t even complete yet and that’s just poor and the same applies to new freelancers. The latest lancer called Vonn was dropped at the start of season five and it seems like new lancers only drop during the start of new seasons and with seasons only lasting half a year, we are pretty much getting two new freelancers per a year. I mean, there has been cases like Isadora who got dropped during the middle of the season but that was long ago. The devs has been trying to improve their release rate on terms of maps as they recently held a suggestion thread on the Atlas Reactor subreddit for new maps which is progress but it’s not enough in my opinion. If they were to aim for the league standard of a new champion every two-three months, that would be nice but there is still other issues so let’s tackle the grind.
Atlas Reactor is very much like Smite which is a game that I like to call “Thirty To Actually Play” since in both games, they feature grinding to get new characters or you could just drop thirty to unlock all current and future characters but unlike Smite where the grind isn’t that bad, Atlas is just horrible and it got so bad, I actually forked over money to get the character pack because the grind section of the game is just really badly implemented like the micro transactions (we will get there soon). There is two factors to this problem and the first one is the drop rate of the standard currency known as Flux. The drop rate of Flux is really poor since you get an average of three hundred flux per a match and in a game where the mods cost five hundred, it’s really not that bad but the factor is the main issue and that’s the pricing of flux related items. There is some items that cost ridiculous amounts of flux but they don’t really do anything in terms of gameplay so they are just there for bragging rights and the mods are pretty cheap which is good but the main problem stems from the pricing of Freelancers because seriously, it gets expensive. The pricing tiers start around ten thousand flux which is a bit of a grind but isn’t too bad but then they jump up to twenty-five thousands which is a bit of demand in grind but then it doubles to fifty thousand and finally, seventy-five thousand for only the newest of the newest champions and reaching that point is ridiculous. Granted, when starting the game as a newbie, you can get a free freelancer of your choice after filling the requirements and after that, you can get other bonuses on top of that and there is somewhat generous flux drops from just leveling up your account during each season and playing champions and yes, there is a weekly free freelancer rotation but it’s still a grind and even if you are enjoying the game, it’s still not a fun experience. You can point at Smite and say “Well what makes Smite different?” and the answer to that is quite simply “Because Smite fixed both factors to not make it feel like a grind.” The drop rate of favour (Smite’s standard currency) is higher without too many bonuses needed and the pricing isn’t too high unless it’s a newly released god with the normal price at five thousand five hundred so if we were to compare them to an average play time of someone like me (five hours during weekdays and ten during weekends and yes, I did time myself for this), you can get a new god in Smite per a week (two if you are lucky) while in Atlas, it would take you one to four weeks, depending on the price of the desired freelancer. Keep in mind, this was compared to my own stats over two months so if you are skeptical of my data, I don’t blame you and encourage that you do your own research as well but in the end, my point still stands. Atlas Reactor can be a grindy slog for those who aren’t willing to at least pay thirty bucks and I do feel like this puts people at a disadvantage for ranked games with a limited pool of freelancers and can serve as a turn off for anyone who wants to play ranked (other turn offs includes massive gap in skill and long queue times).
I could also just waste the rest of this paragraph talking about the microtransactions but it’s just the standard Overwatch model. You have your loot crates which give you cosmetic stuff and you can get by doing quests and leveling up and if you really want to, you can buy batches of them for real money and they do have the standard system of dupes giving you a special currency which is used to buy the cosmetics you want and blah blah blah, I am bored of this sentence. The only real difference is the fact new release skins can only be brought with real life money for a very long time and I am completely unsure about the fact they even available in loot boxes since I haven’t seen one yet but I can’t find any data for it so I can’t really comment on this but as per usual, when a game features microtransactions, I am going to be deducting points based on how intrusive they feel and what they offer in exchange for your money so just keep that in mind when it comes to scoring.
Despite the flaws I pointed out, I still stand by the fact that Atlas Reactor is a underrated MOBA and it does deserve some attention and unlike Smite, I think Atlas Reactor is a game that can be enjoyed not only by newbies but also by veterans of the genre. I am giving Atlas Reactor a 7/10 with no score deduction because unlike Smite, the microtransactions aren’t over the top expensive or excessive and unlike Overwatch, it’s not a pointless system for publishers to grub more money out of their player base. Atlas Reactor is like any good MOBA: it’s unique in it’s own way and can be enjoyable by yourself or with friends so why not try out Atlas Reactor, it is free to play after all and if you are already a player of the game and need a way to convincing others to try it, why not show them this review if you found it convincing.
So next week, I am going to be starting that Saints Row series of reviews as promised and afterwards, I do have a new instalment of “The Undiscussables” for those who want more manga reviews, I got your back and maybe after that, I might be talking about a Japanese comedy or I might actually tackle some good marvel movies and for those who think it’s going to be Infinity War, it’s not and for those who want me to talk about Infinity War, my response is simply “HA HA HA HA HA, AS IF! Here’s your 6/10.”
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