Had it not been for the latter half of one’s time spent with Babylon’s Fall – the latest project from PlatinumGames; a live-service, action-focused, dungeon-crawler in name only, across all three of these aforementioned fields – you could’ve been looking at a far more loathsome-sounding assessment here. But don’t for one second think that this in any way signals something altogether more surprising or even apologetic for the uncertain and justified suspicions going into this. If you’re reading this, no doubt you’ve already become accustomed to if not the game’s reception so far, then its controversial one-eighty of a development update last year. Announced way backin 2018and only getting its first proper gameplay trailera year later, Babylon’s Fall initially gave the impression (if only in hands-off footage) of another promising slice of what has quickly and so welcomingly become Platinum’s staple pedigree.
Butfast forward two yearsand something felt off compared to what we’d previously been shown – similarly fleeting a trailer it might’ve been. That feeling wasn’t helped by Platinum’s own confirmation that the game had now morphed into [inthe studio’s own words] a “live service title.” Without a second of the game even reaching public hands, Babylon’s Fall already had a dark, ominous cloud hanging over its head. And while the studio has not been without occasional missteps in prior years – particularly with licensed projects – if one were to hail any reputable name known for combat and action-focused gameplay, Platinum would be most people’s go-to nominee. Even the ties to Square Enix – both publishing and credited with aiding on the development side here – would not entirely signal trouble. Even if that same publisher has been, let’s just say, known forbackingsomememorableexamples of prior years. After all, was this not the same collaboration that brought usNier: Automatafive years prior? Surely this pitch, brandished with the “live service” moniker or not, could still harbor an interesting (albeit not matching the exemplary heights of prior) affair to explore. Cautious is undoubtedly the one word I’d associate strongly with one’s thoughts going into Babylon’s Fall. Coming out of it: naive is a more apt description.
There’s a risk here of sounding purposefully exaggerated or trying to sell (or not sell) this title shorter than need be. But even with all the games covered/reviewed over the years – not least those infamous few published by Square Enix – there’s no joy to have in declaring Babylon’s Fall easily the worst game I’ve had the “pleasure” of trudging through. One can’t even credit a suggestion of pretentiousness or bewilderment in its design to help counter-balance things out as its standalone failing. After countless hours of what the game’s “first season” has going for it, it’s shocking (even for a life-long fan/admirer of the studio’s portfolio) at just how far PlatinumGames have fallen short of their suspected standard. Babylon’s Fall isn’t just bad, it’s astonishingly bad in a myriad of ways. No sooner than in the introductory cutscene and tutorial does that multi-layered disappointment reveal itself.
Starting off with what may arguably be the most noticeable aspect: artistic direction (if one can even call it such). The worst bit about all this is that if you squint hard enough – figuratively and literally alike – you may almost see what Platinum were going for here. The notion that the world of Babylon’s Fall is depicted as a pre-19th century series of paintings brought to life. Thick clumps of oil paint and noticeable brushstrokes that define the shape and contrast between environments and character design alike. But it doesn’t take long to register this intended technique not one of artistic flair, but moreso a shallow and in all likelihood hurried disguising of the inadequate technical quality. Bearing more of a resemblance to some early Xbox 360/PS3 title – whose own presence is suffering from such things as pop-in or textures not loading properly – than it does a title that at least makes competent use of the PC platform. Babylon’s Fall doesn’t get any better from hereon with character models and the world in general, seldom meshing with its aesthetic.
A mismatch worsened by instances where character models feel as if they’ve been hurriedly placed onto backdrops, in the vain hope of presenting a cutscene of sorts. Cutscenes that, even stranger, are divided into three categories of presentation, each of which equally off-putting in their execution. Cinematic renders that at times feel choppy and in others implement this unnecessarily persistent use of blur. In-game renders that only make the smudged “painterly” attempt all the more horrid to look at. And lastly, sequences that home in and hop between still images (like glancing between separate framed paintings if you will) but take way too long to get to the point. So-called “points” that at times can sit on nondescript images for ten seconds at a time. Made worse by the fact that the dialogue in such cutscenes can’t be skipped through, making the wait all that more unbearable. Had the plot of Babylon’s Fall been in anyway intriguing from a world-building stand-point, perhaps this direction wouldn’t feel so sluggish, but even its narrative – something which Platinum have in the past, at least sparked some novel curiosity – does little to entice or distract from the omnipresent sub-par quality of the presentation.
The premise itself – of a slave being forced to fight for an empire – might have held promise if the growing disinterest for what’s taking place didn’t result in a domino effect. Stop caring about the characters, you stop caring about the narrative. Stop caring about the narrative, you stop caring about the world in general. It’s once the world loses its grip on your interest that Babylon’s Fall’s structural design and semblance of “progression” truly comes center stage. And if you thought the means by which the story was told was sluggish, things don’t get any better once the actual gameplay comes into focus. Admittedly there’s promise here, even if such promise feels fleeting and more like the first, very basic step in a much more robust and mechanically-nuanced combat system. The idea is that players can equip up to four weapons to tackle the series of dungeons: one for light attacks, one for heavy attacks and two that are controlled by either trigger button. The latter two being controlled by the device on your back, referred to in-game as a Gideon Coffin. More so, these weapons and your Coffin as a result require energy to be wielded, dictated by an accompanying red meter below your health. While this meter naturally recharges overtime (but at a sluggish pace), attacking foes fills this meter more quickly with the rate of recharge one governed by said weapon’s stats.
The problem, like so much of the game, is that the pacing and feel of combat in Babylon’s Fall similarly feels off and suspiciously built to waste player’s time. Possibly to get players enveloped more effectively in the inevitable grind the live-service, loot-driven economy feels annoyingly built around. But even from a pure cosmetic stance, the drawn-out perspective as well as the general, horribly-aliased fidelity of visuals makes even the luster of preferred weapons far from satisfactory. A loot-based affair like Destiny or even The Division, this is not; at their most earliest and vanilla of states, both these games did a much better job at gravitating a player’s focus as much towards sought-after gear. But the eventual grind of Babylon’s Fall isn’t even that exciting or engaging to figure out because of how unresponsive and lacking it feels. Not only do your attacks lack weight or significant impact against foes, but even the implied strategy of deducing which weapons to assign, ends up irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Before long you end up with an arsenal that spews high-enough damage numbers that the concept of preparation and finding an ideal build/play-style seems non-existent.
It doesn’t help that dungeons themselves are unpleasant affairs of running down corridors, entering a wide and open arena, running down more corridors and repeating much the same premise until dungeon’s end. Repeated assets and level geometry – to the point one palindromic level essentially repeats everything but in reverse for its second half – barely making its environments worthwhile to admire. To further shine a light on how lacking the game is in its current state, you could disregard the entire open-world nature of something likeGenshin Impact– to concentrate solely on that game’s own take on linear dungeons – and still find so much more potential and nuance with that game’s combat than anything in Babylon’s Fall. Again, this may come off as hyperbole, but a light needs to be shone on the lackluster core loop. When you find yourself daring to suggest a game likeMarvel’s Avengers, even something like Anthem, had a reasonable hook or at least more meat to its bones, it shows just how far short this game ends up. Some brief spots like a major boss fight now and again do offer glimpses into the quality Platinum is known for, but even such set-pieces quickly fall to the same symptoms of padded time and eventual, mindless attack-spamming.
Whether or not the mandatory, always-online state has anything to do with the irregular lack of consistency is unclear. But even if it weren’t, this is such a significant step-down from the usual tight and responsive manner of combat that Platinum’s past, even more recent, work has so often been celebrated on. There’s no nuance or twists to the standard template here. Nothing comparable to something like Witch Time withBayonetta, or the Blade Mode ofMetal Gear RisingorVanquish’s pure fun-factor in moving about. EvenAstral Chain’s dual-character styled Legion combat – in a game shackled down by the Switch’s hardware limitations, lest we forget – stands leaps and bounds ahead of what quickly reveals itself as a game not even having the grace to keep the encroaching slog anything but shallow. If anything does manage to conjure even the briefest of positives, it’s the soundtrack which is by far the best thing Babylon’s Fall has going for it. Even if as a whole, it doesn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with the developer’s best. Some instances, like finishing a dungeon and waiting to be booted back to the hub, are met with pleasant-enough choral sweeps for example – providing a fleeting but notable glimmer of what may have been a better experience.
Closing Comments:
Anyone who’s been keeping tabs may not be all that surprised to find Square Enix once again in a precarious spot that is in part baffling but more so predictable given recent history. What is surprising is to find a developer like PlatinumGames put out an egregious excuse of a game like Babylon’s Fall that’s not only inadequate at launch, but whose gameplay is sorely lacking in any semblance of nuance, purpose or polish. From the technical production to its desired visual direction alike, you needn’t take one step into any of its lackluster dungeons to find something both unpleasant and unappealing to invest in. And once you do, you’ll find a core loop unashamedly insistent on dragging its heels all in the name of a loot grind that itself isn’t all that exciting. To say the dismal failings on its loot aspect – and perhaps, even its live-service ecosystem on top – isn’t even the lowest moment should give you a clearer picture on how badly PlatinumGames and Square Enix together have missed the mark here. It might then end up strangely poetic come year’s end. That after seeing what might arguably be the year’sbest offeringrelease in recent weeks, Babylon’s Fall by contrast, could very well stand as its worst.
