After its reveal in 2018, gamers have had to wait a good four years for Babylon's Fall, but finally, the hack and slash action RPG can take centre stage.
Babylon's Fall story takes place after the Babylonians perished and only their great tower The Ziggurat remains.
A new empire has risen and wants to pillage the ruins to uncover its treasure. As part of their endeavour to scale this tower, the new empire creates a new breed of soldiers called Sentinels, who have been forcibly implanted with the Gideon Coffin- a relic that grants the few survivors unrivalled powers.
It's up to the Sentinels to scale the tower and uncover its secrets while fighting for their freedom.
Babylon's Fall has a very unique art style that’s reminiscent of European oil paintings. The world has a very classical look and its architecture is decorated with stylish motifs and grand designs that bolster its intriguing lore.
Character models are a mixed bag with each Sentinel’s weapons and armour displaying such brazen but intricate designs.
But the characters themselves look rather bland and have stiff expressions during cutscenes.
The enemies throughout the entire game are very repetitive and by the time you reach the third level of the tower, it feels like you’ve seen them all.
Overall the game looks really dated, even playing on the new generation consoles like the Playstation 5
Players will have to pick from one of three different Sentinels, which are Huysian, Agavian, and Geleilion.
The Huysian race excels in close combat action with swords and is the best at chaining together attacks.
Agavians are heavy hitters equipped with a powerful hammer, they are slow but can unleash a devastating charge attack.
Finally, the Geleilion races are graceful with the bow and are able to cover a wide area with long-range projectiles.
Each race instantly feels very different and offers a unique style of play. As players progress they will unlock specific abilities.
But players will be able to equip any of the weapons including magic wands, so aren’t bound to what your selected race excels in.
This is great as it allows players to experiment with weapons creating multiple load-outs.
The Gideon Coffin attached to each character's back has a special ability called the Gutwork which is initially used as a grappling hook for traversing through the levels.
But as players progress they will unlock battle moves that can be mixed into their strategy.
This additional ability does give players that extra level needed in combat, which can become very repetitive by just using the weapons.
The Gideon Coffin can also be upgraded with booster crystals called GP to gain enhancements.
But what's really great is that players aren’t bound to these enhancements as they can redistribute their GP after every quest.
Another important element in character building is the power ranking which will determine how well each Sentinel will do in each level.
This can be calculated by what weapons and armour are equipped. Weapons all have base stats, elemental affinities and enchantments, the rarer the weapon the more enchantments slots it will have.
Having better weapons can help compensate for your characters having low base stats. The weapon system is pretty complex and provides players with a diverse variety.
My only issue is that a lot of weapons do look alike but have different stats, so they can be discarded by accident. If weapons have an individual purpose they should have their own look.
Players will be able to forge new items by spending the in-game currency Conches using materials and blueprints found during the quest.
The game also features microtransactions that will allow players to purchase the in-game currency. I have to say it's pretty expensive and with the game's repetitive nature I don't think people will be willing to part with the cash.
The main objective of Babylon's Fall is to climb The Ziggurat and find all the secret treasure that is hidden within it.
The tower is divided into several floors or Cloisters that are split into different chapters. Each chapter is made up of combat and some platforming sequences, ending with a boss battle.
While each floor starts off pretty linear, they do open up allowing for further exploration as you progress.
However, the exploration and platforming elements don’t feel as challenging as they would like to be, but they do help act a break from the combat.
Players will be able to select quests from the quest board in Sentinel Force HQ. You can choose to play alone or in a group of four.
Other players won’t be able to join once you have already started a quest. This is a weird omission as most online multiplayer games allow this feature.
Aside from the main story quest players will be able to unlock skirmishes or sieges which are special variations of the quest.
There are also extra missions and orders that players can complete within the quest to unlock more goodies.
These extra inclusions help add a bit more diversity to the experience while increasing the game's longevity. However, I felt a lot of the extras were once again really repetitive and lacked creativity.
The combat system works in a unique way where you can map four weapons to a different button to execute a special attack.
Each character has light, heavy and two Spectral attacks that can be chained into combos. There was a good mix of weapons to choose from although using the hammer and swords felt roughly the same.
Each weapon can unleash a special Spectral attack that causes the most damage and depletes the Spectral meter.
Combat is initially fun and I was able to experiment with different combinations and even get to grips with the perfect dodge mechanics.
But it becomes very repetitive and quickly as enemies weren't nearly enough of a challenge for me to think up different strategies.
It also felt like there wasn’t much disparity between enemies whether you are in a party of four or playing solo. This means the enemies are a lot longer to defeat if you are playing alone.
Verdict
Babylon's Fall is a mixed bag with combat mechanics and customisation standing at the forefront of the positives.
But the majority of the game just doesn't flow as well as it could’ve with dated graphics, shockingly repetitive gaming loop and expensive microtransactions, Babylon's Fall is a bit of a letdown.
Babylon's Fall is out now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC
