Developing games definitely takes a lot of knowledge and experience to get started as there is a lot to know about the gaming experience to apply to a game being created. Despite having so much experience in this respect, Square Enix and Platinum Games have developed Babylon’s Fall to be a phenomenal game to play once you get past the frustrations surrounding the experience. As I played the game, I felt that there was so much to love about it and almost just as much to hate about it. Let’s break it down further.

Story

With a town plagued by the blue sun, which brings about the blue death disease to the citizens that live nearby for too long, the imperial city has been bringing candidates overseas as candidates to be their warriors. These warriors are known as Sentinals and once they arrive at the city docks, the initiation ceremony will begin.

This ceremony is the attachment of a Gideon Coffin to their back which will perform a sort of magical fuse with the person’s body. With a low success rate, only three of the group survive this ceremony; you being one of the lucky few. From here, you will be sent to enter the headquarters for where the Sentinals return to as they work their way up through the Ziggurat.

It is said that at the top of the Ziggurat, the Sentinal that could successfully complete the tower will be able to destroy the blue sun, freeing the city and curing those plagued by the blue death. Little did you know just how difficult this climb would be and the unique dangers that lie within. For enemies alone are not your only concern - there are many things you are not told and forced to learn through experience.

I thought this story was very intriguing and they did a great job making every floor of the Ziggurat so unique to itself. It does a great job holding your interest throughout the entire climb and is told through a mixture of fully animated cutscenes and, what appear to be, hand-drawn half-animated artworks. There were some issues though as they sometimes would have big moments where a character would die or something would take place, but they didn’t give you time to care about that character before hand. It left me just feeling, “well, that sucks for them” rather than the “no! They can’t be dead!” feeling I think they were going for.

Gameplay

Starting out the game, you can create your character and pick which of the three classes they are in. The class decision may seem a little unimportant at first, but they have their unique aspects, later on, so make sure you read their specifications. You can have more than one character though and they share inventory, so this isn’t too big of a deal.

The only thing this game really teaches you is basic movement, jumping, dodging, and basic combat. One of the first things you’ll notice is that you will have these four weapons seemingly floating behind you. These will always be an aspect of the game as you have a main attack with one weapon, a secondary attack with a second weapon, and then your spectral attacks with the two other weapons. There will be some other aspects learned, like picking up items in the environment and throwing them, as well.

Combat itself is very fluid in this game and remains consistent. There will be different weapon types to choose from and you should figure out which one works best for you. Another thing to note is that the way weapons work as a main or secondary weapon will be the same, but as a spectral weapon is completely different. For instance, hammers as a main weapon work how you would expect them to, but as a spectral weapon, they work as a smash attack in front of you. I personally prefer having bows for my spectral weapons as you can always attack from a distance while running, dodging, and maneuvering.

Gear was probably the most confusing aspect of this game and they tell you nothing about the way it is set up. I spent a lot of time keeping whatever seemed to have the best stats and not focusing on the level of the item I was using. In the first area, this didn’t seem like much of a problem, but it quickly became noticeable as I progressed through the campaign. It turns out that you want to try and use the highest level equipment, even if it is slightly worse than the stats of the one you currently are using. The level of the item itself is the most important aspect.

For example, when I reached the third area of the game - the volcanic cloister - I was still using level 16 gear because it had better stats than the level 20 items I was finding. When I was fighting enemies in this area, I was only landing about 20-30 damage at best when before I was doing about 100 or so. Even the 100 or so was weak when in the first area I was doing over 200 damage. It turns out that when your gear level is lower, it does less damage. The stats are more of a guideline of how much damage it will do when in a same-level section of the campaign. A fun fact to finish this out, level 20 items aren’t good enough for volcanic cloister either.

One of the more frustrating aspects about this game is the fact that they don’t tell you anything yet have everything there for you to see. I could see that there were missions to complete sieges and start crafting, but I can’t seem to be able to do it. Well, that is because these unlock later in the game; way later! Crafting isn’t unlocked until you complete the volcanic cloister section of the game, meaning you’ll be using gear in the high 30s or low 40s by then. Sieges don’t start until a few chapters after that when you are using gear in the 50s range.

This sucks since a quick chat with the community and you will learn that sieges are one of the best ways to level up your character and find better gear. Before sieges are open, the only way to level up and find better gear is to replay missions you have completed over and over. At least you can load up with other players and help them through areas as well. Plus, some bosses are a lot of fun to fight, so it is nice to be able to go back and fight them again.

Other than that, the last thing worth noting is that there is a general store in the headquarters area. The problem is, he is always selling equipment that is of no use to you. All he is really good for is selling gear you collect and aren’t going to use and, once you unlock crafting, you can buy blueprints and materials for crafting from him.

Audio and Visuals

This is one of the shining sections of this game. The art style seemed to be this mixture of hand-painted scenery with digital art and animation. It gave this aesthetic of a classic anime, except the color and tonation are kept dark and filled with the fantasy-medieval theme. Tie that in with solid voice work, sound effects, and music that makes you embrace the battles as moments, and you have a strong pull in this aspect of the game.

Replayability

With there being three classes to play as and the game itself being quite grindy, I wouldn’t say it has replayability as much as it has a reason to keep moving forward. You don’t have to have your character at any certain level to use any gear, so if you have level 50 gear then a new character of a different class will be able to use that gear - it just might not fit that character and give the same bonuses to them. From there, you can work your way through the campaign with that character to unlock all the same aspects as your first character has, just a lot faster.

What It Could Have Done Better

There are the things I mentioned about, like the story lacking moments to bring care to some side characters and a lack of proper tutorial to tell you about everything in the game. To dive more into these, I would say that it also ties into the sheer repetitiveness of forcing players to replay the same missions over and over in order to level up. And not just a few times; you do not obtain gear nearly at the rate you would proceed through the campaign, so expect to have to grind for gear just to start every new chapter in the campaign.

So, how does it tie in? Well, there are so many options you could include to give the story more depth for side characters and even fill out the tutorial. Why aren’t their low-level sieges? These could be set up as side quests that let us get to know these side characters a bit more. Open up the chance for players to do more than the main campaign and give them more to do, even if it takes place in levels similar to the ones in the campaign. At least we would be spending time learning more about the overall lore and the people rather than reporting the same missions over and over while hoping to gain gear that is a level or two better than our current one.

Another issue is just how plain non-user friendly the overall setup is. Just quitting the game requires you to go back to the title screen, load up the main menu (which requires connecting to the server again), just to hit a ‘quit game’ option. Just have the option available in the game menu! Then there is the quest acceptance factor that I have mentioned in previous titles - stop making these games where once I click to start the quest, I can’t cancel out while in a waiting lobby. You can’t change your gear or interact with any NPCs while in the quest lobby, so if you forget to change your gear before selecting the next quest - oh well, load up anyways.

Lastly, how dare a game made in 2022 with so much emphasis on the co-op factor not have any proper form of in-game communication. Are you kidding? No voice chat options, no text chat options… hell, you can’t even actually party up with your friends. What you have to do is add them to this game specifically, go to the same HQ lobby as them, and then once one player selects a quest the friend can go to the ‘Party Quests’ option on the quest board and their friend’s quest will be there to join. Why is it this complicated to play with a friend that I have to use an outside source to chat with properly with microphones? Thanks for the early 2000 emote-chat system, I guess.

Verdict

Babylon’s Fall is a game with so much to love and so much to hate at the same time. The lore and the actual gameplay are quite entertaining, but the gear is so confusing to learn the first time and the whole system is set up in such an unfriendly fashion for the users. There are a lot of things you have to get used to and workaround in order to enjoy the game, but once you get the flow down you can enjoy hours of this game. Despite having plenty to complain about, I had a lot of fun with this game. Would I recommend it though? If you have a setup that lets you talk to your friends through discord or another voice chat, then you are likely to be able to have plenty of fun with this title. If you don’t have a voice chat, you can still have fun but it will likely be with randoms or solo. So, I would softly recommend the game with caution.

Babylon’s Fall is now available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 with cross-play.