It doesn’t look like a sure bet, but we’re still keeping tabs on this new Platinum game
Announced at the 2021 Game Awards, Babylon’s Fall has a March 3, 2022 release date. And before you let out a sigh of relief that Platinum Games’ new action-RPG is narrowly dodging the jam-packed February launch schedule, it isn’t — not exactly. While the full release is in March, digital deluxe owners can start on February 28 with early access.
It’s the way of the world, apparently!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2S4EGpfhk8
This game has been cooking with closed-off beta tests, and we heard Chris Carter’s hands-on impressions as recently as three weeks ago. It’s a little complicated. The Gideon Coffin multi-weapon combat system has potential for fun comboing, but a lack of enemy and dungeon variety so far brings the experience down. Visually, the developers have re-tuned the “medieval oil painting aesthetic” following fan feedback, but it’s still divisive.
So while the vibe is intriguing as an action-RPG nut, Babylon’s Fall isn’t coming together how I would’ve hoped. Platinum has that upper-tier action pedigree, but not everything the studio puts out is on equal footing, and Square Enix has had its own missteps as a publisher. It’s going to take some strong word-of-mouth at this point, basically.
The idea of potentially trying to wrangle three other loot-hungry players for the full online dungeon-crawling experience, instead of just playing Babylon’s Fall solo, is also weighing on me. (That concern isn’t unique to this game, but it’s one I think about whenever something like this is — or isn’t — a part of Game Pass. That can change a lot.)
But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself — Babylon’s Fall has a release date now, and that’s a start. Some people were wondering if it would even get this far.
