Trion Worlds’ hybrid MOBA-strategy game Atlas Reactor has been really gaining ground in the gaming space and making waves as its own unique entry in the ever-growing space of competitive hero battle games. After recently launching on Steam this past week, Trion’s game has been met with a lot of resounding positive feedback.
Gamers are genuinely excited and ecstatically enthused about the colorful, 3D PvP title that sees players forming a team and doing battle in quick turn-based encounters.
Replicat sums up the concept quite nicely while chiding Trion on their past history of flubs and also praising them for making a really fun game, writing…
“It’s like DotA’s concept with XCOM’s gameplay and Borderlands’ graphics. It’s like chess, but with guns and blades.
“[…] seeing myself enjoying this game very much, I am probably going to pay for the full game sooner or later. I don’t see much room for a P2W situtation in a strategy game so I guess this is safe.”
Raptorcat liked the variety of mods for the characters, the ability to adjust and change strategies and the fact that the buy-to-own option bypasses the shenanigans of the free-to-play version, writing…
“[…] its like if XCOM and Frozen Synapse were combined with team-based multiplayer. Atlas Reactor is a turn-based simultaneous arena game, get together in 4v4 matches on a continuing variety of maps to prep, dash and blast your way to victory.”
“The game itself is Buy to Play to unlock everything permanently, the only thing actually buyable in-game currently are loot boxes, which give you nothing more than cosmetic stuff, which can just as easily be bought using the in-game currency for specific cosmetics. Nothing in this game is pay to win.”
If you’re curious about how this hybrid gameplay concept comes together, you can check out the video below from Underrtaed54, showcasing 18 minutes worth of gameplay.
Kim Jong Nom Nom attributed the good tidings of Atlas Reactor to the developers reacting to feedback quickly and positively, constantly growing the game and adding new features by staying in constant communication with the community, writing…
“Throughout the Beta the game has run smoothly and been steered in a healthy direction. Concerns that were brought up by players were addressed by developers. Playing with friends is definitely the way to go. The only thing missing in the game right now is a larger playerbase, but that is to be expected.”
Now there are some people who are a bit peeved at how the hero system works and the rotations. BritishFerret points out that the hero champions are on free-rotation and you can’t buy to own the heroes separately. He also doesn’t like that the ranked and custom modes are also behind the $30 Freelancers Edition, writing…
“If the game was just flat out £20, I would give it a positive, but as a free-to-play game, this is one of the poorest examples of a business model I’ve seen. I’ll change my review if some of these are fixed, but I doubt this is going to happen”
Some people also agreed with BritishFerret, disliking how you can’t pay to have the heroes individually, while others praised Trion for this route because it keeps it fair no matter what people pay and no matter how much money someone dumps into the cash shop.
The custom games and the ranked matches are behind the $30 edition of Atlas Reactor, which is buy-to-own feature so once you access the ranked matches you maintain access to those matches. Some people liked that idea while others didn’t. Some felt that it keeps the riff-raff and spammers out while others felt as if free-to-play gamers should have been able to access all the content.
Some complained that there should just be an option to buy the heroes that you want instead of keeping the free-to-play gamers on the weekly rotation or having to buy one of the packages to get all the heroes. It is possible to buy the Ultimate Reactor Edition, which unlocks more mods and skins for the heroes.
It’s an interesting position for a MOBA, and it’s easy to see why some players may not like the rotation and why some players do. Trion is obviously trying to avoid the pay-to-win pit and players across the board admit that Atlas Reactor has done a good job of avoiding being a pay-to-win game.
The free version is available right now on Steam, along with the Pro Edition, which comes with emojis, banners and skins, and the Ultimate Edition, which comes with additional mod tokens, skins and additional loot.
