As a concept, it feels like Starlink: Battle for Atlas is three years late to the party. The toys to life fad died out a long time ago, and so to see a title basing itself around the act of collecting weapons and ships out in the real world in the year 2018 almost seems like a foolish business decision to us. We got a chance to sample this blend between reality and videogame at EGX 2018, and while results in the gameplay department were fairly promising, we still can't shake the fact that this is all too much, far too late.
In terms of the actual game playing side of things, the title appears to be a combination of No Man's Sky's space exploration, and the ship combat that you'd find in the likes of Elite Dangerous. The demo we got hands on time with kicked things off with a warp speed powered flight through space, before eventually clearing as we approached the planet our objective was tied to. First things first, take out a large structure by targeting its weak points in order to reveal the core. It was simple stuff, but the enemies that spawned there began to reveal the positivities behind the idea of reconstructing the ship attached to your controller.
We were given two different ships and four weapons to choose from, and once we saw foes spawning that leaned towards an icy type, we immediately unequipped our machine gun in the real world and slapped on the flamethrower. This switch up pauses the action on-screen so there's no downside to having to take your eyes away from the action. It's pretty cool to see your actions immediately effect weaponry in-game as you take the fight to the enemy, but it's probably something you'll tire of doing after the 30th time.
The 20 minute demo concluded with a boss fight against a combatant that wouldn't look too out of place in Destiny, which again had us targeting weak points in order to deal large damage. Looking back on it all, the sequence of events was fairly impressive as a set-piece to show off the title, but we're still not entirely sure how it fits into the overall structure of the game. Is the game completely open-world, allowing us to visit planets, coming and going as we please? Will we ever be able to leave our ships to scope out a new area for example? Are you at a disadvantage if you haven't purchased the correct weapons? These are all questions we more than likely won't have an answer to until the full game launches.
One issue we did encounter during our hands on time was the act of respawning, which took us back to space and asked us to fly back onto the planet we were just on and find the creature we were doing battle with all over again. It feels particularly brutal on the player. Editor Sammy Barker, who also took the demo, had the same thing happen to him, but noticed an option that seemed to suggest that you could actually respawn in the same spot if you were to de-construct the ship attached to your controller and slap on a new one. You'd be swapping ships in the midst of battle as such, but it also highlights probably the biggest issue with the game.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas' starter pack comes in at a whopping £69.99, and that's just the entry price. The demo we took gave us access to everything you'd receive in that pack as well as an extra ship and another weapon on top, so could the quick respawn mechanic be tied to buying a further £24.99 priced ship separately? We don't know, but it's clear what we're getting at. The game portion of Starlink seems perfectly adequate, it's everything else on the sides that has us worried. With the idea of buying toys to supplement a game's structure and mechanics in the distant past, we really don't know if this will take off. It's a shame that something potentially so good could be marred and forgotten about thanks to something it can't even control.
Honestly, we're still struggling to define what Starlink: Battle for Atlas exactly is as a whole, and that fascinates us. This scribe is genuinely really interested in seeing what shape the game takes as a final product next month, warts and all. It could prove to be the kick in the teeth the toys to life gimmick needs to kick start it all back up again, or it could be the final nail in the coffin. Only time will tell.
Are you interested in checking out Starlink: Battle for Atlas next month? Does its pricing structure concern you? Fly into the comments below.
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Comments 27
I think the toys to life stuff, skylanders and disney infinity was only scrapped because the profit margins weren't giant like microtransactions, they were still making plenty of money though I think.
Its a good concept but i cant see the toys to life fad returning so it feels destined to only see modest sales
We're not target audience anyway.
Good thing the ship parts are also available digitally.
I'm too old-school for this.
@Knuckles-Fajita I'm guessing Ubisoft will talk up the "all digital" option once they see the toys languishing on store shelves. Well that and they still may not have a price structure yet, will it be a season pass for all of it, or micro-transactions?
I actually wish Nintneod would let us buy more digitally if we don't want to buy toys - like unlocking the challenges in Spaltoon for $2.99 - but they were too busy charging us to buy the amiibo for Cloud and Bayonetta for $13 each, and THEN charging us another $7 to play as them in SSB. We own both of those amiibo, but neither of the DLC, b/c I refuse to pay twice for the same character.
Of course naturally unlocking stuff while you progress in the game, the way video games were meant to be, would be a nice option too. We'll probably pick this up first time we see it on sale for 40% off or more, but only the Switch version where it belongs.
I can already imagine they will bring iconic spaceships like an X-Wing or worse, the Millennium Falcon if the game is a success.
I like the look of the gameplay, seems really solid but not willing to jump on board the TTL train again. My kids went thru a Skylanders phase, then onto Disney Infinity, and the onto amiibo albeit to a much lesser extent. If it tanks and the pieces end up in dollar stores a year after launch I may reconsider but definitely not at the current prices.
@NintendoFan4Lyf Not gonna lie if I had to choose it would be the Switch version due to StarFox. I was actually planning on playing only as StarFox tbh but decided to not buy the game at all because of Ubisoft deciding to make the physical version half digital/half physical because they are morons. Not buying the game at all thanks to that decision because I prefer physical thanks to past issues of damaged Nintendo consoles and problems dealing with Nintendo themselves while trying to salvage my digital purchases.
This game looked fun too, too bad Ubi are too cheap of a bunch of idiots and skipped on the larger card sizes.
Think of this game as a collectors edition comes with a statue toy. If it follows Skylanders it will be about $15 off on black Friday in November.
I enjoyed the cartoon style and toys of Skylanders myself. Most of the new character toys I bought on sale 50% off. I already have Starlink pre-ordered and I am excited for the game.
I liked the gameplay at EGX, the toys were fine but the cost seems high for the style of game. Fun little demo though. Looked nice too
Only reason I'm interested in this game is Star Fox on the Switch version.
I just don't feel like spending an extra $15 to play as Fox. The arwing figure looks nice, though.
@Deadlyblack although seeing gameplay of it
Does look better than anything from SF 0/10 and it kinda feels like a form of next gen Star Fox...
Regarding this game idk... I’ll look into it but I may be occupied w other games
@Tsurii Last I checked, the Star Fox starter pack is $75 here in the U.S.
The game is 100% open world from what I've heard (well, 95% or 99% I guess since you aren't freed to do whatever until you've finished the tutorial missions), and if you don't want to deal with the physical toy stuff then you can buy it all digitally. The physical version also unlocks digital versions (with you only needing to scan in the physical stuff to renew the license so to speak once every two weeks), so if you get tired of swapping the toys out you have the option to not to.
I don't know, I'm kinda enamored in the idea. Or at least interested. There's also the fact that it detects the orientation of the wings and weapons too, so if you put them on swapped around or backwards or upside down then it shows up that way in game, which I thought was nifty.
In the US the starter bundle is $75, so I'm guessing the ships will come to be $15 or $20 apiece, which isn't too terribly bad. Of course, I still have GCU, so that'll be an extra 20% off for me, which sweetens the deal.
@rjejr Well, on the plus side, those characters are already in the base game of Ultimate, so you'll be able to use those Amiibo there!
@Deadlyblack the Switch version actually comes with Fox, the default hero dude, and the Arwing (with digital codes for the default ship that the other versions have instead), so you wouldn't have to pay an additional $15...unless you meant the $15 that bumps the game's price to $75?
@MysticMask Yeah, I'm talking about how a normal game is $60 and the starter pack for StarLink is $75. My wording wasn't very good, lol.
@Deadlyblack Heh, fair enough. It could have been taken either way!
@MysticMask I know, that's why I never paid for the DLC in the first place, assumed it would get a port, or a similar new game, on the Wii U successor soon enough. I needed those amiibo though.
Of course that also means I need to pay $60 for a new version of the game as well. But at least I didn't spend $100 on the DLC, I think my kid bought Ryu and that was it.
Who ever wrote this article is missing alot. You do t have to have the toys to play the game at all. Everything is can digital as well.
Thought I'd made it safe to the end of the article, then got ambushed by a "this scribe" right at the finish line. Well played PushSquare. Well played.
@Tsurii €63 is a pretty good deal! The official price is €80 for all starter packs:
Switch version
PS4 version
I found some that were €75, but that's as low as I could find. Additional ships are €30 a piece: And pilots seem to be €8. This can get expensive very quickly lol.
@MysticMask @MysticMask I'm pretty sure it's around $80 for all starter packs! The Switch version comes with additional content.
@Octane You could use Ubi-points and order from their store to pay ~64. They also have some pre order extra ship allthough I don't know if that's still availlable as it was limited
@Melistrius Limited pre-order bonuses? Sounds more like EA
@Tsurii Cheers! I forgot to check Coolshop! That's a big difference from the MSRP actually.
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