Babylon's Fall Reaction

Babylon's Fall, the upcoming action RPG developed by Platinum Games and published by Square Enix, has finally returned to the fray with a brand new gameplay trailer. However, the reaction to said gameplay trailer has not been positive. On the official Square Enix YouTube channel, the video has been bombarded with dislikes, and while it's not quite as bad over on the PlayStation channel, it's still hard to ignore the negative ratio.

So why is this happening? Well, if you've seen the trailer for yourself, then you might already have some idea. For starters, it's just a bad trailer. The weird voiceovers, the total lack of sound effects, the annoyingly loud singing — it's not good.

But then the gameplay footage itself leaves a lot to be desired. Granted, this is just a quick look at an in-development title that still doesn't have a release date, but it looks stiff and awkward here. It's certainly not the kind of fast and fluid action that we've come to expect of Platinum Games.

It also doesn't help that Babylon's Fall is now being positioned primarily as a co-op action game — and a live service one at that. There's a clear stink attached to the term these days, and it's abundantly clear that people were hankering for a more traditional action RPG experience.

Compare it to the previous trailer for Babylon's Fall — which was shown during one of Sony's State of Play broadcasts last year — and the difference is night and day.

This is the gameplay trailer from December 2020:

There's an energy here, and a certain spice to the combat. It looks intriguing, and it's a trailer that made us want to see more — hence why we were excited to learn that Babylon's Fall would be at E3.

It's a real shame that the game's now being blasted from all angles, but there's no getting away from the fact that it was a disappointing showing for a lot of eager onlookers. Who knows, Babylon's Fall might shine in its upcoming closed beta, but right now, it's looking pretty rough.