Game:

Atlas Reactor (2016)

Category:

Review

Duration: 2:51

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Atlas Reactor Is A Face off in fast-paced, turn-based PvP with Atlas Reactor – a competitive game that fuses simultaneous turns with team tactics. Read minds, master customizable Freelancers, and outwit your enemies in a world where a 20-second turn can change the tide of battle

So let’s just delve into the mechanics of Atlas Reactor. It’s a 4 vs. 4 online multiplayer strategy game. Think of something like XCOM, but with more colorful characters that feel akin to Overwatch, and generally a smaller playing field and unique abilities for each character. The game takes an isometric style view, and the stages are laid out in a grid format, with various pieces of cover to hide behind that deter ranged attacks.

Characters fall into one of three classes, tanks (Frontline), damage dealers (Firepower) and healers/buffs (Support). There’s a pretty hefty roster of characters to choose from, all with unique abilities that help to set them apart. You can modify abilities between games by unlocking mods using points earned from leveling up, which again helps to set the various characters apart from one another. There’s also equippable Catalysts, which are essentially abilities that can only be used once per game, and are generally universal across all characters and classes.

Each game is broken down into four stages. Rounds will start with the Prep phase, generally used to buff or heal, before moving into the Dash phase. This revolves around abilities that include some form of limited movement, usually short range rolls or teleports with some type of added effect like an attack or debuff. Then there’s the Blast phase, where enemies will dish out most of the damage dealing attacks. Then the round ends with player movement, allowing you to go a certain number of squares on the field before starting the whole process over again.

The trick is that you select all of your abilities/movements in one go. So at the beginning of a round you’ll pick what to do for each phase before the phases actually play out. So utilizing the Dash phase to roll out of incoming enemy attacks can be wise, as can using the Prep phase to build up shields or regenerate health. Also, paying attention to what abilities are on cooldown for opposing players can be key to not wasting your turns on an attack that won’t connect. There’s a lot of give and take for any given round, and teams that communicate are always going to more effective. This is done via in-game chat, or an optional Discord option for voice chat built into the game.

Most battles last somewhere between 10 to 20 minutes. A team wins by either having the most kills after 20 rounds, or by being the first to get 5 kills. Death isn’t game over for your character, you will regenerate next turn, and then spend a round restricted to movement only after that. To help matches move quickly, there’s a very small timer to select abilities at the beginning of a round, preventing player griefing via delays. And if players quit out of a game, they’ll be replaced by surprisingly capable bots.

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