Announced in 2018, Platinum Games Babylon’s Fall Closed Beta Test opened up earlier this year, and I got in the 3rd phase of the openings. I was lucky enough to get sorted into the category of gamers who tested the servers and gameplay of the upcoming game from Square Enix and Platinum Games Babylon’s Fall. I was following it for a bit of time since the game looked unique in its multiplayer facet.
I was offered a chance to test out the Closed Beta Test 3 version, so I took it. I downloaded a code for PlayStation 5 and booted up the game to the first real struggle of this game; Remembering my Square Enix account password. After a few password resets, I was finally able to log in and create my character. You get three different character types, Mountain, Woods, and Ocean. I chose the woods one because it looked good, although I debated the ocean one since it also appealed to me. Not much character build optimization from the beginning. I am guessing there will be more once the actual game releases.
Once I created my character, I was tossed into the hub town, and that is it. I had no direction, no cinematic explanation, nothing. I was just inserted into the city and had to figure out things on my own. I got a bit confused looking at the first person to talk to, and it was just the shopkeeper who tried to sell me stuff with no money. I then went into a building with a mission board, and I was able to test the first mission. The starting equipment I had was four longbows. Once I entered the first mission, it put me into a matchmaking session that ended rather quickly. I had three other people with one person backing out immediately; it wasn’t the best way to start a match, that’s for sure. Matchmaking did not resume, and so we had to tackle the first mission handicapped.
I started testing out the controls since it had buttons next to all four weapons on the lower left of the screen. The triggers shot red arrows from the bow; the square button did quick shots with a bow in my hand and the triangle button for shooting an arrow for extra damage. You have light attacks with square, heavy attacks with triangle, and special attacks with the triggers. Combat was fluid once I started getting used to dodging everything. It only would slow down from big hits or when the character got stunned by the boss character. Even if you dodged out of the way, the boss hit could still stun you.
Once the match was started, my allies were pretty interactive on the map in terms of connectivity. They were fighting creatures and going around the map, and I could follow them without any big instances of lag or slow down. There were no frame drops even if there were a lot of enemies on screen; granted, there were not a lot of places that had tons of enemies. They were made in short batches of waves so you wouldn’t have to fight all the enemies at once in an area. A smart mechanic, in my opinion. Once I was out of the first map, I had various weapons I could try out. I had swords, rods, large swords, war hammers, and more longbows with a single shield drop from the map. You get a good amount of gear from your runs in the matches.
After a bunch of trial and error to see what I liked to use, my favorite combination was using a sword for basic attacks, Warhammer for heavy attacks, and two rods for the special attacks. After trying the shield out a few times, it didn’t strike me as viable, and I thought it was useless. It didn’t guard very well, and parrying was close to impossible with how much easier it was to dodge.
Trying to partake in a quick match was extremely difficult since it puts you in any match that is currently looking for players. That can be a varying degree of levels of power you get dumped into. Once I was dropped in a high-level match and noticed all my weapons, aside from my rods, were doing hardly any damage, even on the lowest level enemies. I was essentially just there to take the aggro off my allies. Yeah, that wasn’t fun at all.
I would say overall I enjoyed my experience with Babylon’s Fall, mainly in the combat and testing out the weapon combinations. I don’t know if it would be a day one purchase for me from just my experience with some of the issues I experienced with matchmaking or with just not knowing what I was supposed to do for the first 20 minutes of the game. I expect the game to be much more polished by release, though, so if they can make it as fun as the combat, it might be worth a play, so be sure to keep Babylon’s Fall on your radar.
Babylon’s Fall does not have a current release date but will release on the PlayStation consoles and PC. You can see the trailer they posted this year to see if it tickles your fancy.
