Babylon's Fall is currently sitting in the low 40s on Metacritic. To call it a disaster for Square Enix and PlatinumGames would be an understatement. What went wrong? The two have collaborated on projects before to great success. NieR: Automata took the world by storm.
Is there any way to save Babylon's Fall? There are a few key things that would make the game more enjoyable for players. It goes beyond graphical and bug tweaks, although those things should still be given attention. There is no reason textures should look like they came from the PS2. These are just a few things fans would appreciate in some future patches.
8 Add More Matchmaking Options
Players can choose a mission from their menu and then wait for someone to join. After a minute or so the mission will start automatically, which is already strike one. It would be better if players could instead search for players based on missions. That’s only one example of how the game could be better.
There aren’t a lot of ways to get into a co-op match in general. It is all very random. Babylon's Fall has a wait-and-see approach to multiplayer which is not great for any online game.
7 Add AI Companions
Players are forced to play online even if they can’t find anybody for co-op. If that’s the case then single-player should work differently from a multiplayer session. For example, the story always has two other Sentinels accompanying the player on missions.
Gallagher and Sylvi are the only two survivors of the trial you participated in. Their voices can be heard as players run around levels but they will not be seen. It can be disorienting. Why not add them in as AI companions in single-player matches?
6 Add A Photo Mode
Players should also get the ability to pause the game when playing alone. There is no reason not to allow this. Pausing won’t slow anything down if no one else is in a match. If a real pause button can’t be implemented then the developers should at least consider adding in a photo mode.
Most AAA games have them. Launching without one is weird even with games as a service experience like Babylon's Fall. The Division, for example, is always online as well but has a photo mode. On the subject of photos, they should also remove the tiny watermarks from screenshots.
5 Redo The Painting Scenes
The story could use some retooling in several ways. The voices range from mediocre to laughably bad in English. Ishum, for example, is a character that is so bad that he is good. Certain cutscenes play out as motion comics instead of full-blown in-engine cutscenes.
There doesn’t seem to be a reason why...other than they ran out of time. These scenes feel cheap in an overall poorly laid out package for a full-priced game at retail. Tweak the voices and add more pizazz to these motionless scenes. Easy.
4 A Map Would Be Nice
The hub world is not that big. Every shop or notable NPC will have an icon hovering over them that players can see through walls. This means that it won’t be hard to both find someone and to make it over to them in a relatively short amount of time.
However, it would be nice if there was a map players could look at to give them a better sense of the layout. A bigger map would also be nice to have on missions too. Maps and RPGs go hand in hand so Babylon’s Fall not having them is strange.
3 Change Your Equipment On A Mission
Players have to create a loadout before they go on a mission. This means they can’t change any piece of gear while on a mission. This is true for armor and weapons. It’s hard to know what enemies players will be facing before a mission begins. For example, they may go into a match with a lot of ranged weapons equipped.
They might be useless against a towering behemoth when physical weapons would be better. Creating a well-rounded co-op team can combat these obstacles. However, it seems like a simpler solution to just allow players to equip gear on missions.
2 Skip Cutscenes After Missions In Multiplayer
Playing a mission in co-op can alleviate a lot of stress from the issues within Babylon’s Fall. However, even multiplayer has a few hang-ups other than the matchmaking experience. Cutscenes will generally play out before a mission begins and after a mission ends. Players can skip it like normal but a “waiting” signal will appear if someone decides not to skip.
This makes sense for the intro cutscene as all players need to start at the same time. However, after a match is over it doesn’t make sense to force players to watch the story if they don’t want to. Once the match ends it should be up to the individual to move on or not.
1 Make It Free To Play
Given the infrastructure of Babylon’s Fall, it is very clearly a free-to-play game in all but name. There are daily login bonuses, a Battle Pass, and in-game currency players can buy with real money. The game feels like it launched as an early access game. Reviews have not been kind to it but many early access or free-to-play games became better with time.
Players may be more inclined to come back to Babylon’s Fall once things are a bit more stable and if Square Enix makes it a free-to-play experience. If they do this then they should award players who did buy it with a big in-game reward.
Babylon's Fall is currently available on PC, PS4, and PS5.