Square Enix and PlatinumGames' Babylon's Fall has had an odd history since being announced at E3 2018 during Square's press event. The action title was initially planned to release in 2019, just one year after its reveal. However, that date was pushed back further and further, and as 2022 looms closer, Babylon's Fall still has no confirmed release date or even a window. The good thing, though, is that since earlier this year, Square Enix has been having multiple beta tests to give fans a peek into what the full game will look like. After playing for a few hours during the recent phase 3 of the beta, it's safe to say that Babylon's Fall is something that is very different for PlatinumGames, but not necessarily in a good way.
Platinum is mostly known for putting out some of the best single-player action games that also have a compelling and emotional narrative. Two recent examples would be NieR: Automata and Astral Chain. Both of these titles have that trademark PlatinumGames style with tight combat, insane boss fights, and even a memorable soundtrack, but both are absent of any sort of multiplayer functionality. Babylon's Fall, however, is meant to be a live-service cooperative action game that's all about taking on quests with friends and fighting waves of monsters over and over again to get stronger loot.
Similar to games like Monster Hunter, Babylon's Fall has players going up to a quest board, choosing which "quest" to go on, and then grouping up with up to four players to complete it. Unlike Monster Hunter, these quests take players to a tower (at least in the beta version), and work their way up multiple stages with increasing difficulties.
Players progress through these linear hallways and fight waves of monsters to then move on to the next area. Besides jumping over the random obstacle here and there and collecting loot inside of treasure chests, the actual walk to each fight seems meaningless, and just a way to fill out the world a little bit. And even though there a multiple difficulty levels for a dungeon, the dungeon pathways are exactly the same and can feel repetitive at times.
Babylon's Fall will likely have more dungeons in the full release, but playing through the same dungeon over and over again with just stronger enemies didn't feel satisfying or that much fun; however, something that Babylon's Fall seems to do mostly right is the way that players use their weapons in combat.
Instead of just choosing one single weapon before a quest, Babylon's Fall's combat focuses on players using four different weapons at once. There are hammers, swords, bows, magic staffs, and shields to use during the beta and each one can be equipped to the shoulder buttons and two face buttons on the controller.
This allows for fluid combat and lets players really think about what type of attacker they want to be. Someone could equip a bow and a magic staff to the face buttons to use whenever they would like to attack from a distance, and then use the shoulder buttons for the heavy hitter weapons like a hammer or a sword. All of the weapons can be charged to use a special attack that uses up the players' energy, but attacking enemies will increase the bar slightly. From the outside looking in, the combat should feel like a perfect mix between Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy, but Babylon's Fall never quite reaches either of those heights. Chaining together combos isn't as fluid as one would want it to be and the impact of most of the weapons on enemies doesn't have a satisfying effect.
When multiple players are casting spells and going all out on a difficult enemy boss, Babylon's Fall can be satisfying, especially when players see all of that shiny loot at the end results screen for a quest. During the beta, it was difficult to find more than one other player to join for a quest, but when three or more players are on a mission at once, the game picks up. Playing alone is a different story, as it was basically impossible to finish a match unless the character was overleveled, making Babylon's Fall feel super grindy.
The enemies in the dungeon will take lots of damage before they fall, making them very spongy in the worst way possible. Players will find themselves mashing the same four buttons over and over again to try to diminish the health of monsters, but they take a long time to go down, and playing alone is not an enjoyable experience. Hopefully, the full release can find a way to make it easy for solo players, as not everyone wants to play with other players online.
Due to its lackluster design, unexciting combat, and balancing issues, Babylon's Fall seems to have room to improve. But there is a framework that could end being more interesting if it is expanded upon.
Considering that PlatinumGames and Square Enix have plenty of time to rework things, Babylon's Fall still has the potential to develop and grow into something that could be good, or even great. It'll definitely be interesting to see how Babylon's Fall looks and plays a year from now.
Babylon's Fall is in development for PC, PS4, and PS5. Game ZXC was provided a code from Square Enix to access the closed beta.
