The pirate MMO Atlas has been attracting more and more players since its release, despite receiving poor reviews. However, if you dig a little deeper, the multiplayer aspect is particularly praised. Our author Benedict wonders: Is that good or bad?
Atlas is one of the most controversial games of recent times:
- The Steam reviews are mostly negative (31% give the game a positive rating as of January 4).
- Nonetheless, it is currently ranked 15th among the games with the most players on Steam. (via Steam)
But what is the reason for that?
My introduction to Atlas: Frustration and early insights
When Atlas finally released after its third delay, I was still skeptical for a while. Ark, which is often compared to Atlas as a reskin, wasn’t really my thing, but I was intrigued by the pirate setting. However, the first reviews seemed to confirm what I thought: Not such a great game.
Still, the player count continued to rise, and I wanted to get to the bottom of the phenomenon. I started playing Atlas solo. My impression after several hours: even as an experienced survival player, I was just getting beaten up. That’s not fun.
It takes forever to select a starting area, and switching (apparently due to a bug) only happened when I recreated my character. In a region where I don’t immediately freeze, I can take my first steps.
Here I encounter cows that flee as soon as I look at them wrong, immediately alerting five bulls that knock me out. Great! Especially when you can’t loot your corpse and have to start from scratch. That happened so often that I gave up in frustration multiple times.
Still, the interest of the gaming community in Atlas did not wane. Atlas even promised to become really big. I asked streamers and players what they found so great about Atlas. The answer was almost unanimous: “Atlas is great because we can explore the world together and play together.” So is Atlas only good as a multiplayer?
Atlas is only fun with friends
It seems likely that Atlas could be only fun with friends. After all, Atlas is a pirate MMO where you are supposed to steer a ship together for a good part of the time.
On the other hand, there is the criticism that Atlas is practically unplayable alone or in smaller groups.
What does the binding of groups to the game mean?
That’s why multiplayer is good for Atlas
It promotes group play: A game that can really only be played well with multiple players encourages group cohesion. If you want to progress, you have to be able to rely on other players and be reliable yourself to avoid getting kicked from the group.
Thus, Atlas fosters a bond among players who embark on the adventure together. Either you play directly with a group of acquaintances and friends or quickly seek connection.
In this way, Atlas builds on a fundamental concept of MMOs and returns to values that are becoming scarce in other representatives of the genre. It conveys: You are only strong in a group; alone, you will fail.
Multiplayer survival is realistic: The multiplayer concept makes sense in a setting like Atlas. In Atlas, it’s about exploring vast worlds and claiming what would never be possible alone.
Moreover, ships are a fundamental part of the game. Ships of certain sizes require a minimum number of people who know how to handle them to be properly steered. One player alone simply couldn’t steer a massive galleon.
Generally, it is realistic to group together when it comes to survival. And after all, Atlas is a survival game. Lone wolves can certainly have chances to make it alone, but in a group, survival is easier.
That’s why multiplayer is bad
Single players have no chance: There is also a downside to games like Atlas that only function as multiplayer games.
Alone, Atlas is hardly playable at all, as there is always the risk of being killed and looted by a group of players. After all, you don’t have your own protective group.
Additionally, single players have no way to fully develop all skills. Currently, players in Atlas still rely on specializing so that they can complement each other in the group. There is no “jack of all trades” who can do everything.
Anyone playing alone can perhaps barely survive. However, they won’t be able to tackle larger projects.
Partly due to the skills, and partly because most areas of the map have already been claimed on official servers. So, the only option is to get your own server.
It’s hard to express yourself: The limitation of skills also means that single players cannot fully express themselves. In other survival games, it’s often possible to build up a solid set of skills with which one can achieve a lot on their own.
That is missing in Atlas. Players are denied the possibility of developing their character freely, since the selection of possible skills is too limited. While this is a nice thought for a group, it’s annoying for solo players.
Coercion to rely on strangers: Anyone wanting to play Atlas alone and achieve something will eventually have to team up with other players, even if only for a purpose-driven partnership. In the Steam reviews, single players often report having found teammates.
This can be dismissed as a “necessary evil,” but it also carries some risks. Especially when players join an already established group alone, it can happen that they get scammed.
As in every game, there are also unscrupulous players in Atlas, such as griefers or scammers. Thus, hard-earned resources can quickly be stolen by a coup from so-called friends, and one can find themselves cast out. Honor does not exist among all pirates.
Conclusion: Is Atlas good or bad?
In the end, everyone has to decide for themselves whether this way of playing suits them. A game based on the idea of group play has its pros and cons.
I personally don’t think that this game is good. I love playing and spending a lot of time on survival games and I know that they can be more fun in groups. However, it often happened that my teammates eventually lost interest.
When enough players leave, one can no longer manage the wonderful cities built and is forced to start over, leaving many hours of gameplay behind.
For this reason, I often now choose to start new survival games alone. This way I can explore and build at my own pace and am not dependent on whether others have time and desire to play.
But alone, I completely failed in Atlas.
What is your attitude towards this topic?
Atlas already caused serious controversies at launch. Some well-known streamers have a pretty bad opinion of the game:
