You look at nature, and you’ll often see that the simplest organism is sometimes the strongest in the grand circle of life. It would explain how humanity has managed to emerge at the top of that food chain, as even though we share 98% of our DNA with apes we’ve still managed to make the most of that remaining 2% and use it solely for simply vicious traits.
That’s kind of the idea in Atomega. On the surface, Atomega is a game that was apparently designed by bodybuilders: The more mass you gather, the more you win. It’s all about grabbing the highest score at the end of a match, whether that be through pure brute force or sneaky resource-gathering as everyone starts a round as what appears to be Tron’s version of a sperm cell.
That’s where the fun really begins in Atomega. Everyone may be on even ground at first, but a minute in? All of a sudden the map is populated with blocky T-Rexes and gigantic cubic gorillas who are firing off lasers in an attempt to win. There’s a formula at play here, one where you’re leveraging the pros and cons of more powerful forms as you progress further in Atomega.
While each new evolution is undoubtedly more powerful than the last, they also come with the caveat of being slower and less manoeuvrable than lower-ranked players on the map. Sure, it’s fantastic to lumber around as the penultimate god-mode form of a massive mech, but a concerted effort from several smaller players could easily bring you down due to the fact that you’re a gigantic target.
Likewise, if you find yourself running out from a corner and face off against such an opponent, you’re pretty much f*cked on your own. Pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages. Atomega’s single map plays a crucial role in this, providing numerous avenues of escape for smaller players and larger arenas for the higher-evolved to duke it out in a Kaiju-esque battle between skyscrapers.
Throwing an added wrinkle into the mix are mods and hacks, abilities which allow players to increase their damage output, magnetise nearby mass with their lasers or even move at a swifter pace. Players can only ever have one mod stored at a time, further adding another layer of strategy to experience. Should you find yourself outgunned, salvation is a mere teleport away albeit at the cost of your current evolution as you drop down a tier.
The end result of all these features coalescing together? A delightfully mad shooter that visually resembles a Stanley Kubrick acid trip. While Atomega is built on a foundation that hides deeper mechanics and strategies beneath, the actual surface that most players see is still well worth a play, and even more rewarding once you start digging underneath it.
Last Updated: September 19, 2017
Atomega | |
Atomega may look cartoonishly simple at first glance, but there’s a wonderfully mad game of evolution at play here when you dig deep beneath its blocky surface.
|
|
---|---|
Atomega was reviewed on PC | |
65 /
100
|
RinceThis
September 19, 2017 at 14:24
Sweet. Looks really fun!
Original Heretic
September 19, 2017 at 14:35
“…as even though we share 98% of our DNA with apes…”
I love Joe Rogan’s take on this.
“If you had a sandwich that was 98% shit and only 2% ham, would you still consider it a ham sandwich?”