Babylon's Fall was first announced back in 2018 by Square Enix and Platinum games and it’s been constantly pushed back with no concrete release date in sight.
But it's not all dead silence, as the developers have been hosting beta tests to finally give players a glimpse of what Babylon's Fall has to offer and it's potential.
We were invited by publishers Square Enix to take part in the third closed Beta test which added Playstation 5 owners into the mix.
Babylon's Fall starts by allowing you to create a Sentinel by choosing one of three races- Agavian, Huysian and Geleilion, which determines what weapon you start out with.
What was great to see is that the beta test allowed me to customise my characters appearance, which was actually in-depth.
I found that picking either Agavian or Huysian offered a very similar experience as there wasn’t much difference between fighting with a sword or a hammer.
Once my Sentinel was created I was taken to the Sentinel Force HQ which is basically an online central hub where players can take on quests.
This might be due to it being a beta test but the hub was pretty much empty with a few NPCs to talk to.
In this hub, players can join quests from the quest board, either by themselves or with up to three other players.
Weirdly I wasn’t able to start a mission when I wanted as the game was constantly trying to match me with other players.
The wait wasn’t too long but the option to start a mission and let other players join in should be there.
These quests take place in a tower that see’s players work their way through the different levels to reach the summit.
The beta offered the first six dungeons that are divided into chapters, which are basically different rooms where you fight monsters.
Each dungeon is very linear with next to no exploration other than a few side paths hiding loot boxes.
Babylon's Fall definitely could add some depth to its level design by adding hazards or better platforming elements while traversing from one chapter to another because at the moment it seems rather pointless that a huge tower is very limited.
After finishing each chapter the game gives you a rank and rewards based on that rank.
Players will also gain loot and the game is very generous at giving it away, the only problem is you won’t be able to see what you have until the entire level is over, so that means no customisation of weapons until return to the hub.
Each of the quests will see you fighting waves of monsters that increase in difficulty the further you progress.
Enemies themselves didn’t present complex attack patterns and felt a bit lacking until you get to the later levels.
But they do have a ridiculous amount of health which can be really hard to whittle down, even after levelling up your weapons, which didn’t seem to power up as much as I expected.
The combat system works in a unique way where you can map four weapons to a different button to execute a special attack.
Each character has a light, heavy and two Spectral attacks that can be chained into combos. There was a good mix of weapons to choose from although using the hammer and swords felt roughly the same.
Each weapon can unleash a special Spectra attack that causes the most damage and depletes the Spectral meter.
Combat is initially fun and I was able to experiment with different combinations and even get to grips with the perfect dodge mechanics.
But it becomes very repetitive and quickly as enemies weren't nearly enough of a challenge for me to think up different strategies.
Platinum's games are renowned for their satisfying combat but none of that insane action has been brought over. For the most part, combat is very slow and repetitive.
Babylon's Fall feels like it's still far off from what it could be, it did showcase some promising ideas, so it will be really interesting what happens next after this round of feedback.
With Platinum games at the helm, the final version of Babylon's Fall will hopefully reach the heights of classic titles such as Bayonetta or Astral Chain that we have come to expect from this developer.
