Overwatch Vs. Atlas Reactor: The Loot Box

Yeah yeah, more Overwatch AND Atlas Reactor. Sue me.

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As you have no doubt heard about Overwatch, the Loot Box system is, to put it politely, not very good. It's microtransactions in a 60$ game, and it's all RNG based, meaning you have no control over what items you get or how much money you get. And to top it all off, cosmetics are all there are to unlock, making an unrewarding system that is a blatant attempt to get money out of consumers in one of the worst ways possible.

I'm saying all this because they could and should have done better. Atlas Reactor proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. It too has loot boxes (called loot matrixes) that you gain at every level, duplicates that give you a small amount of currency, and the whole system in general being dictated by RNG. However, it takes this base and improves, improves, improves. Overwatch is the base, and nothing more. AR is the base and so much more. Let's take a closer look.

We can start with what both games actually have on a base progression level. Overwatch has loot boxes. AR has loot matrixes, character specific matrixes, a mod system to change abilities, rewards for hitting certain levels, and daily/seasonal missions.

Already you can see there's simply more to actually work towards in AR rather than Overwatch. In Overwatch, you either grind out levels or pony up some cash. In AR, if you don't want to grind levels, you can play characters a lot to gain their matrixes. You can work towards a mission for an XP boost. You can try out different mod loadouts. You can work towards a concrete reward rather than a vague RNG box. At all times, you're working towards a variety of different objectives and goals at different points. Missions are brief, and give smaller, faster rewards, while levels take a bit longer. It's all staggered out nicely, and there's never a sense of an endless grind since you're gonna achieve something just around the corner at any moment.

Not only are the rewards more plentiful, but when you actually get them, it's miles better than how Overwatch doles them out. In Atlas reactor, you are guaranteed a character skin/taunt in every matrix. This does wonders for the progression system by itself, let me tell you. Besides the obvious effect of having something of value every time you open a matrix, it also lets the good aspects of using RNG loot come out into the open.

Did you just get a legendary skin for a character you've never played much? Might as well try them out for the skin. Did you get a cool new taunt? Why not give it a spin? Forcing the player into unlockables for other characters lets them expand their play experience and pushes them to try other playstyles. Overwatch doesn't let you do this as much. The odds of getting a skin are already low, as there are icons, sprays, and voicelines in every crate too, and the odds of getting a legendary skin are even lower. So the odds of you getting a cool new skin and trying the character out are just so low as to not even matter.

On a second point, AR has another type of loot matrix: character specific matrixes. Get a character up 5 levels, and the game will give you a matrix guaranteed to give you a character specific skin or taunt. This is one of the many ways in which AR gives you quite a bit of control over the RNG. You get skins for a character you want with these, mitigating the frustration of RNG a lot. It's an important step helped along by missions.

Every day you get a daily mission, and there are season chapters that give you several long term missions. The effect of these are twofold: immediate goals and help with other goals. You get something to work towards, something concrete, not dictated by RNG. A quest like “Play 5 games” or “Play 2 games as a certain class” gives you a short term goal to work towards and contributes towards the longer term goal of a matrix.

Meanwhile, Overwatch has... a first win of the day XP boost. At best, you lose a few games before getting this, not a fun player experience. At worst, you get this already small boost immediately, and then what do you progress on?

And to cap this all off, AR has stuff outside cosmetics to play around with. You can actually change your characters with mods, and try out different playstyles. You get the opportunity to try out individual playstyles, a much more powerful motive than simply trying out a new team composition. Team comp diversity immediately disqualifies solo queue players from this depth, as it's almost impossible to get 5 other people on the same page quickly, if they even want to. And even if you can, you're not changing anything about how you play. If you play Roadhog in one team comp and  then another, well, he's still playing the same. Individual depth lets you take control of the gameplay and have a guaranteed difference in two different games.

So why is this all so important? Like I mentioned in a previous post, progression is a key factor in retaining a lot of your audience for a long period of time. Some people are motivated by gameplay, some by improvement, and some by unlocking stuff. You lose a lot of people if you mess progression up. And even ignoring that, it just makes the game better for crying out loud! Would you rather play a game with a satisfying unlock system or not? Even if it doesn't affect you, it makes the experience better since more people will now be playing.

Look, I've tried to be unbiased and distant throughout this whole thing, but the fact is this demonstrates something quite distasteful on Blizzard's part. They can no longer have the defence of there being no better way to do this system, because another game has just done it better. What reason could there be except wanting more money? I have been thinking on this for days, and I can't think of another reason for the life of me.

Blizzard, you have no conceivable alternative motive at this point. Another game has done your system infinitely better as of now, and you need to step up or fess up. Either improve your system, or just say you want to squeeze money out of people. There can be no other reason.

And as for Trion? Keep doing awesome stuff with Atlas Reactor. If you keep going on like this, I'll be with you all the way.

Atlas Reactor: Sheer Brilliance

If there's one game you need to be looking at right now, it's Atlas Reactor.

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Have you ever played any turn based strategy game and wondered “What if it were multiplayer?” Your time, good friend, has come. Atlas Reactor is what you would get if everybody moved at the same time in Fire Emblem, what you would get from a 4v4 Advance Wars. I've even heard it described as insane 4v4 chess. It's the most unique, special, and innovative game released in 2016 so far, and it backs up that uniqueness with quality. You don't get games like this often, folks.

So, what exactly is Atlas Reactor? It's a multiplayer team game that fuses elements of real time strategy and turn based strategy. Each team makes their choices at the same time, each having only 20 seconds to chose what to do, and afterwards they all resolve simultaneously. So, for example, you and an enemy could choose to shoot each other, and each would deal the damage during the resolution.

It's a lot more complicated than that, however. Atlas Reactor has one last genius trick up its sleeve: the 3 phase resolution. The game has 3 distinct phases you can chose to take actions in. Phase 1 is the prep phase, where players heal others, throw shields up, and set traps. Phase 2 is dash, where players use mobility abilities to move before attacks. Phase 3 is blast, where most damaging attacks reside.

Are you seeing how brilliant this is yet? I'll spell out a scenario. Say you're playing Lockwood against an Elle, and you're both facing each other. You could just shoot her, but you risk taking damage back. You could shoot her, but she could dash away and she would shoot you back. However, her dash is short, so you may want to use Lockwood's arc fire to predict where she'll move. Alternatively, if you think she'll dash, you could set a trap beforehand to ensure she'll dash through it.

She could also be just trying to shoot you, and you could use Lockwood's dash to run away before she takes damage. If you think she'll use her dash attack, you could dash away yourself, making her waste an attack and forcing it on cooldown. And this isn't even accounting for ultimate abilities, which charge up over the course of the match. If she has her ult, you definitely want to dash out of the way if you think she'll use it. However, you could also use Lockwood's ult if you have it, dashing behind her, doing damage, and making her miss her ult.

And finally, you need to account for your enemy predicting what you'll do. Elle could predict you dashing, say, and use her prep ability to increase her next attack's damage. She could shoot where she thinks you'll dash. She could psyche you out, making you think she'll ult, making you dash, and next turn you're vulnerable.

By the way, the last 3 paragraphs were all describing one scenario. One single turn. Against a single opponent, when usually you have 4 enemies and 3 allies. Oh, and may I remind you you only have 20 seconds to make your choice.

This is the sheer brilliance of Atlas Reactor, the incredible brilliance of the possibility space for each individual turn. Every move begets the possibility of a counter. Every time you move, you have to wonder if an enemy is going to set a trap. Every time you use an ultimate, you need to ensure the enemy can't dash away. Every time you shield, you need to be absolutely sure the enemy will attack you.

The game makes this complex presence easy to digest and understand as well. The game has clear indicators about what is going to happen, you can hit a single button to check the cooldowns on enemy attacks, and you can see what allies will do as you make your choice. It sounds like a lot of confusing information, but the game lays it all out in front of you, and simply asks you to use your own discretion about what to do next.

So Atlas Reactor sure brings the thunder in gameplay, but does it satisfy in other areas? I think you know what I'm gonna say. It has a robust cast of unique characters, from a sentient fish with legs to a robotic dog. They're all very fun to listen to, and even better, the game lets you use them to taunt your enemies as well. You're able to choose to taunt before an attack if you feel it's going to be particularly impressive. It's a lot of fun to rub it in your opponent's face how awesome you are as you take them down.

As for the visuals, it's got a nice style, but more importantly it's clean and easy to understand. Lines are distinct, characters are different enough at a glance, and the visual design of what your attack will do is clear. It's not earth shaking, but it's very well done.

Meanwhile, the soundtrack is just... mmmmmmm.

So Atlas Reactor is a unique, innovative game that rides on it's excellent character design, personality, and tight game design. It's got an active Discord server where the devs are constantly communicating, satisfying progression systems that reward you for playing a freelancer a lot, and to top it all off, it's not free to play, a refreshing move in this current market. If any of this sounds interesting to you, they've even got a free mode where you can try before you buy, a consumer friendly practice that few games chose to try now.

While this is a close to a review as I think I'll ever get, nor do I ever want to be a reviewer, I feel the need to get the word out on this game. I only heard about it through a single friend, and it's sorely underrepresented outside of it's very dedicated community. This is a game that deserves to be shouted about, a game that deserves to be considered as one of the best of 2016, a game that deserves to be shared. So happy launch, Atlas Reactor. Here's to you, one of the best games I've played in quite a while.