Starlink: Battle for Atlas is Ubisoft's foray into the toys-to-life genre, released in 2018. Set in space, it has a lot of potential but ultimately was a sales failure. It was released physically with a Starter Pack and digitally, although the digital version included more options than the Starter Pack did.
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
Starlink's packaging is surprisingly compact, what you can see through the window is all that you would get.
The back shows off how it all works and the various types of attachments to make the game work.
The sides lists the things included in the Starter Pack, which includes the controller mount, a pilot, a ship, three weapons, the game and a poster.
Once the outer sleeve is taken off, it actually reveals some nice pieces of artwork.
Even the logo itself looks great with the planets behind it.
All the stuff taken out so you can see everything that is included. For the price, it is an okay amount of stuff, Skylanders felt like it provided more value due to including two to three characters.
First up is the ship which is called the Zenith. This thing is fairly big but it is hollow.
It is well painted and the rear has two places where it lights up once it is attached to the mount to simulate the thrusters.
The two protrusions on each side of the wings are where you attach the weapons.
You get three weapons, each a different element.
They snap on easily onto the side of the ship and something that was noted in promotional materials was that the game will even register that you have attached it upside down and displaying it like that in the game.
There is one pilot included, whose name is Mason. The individual pilots take part in the story and have unique dialogue.
Then finally you have the controller mount. Thankfully it is corded so you don't have to worry about batteries.
The pilot clips on first, and then the ship over the pilot. The stand is not designed to stand upright on its own.
Instead, it clips over your controller and it is molded to fit is perfectly.
It makes a heavier controller though and also covers up the headphone jack. To be fair, it is easier to just leave it off.
Finally, you have the poster which folds out to reveal the logo and Zenith on a planet with enemies.
The reverse is basically a glorified ad showing off the additional physical items you can buy to enhance the game.
THE GAME:
Starlink: Battle for Atlas is an action adventure game set in space and it is Ubisoft’s take on the toys-to-life genre. Unfortunately, they were a few years too late given that Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions had been discontinued by that point. This resulted in poor sales and the second wave of physical toys being regulated to digital only.
The game is fairly story heavy given its nature. It is set in the Atlas star system. You are part of an exploration team from Earth when you are ambushed by the Legion. The engine of the mother-ship, Equinox, is stolen and the captain is taken away by the invaders. As a pilot on the team, you explore the various planets in order to find clues on what the villain, known as Grax, is planning and on how to save the captain. The story isn’t terribly engaging though. A lot of cutscenes and dialogue later, you probably still don’t care about 90% of it and just want to keep going on with what you were doing.
The game has a high focus on exploration. Each planet is unique and it gives a No Man’s Sky feel to it with the colorful palette. However, being a Ubisoft open world game, there are a ton of icons on the mini-map and heaps of the same repetitive missions and tasks. Nevertheless, it is still a lot of fun before you hit the point of being sick of doing the same thing.
The game begins with a grand space dogfight… if not for the fact that enemies are quick and it is hard to aim. It is recommended to rely on the lock-on missiles. On planets though, your ship skims on the surface and it plays more like a third-person shooter. You can equip two weapons at the same time, which attaches to your ship that corresponds to each trigger. The starter pack has three weapons and that is enough to complete the game does dial down the variety. The digital version gives you more bang for your buck since it gives you a lot more weaponry and it is less cumbersome to swap them. Finally, there is a super move called the Orbital Strike that just destroys all enemies in a set area but has a long cooldown. You have a shield that you can pull up and reflect an enemy’s attacks back at them and you can boost your ship to travel at a high speed.
If you have the physical version, swapping weapons can be a pain since you need to unplug and re-plug which pauses the game and stops the action. However, you can opt to play the game digitally, which means you don’t need to physically touch the toys and is a lot more convenient. The caveat is that you need to “link” your figures again after a few days to keep using it without the base plugged in.
Your ship, pilot and weapons can level up and have mods attached to improve its abilities. The mods can be collected and fused to create strong ones. This is one of the most addictive elements of the game. The game needs a better tutorial to introduce the player to its many systems. It was confusing for the first hour or so as you wonder what some of the things mean and what you can do.
There are various planets for you to explore and you have to travel in the space in between. While this is immersive since you don’t just select a planet from and loading you in, it can be tedious since it takes a while to get there. Every single one of the planets contains the same types of activities, it doesn’t differ much. The mission variety is low, comprised of fetch quests and kill quests. Since the combat is so fun though, it doesn’t matter too much and there is enough here to keep you interested for at least ten or so hours (i.e. enough to complete the game). Getting 100% is tedious and you’re more than likely to give up before then.
The “harder” planets feel more like a slog than being hard. It takes too long to defeat the enemies and they overwhelm you with numbers and high health instead of using better tactics or skills. It is on these last two planets that you feel the game is starting to lock you out if you only have the starter pack because it requires specific combinations of elements. If you don’t have those weapons, then have fun finding containers and throwing them instead, this is a lot more awkward to use.
The enemy variety is also low, they all look very similar. Each enemy is weak to a certain type of weaponry, to encourage weapon swapping and to purchase additional weapons. An enemy may also have weak points to score critical damage. Furthermore, the game can remind you of Mass Effect due to similarity in terms of feel and the terminology. From the “Legion” to “Extractors” that suck energy to power the “Primes” (aka the Reapers). Most of all, you’re travelling from planet to planet befriending the local population and gaining their help to build enough of an alliance to repel Grax. There is a small town building aspect in that you can build certain outposts that provide you with periodic income and other perks.
Overall, the story of Starlink: Battle for Atlas ends up being underwhelming but the gameplay is a lot of fun. It does eventually get repetitive and you have Ubisoft’s trademark outrageous number of icons on the map in an attempt to pad out the game. For around 10-15 hours of fun, it is worthwhile. It is recommended to get the digital version for the extra weapons, pilots and ships to add some variety rather than just the starter pack (although that is sufficient to complete the game with).
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