From the studio behind ARK: Survival Evolved, ATLAS presents a massive world where 40,000 players can live out their ultimate pirate fantasy - from constructing ships to sailing the high seas and digging for buried treasure. Announced at The Game Awards the scale is impressive. The launch? Not so much.

In that the planned December 11 or 13 launch came and went with streamers and eager players watching a countdown timer only to be told that it was delayed. And then delayed again. Apparently it's all playable now, after a few more delays, except that now initial 'gameplay' impressions are mixed. To say the least.

To some the recycled animations and other aspects make ATLAS look and feel like a buggy mod to Ark. To others the launch experience is marred with issues like spawning in the middle of the ocean only to then drown, and not be able to log back in due to capacity. ATLAS it seems puts the Early in Early Access. On Steam, the current User Response is sitting on 'Mostly Negative'.

That said the extended gameplay trailer is fairly impressive, outside of the robotic animations.



It's a shame because pre-release hype for this one was pretty high. Only to be squandered by a troubled launch.