Gameplay

gen ATLAS is a single-player, open-world action-adventure played from a third-person perspective. It balances human-scale action with the scale of colossal machines. Every platform listing records a single-player experience with no other play modes.

Combat

The human-scale protagonist fights using firearms, blasting enemies in third-person shooter combat, a notable departure for the studio. It is the first of the director's games to feature firearms, a choice he has said fits the sci-fi setting rather than a deliberate break from his earlier work. Enemies shown include hordes of smaller machines as well as towering ancient robots. When in control of a giant machine, the player can battle other colossal foes directly. Official stills show the character as a lone humanoid figure in a worn tan poncho over segmented armour and a plated helmet, carrying a single long firearm upright across the back.

Ueda has been careful about what the player character actually is. Asked whether it is a robot or a person in a suit, he settled on humanoid rather than a human wearing a robot suit, and the team chose to leave the word there and keep the rest a mystery.

The amount of combat has swung back and forth across his games, from very little in the first, to a higher degree in the second, and back down again in the third. He has said gen ATLAS returns to the higher end of that range. Extended footage shown at the reveal event included energy weapons fired at pursuing enemies and an orbital strike that wiped out everything near the point of impact.

Not a Shooter

Despite the shooting, the director has been clear that gen ATLAS is not a shooter. Firearms are not the only way to make progress, and the game does not reward racking up kills with higher scores. The gun is there to help the player overcome specific challenges and obstacles in the moment, an efficient option for getting through a sequence rather than the focus of play. How much it is used is left up to the player.

He has given two further reasons for putting a weapon in the player's hands. One is pacing: a game should push back, and the satisfaction comes from learning a mechanic well enough to clear the obstacle in front of you. The other is presence, so that the player's actions register in the world rather than adding up to a score. He has also traced part of the decision to his previous game, where the player character had no weapon at all and some players found that frustrating.

Scale and Discovery

The game moves between intimate, human-scale moments and vast, machine-scale spectacle. In keeping with the studio's approach, exploration centers on reaching places that first appear out of reach, with the colossal robot opening new paths. See Traversal and Exploration for movement.

Communication

Because the player is paired with a robot rather than a silent companion, gen ATLAS carries more on-screen text than the director's earlier games. He has said the sci-fi setting naturally supports a conversation log that records exchanges as the player moves through the world, so communication is felt more directly than the near-wordless bonds of his previous titles.

The bond itself is meant to work differently from the ones in his earlier games. Ueda has said this is not the familiar arrangement where you must protect a companion or are protected by one, and that players should notice the difference. Communication is present but, as he puts it, not blatantly direct.