Earth Atlantis

Genre: Action

Players: 1

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Review:

Earth Atlantis is an Action game released on Nintendo Switch in 2017, ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018, and then to PC in 2019. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where the majority of Earth is underwater, players in this game pilot a submarine against robotic sea monsters.

The presentation in Earth Atlantic inexplicably uses a sketchy sepia-toned art style that combines 2D and 3D elements, which is striking, but doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the game’s post-apocalyptic setting. This is backed by a subdued synthesized soundtrack, and overall I suppose this works well enough for the gameplay, but it still seems like an odd choice that may help the game stand out, but doesn’t seem cohesive.

The gameplay seems similarly confused. Players explore a 2D space using their submarine, gradually picking up power-ups. However, players aren’t really given any direction where to go or what to do. There are barrels and crates nestled amongst the mazelike areas you explore that can be broken open for pickups, and every now and then you’ll encounter a larger boss enemy, but it felt like most of what I was doing was looking around for something to do while using your ship’s weaponry to fight off the endlessly-spawning smaller enemies that were more of an annoyance than a challenge.

Speaking of annoyances, this game has quite a few, such as the way that you have to manually change your craft’s left-right orientation with a button press, the way you’re always being propelled slightly forward even if you’d rather float in place for a moment, and the way that the game’s mazelike passages are made even more confusing due to foreground elements that obscure traversable pathways.

In the end, despite the somewhat unique presentation, there’s just not much here that I feel makes Earth Atlantis worth playing. The aimless gameplay, frustrating level design, and overall lack of direction makes this a tedious game that wears out its welcome quickly.

tl;dr – Earth Atlantis is an Action game that has players exploring undersea corridors with a submarine while fighting off robotic fish. The presentation is visually unique, but nothing else here is especially interesting, and in fact numerous gameplay elements are frustrating, tedious, or just aimless in a way that makes this game too dull to recommend over numerous better offerings on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C-

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