Atlas sets sail into early access’s uncharted waters today

After some delays and an embarrassing false begin final night time that left lots of Twitch’s greatest streamers and their audiences looking at a clean server record for hours, Atlas is stay in early entry. The formidable player-run (rum?) fantasy pirate MMO from the makers of Ark: Survival Evolved is out at a slashed launch worth for the vacations. Wanting like a low-tech, mega-scale tackle Ark, the builders (now flying the Grapeshot Video games flag) hope to cram 40,000 or extra gamers right into a single big shared world.

There might be separate PvP and PvE servers, and each can have NPCs to provide quests, crew ships and monsters to struggle, however the long-term plan appears to be for gamers to determine their very own empires, constructed from the primary bricks upwards. Try the launch trailer under.

First unveiled throughout The Sport Awards earlier this month, I’m actually stunned to see the sport launch simply weeks later, given its sprawling ambition and the truth that Ark solely simply launched its ultimate growth. Matt interviewed Grapeshot the other day, and so they boasted that Atlas’s world is so huge that it ought to take about thirty hours to sail from one facet of its map to the opposite, because the crow flies, and exponentially longer to correctly discover its land-masses. It’s concurrently wildly dangerous and precisely what a pirate MMO wants – forgotten, untraveled reefs and hidden coves are a core a part of the fiction, in spite of everything.

For those who’re not significantly fascinated with the entire piracy and age-of-sail survival sim angle, Grapeshot have made it clear that Atlas ought to be simply as moddable as Ark, if not moreso. Gamers will be capable of create their very own worlds with their very own guidelines, expertise, maps and servers. Grapeshot Video games reckon this preliminary launch is the beginning of an extended, onerous journey, and estimate that Atlas will stay in early entry for round two years. Whereas I’m certain they’ve inner plans for the sport, they state that they’re going to have the sport evolve in no matter route its gamers really feel it ought to.

Be warned that that is the primary launch of a madly formidable sandbox MMO constructed on barely wobbly foundations, so anticipate technical points and server issues. Ark gamers ought to really feel proper at dwelling – the fundamental survival techniques look very acquainted, as does the (largely placeholder) UI. The primary main aim for a lot of gamers appears to be constructing a raft and setting sail to new lands to decide on, because the beginner island doesn’t enable development or PvP. In fact, the place you find yourself relies upon (actually) on the place the wind blows – the crusing appears surprisingly intricate, and scurvy is a factor.

Atlas is out in early access now on Steam for £19.75/€20.74/$25, with the worth deliberate to extend to $30 after the winter sale and develop to a full $60 by launch.