I wrote a pretty salty article this morning about the new Babylon's Fall demo. I was mad about it in general - mad about the visuals, mad about the mission structure, mad about having to log in with my Square-Enix account.
Well, I take back everything I said. I apologize profusely. I was wrong, and I admit it. Babylon's Fall is actually pretty awesome.
In an attempt to understand what I was missing in the demo, I recruited my son Aidan to jump into the game with me and try to play together. What we found when we dug deeper in the game was an addictive loot grind with super cool enemies, awesome boss fights, and fantastic costumes. If you have two hours, you can watch us go from "this game looks terrible" to "this game is awesome and everyone needs to play it." Give it a look (or, you know, skip around a bit):
As we played, we slowly started chatting about whether or not we were into the game, and with each passing mission, our enthusiasm got stronger. By the time we faced the boss at the end of the first mission chain, I think we were both completely on board with what Babylon's Fall was putting down. I think it was the discovery that we were misusing the weapons on our backs, and that we could charge them up for super attacks that pushed us over the edge into "we gotta play this game" territory.
I'm still not sure about the visual issues, which make the game look pretty blurry and weird. But I'm much more willing to give Babylon's Fall a chance, as the boss design is super fun, and whomping on the bad guys with four weapons is a total blast.
So please, disregard my misguided first impressions. I'm so happy that I gave this game another shot, because I would have been missing out on one of the most fun multiplayer experiences I've had in a while. I don't mind eating a little crow, and I'm happy to admit when I am wrong. The Babylon's Fall demo is pretty great.
The Babylon's Fall demo is now available for free on PlayStation. The full game releases on March 3rd.
