ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree

Atone is a short and sweet little narrative adventure, and the rhythm game combat is a joy. Seeing the tales from Norse legend told by short animations throughout the game is fascinating, and the rhythm game combat is both fun and challenging, made even better by the fun animations in the background as the combat actually occurs. The story itself is good, telling Estra's tale well, and involving a few choices throughout the game that can change the player's course and the voice acting adds so much to the already engaging story.

Good story. animation style, and music. I was never a Guitar Hero player but enjoyed the battles nonetheless. I played on normal mode and had no problem winning the fights despite my lack of experience with that kind of play. Loved all the puzzles

I am not really a fan of the artstyle and the battle mechanics just doesn't feel right for the world. I mean there is nothing wrong with it i just can't get in the mood for it. References feels very out of place and the speech choice system just feels frustrating because it is so hard to predict what reactions choices makes. If this were a score system the game would get a high score but since it is if you recommend it or not then no i don't recommend this game.

A pretty positive 6/10 in my book. Likes Beautiful art style. I mean some of those scenes are really worth of a print or a poster. Highly enjoyable soundtrack. Lots of little things to discover. I think that the stories are told well, I like the range of voices and tones within them. The reasons that this game isn't ranked higher for me: I found the rhythm combat very easy. I'll be the first to admit, I'm really bad at rhythm games. I played on normal mode, so it's entirely possible that I'd enjoy hardcore mode more so, but like I said--I'm usually just out and out terrible at rhythm games (stiff hands, lots of crochet). I never had to use a single health item throughout the game, and just kind of kept getting more hearts so it was never really something to worry about. I tooled around in the arena mode for a little while, and that definitely had some more challenge options to it. I was not a fan of the moving bar during rhythm combat alongside the active scene in the background. The movement of the bar wasn't really an issue, but I couldn't really enjoy the beautiful art/active scene in background at the same time. I didn't mess with story mode, so maybe that'd give me more time to actually view what's going on, but I'm not moved to replay the entire game in order to see. In terms or replay-ability, I could definitely understand wanting to. I'm not particularly moved in that way. If the puzzles and combat stay roughly the same, across each play through, then I wouldn't personally feel like investing the play time again. That being said, definitely above average. I think that if you commonly play rhythm games, I might suggest starting in hardcore mode. It was a fun, short game. If you like beautiful art, creative storytelling, a great soundtrack, and fun puzzles, I'd recommend checking it out.

Gameplay Genre: Puzzle/Rhythm Story Genre: Mythological Epic Story/Gameplay Ratio: 2:1 **Gameplay** Ideas: 8/10 | I always love to see rhythm mechanics adapted to different settings in unique ways, and Atone has some great puzzle concepts on top of that. Execution: 6/10 | It feels a little bland sometimes, and the puzzles can feel a little lackluster. That's not to say it's bad, though, it's certainly a decent execution, I just wanted a little *more*. **Story** Ideas: 7/10 | Though there were some interesting ideas, it wasn't really anything *revolutionary*. Execution: 6/10 | I can't say I was particularly invested in it, but it does communicate its story satisfactorily. **Characters** Ideas: 4/10 | This is where the game really takes a hit. The characters don't have much to them, and feel more than a bit flat. Execution: 3/10 | Simple characters can work, but the game's efforts to sell them as complex, realistic people only serve to highlight how little there is to them beyond the surface. **Visuals** Ideas: 9/10 | This game has a phenomenal art style, and it isn't afraid to push things visually. Execution: 8/10 | The art is gorgeous and is implemented wonderfully throughout the game. Cohesiveness: 6/10 | The top-down, intelligence-based puzzles and the cutscene-like rhythm sections often don't flow together very well, but the rest of the game works decently. Personal Favor: 4/10 | I wasn't really a fan. Notably, I still finished it, but it's below average. **OVERALL RATING:** 5/10

Hard not to endorse something that is half puzzle/half rhythm game, features an oddball tone for a pretty sincere alternate take on Norse mythology, with all of its story delivered in highly stylized fashion (which visually seems inspired by instructional illustrations; but really, there are half a different approaches the game employs for its presentation). I quite enjoyed both the content and the design philosophy - what initially came across as a bit simple quickly charmed me. Unfortunately, the first casualty of indie games is QA. In particular, the puzzles shifted from perfectly doable to "what do you want from me" right near the end with no happy medium in between. The challenge of the rhythm-based combat is similarly polarized when bumping up the difficulty to hardcore. Not to mention that the unchangeable button layout for controller was practically unusable for hardcore and there really should be an option to quickly restart a fight. Which shouldn't deter you from playing Atone, however. Just keep the default combat difficulty and make peace with the idea of not getting every optional objective when playing blind, lest you end up feeling hoodwinked by an 11th hour difficulty spike.