Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree PC Review

User Rating: 7.5
Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree Review

Untold Tales and Wildboy have released the rhythmic puzzle game Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree. The game world, inspired by Norse mythology, will play a big role, and its exploration will be an important part of the gameplay.

The goal of the new adventure found in Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree is to get to Midgard, which the gods left. The once prosperous land has become a rotting wasteland, and without guardians, the sacred Elder Tree is on the brink of extinction. And the only hope rests with the leader’s daughter Estu.




Players will have a long journey, during which we will learn about the past of the heroine’s family and the origins of the darkness that has already made its way into this world. We will get to know a wide variety of characters and be able to make important story decisions and then face their consequences.

Known for its superb and outstanding work Bang-On Balls: Chronicles, Arise: A Simple Story and Golf Club Wasteland, Wildboy Studios has decided to draw heavily on Norse mythology this time around. And that’s a solid foundation for making a pretty good game, in which we’ll find: a story about loss, growing up, the consequences of our choices, and life and death.

Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree - 1

I’m pretty positive about games made with clean, minimalist graphics. Atone performs particularly well in the area of visual effects. Ominous colors that match the theme and the foggy north, atmospheric, cartoonish characters and buildings, landscapes, statues, isometric movements and thoughtful maps suggest a single concept. But the world of the game lacks life, or movement, because, against the backdrop of dynamic battles, exploring the world is not so interesting. After several hours of playing, you run in search of a new opponent, and not to see if you find something interesting in the world or interesting characters.

Atone Heart of the Elder Tree - 2

Interactive story

But let’s get back to the story because this adventure game is about walking, talking, solving puzzles, and an interesting new combat system. To avoid spoilers, I will only say that it is worth using the soul and flair in addition to our logic. There are a lot of dialogues in the game and notes that tell about the world around the heroine and the place where we ended up. Sometimes, it will seem that there are even too many of them.

As mentioned earlier, the plot is centered on Estra, whose girl will have to save the mythical lands of Midgard and the sacred tree in its center. She begins as the daughter of a leader who seeks to contain the corruption that plagues all worlds. The entire universe is built around Norse myths with interesting characteristics of both gods and humans.

Atone Heart of the Elder Tree - 3

After a short prologue in which her father is the protagonist, Estra sets out on a journey, quickly joined by a spirit named Irie. Through cutscenes and books scattered around the world, the game reveals the extent of the danger and shows how various characters deal with it and more mundane concerns. There is a lot of emotion in the text, but there is also a bit of humor to strike a balance.

There are also many options with clear influence, so be sure to observe the cutscenes and read everything you can. Much of Scandinavian lore is about deceivers and the issue of trust, so keep that in mind when making dialogue decisions and our choices will determine the story’s ending.

Combat system

As you can see from the trailer, the in-game combat is rhythm-based, so let’s see what that means in terms of gameplay. Combat isn’t the main attraction of Atone.

The Wildboy Studios team prepared three difficulty levels: a story where we don’t fight, normal with two lines of notes, and hard with four lines.

Atone Heart of the Elder Tree - 4

There is a system, of course, but specifically, you must follow the music, like in Guitar Hero, listening to 2-4 “channels” and following the melody by pressing the keys at the right time. And if you make a mistake, the enemy will hit you, but if you did everything right, you. This exchange lasts the entire song, and the winner is the one who landed the most hits – usually 2-5 hits per level. If someone likes rhythm games, he will feel like a fish in water here, although everything is very simple – we have only two possible actions, one press and hold of the button. The big difficulty is that not everything is so simple. During the battle, the screen sometimes splits, and the line of notes on which we focus flows to the edge of the screen, which is very distracting, and sometimes you want to look at what is happening on the screen to see the course of the battle.

There is no deep complexity or any other factors to be aware of. I started with Hard and had to quickly give it up due to the sheer number of notes I was missing in every fight when I desperately pushed the buttons.

What Atone lacks in its look or storyline, it makes up for in an interesting combat system with its innovativeness and appeal. The notes are perfectly in sync with the music, and there’s a great balance between nimble agility and free rein to ensure you don’t fail due to 2 -3 misses.

Atone Heart of the Elder Tree - 5

Puzzles

Another important part of Atone is solving logic puzzles. The noticeable part and what I liked the most was their variety. There is no such thing as every chest or door opening the same way or using the same concept. Everything is different. And the puzzles are not that scary, but sometimes you have to think for a few seconds or run around the location to understand what needs to be done to solve it.

Atone Heart of the Elder Tree -6

Music

The music and sound design of ATONE is composed by Australian musician Luminist, who combines a heavy synth score with digitally distorted instrumental sounds from the period. The music is chosen perfectly and fits into the atmosphere of the game almost perfectly. Every time you fight, you look forward to.




The game, which first saw the light of day in 2019 on portable devices, finally made its way to the PC and presents us with great and intriguing gameplay. The game is not to say that it captures with its plot and presentation, but it is very atmospheric and pleasantly captivates with its dynamic combat and music. Look for it on Steam, Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC, iOS, Linux, Mac OS, and PC.

A game code was provided by PR for the purpose of review.

Summary
ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree is a game with a lot of love put into it. This is an original idea that stands out from the background of pipeline games, and this is the kind of game that may surprise you.
Good
  • Mix of exploration, combat, and puzzles
  • Scandinavian history
  • Innovative combat gameplay
  • Great soundtrack
Bad
  • A lot of meaningless dialog
  • In exploration mode, the world feels small
7.5
Good

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Lost Password

Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.