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Starting with its «petroleum jelly» graphics.
If you didn’t know Babylon’s Fall—the live-service action RPG from Platinum Games and Square Enix—released at the beginning of March then I wouldn’t worry, I’m not sure anyone realised.
The game was quietly pushed out in the midst of the Elden Ring hype and has seemingly suffered for it. Not only has the game only hit a peak of 1,188 players according to SteamDB, but it’s sitting at a painfully average ‘Mixed‘ on Steam right now. User reviews are calling Babylon’s Fall repetitive, boring and bland, criticising the game’s graphics that «look like they are smeared with petroleum jelly» and lamenting the addition of cash shops and battle passes despite the game being sold for a full $60. It’s safe to say the whole thing hasn’t exactly gone down well, and it seems like Square Enix is desperate to try and repair some of the damage.
A survey went out on March 14 with questions specifically targeting the game’s graphics (thanks, VGC). The multiple-choice questionnaire targets things like character and map design, equipment design (presumably including the armour sets gifted by Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida), the game’s «oil painting ‘brushwork’ style» as well as battle effects and the overall UI. The survey also asks which parts of Babylon Fall make the game worthwhile to recommend to a friend and what graphical changes would convince players to further recommend it.
It does feel like Square Enix is trying to pick itself back up following the launch and middling user and critic reviews. The publisher hasn’t been having a whole lot of luck with its game launches as of late. It claimed Guardians of the Galaxy «undershot» sales expectations despite strong reception and last April’s cooperative shooter Outriders has already faded from the public conscious. It’s had the likes of Final Fantasy 14 to fall back on, but consistently high expectations across its entire library appears to be the company’s biggest flaw right now.
A fresh writer in the industry, Mollie has been taken under PC Gamer’s RGB-laden wing, making sure she doesn’t get up to too much mischief on the site. She’s not quite sure what a Command & Conquer is, but she can rattle on for hours about all the obscure rhythm games and strange MMOs from the 2000s. She’s been cooking up all manner of news, previews and features while she’s been here, but especially enjoys when she gets to write about Final Fantasy, Persona, The Sims, and whatever other game she’s currently hopelessly fixated on. There’s a good chance she’s boring another PC Gamer writer about her latest obsession as we speak.
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