At this year’s Summer Games Fest, taking the stage for a brief trailer was gen ATLAS : shown in all the ways you’d expect a game from the mind of the people behind Shadow of the Colossus to be shown. Enigmatic, artsy, and grandiose. We’d expect (and want) nothing less from you, Fumito Ueda; keep it up. What we were shown was a brief one minute 47 second long trailer that showcased just enough to catch your attention. Camera glimpses cutting over an oceanic / desert-looking landscape, as an armor-clad (or maybe robotic) man pulls himself out of the sand. Covered and dusty, it seems as if he’s been facedown in the sand there for a while prior to our arrival. Jump cuts follow, showing scenic environments of both beautiful natural rock formations and brutalist structures populating the atmosphere. The music kicks up into high gear to set the mood that this is an epic place, waiting for you to learn about.
We are shown a giant headless robot leaning against a massive brutalist border-wall, slumped but not on the ground. The man from the beginning approaches another decrepit robot body, in a different place from the one before. He approaches a dismembered head in yet another location. This one, it seems, has sprung to life. It stares at him, scanning silently as he stands before it. Little explanation is given as we jump yet again, this time to the very same head soaring across the sky of the desert landscape. Clearing the walls of what appears to be an abandoned city landscape, jumping as it clears more and more environments. Red skies, blue skies, all you can tell is that this journey is long and straight to the point. The camera pans to the sky, keeping only the head in focus, seemingly illustrating to us that the journey is completely uneventful to whomever is sailing over these scenic vistas. It is not interested in the view, it is boundlessly motivated to get to an unknown goal. The goal in question, we are shown to be the same headless body we saw in the first place, now lying face-down in the sand, no longer slumped against the wall.
The body braces itself as electricity arcs through the air, wirelessly connecting and communicating body to head. The body stands fully awoken, one arm missing, to meet the descending head as it places itself back into its home between the shoulders of the long-unmoving giant. Cut again, this time back to the man, now standing before the colossal figure of the complete robot. The camera pans out completely, revealing the unnamed giant to be wielding a concrete column larger than its own body, but we cut again without getting to see why. This time to a chase camera behind a tank of sorts, gliding speedily across the desert landscape. On-board, standing atop, is the man again, this time wielding a rifle, firing backward toward a flurry of unexplained creatures chasing him. A third-person over-the-shoulder shooter perspective is shown, indicating that maybe having this firearm will be a normal part of the experience. Fast cuts follow yet again: the giant robot rising from the ocean, a brief glimpse of two of them fighting with guns ablaze, and then another shot of one falling onto our protagonist as he sprints away full-bore, Prometheus-style. Wait, is that a sigil of the Colossus on his chest? The scene cuts again before letting you get a clear shot to know. Jump cut after jump cut continues through the entirety of this trailer, showcasing very little while showing off just enough to get your attention. A jetpack, a sci-fi battleship, some sort of launchpad, a rocket taking flight into space as the protagonist climbs, then him again, this time standing on the shoulder of another mechanical giant firing into its neck. A clash, a boom, everything fades to black as the climactic mechanical fist lands like a scene from Pacific-Rim and a head flies off one of our nameless mech warriors. We haven’t known them for long enough to know if the right side won. The camera fades back in to once again see our armor-clad protagonist standing atop the enormous disembodied head.
And that’s where we’re left with knowledge. Nothing was learned, but everything was glanced upon. We know nothing more than when we came in, but are shown enough to get you asking questions. This is the playbook of any game that Fumio Ueda has ever made. Long has he proven that his interests lie in attempting to make an art out of game development. Undercutting design norms to leave you unsated when it comes to learning why anything is happening, all you get to see is the beauty of what is happening. Gorgeous vistas of long-dead societies always seem to be the forefront of a Fumio Ueda game. You are always a little man in a world governed wordlessly by forces magnitudes larger than you’ll ever get to be. You are David, living in a goliath’s world.
As a long-time fan of Fumio Ueda’s works, most of all Shadow of the Colossus, having carried its name as my internet username for almost two decades now, I like a lot of what I’m seeing. The Last Guardian’s release had mixed reception, in large part I believe thanks to how frustratingly accurate Trico’s behavior often felt. A dumb dog doing what a dumb dog does when untrained and unleashed. He does not mind what you’re doing, he is simply existing, but he loves to get attention for helping. That invited a lot of frustration for many who did not click with the almost offensive design philosophy behind an animal that refuses to listen being your deuteragonist. But to me, it was everything I’ve ever wanted to see the medium find its way to. Grounded realistic behavior that isn’t restricting itself to please gamers. Trico isn’t a tool for you to get through the game, he was a living being that doesn’t comprehend the scale of what’s going on.
Much the same for how I feel about Shadow of the Colossus. A game I’ve played through easily 3 dozen times. A game that nearly features more enemies than words, in which there are only a grand total of 16 enemies to fight that are exclusively bosses. An empty world populated inexplicably by creatures that merely exist peacefully before your arrival. You kill them for a reason unclear to the player, but the protagonist Wander clearly has an objective that the game itself is uninterested in explaining to you. It’s too late in whatever story that’s happening by the time you arrive to be told why you’re doing this, you only got to know what you’re doing. Fumio Ueda, you have perfected a style that no imitator has ever tried and succeeded.
Before I close, here is how gen ATLAS is described in their official writing:
Without knowing why, you awaken on an abandoned planet.
Before you lies a vast, silent world. Colossal structures stretch over endless plains, deserted facilities, and an ever-changing sea. The remnants of some grand design litter the planet’s surface.
As you journey deeper into this strange world, a colossal robot awaits. Its overwhelming power opens paths to places once beyond reach, transforming your conception of the world.
Across an endless expanse of time, the remnants of those forgotten constructs begin to move once more…
gen ATLAS — a single-player, open-world action-adventure game.
The latest creation from Fumito Ueda, creator of ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian.