DaRmaZat Launching today in Steam Early Access after a slight delay, Atmosfar is an open-world survival adventure with aerial traversal at its core. Set across a world of floating islands, the game combines resource gathering and survival with the construction and upgrading of flying vessels, from nimble personal craft to a fully customizable mobile airship. You can venture out alone or team up with friends in co-op, which already strikes me as the more enjoyable option given how much figuring things out for yourself currently comes with the territory.
In Atmosfar, the ultimate goal is to survive in the skies and discover what happened to the collapsed human colony on the planet Tycos. Since Tycos has no solid ground to speak of, with its surface consisting entirely of floating islands, you must travel from island to island, making a living wherever you can.
A little to my own surprise, the game gets off to a rather intriguing start, even if its story does not go particularly deep. Alongside many other people, you’re held captive by drones on Pearl Island, forced to extract resources from scrap using an… well, an Extractor. Once you have collected the required amount, you must deliver your quota to a so-called trash compactor machine. Your reward? A bowl of slop to keep you fed.
One day, however, something remarkable happens. An unusual weather phenomenon, resembling an electric storm, disables the drones and gives you an opportunity to escape aboard an airship known as a Wasp. From that moment on, you are no longer a Felon but a true Vagabond, or, to put it another way, a flying nomad and technician rolled into one. Interestingly, yet somewhat confusingly, the story also features a separate, mysterious character known as the Vagabond. Now and then, you encounter traces of this individual, apparently a rebel opposing the corrupt corporation. Following his mission logs and training instructions helps you learn how to survive the treacherous air currents.
Tycos isn’t exactly the most pleasant place to be, and Atmosfar is more than happy to make that clear. Occasionally, you get a navigational indicator, but more often than not, you are left trying to work out where to go, with little more than an old-fashioned compass at the top of the screen to guide you. Things are made worse by the absence of a decent jetpack, as the thrusters you start with are practically useless, even when your suit is fully charged. This means a deep jump or fall inevitably results in damage or death. Climbing is also extremely limited, with plenty of seemingly illogical invisible walls in the barebones environments that leave you getting stuck at every turn.
The day-and-night cycle does not make things any easier, either, as after dark, even more hostile critters come out to hurt you. Various enemies can inflict area-of-effect damage right from the start, taking a huge chunk out of your health bar while leaving you unable to retaliate because, well, you do not have any weapons yet.
Worse still, these enemies also refuse to give up and keep chasing you until you eventually meet an almost inevitable death. Above all else, though, the constant instances of getting stuck in the environment need to be addressed, made all the more frustrating by the fact that whenever you become trapped or die, you have to accept a 20% inventory loss to respawn. The respawn animation, in which you descend on a cable, is initially amusing, that is, until you realise that it cannot be skipped and you must sit through the painfully slow descent back to ground level every single time.
Visually, Atmosfar looks fairly generic, sporting a somewhat cartoony art style that is pleasant enough but has already become rather commonplace in the genre. It does not immediately stand out from the crowd. On a more positive note, the controls are straightforward and intuitive, manual saving is available at any time across multiple save slots, and my AZERTY keyboard was supported out of the box. Key bindings can also be remapped. Performance, however, still suffers from the familiar Unreal Engine 5 stutters that crop up all too often.
Preliminary Thoughts
Despite what its title might suggest, Atmosfar is still not that far along in its development. Early Access will hopefully bring plenty of additional polish, with making navigation less disruptive being the top priority, given how frequently you can get stuck. The respawn mechanics also need work, while the overall progression and difficulty pacing require considerable refinement as well. Anyway, that’s what Early Access is for, so let’s hope the launch steers development in the right direction.
Additional Information
Release Date: October 29, 2026 (Early Access)
Previewed On: PC. Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
Developer: Apog Labs
Publisher: SHUEISHA GAMES
Relevant links: Available via Steam.
