Norse mythology’s days of playing second fiddle to its Greek and Roman counterparts are long behind us. Masses have known the names Loki, Odin, and Freya for some time now, but games like God of War (2018) and its sequel have pushed them further into the gaming mainstream, leading to more Norse inspired titles across the board. ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree, a narrative puzzle game with rhythmic combat, brings a unique spin to Midgard without feeling like just another trip down the Norse hole. Its blend of beautiful hand drawn visuals, a synth-heavy soundtrack, and a good balance of puzzles and combat deliver a full package that will bring you back across Bifrost for more, even after the final credits roll.
ATONE is a hero’s journey with trappings of a classic revenge tale and Norse mythology painted around it. Enter Estra, a young warrior who, as a child, lost her village and her father to a mysterious attacker. Years later, when similar attacks start occurring in her new home, Estra sets out on an adventure to discover the source of the evil and to uncover just what happened to her father. Playing through the campaign, you’ll come upon many Norse mythology staples in the form of gods, beasts, and people, each of which is ready to share their own story with you. These encounters are done through fully voiced, fully hand drawn cutscenes, all of which are tragic and add significant weight to some of the choices you’ll make throughout the game.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much control I had over Estra’s decisions throughout the campaign. One side-quest puts you in between two feuding parents and makes you decide between getting involved or getting out of the way. Choosing to get out of the way completely skips over a combat scenario. In a lesser game, selecting either choice may change up the dialogue, but either choice would eventually lead to the same end. In ATONE, there are actual consequences to these choices. You can complete the game’s five-hour campaign and still miss a handful of combat encounters and puzzles, based on your decisions. It’s enough to drive you back through the campaign to see what you missed and how it affects the overall narrative. The save feature in the game isn’t the friendliest to players hoping to see everything fast. The game autosaves after making decisions, so those hoping to see how the other decision plays out, will have to replay the campaign all the way up to that point.
A highlight throughout the journey is Estra’s tree-frog spirit guide, Yri. I usually have my reservations about spirit guides in certain media and how they’re used solely as comic relief, but the dev team at Wildboy Studios does a great job here balancing the comedy with the drama. Yri is serious when it is needed, and his playfulness is never mean spirited or just an attempt to pull a laugh. Yri comments on your decisions throughout the game and no matter his feedback, it always feels like he has Estra’s back. There’s a chemistry between Estra and Yri that you can’t help but love. His lighthearted jabs at Estra and bickering with other wildlife warmed him into my heart. I did not expect to come away from ATONE caring for a tree-frog, yet here I am.
Through your travels you’ll come across many puzzles. There’s a variety here from pattern recognition to logic games and riddles. The puzzles that are part of the main campaign are simple and forgiving. The side-puzzles are optional head-scratchers that will make you feel smart as hell, if you find the solution. Solutions don’t always present themselves right away and some optional puzzles even lock after a failed attempt. There’s a hint system, but the hints aren’t always presented in the clearest ways. The hints also cost you a blessing point from one of your three blessings, which can lock you out of later opportunities, such as locked side doors that require a certain amount of blessings to unlock. You can also spend blessings to take another stab at failed puzzles, but this again locks you out of later opportunities. There’s a real balance here in managing your blessings and working through puzzles. The game rewards you for taking your time and poring over puzzles, but gives you the option to be sloppy, if you want it.
Combat plays like Guitar Hero. Yep, that’s not a typo. Encounters play out to the tune of the game’s original soundtrack while the player tries to hit notes across multiple lines. The game defaults to normal difficulty with only two lines, but it also offers a story mode for those who just want a relaxed experience and a hard mode for those who hate themselves and who want to try and hit notes on four separate lines. The difficulty can be changed from sword statues scattered around the game’s world. This was a minor annoyance when wanting to switch the difficulty after failing a hard encounter a few times. A sword statue was not always near my latest checkpoint. Being able to change the difficulty in the menu would have been nice in those moments of repeated frustration.
Success in combat is signified when Estra strikes the enemy. On the other end, not hitting enough notes in a sequence will result in the enemy striking Estra and causing damage. You fail if your health drops to zero. You win, if you survive to the end of the song. It’s a system that allows room for error, up until the final fights with enemies that can deal out one-hit kills, if you’re not careful. A majority of my time with ATONE I played with a controller but did switch to keyboard for combat. It was more comfortable for my hands, but this just might come down to personal preferences. There are only around ten story-based combat encounters, with a few optional ones sprinkled around the world. Each fight has emotional weight with a few carrying devastating blows. I felt for Estra and what she was going through, even though I was busy keeping a beat and cursing my slow fingers. Players wanting more from the combat can revisit each encounter, along with a few new ones, in the Arena game mode. Here they can try to master each track and set a new high score.
The overworld map plays like your typical top-down Zelda, minus any sword slashing or pot smashing. You’ll run around looking for puzzles and talking to whoever crosses your path. I do think the game would have benefited from a better map menu. The map you are given is just a general overview of your path to complete the narrative. Something with a little more detail would have been helpful, especially when backtracking to puzzles I skipped over out of frustration. All that doesn’t take away from the fact that ATONE looks great in every aspect of the game. From the overworld map to the 2D characters chatting on screen, to the combat encounters and cutscenes that are full of color. I’ve never hit F12 faster to capture a screenshot in a game than I did with ATONE.
ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree is a new angle into Norse mythology for those who don’t feel like reading a book or sinking 40+ hours into a God of War game. Its combat and puzzles will challenge players, but Wildboy Studios also takes their foot off the gas and offers a lighter experience for those wanting to avoid frustration. It’s a game hand drawn to perfection and covered in heartaches. It’s still only January, but if ATONE is any indication, 2023 is going to be a good year for gaming.
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