Babylon Fell

 And it won't to get up.

The world loves itself an underdog story about a scrappy little something-who-could who defied the odds, spat in the fact of those who stood dubious and went on to secure itself as one of the true greats of history. It's a invigorating archetype for a story, isn't it? A moral tale of struggle and triumph that teaches us all that it doesn't matter how overwhelming the odds against us, how unbelievable our chances in the face of insurmountable adversity, at the end of the day hard work and grit will always win the day. Because we want to believe that, don't we? That hardwork is the cure-all for all the troubles of the world. But reality isn't ever quite like the morality stories, now is it? It's unfair, it's ruthless, it's belittling, and the at the end of the day it's utterly meaningless. No grand morality lesson to be taught, no overarching force of 'destiny' guiding us towards the path that 'works out in the end'. That is why this is not an underdog story; this is a reality story. It's the story of a game called 'Babylon's Fall'.

Babylon's Fall spawned out of a development studio renowned for it's incredible highs and pitiable lows. One day Platinum Games would but out a modern masterpiece with the near peerless 'Nier' games, and then they'd throw up a 'Legend of Korra' game into their barf bucket before rolling back over and trying to sleep through the hang over. I don't think I could name another company with the range of ultimate good and ultimate trash on either end of a single scale. That's some true 'Anime protagonist' levels of moral imbalance. Such that when the director of 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengence', one of those studio masterpieces I alluded to, is pursing his next lead project after years in the background, no one could predict whether this would be another slam dunk or a total gutterball. (I'm mixing my metaphors, but in a way that's what Platinum Games is; a confused metaphor.)

I have no doubt that, given total autonomy, Babylon's Fall could have been another weird and wild success story from Platinum games; but autonomy is a rare prize. Instead, Square Enix, Platinum's pay masters, were desperate to try and secure that Live Service that could be their cash cow just as Epic Games' Fortnite was for them and Activision's Destiny and COD Warzone was for them, and so on and so forth. So for some inane reason, Platinum, a company known for developing stellar single player action games, was recruited to slap up a state-of-the-art multiplayer cooperative Live Service that would rope players into an endless loop of buying cosmetics to chase expensive gear forever in that loop of power creep which is poisoning modern game design. Something which even the greats and practised in this genre type have trouble nailing a lot of time. Square wanted Platinum to just summon that, out of thin air. And we wonder why Square Enix is failing lately...

What resulted was a game that slipped quickly out of everyone's mind the second it was revealed, each time it was revealed. Every industry show people came away with the exact same impressions. "Well that looked boring, Oh Platinum Games is making it? Well it might be good then." Hardly singing endorsements. But then the game dropped and everything sort of shifted. People who thought this was going to be an inoffensive and forgettable slasher were treated to an exceptionally forgettable and all-around boring action game. One with a hilariously ugly art style, dull world, pathetically thin gameplay loop, surprisingly floaty combat, non-existent level design and terrible voice work. The inconsistent and unpredictable phantom of Platinum Games had struck again; Babylon's Fall was a undeniable downright disaster. 

And unlike some of the other big disasters of recent memory, your Diablo Immortals and Saints Row Reboots, this one didn't have a recognisable brand name for clueless fans to desperately latch onto under the lie that the game is really good and everyone else in the world hates it for it's genius. The game had no fans, it was making no fans, and thus it's slip into obscurity was all but guaranteed. What seemed absolutely insane was the amount of effort that Square and Platinum Games were dedicating to the project despite knowing how poorly the thing initially performed in sales. The game was averaging less than 10 players on Steam and for one period barely a month after launch had only 1 confirmed player on Steam. And this is an online game, remember; people couldn't play the thing without being connected to the internet and thus logging their activity on Steam charts. It was just that unpopular. 

Yet still the company came out to promise they would update the thing, and even launched a cosmetic cross-over event with Nier Automata of all properties! To think that masterpiece of a franchise shared the same screen-space as Babylon's Fall is... unconscionable. But the appeal seems to have been short lived, as now here we are, in the same year that the game released in, receiving the news that Square Enix are preparing to pull the plug on the service before it reaches it's third 'season'. Yes, after killing off all their western studios and declaring they have no idea how to make a profit for a western audience, Square are also killing off their Japanese Live Services and just hoping investors don't take the small leap to realising this means Square just simply don't know how to make profitable franchises full stop. Babylon's Fall is another predictable failure in a string of failures for a company that has lost touch with their consumers.

Babylon's Fall is still going to pick itself up for a final tour before being put out to pasture, the team are going to extend Season 2 and then pretty much just redo Season 2 again but call it 'The Final Season'; all whilst delivering your typical "We did everything we wanted to do" statement that makes consumers so tired of the dishonest line of communication between developers and players. They'll never admit when things are falling apart, which means they'll never be able to receive that key developer-player feedback to learn how to adapt in ways that might make their supposedly community-dependant game work well within the community. Of course, on the other side of that sword; had they actually listened to the consensus of the committee, this idea would have been struck down in it's infancy and replaced with a sequel to MGR or something...

Babylon's Fall is a lesson in failing to read the room and delivering on a promise that nobody wanted. Even if this game hadn't been total garbage to play, the sheer fact that it was a Live Service aimed at an audience who were reared on single player action games meant that this game was never going to hit the numbers it needed to be a success. Perhaps it will also be a lesson to Square Enix that they really need to go back to funding the sorts of games that their players go back to buy entry after entry, rather than desperately trying to remix everything into a Live Service mega franchise so they can secure their immortal meal ticket for the next ten years. Its a sad and transparent gambit from them that has sunk game after game and will continue to do so unless someone slaps Square Enix in the face and teaches them that they can't be the Activision foil they're so desperate to be. The failure of Avengers wasn't total enough to do that to them, but perhaps the annihilation of Babylon's Fall is that wake-up call they've been waiting for... and dreading.