"Atlas could still become something special, but floundering on the rocks for almost four years has done little to assure the survival community of a positive outcome."
Atlas is certainly better optimized than Ark Survival Evolved was at a similar age; however, much of that performance increase could be attributed to how much more powerful hardware has become. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, it was possible to pick up a fairly powerful GPU for less than £300, which was beyond anything available when Ark Survival Evolved first released.
As for raw performance data, when using a 5700 XT, I can run Atlas at a stable 95fps at 1080p on maxed settings on land and closer to 144fps at 1080p when at sea, which is very playable and enjoyable, with even the most frantic engagements rarely causing the framerate to drop below 65.
For me, the biggest performance gains I have encountered involved moving my installation of Atlas to an NVMe drive. Loading times are now counted in seconds, even on a highly modded install, and screen tearing and texture streaming issues are almost non-existent.
Atlas is a very pretty survival game. When played at maximum settings, like its sibling Ark Survival Evolved, it becomes considerably less attractive when hardware or performance limitations require lowering visual quality to medium or below.
For those who can play Atlas the way it was meant to be played, it is one of the most visually stunning survival games on the market, and exploration becomes a game unto itself. I could happily sail around for hours discovering new islands and points of interest.
Players can customise almost every aspect of their character’s appearance, which can result in some horrifying creations. That being said, for players who wish to create a unique character, Atlas has one of the best character creators in the genre, improving considerably upon the one found in Ark Survival Evolved.
The Atlas community is not a monolith and comprises multiple distinct groups of players, each with their own personalities and goals.
Role Players: Roleplayers like to immerse themselves in the world and lore of their particular server. They are often friendly, not prone to unprovoked violence, and, as a general rule, make great neighbours. If you can fit into their world, roleplay servers often have additional rules and restrictions, such as naming conventions and limits on the types of ships and bases players are allowed to construct. In addition, most roleplay servers require players to remain in character (IC) and frown upon out-of-character chat (OOC) in public channels.
PvPers: PvPers range from trolls who enjoy levelling the shacks of new players and leaving offensive messages on noticeboards to sporting individuals who simply enjoy the thrill of testing their mettle against others. One of the most misunderstood groups in Atlas, most assume them all to be bloodthirsty trolls, when in reality the vast majority have a good sense of sportsmanship and fair play and will not attack small companies or solo players unless provoked. Many even step in to protect smaller companies from aggressive larger ones when asked.
Builders: These players love building and often do not wish to engage in any other activity. They create some of the most magnificent structures and ships in the game and, as a general rule, spend most of their time on roleplay or PvE unofficial servers.
PvE And Casual Players: Wrongfully dismissed as carebears by the toxic elements of the PvP community, PvE players enjoy exploring, battling NPCs, and working with others. As a rule, PvE players are more commonly found on the official PvE server or on unofficial PvPvE servers where PvP is limited to certain areas of the map.
While Atlas is a great game in principle, that alone does not keep players engaged throughout the long content droughts and prolonged PvP seasons that attract fewer returning players with each subsequent cycle.
As of February 2025, the Atlas official servers are offline, and players are forced to join unofficial community servers if they wish to play with others.
Unfortunately for the console community, most PC players prefer to play on modified unofficial servers, which console players cannot access. These servers offer increased experience gain and a wide selection of quality-of-life improvements that make Atlas more palatable for small groups and solo players.
While individually these communities are smaller than the former official servers, most PC players prefer them, as they allow for more frequent roleplay and PvP encounters where players can quickly replace lost ships and items. A few unmodded boosted unofficial servers allow crossplay between Xbox and PC; however, they are not as popular with the PC community as the modded ones.
Despite what some in the community may say, Grapeshot Games consistently updated Atlas from launch in 2018 until April 2023, when Snail Games USA and Wildcard’s financial troubles became widely known.
Unfortunately, many of those updates undid changes introduced by previous ones or added features that were either unwanted or too little, too late in the eyes of the community. Various project leads took the game in different directions before abandoning ship, often to work on Wildcard’s darling Ark Survival Evolved.
While those who accuse Grapeshot Games of abandoning Atlas are wrong, I understand their frustration regarding Atlas and its future. Over five years, we have seen Atlas shift from a large-scale piratical MMORPG to something very different. While Atlas in its current form isn’t bad, it’s not what we paid for.
The most blatant example of this is the relegation of custom shipbuilding to a legacy mechanic while an inferior modular ship system has taken its place. While I understand why this change had to occur to allow some semblance of balance in PvP, the new system is far less immersive and enjoyable, mainly consisting of grinding gold and then buying a ship from a vendor.
In addition, the developers have danced back and forth between making Atlas more like Ark Survival Evolved by introducing new mounts and land-based mechanics, and focusing on making Atlas more nautical by making ocean gameplay more rewarding. While they have succeeded somewhat in this regard, the constant swapping between priorities slowed development to a crawl before appearing to end entirely in early April 2023, with the team vanishing completely in June of the same year.
Without question, Atlas is a very different game than the one we were sold back in 2018, but it’s not all bad news. Atlas is now far more friendly to solo players and small groups, and Grapeshot Games introduced new ways to automate tedious elements of resource gathering, such as the addition of trade winds, portals, dedicated resource buildings, and trade routes.
But with the future of Atlas and Grapeshot Games in doubt, and the majority of the team reassigned to Ark Survival Ascended, I cannot help but feel that Atlas is doomed, and only the unofficial server community will soon offer any semblance of life.
Atlas is a survival game developed and published by Grapeshot Games, it released on 13 December 2018, and is available on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Atlas has not been updated since June 2023 and has not received any content updates since April 2023, indicating that development may have ended prematurely and the developers reassigned to Ark Survival Ascended.
Atlas supports:
Atlas offers the following matchmaking options:
Atlas supports the following peripherals:
Atlas is rated PEGI 16+ and contains:
I enjoy playing Atlas, and if you can find the right unofficial server or company, it will be a very enjoyable experience. However, at this time, I cannot recommend anyone pay full price for Atlas, as Grapeshot Games appears to have disappeared following the publication of Snail Games USA’s (and Wildcard’s) financial woes.
Atlas often goes on sale for 66% off or more during Steam sales, and that is a fair buy-in price. For those who understand that Atlas will likely never become what we, the community, and even Grapeshot Games themselves envisioned, it can still be a fun world to lose yourself in,but know that it may very well remain abandoned, like so many other titles within Snail Games USA’s sphere of influence.
We found Atlas to be a mediocre game, meaning that while it has some redeeming qualities, it's held back by noticeable flaws that prevent it from being truly enjoyable.
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