“The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins” preview: The overall atmosphere is good and the combat is also good

Sometimes you go into a game without really knowing it. I know three things about The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins for sure: one, it's based on the popular Seven Deadly Sins manga/anime; two, it's an action RPG; and three, I can play it on PC or PS5. I looked at it for a long time, decided it might be to my taste, and started doing closed beta blind testing. I'm glad I did it. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins is an impressive game, and even with its gacha mechanics, I enjoyed wandering around its world and spending time with its characters. Oh, and fighting? That's not bad either.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins tells the story of Prince Tristan of Leones and Tiore. After stumbling upon a strange cave within a tree (that's not a typo), our heroes discover a mysterious pendant called the Book of Stars, which appears to have mysterious powers that neither of them fully understand. When our heroes emerge from the cave after a protracted battle with a surprisingly large and hostile golem and are knocked down, our heroes discover that the world is different than when they left. The terrain changes, supposedly extinct creatures scamper around in vivid colors, and Hawke – everyone's favorite flying ham – is being chased by a dragon. He's not quite sure how he got here – he could have sworn he was in purgatory – but he clowns with Tristan and Tiore while they figure out what's going on.

Oh, there's this weird black corruption that's popping up everywhere, long-dead heroes showing up and causing problems, and there's an occult scholar named Clotho who seems to know everything there is to know about the Book of Stars, which can magically restore broken things, and where Tristan and Tiore will be before they get there. Time travel prank? Multiple timelines? Y'all, something strange is going on, and our brave crew is going to get to the bottom of it.

The story here is interesting (and well-acted, although there's no English dub in the beta, so everything I heard was in Japanese), but The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins' Atmosphere™'s selling point is how it looks. It's absolutely stunning, but what impressed me most was how well everything was animated. There's one particularly great scene where Tristan tries to hand over the Book of Stars, only to find it stuck to his hand, that had me scrolling, but there are a lot of really great moments here. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins has a story to tell, and you can tell its developers have taken that responsibility seriously.

But there's a solid action game here, too. Origins is an action RPG at heart, and combat is all about meat. In addition to the standard defensive dash (the only way to block in Origins is with your face), each character comes with standard combos, a few special attacks, and ultimate abilities that range from summoning fireballs to transforming into a demon. These differences give each character flavor, and I really enjoy playing them, whether I'm augmenting my standard fire attacks with Tioreh, or using Howzer's wind-based attacks, and everything in between. Yes, characters like Diane are here too. Just… smaller than you think.

Since each character's abilities are tied to an element, it's good to have a balanced team. You can have up to four characters with you at a time and switch to them on the fly. If you play your cards right, they may even attack. The difference is that your entire team shares a health bar; there's no need to switch characters to save the day when you're running low on health.

The key to combat is managing your cooldowns, hitting your targets as much as possible, and most importantly not getting hit. Origin does enough to show you ahead of time where the big attacks are going to happen, and smaller attacks usually have enough of a finish that you can avoid them if you focus instead of just mashing buttons. This isn't Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, but there's some energy here and the combat feels good.

But it's not all about hitting things with a variety of sharp and blunt objects. You can also collect materials in the world and use them to craft potions to stay alive in a pinch, cook delicious meals, or upgrade your character with permanent stat buffs.

There is still much to explore. Shortly after meeting Hawke, I was able to ride him around, and like almost every video game released since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, if you have the stamina, you can climb onto objects in the environment and glide down from high places. All of which is good, because the world of Britannia is absolutely massive. You can teleport if you activate the odd fast-travel stones scattered throughout the environment, but that means you have to find them first. So, you know, get ready for a walk. Or ride a pig.

But spending time in this world means you'll be able to complete Origins' side quests. They're simple stuff, and, as you'd expect, not as well-crafted as the storyline, but I enjoyed trying to help a crying child and getting kicked by a castle worker for being so lazy that I had to bring her food. Things like that make the world feel more alive.

If there's one thing that gave me pause about The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins, it's its gacha nature. I'm inherently wary of gacha and other gambling-based reward systems, and Origin is one of them. It seems fairly easy to get enough currency to roll the dice, but the beta will throw currency at you, and when that happens it's hard to understand the economic sense of something. Whether this is true throughout the game remains to be seen. The user interface also feels designed for a mouse and keyboard, which makes navigating the controller awkward, especially when you're managing a large amount of gear. This isn't game-breaking, but it's something I'd like to know when the full release comes.

I spent about five hours playing The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins, unlocking several characters, opening up the ability to team up with other players, and progressing far enough into the main quest that Tristan and Tiore had shown enough skill to be trustworthy enough to travel to the Forest of the Fairy King. This seems like a natural place to stop, but before I do that, I want to take on one of the beta's optional bosses. As far as I'm concerned, it's a red demon that breathes fire, has a belly-flip thing, and another weird-looking thing with arms that double as legs. I couldn't beat it either, mostly because I didn't do enough damage. My choices were clear: level up, get more gear, play more gacha to increase my numbers, but I opted out. I've seen these battles and they were so much fun that I'd want to play them again if I joined them at launch, and I'm tired of fiddling with the inventory screen. Ending on a high note.

Sometimes, going into a game blindly can be the best thing you can do for yourself. I loved spending time in the world of The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins, hanging out with its characters and riding around the flying pigs. Yes, the combat portion is also very solid. I've always been wary of gacha elements in games, but the heart of The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins caught my attention. The only question is whether it can hold its own when it comes out next year. I wouldn't mind rematching a few of these bosses, but I'm in no rush. They will be there when I return to Britannia.