Atlas Divide

Atlas Divide
Cover art featuring the Atlas Ridge region
Developer(s)	Northshore Interactive
Publisher(s)	Axiom Play
Director(s)	Callum Reeves
Producer(s)	Elena Martínez
Designer(s)	Thomas Keane Rory Patel
Programmer(s)	Simon Holt
Artist(s)	Maya Kovačević
Writer(s)	Daniel Fawcett
Composer(s)	Jules Adebayo
Series	Atlas
Platform(s)	Windows PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X/S
Release	Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S 22 October 2024
Genre(s)	Open-world Racing Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Atlas Divide is a 2024 open-world racing and action-adventure video game developed by Northshore Interactive and published by Axiom Play. It is the first entry in the Atlas series. Set in a fictionalised mountainous region known as the Divide, the game combines free-roaming vehicular traversal with structured racing events, environmental challenges, and exploration-driven progression. It was released on 22 October 2024 for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Upon release, Atlas Divide received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards its environmental design, dynamic weather systems, and emphasis on off-road traversal, while criticism focused on its restrained narrative delivery and limited on-foot gameplay mechanics. The game was noted for its moderate commercial success and for establishing Northshore Interactive as a new studio presence within the open-world racing genre.

A sequel, Atlas Divide: Faultlines, was announced in June 2025.

Gameplay

File:Atlas Divide gameplay.png

Off-road racing across the Glacial Pass region in Atlas Divide.

Atlas Divide is set within a large open-world environment centred on a mountainous landmass divided into multiple biomes, including alpine ridges, arid plateaus, dense forests, and frozen tundra. The world is designed around verticality and long-distance traversal, with elevation, surface composition, and weather conditions playing a central role in navigation and vehicle handling.

Players primarily traverse the world using a range of vehicles, including rally cars, trucks, motorcycles, and experimental all-terrain prototypes. Vehicles are unlocked gradually through progression rather than a centralised festival structure, encouraging exploration-driven discovery.

The core gameplay loop revolves around exploration, event completion, and vehicle progression. Players can freely explore the map to uncover landmarks, environmental challenges, and traversal routes, while also participating in organised events. Racing formats include point-to-point endurance races, circuit events, time trials, and mixed-terrain challenges that emphasise route planning and vehicle suitability as much as outright speed.

Vehicle handling prioritises weight transfer, traction, and terrain interaction. Each surface type—such as mud, gravel, ice, loose rock, or snow—affects grip, braking distance, and momentum differently. Vehicles can be customised extensively, with performance upgrades, suspension tuning, drivetrain adjustments, tyre selection, and cosmetic modifications available. Damage modelling is present but non-destructive, temporarily affecting vehicle performance rather than rendering vehicles unusable.

The game features a dynamic weather and time-of-day system. Weather events, including snowstorms, heavy rainfall, and sand-laden winds, can occur locally and dynamically affect visibility and terrain conditions. Seasonal shifts alter specific regions of the map, opening and closing routes, modifying event conditions, and introducing biome-specific challenges.

Multiplayer modes include asynchronous challenges, shared-world free roam, and structured competitive playlists. A co-operative mode allows players to explore the world together and participate in select traversal and endurance events, though narrative content remains primarily single-player focused.

Content updates

Following its release, Atlas Divide received an ongoing programme of post-launch support focused on content expansion, technical refinement, and system improvements. Northshore Interactive committed to a monthly update cadence during the game’s first year, with each update typically introducing new vehicles, additional events, and limited-time challenges integrated into the game’s seasonal framework.

Initial updates released in late 2024 prioritised stability and balance improvements, addressing vehicle handling inconsistencies on extreme terrain, multiplayer synchronisation issues, and performance optimisation across console platforms. These patches were accompanied by smaller content additions, including new traversal routes, time trials, endurance challenges, and expanded tuning parameters for existing vehicles.

In December 2024, the game received its first large-scale seasonal event update, themed around winter endurance traversal. Several high-altitude regions were temporarily transformed by persistent snow cover and reduced visibility conditions, introducing exclusive events, environmental hazards, and time-limited cosmetic rewards. Subsequent seasonal updates followed a similar structure, with rotating environmental modifiers affecting selected regions of the map.

A significant quality-of-life update released in February 2025 introduced expanded accessibility options, including full control remapping, extended subtitle customisation, high-contrast navigation markers, and optional visual filters designed to improve readability during extreme weather conditions. The update also added additional driving assists and difficulty scaling options, allowing players to further customise handling and challenge levels.

Later updates expanded creative and social systems. A photo mode overhaul introduced advanced camera controls, depth-of-field adjustment, environmental filters, and the ability to pause dynamic weather systems for capture purposes. Social features were expanded with improved asynchronous challenge sharing, leaderboard filtering, and cooperative event matchmaking.

By mid-2025, updates increasingly focused on preparing the game’s systems for long-term support, refining progression pacing, adjusting reward structures, and integrating community feedback ahead of the announcement of the sequel.

Expansions

The game’s first paid expansion, Atlas Divide: Northern Reach, was released on 18 April 2025. The expansion introduced a new snow-dominated region located beyond the northern boundaries of the main map, featuring harsher environmental conditions, longer traversal distances, and a greater emphasis on endurance-focused vehicle builds.

Northern Reach added a series of narrative-driven missions, new traversal challenges, and a set of heavy-duty vehicles designed for extreme terrain, including reinforced trucks and specialised snow-capable prototypes. The expansion was positioned as a substantial content addition rather than a standalone experience.

Development

File:Mountain research reference.jpg

Mountain terrain studies influenced the design of the Divide.

Development of Atlas Divide began in 2019 at Northshore Interactive, a studio founded by former developers with backgrounds in racing, simulation, and environmental design. The project was conceived as a hybrid between traditional open-world racing games and exploration-focused adventure titles, with an emphasis on terrain-driven gameplay rather than festival-based progression.

The development team conducted research trips to mountainous regions in Europe and South America to gather reference material for terrain formation, weather behaviour, and lighting conditions. Photogrammetry was used selectively for rock formations and landmarks, while procedural systems handled large-scale terrain generation and biome transitions.

Vehicle physics were developed in-house, prioritising off-road authenticity and surface interaction over arcade-style responsiveness. Audio design involved bespoke vehicle recordings captured in controlled environments to accurately reflect engine load, suspension movement, and environmental acoustics.

Atlas Divide was announced in March 2023 and formally revealed during Axiom Play’s digital showcase. The game entered full production in mid-2021 and reached content completion in early 2024.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	83/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
GameSpot	7/10
IGN	8/10
PC Gamer (US)	82/100

Critics praised the game’s environmental scale and sense of isolation. IGN described the world design as “consistently striking” while noting that the understated narrative delivery limited emotional engagement. PC Gamer highlighted the vehicle handling and terrain interaction, while criticising repetition within mission structures.

Several reviewers felt that on-foot exploration mechanics were underdeveloped and that narrative elements remained secondary to traversal and atmosphere. Despite these criticisms, the game was widely regarded as a strong foundation for a new franchise.

Commercial performance

Atlas Divide debuted within the top ten digital game sales charts in several European markets during its launch week. Axiom Play reported that the game surpassed one million players within its first month, supported by post-launch updates and positive word-of-mouth. While not considered a blockbuster release, the title performed above internal expectations for a new intellectual property.

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Result
2024	Independent Game Awards	Best Technical Achievement	Nominated
2025	British Academy Games Awards	Debut Game	Nominated

External links

• Official website