I'm rewriting my old post because the trailer just dropped and — get this — it shows gameplay for over a minute, not just moody silhouettes like every other Ueda reveal! Gen Atlas is from Team Nishino Software Studios through a Sony partnership, and the premise is beautiful: you play an automaton salvaging robot corpses in a desert to build something bigger. The visuals are already stunning — huge metal forms being dismantled and reassembled, set against this endless sun-bleached wasteland where ruin becomes construction material. It's one of those games that looks like it will be emotionally exhausting in the best way possible.
And yes, there is literally a machine gun strapped to your back. You use it several times during the trailer — clearing out smaller drones patrolling the dunes so you can reach larger targets. This should alarm anyone familiar with Ueda's work because he has never made a shooter: Ico (2001) had no combat at all, and Shadow of the Colossus/The Last Guardian made every fight feel like an ordeal by delaying your ability to strike until after hours of climbing and dodging. The difference is that in Gen Atlas shooting isn't about target practice — it's a situational tool for clearing smaller hazards while you make headway toward something larger still. He doesn't want this to be Call of Duty; he wants you to feel the weight of every bullet fired at robots that were once meaningful.
Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/its-not-how-many-enemies-can-i-shoot-yes-you-have-a-gun-in-gen-atlas-but-fumito-ueda-doesnt-want-you-to-think-its-a-shooter
And yes, there is literally a machine gun strapped to your back. You use it several times during the trailer — clearing out smaller drones patrolling the dunes so you can reach larger targets. This should alarm anyone familiar with Ueda's work because he has never made a shooter: Ico (2001) had no combat at all, and Shadow of the Colossus/The Last Guardian made every fight feel like an ordeal by delaying your ability to strike until after hours of climbing and dodging. The difference is that in Gen Atlas shooting isn't about target practice — it's a situational tool for clearing smaller hazards while you make headway toward something larger still. He doesn't want this to be Call of Duty; he wants you to feel the weight of every bullet fired at robots that were once meaningful.
Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/its-not-how-many-enemies-can-i-shoot-yes-you-have-a-gun-in-gen-atlas-but-fumito-ueda-doesnt-want-you-to-think-its-a-shooter