From trailers and previews alone,Atomfallhas received more than its fair share of comparisons to other titles. After all, there are countless post-apocalyptic survival games and few of them manage to stick out from the pack. Many fans were quick to make connections to Fallout, with its post-nuclear 1950s setting and explorable open world, but unfortunately, these two games are nothing alike (no matter how muchAtomfalltries to look like they actually are).
Welcome to Windscale
Atomfallfollows a nameless character with no recollection of their past who wakes up in a strange bunker inside the quarantine zone surrounding a recently-collapsed British nuclear power plant. The character is tasked with finding a mysterious facility attached to the reactor called The Interchange and restoring it to full operation in order to unlock the secrets of the strange experiments that caused the disaster. The premise is captivating and keeps the player invested in finding out the truth, especially as more twists and questions arise as you progress through the story.
The premise is captivating and keeps the player invested in finding out the truth, especially as more twists and questions arise as you progress through the story.
Since the majority of the significant events of this story happen in the past, most of the story plays out in audio logs and written notes. The game keeps this interesting and easy to digest by boiling details down into “leads,” which serve as investigative side-missions that connect in-game notes together. It’s a convenient way to keep track of what’s happening in each of the intertwining storylines, but unfortunately this is also where the convenience and accessible design stops.
Entering the Quarantine Zone
The open-world is intricately designed and full of unique landmarks and locations to explore at your own pace. This exploration is fun at first, with new leads popping up everywhere as mysterious doors leading to unknown chambers wait to be explored. While the writing and world design far outweigh similar titles such asBreathedgeandThe Forestin terms of quality and scope, they aren’t enough to hold up the rest of the flaws in the gameplay.
Roaming around the quarantine zone is a mixed bag. The environments and level design are well-crafted and interesting, but the things you may actually do in those environments are extremely limited. Gangs of enemies roam the unsettled areas of the quarantine zone, but will only attack if you get too close to them for too long. Avoiding combat is an option at times, but it’s hard to imagine progressing through the story while maintaining a non-violent approach.
As much asAtomfallwould like you to believe that stealth is actually an option, it’s nearly impossible to do anything stealthily. Outside the rare patch of tall grass outside, there are no places to hide from guards as you sneak around. Your footsteps are loud, takedowns aren’t silent, the bow can’t guarantee one-hit headshots and there are no items that assist in luring or distracting enemies. The stealthiest I was ever able to get was taking out a guard inside a small maze-like bunker with a bow, then standing above his body ready to fire as each guard turned the corner.
The ranged combat (aside from the bow and arrow) is satisfying, with headshots against non-robots primarily one-shotting enemies with a satisfying dedication to precision. In contrast, the melee combat isn’t even worth attempting, as every enemy is more reflexive, damaging and agile than you are in hand-to-hand combat.
Atomfallfeatures a “Heart Rate” mechanic, which is nothing more than a stamina bar that punishes you for running for too long with more debuffs than any normal game. If your heart rate gets too high, your footsteps become louder, your senses are lowered, and you lose the ability to sprint and attack.
Survival of the Fittest
The majority of skills/traits you can unlock are useless as elemental damage is a rarity and melee combat is vastly inferior to shooting. The skills that are actually useful are so critical that they should already be normal features, like being able to upgrade guns or initiate takedowns that don’t immediately alert all nearby enemies. Progression doesn’t make you that much more capable of taking down tougher enemies, which isn’t helped by the ammo supply being this insanely limited (both by lack of resources and the tiny cap on ammo carried).
The sense of “realism” that’s supposed to excuse these boosts in difficulty is not present at all. Enemies behave awkwardly and slowly, elemental damage effects all behave the same way, gangs respawn in areas moments after you leave and crafting materials are rarely useful. Instead, realism is used to excuse frustrating quality-of-life choices. The game is full of dark rooms and dim lighting, but you may’t equip your flashlight when using any other item (or weapon). Every form of health restoration grants healing over time, but if you take damage during that healing it cancels the healing process completely.
The sense of “realism” that’s supposed to excuse these boosts in difficulty is not present at all.
Crafting is limited to grenades, potions for elemental damage and buffs and a bandage. Eventually, you may discover a book, which in turn lets you purchase a skill, which then grants you the ability to find gun oil to craft weapon upgrades. It would be one thing if the game only had a few different items to use (which it does), but it’s entirely different when the inventory system is so restricted and small. Materials and items are stored separately, so you can’t prioritize backpack space to your own liking.
Who Do You Trust?
There’s no form of currency in the game and instead all transactions are made through bartering. This makes buying higher-quality items from traders especially difficult, because you only have sixteen inventory slots to store tradable goods in (and some of those are taken up by guns and other necessities). The only form of storage is universal, but has to be accessed at one of the stations or buildings connected to the Interchange, which are far away from any real trading opportunities in the game.
A select number of non-violent NPCs feature dialogue “trees” that resemble those seen in Fallout, but all of the options eventually lead the conversation to the same conclusion. Role-playing in this game is a complete illusion and there are few choices that you can actually make. “Do I listen to this extra line of dialog?” “Do I kill this enemy?” “Do I walk to this location?” “Do I add this item to my inventory?”
Role-playing in this game is a complete illusion, and there are very few choices you can actually make.
After making it a few hours into the game, higher-priority leads will inevitably begin to lead you on a wild goose chase, tasking you with fetch quest after fetch quest. Every lead is some variant of “go to this point on the map and press a button/retrieve an item,” and when you arrive at the location, a new sub quest to unlock the room it’s in or find the new location of the now-missing item pops up (sometimes this occurs multiple times in one lead). There is an insane amount of walking with no fast travel to lighten the load, which is made more frustrating by the sluggish stamina system and underwhelming enemy encounters. Rebellion boasted a 25-hour minimum playtime forAtomfallwhen promoting the game. To my relief, I reached the end credits before breaking the eight-hour mark.
There are multiple endings, but all of them can be unlocked and prepared for execution before the finale without affecting each other or the story’s overall outcome. Solving all these “leads” eventually leads you up to a climactic finale which conveniently happens off-screen while you escape. To make it even worse, all the resolutions after making the final choice of whom to side with (the only decision in the whole game with multiple options) take place via slideshow, answering none of your questions about the aftermath of your actions and instead just recapping the tasks you “chose” to finish along the way.
Closing Comments:
Atomfallfalls flat in its attempts to homage and recreate the magic of other apocalyptic survival games. The storytelling and level design might keep players interested enough to make it through the main story, but the lack of depth in gameplay and role-playing makes it hard to imagine anyone wanting to spend their time playingAtomfallover any other successful title in the genre.
Version Reviewed: PlayStation 5
A survival-action game inspired by real-life events, Atomfall is set five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England.Explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight and talk your way through a British countryside setting filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies.From Rebellion, the studio behind Sniper Elite and Zombie Army, Atomfall will challenge you to solve the dark mystery of what really happened.Player Driven Mystery: Unravel a tapestry of interwoven narratives through exploration, conversation, investigation, and combat, where every choice you make has consequences.Explore this Green and Unpleasant Land: The picturesque British countryside, with rolling green hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the dangers that await you.Search, Scavage, Survive: You’ll need to scavenge for supplies, craft weapons and items, and fight desperately to make it out alive!Desperate Combat: With weapons and ammunition scarce, each frenetic engagement will see you blend marksmanship with vicious hand-to-hand combat. Manage your heart rate to hold a steady aim and ensure you have the energy you need to reach for your cricket bat and land the killer blow.Green and Unpleasant Land:The picturesque British countryside, with rolling green hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the dangers that await you. Navigate cult-controlled ruins, natural caves, nuclear bunkers and more as you explore this dense, foreboding world.Reimagining Windscale:A fictional reimagining of a real-world event, Atomfall draws from science fiction, folk horror, and Cold War influences to create a world that is eerily familiar yet completely alien.
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