Game Info

Atomfall is a game that came out of nowhere for me. I was browsing Steam a few weeks ago, having taken a little break after the gaming marathon of Civilization VII and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and there it was: a post-apocalyptic game set in Britain. Considering I’m from Britain and have been to where this is based—that being Windermere—and I love Metro, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Fallout, and other similar games, it was a no-brainer.

With people running around in masks, battering innocents to death with cricket bats, or using a shiv to watch the life bleed out of them as they mutter utter gibberish about returning to the soil before telling you to “fack off”, Britain in 2025 is an interesting place. Then we get Atomfall, set in a fictional post-apocalyptic Britain following the Windscale disaster, not the current post-apocalyptic Britain hoping to recover from the incompetent Tory government only to have a new Tory Labour government, mercilessly taking from the poor and disabled while catering to their wealthy overlords.

Taking place inside a quarantine zone following a disaster at a nuclear power station, it’s not an open world but a connection of multiple open areas, Metro: Exodus style. Rebellion has captured the feel of the North-West quite well, to the point where I have been on Google Maps to figure out the exact location it’s set in; I blame the road sign to Kendal for doing this to me. In terms of the story, there is more than just the nuclear accident, including a government coverup surrounding the accident and how it links to Oberon – the code name for a government project, which I won’t spoil more of – and the impact on the surrounding area the combination of these have had.

The direct impact you will see is the area’s abandonment and how quickly it delved into chaos. There are five open zones in the core playable area; Wyndham Village is controlled by the Protocol (the army) and is generally friendly and accessible except in a few places. Three of the other zones are controlled by the Raiders, Druids and Protocol, respectively, but parts of the areas are completely off-limits, and if you are spotted, you will be attacked. The remaining area is The Interchange, where the secrets of Atomfall are primarily revealed.

You’ll find yourself moving between these areas, following clues and tasks from NPCs in the area, aiming to escape. You don’t know why you’re there, but you know you don’t want to be. The way you move between the different objectives you find is how Rebellion has tried to differentiate Atomfall from other games. Rather than a quest log, you have “leads”. It’s a distinction with at least a little difference, as you have a collection of the notes and conversations to do with a “lead”, and you can read through these to figure out exactly where and what you should be doing next, and more often than not the clues are reasonably obvious. What is more interesting is that you can frequently find the objective of a quest – or lead – before you’ve even seen the start, depending on your proclivity to explore.

Through this and the interconnected maps, where shortcuts can be revealed to make your life easier, Atomfall rewards exploration in a way many larger games forget to do. I should clarify that even when doing a significant amount of exploration, as I have been, you’ll find Atomfall may only take about twenty hours to complete. Now, there is replay value in the fact that you have various stories, many of which can collide and result in one being cut off early.

Two, for example, are scientists around at the start of everything. One is hiding in the village, infected, but working on a cure and weapon to stop the source. Another left has come back and has been imprisoned. If they work on both stories but tell the first where the second is, he kills her – spoiler warning. This cuts off one possible story on escaping the quarantine zone. I don’t know exactly how many threads are in the game, but at least five lead towards an escape. Do they differ? I can’t tell you; I am keen to find out.

If I have an issue with the leads system, there are a few where you can be left a little clueless about what you need to do. There are a few where you are more likely to stumble across the next step than intentionally find it. Also, as mentioned in the above example, a decision you make can result in a part of the story being completely cut off from you. I don’t want to say “with no warning” because when you listen to the audio logs and read the notes surrounding the two characters, only a moron wouldn’t be able to figure out the outcome. I said to myself “he’s going to kill her”, before I even gave him the location. Some people may argue you need it made a little too clear.

Outside of the exploration and story, Atomfall is still more than serviceable. Combat isn’t too dissimilar to other titles. Melee and Ranged weapons will be found or picked up from the corpses of enemies, and you have a limited ammo capacity. When the respective skill is selected, I think the ammo capacity is expanded alongside the capacity of your materials used for crafting. Either way, it feels pretty balanced, mainly as you can only hold a limited number of items.

Often, I’ve found myself hoarding enough ammo to then go into one of the – I’ll call them dungeons – when I get out of the other end, I’m low on ammo and even low on some crafting gear since I’ve been making Molotovs on the fly. I’ve rarely found myself in a position I can’t get out of, one way or another, even if it’s just trying to be stealthy to avoid people, then doing a runner. I want to say the options are limitless, but they never are. It’s either fight, run, sneak, or a combination of two or more.

Combat feels quite responsive, though; I will certainly give it that. Aside from lobbing a Molotov Cocktail, the most valuable skill in your arsenal is the option to kick an enemy. If you unlock the ability that gives it a better stun and knockback, you become challenging to beat in close quarters. Some of the stronger enemies, the thralls, will eventually get to you, but it becomes instrumental in the areas you find them. Creating space to reload your shotgun, to pump some extra shells into their heads. Also, aim for the heads; it does the damage. Even better, though, get a good rifle, keep your distance, and go for the head.

Once you realise how useful it is, the crafting becomes quite essential. I didn’t touch the crafting system for much of the game beyond creating random Molotovs or sticky bombs. However, since the materials don’t use inventory space, strategic thinking becomes all the more critical. Why carry multiple bandages with you when you can craft some? Later, when you learn how to upgrade weapons, you need to. Improving their damage, range and aim is crucial to surviving the late-game events.

I won’t argue that Atomfall will be the next Metro: Exodus or something like that. I don’t think it is. Atomfall sits in the realms of the games that died out a while back but are in a resurgence. Your non-Triple-A games aren’t budgeted to blow apart the biggest releases, but they can do well if they get it right. The original Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a similar title, and look at what happened with the sequel. Atomfall strikes me as a similar title, with a style designed to reach as broad an audience as possible.

That this is on last-gen systems is proof enough, though I have to say that when playing it on the PC, with settings to max, I have no issues with the visuals. I’d argue that the more colourful and less realistic style adds charm to Atomfall, and frankly, I would say it looks and plays better than any of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic output. Hell, even it’s more space-faring production.

I’ve only encountered a small number of bugs while playing through Atomfall; a few characters have clipped into each other, and beating robot enemies is a chore once you realise you can break their paths by having them spot you, and then you disappear. Without fail, they never seem to be able to go back to their patrol. Also, the most glaring issue is that enemies cannot see you or shoot you through windows – I can’t explain how or why, other than maybe Rebellion forgot windows are transparent and break when a bullet hits them.

If I have another criticism, the audio, specifically the voice acting, can also be off. I understand the army having a mixture of accents, but the residents and other locals of the area should sound like they’re primarily from Cumbria. There’s something just a little off, though the reality is that nobody outside of the North of England will ever notice. I can’t say anything massive about the soundtrack, to be honest. It works as it doesn’t stand out, but at the same time, it doesn’t stand out. Other audio effects are generally strong; nothing stands out like it shouldn’t be.

As I’ve said, I can’t honestly argue that Atomfall will be the next post-apocalyptic masterpiece. What I will say, though, is that it is a game I’ve had a fun and enjoyable time with. This is the sort of game you can pick up at a lower price-point (£45) than your traditional £60 “Triple-A” games, and you can have a good twenty-plus hours, or more, with it.

Atomfall looks good, plays well, and has a decent atmosphere. It has a reasonably interesting semi-open collection of maps to explore and the dungeons (for lack of a better word) that come with such a game. The combat doesn’t feel janky, and the AI isn’t terrible. It has an interesting story and tries something a little different with the quests system to enhance exploration. I hope this does well enough that we get the sequel treatment in the same vein as Kingdom Come: Deliverance II because we could see the next leader of the post-apocalypse.

PC version reviewed. Copy provided by the publisher.

7.5

WCCFTECH RATING

Atomfall

Atomfall is a thoroughly enjoyable game which looks and plays well, and offers a compelling narrative with surrounding exploration to keep you entertained. It’s well-polished, offers good replay value, encourages you to do things a little different, and isn’t bad on the eyes either, with a good design that allows it to both look good and support last-gen consoles. The score likely doesn’t reflect the game as well as it should, as I would heartily recommend this to anybody, with the added advantage that it’s coming to game pass.

• An interesting story, adding to the generic “nuclear fallout” plot found in other similar titles.
• A “leads” system that successfully does quests a little different, adding to exploration.
• Good art design which enables it to look good, while also catering to last-gen consoles.
• Can feature a few bugs with AI and pathfinding, here and there.
• Why can’t enemies see you or shoot through windows?
• Voice acting can be off

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