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Atomfall releases to mystery and much intrigue. Is this worth your time or are you left wandering the countryside thinking what could’ve been?
The Countryside Is Your Oyster
When I began the story, sitting in a bunker not knowing how or why I was there, I couldn’t help but think of Fallout. Whilst at first I thought this was another game trying to capture the magic of Fallout, I was so wonderfully wrong. Atomfall is truly its own living, breathing post apocalyptic wonder. Developed and published by veteran British team Rebellion, Atomfall is inspired by a real nuclear disaster; the Windscale disaster of 1957. The story takes place five years after the disaster in the Lake District where a fictionalised quarantine zone has been established, walled off and surrounded by a mysterious nuclear site and accompanying woodland and village areas. Thanks to the zone being cut off from the rest of the country, gangs and groups have formed outside the zone, making everywhere dangerous and violent places. As previously mentioned, you take on the role of a unnamed survivor who is suffering from amnesia. The amnesia trope has often been used in survival games but Atomfall succeeds wonderfully with this narrative, thanks to the game’s overall narrative structure.
Rebellion have crafted and structured the story to allow the player to create their own unique tale. From the very beginning, the emphasis is on you and your choices. Your first interaction is with a scientist, but how you interact is up to you: kill him and take his key card, communicate and gain his trust or ignore him altogether, it’s truly entirely up to you. Everything in this wonderful world is for you to discover and unravel, from a mysterious phone caller pestering you with riddles, to meeting traders and NPCs in villages; there is so so much to discover and understand in Atomfall. It’s unequivocally British, with its humour and dialogue. It’s a wonderful sight to see how Rebellion have blended the British countryside with a post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror environment.
This is the best example of environmental storytelling I have come across since Elden Ring; every room and building can unlock more pieces to the puzzle. It’s a truly fantastic story that has countless endings, dependent on which route you choose. It ultimately boils down to your choice and how you decide to escape the area but there is so much replay ability on offer and so much to discover through audio logs, documents and conversations with the superb cast of characters. It is staggering! The story is one of self-discovery, true mystery and intrigue from minute one until the credits roll, as it blends horror with sci-fi along with a hefty dose of alternate reality wonder. It is truly best experienced with as little knowledge of the game as possible. This is a story and exploration for the ages.
Craft, Attack, Dig, Survive
Gameplay is another brilliantly crafted experience in Atomfall. Played from a first person perspective and set in a semi open world environment, gameplay, like the story, is yours to mould and craft. The main gameplay consists of scavenging for items to craft equipment from recipes found throughout the world, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Crafting is essential to survival as you band together every day items like glass bottles and cloths to create medicine and weapons. The use of a metal detector to uncover hidden stashes and treasures is a great addition that helps keep you engaged in exploring, as there is so much to uncover and find. The game actively encourages you to spend hours on end scavenging and this leads to great interactions with random NPC’s or enemies that often have very British humour attached to them. Everything in Atomfall is designed to be methodical and deliberate and nowhere is it more evident than in combat and stealth.
The opening of the game makes clear you are a novice in this apocalypse and this is shown superbly through melee and ranged combat. Every swing of an axe or hatchet feels deliberately laboured and desperate, making you feel like you are truly fighting for your life. Whether it’s hulking robots standing eight feet tall, bandits and druids who seek to hunt you down or the mysterious feral infected creatures, this game has a fantastic range of enemy types. Each encounter feels different and with the nature of the games non linear story, I truly felt I was altering the story with each swing or shot. Speaking of ranged combat, this is also deliberately methodical. It’s both thrilling and frustrating watching your character slowly load a bullet into the rusted chamber of a rifle or shotgun.
The gameplay is not without its minor flaws, however. The lack of a fast travel system can make exploring and traversing the countryside somewhat frustrating and tedious at times. The game’s perk system is very basic and underdeveloped as I felt most of the perks didn’t alter or propel my experience positively. Stealth can be wildly inconsistent and often I gave up on that aspect as enemies would spot me from miles away, with little to no sight of me. Thankfully, the main core gameplay loop in Atomfall is more than enough to see past these flaws.
Lake District Delight
The Lake District in Atomfall looks simply stunning. Lush green fields beam across the screen upon first exiting the bunker, letting you know you’re in for a beautiful adventure. Every building and environment is rich and dripping in detail; it truly looks like they have plucked buildings straight from the countryside. Rebellion have crafted a gorgeous game, so much so that you can’t help but stop and admire it. Lighting is superb in the daunting darkly lit areas inside abandoned facilities and labs. The art style and character design are similarly stunning. Characters look realistic and react uniquely to your character. Robots look mighty and powerful from afar, whilst feral creatures look nightmarish. This is a truly wonderful effort across the board in visual presentation.
Next, sound design and musical score yield mixed results. The sound design is solid and does enough not to stand out poorly, with the metal detector pinging loudly and emphatically to let you know when a stash or lunchbox is around. Robots clang and stomp their way across the countryside, violently letting you know the threat they pose. I found the sound design of the ranged combat inconsistent as guns just sound non existent at times and nowhere near as powerful as they should. However, one aspect of sound design that cannot be debated is the superb voice acting. Every character feels alive, thanks to the wonderful cast who create unique British voices, leading to hilarious moments and emotional ones too. On the other hand, the musical score in Atomfall disappointed me. It never makes enough of an impact to warrant memorable moments. Only in combat does it truly take precedent and it’s a damn shame the game didn’t utilize the music more in the exploration and story.
Verdict
Atomfall is a brilliant and fresh take on post-apocalyptic survival. It is a beautiful mix of Fallout and souls-like games, with wonderful exploration and mysteries to discover at every turn. Not many games have made me really feel like I am the master of the story and I craft it to how I see fit but this one does! The wonderful recreation of the beautiful Lake District, accompanied with a sci-fi horror twist, makes this game one of the best additions to the genre in recent memory. I implore anyone to go in with as little knowledge as possible to be wowed at each twist and turn of this thought-provoking narrative. Some minor flaws dampen the spirit slightly but this is still Rebellion’s finest work to date. Now I’m hankering for a Cornish pasty!
