When we play such post-apocalyptic games as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Metro Exodus, or The Division 2, we expect them to be set in dark, moody places.
But in Atomfall (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC), an open world, first-person post-apocalyptic survival action game from Rebellion Developments, the decimated world has a sunny disposition, and is all the more interesting for it. If only other aspects were as engaging as the setting.
In 1957,
a fire at England’s Windscale Piles nuclear reactor spread radioactive fallout across the country and parts of Europe. And while it’s considered the worst nuclear accident in U.K. history, it clearly could’ve been way worse…it could’ve been like Atomfall, which is set in an alternate timeline in which the area around the reactor was irradiated, and is now a quarantine zone populated by mutants, a death cult, and other malcontents.
Now, before you start venturing out into the world, there’s some things you should know. First, Atomfall is not a shooter like Metro Exodus, or an action game like Fallout 4, though it does have both melee and gun-based combat, as well as other common elements.
Instead, you spend more time exploring the world than fighting it. Which isn’t to imply that there’s a lot of jumping and climbing; this isn’t like Horizon Forbidden West, either. Rather, you spend a lot of time walking from one place to another, occasionally stopping to see if what’s left of that house over there has any food or supplies. Or, more likely, a clue to help you find whatever it is you need to get the hell out of this place.
When you do get into a fight, though, Atomfall is still not a first-person shooter. Or first-person grappler. While you have a variety of weapons — including rifles, shotguns, and cricket bats — the combat is neither as deep as, say, the gunplay in Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, or the melee combat in Avowed. In part because all of the guns are rusty, and often single shot, while the melee weapons are also simple and don’t allow for combo attacks.
Though you can get sneaky with the combat,
performing stealth kills upon unsuspecting enemies. Which is not always an option, since they often travel in packs. That said, it does get decidedly easier (and more fun) if you find a bow & arrow, and can quietly pick people off from a distance.
In fact, like a lot of survival games, the combat, and other combative aspects, kind of make Atomfall feel like such survival horror games as Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space, though in very different worlds (and, obviously, from a different perspective). Your ammo is always limited, both in terms of how much you find and how much you can carry, while your enemies can take a decent amount of punishment before going down.
Now, as I said earlier, while Atomfall may not be a role-playing game like Fallout 4 or Avowed, it does share some of its tenets. There’s a conversation mechanic, moral choices, and you can craft helpful items (and, more importantly, on the fly, not just when you find a work bench). The first thing you do, in fact, is talk to someone and decide whether you want to kill them and take their stuff, or find the items you need to craft a bandage that will save their lives.
Then there’s the looting, which you do both in abandoned places and off the bodies of your dead enemies. While you never find magical armor or super powerful weapons, you do find things you need, including ammo, food, and crafting resources.
Though what’s different about the scavenging in Atomfall is that, early on, you find a metal detector, and a note indicating that there’s small stashes hidden around the world. It’s also always on, and will beep whenever you’re near something worth finding, even when not equipped.
This is not the only aspect of Atomfall…
that makes it different from other survival action games and role-playing games. For starters, Atomfall is also super British, and in some weirdly British ways. There’s a surreal weirdness to the proceedings that made me think of that old show The Prisoner, while some of the unruly people you run into seem to be taking make-up and fashion advice from the droogs in A Clockwork Orange. Which is weird; I don’t remember seeing a movie theater anywhere.
Even things you find in the world are terribly English. Not only does the detritus includes pint glasses, but you also find tasty (and health restoring) Cornish pastries.
In fact, it’s Britain itself that really makes Atomfall feel different, as the English countryside in this game — as in real life — is beautiful, lush and green, and the game takes place on a nice summer day. Sure, the indoor locations look like, well, the indoor locations in every game not set in the future or on an alien world, but the outdoor ones are just beautiful.
It reminds me how the original Far Cry felt different from other first-person shooters at the time (2004), by being set on a tropical island. Or how the Dead Island games set their zombie apocalypse in picturesque resort towns.
All of which makes for an interesting walk around town. Assuming, of course, you remember your weapons, are prepared to randomly run into jerks, and have time to stop and smell the abandoned homes.
As engaging as Atomfall can be, though,
it does have problematic elements that can make it just as annoying. And while it’s clear some of them are meant to make this more realistic, this realism just ends up being more frustrating than fun.
For starters, Atomfall monitors your heartrate, and you can easily overexert yourself during combat or when you’re running away from it. So yeah, it’s like when you have a stamina meter in other games — and just as un-fun.
There are also irritations when it comes to managing all the stuff you find. For instance, when looking at the weapons in your backpack, the descriptions are rather vague as to their effectiveness. Sure, it says the revolver and shotgun both have “high damage,” but not if the shotgun’s is higher or lower than the pistol, or by how much.
Even worse, your backpack is rather small, even for a survival game. And this is compounded by the fact that similar items, such as bandages, don’t stack, while important quest items take up space, something they don’t usually do in these kinds of games.
Compounding the problem…
is that Atomfall‘s world is comprised of multiple huge areas (think Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands), but there’s no way to quickly travel from one place to another, nor are there any vehicles or mounts.
All of which makes it frustrating when you have a full pack and would love to pop down to the shop to sell off some stuff. Instead, I was constantly having to make hard decisions about what to keep and what to throw away, and this was not the kind of challenge I was looking for in this game (or in any game).
Then there are the combat issues. At any given time, you can have 4 weapons assigned to the directional pad, be they guns, melee weapons, or such throwables as Molotov cocktails.
What can’t be assigned to this quick menu, unfortunately, are bandages or any food that can restore your health. Even worse: at the game’s default setting, bringing up the menu doesn’t pause the game, which means you’re vulnerable whenever you need to grab a mid-fight snack. Thankfully, though, there is an option to change this.
Atomfall also doesn’t…
do a great job of explaining itself. You’re kind of left to your own devices to figure out what to do, and how to do it. And while this is entirely intentional, it’s also the kind of thing that some people (myself included) don’t enjoy. Or at least don’t appreciate unless we know that going in.
Even the British-ness of Atomfall can be off-putting, as I could never get past the fact that food, ammo, bandages, and other resources are as scarce as you’d expect in a world where society has collapsed, but there’s somehow enough white face paint and make-up for tons of people to look like they’re in a crappy Kiss cover band.
But then, it also doesn’t make any sense that the scary make-up people are constantly whistling, which is really stupid when there’s some maniac with a cricket bat running around, bashing in people’s skulls.
What makes some of these issues even more glaring is how Atomfall has a metric ton of gameplay options, including the aforementioned “Pause Game In Menus.” Not only are there five difficulty settings, but you can customize them, altering such conditions as your “Health Regeneration,” “Loot Scarcity,” and “Healing Efficacy.” If only they’d also included “Size Of Backpack,” “Advanced Weapon Descriptions,” and “Turn Stamina Off.”
In the end,
Atomfall is a solid survival game, but one that’s undermined by all of the complaints I just, uh, complained about. Sure, it’s not as action-packed as Metro Exodus or Fallout 4 or a lot of other games I could mention, but it wasn’t trying to be. It’s trying to be more about you surviving than thriving; you living in this world than conquering it; exploration more than combat. If only it was trying to be more engaging than realistic.
SCORE: 7.5/10
