In the wake of a variety of apocalyptic RPGs, including Fallout, Stalkers and even the Metro series, Atomfall feels opposed. After all, it sparks the fully realized Fallout 4 DLC known as Fallout London. But through that, Atomall rises to the opportunity as another apocalyptic RPG worth checking out.
Gameplay partially fades due to mainly nasty combat, but it still allows to present a unique and engaging storyline based on true events.
Nuclear failure
Atomfall is set five years after the actual front-scale nuclear disaster that nearly destroyed Northen Ingland in 1957. In this reality, England is now fragmented as you discover that your personality comes from the bunker and things are generally confused. Gangs and outlaws now rule the gorgeous British countryside, and no one can trust them.
What’s even worse, a mysterious voice always calls you on every public phone you encounter, warning you that things are about to get worse. It’s a great background in itself, but this game essentially sees you trekking through the northern part of England to uncover the secrets behind this nuclear disaster.
The story only lasts 14-15 hours, but it is certainly full of mystery and plot, and there are multiple ways to advance the story. The game gives away virtually unlimited freedom to pursue a variety of purposes across five large, interconnected maps. These areas range from countryside and farmland areas to caves and mines, abandoned reactors, army bases and even secret gang hideouts.
Also, although the game presents a considerable amount of lore through collected notes and journal entries, most characters you encounter generally explain more about the world. Most missions follow the same type of structure. Along the way, we will pick out various notes and collective items from the world that will lead you. This provides details about the various locations in a particular part of the map, and provides clues to the tasks needed. Most tasks generally latch the next task, but it requires a considerable amount of backtracking, especially within the missions I have completed.
Either way, the game offers an unbiased opportunity to explore each corner of the world of five interconnected hubs to your liking. No matter how you need to read the notes a little more and find out which locations and landmarks will take you, progress is generally well paced. It is also worth noting here that there are plenty of British Easter eggs to reveal, from Mr. Bean to Doctor Who. I don’t want to ruin them, but they are all so incredibly attractive.
Overall, Atomfall’s core story is comparatively appealing enough to stick to the pace, given that it’s not necessarily spelled out for you. There’s a bit more backtracking to my taste, but I appreciate the lean length of the game, and its core mystery allows it to land most of the punch before things get old.
Survival of the fittest
Gampray is generally divided into combat, stealth and exploration. Along the way, you will take on human enemies, mainly in the form of large groups and gangs. Sometimes the big enemies become like flamethrowing robots, crow murders and mouse mischief.
By gathering from looted or fallen enemies, you will find a range of weapons in the wild and brawls. There are also plenty of loot and scraps to keep in mind. This can be used to create important items such as bandages and thrown weapons. Melee combat feels partially OK, and with a dedicated kick button, you toggle between light and heavy attacks to remove the enemy from balance. Throwing enemies with cricket bats is fun, but there’s not much depth to it.
Combat with ranges sometimes feels a little awkward and never gets easy. There is an assortment of handguns, shotguns, rifles and even automatic weapons to use, and the aim generally feels stiff and troublesome.
However, semi-automatic weapons like rifles must be reloaded manually on each shot, but you can also press the reload button to see the remaining rounds of weapons, such as handguns and shotguns. It is generally functional, but rarely satisfying.
Weapons also do not retain numerical statistics, usually in three layers. Rusty, normal, untouched. The worse the condition, the less damage will be. But at the same time, Atomfall does not place numbers on damage or fire rate. Instead, the weapon has high, medium or low damage levels and attack speed.
This applies to both melee and ranged weapons, but firearms can improve their condition by mapping items such as gun oil. Normally you can find duplicates of most melee weapons, but regardless of the conditions, long-range weapons are a bit more difficult to obtain.
Stealth is also a mixed bag. You just creep up behind the enemy to gain stealth skills, but the enemy AI knows you’re there or has an interesting way to find you from the countryside a mile away. It’s not so bad to be discovered from afar. They can sometimes tell you to retreat or turn around to avoid trouble, so when you can get close enough to do something exciting, it will reduce the stealth experience.
They rarely take on enemies in the crowd, so they isolated them and isolated them, picking up enemies one by one.
You can also improve your skills and progress through a relatively streamlined skill tree that offers range combat, melee combat, survival and conditioning upgrades. Most of these will be off in one playthrough, but it is recommended to enhance your ranged and melee combat capabilities to gain advantage in sticky situations.
Overall, the battle is not awful, but not so satisfying, mainly due to the clunky gunfire and shallow melee combat. Stealth can also benefit from some better AI if you stick to it for more than a few hours.
Please look at the parts
Atomfall looks great most of the time. The British countryside is littered with gorgeous textures, lighting effects and vibrant colors, but the majority of the game’s five maps feel diverse and fresh.
The game also runs very well, punching out 60 fps almost every turn. Even when things got chaotic, I barely found a meaningful framerate drop that pulled me out of the action.
Final Thoughts
Atomfall does the perfect job of creating engine mystery while balancing an impressive amount of player selection and agency. While some missions and passes find themselves more exciting than others, the lean 15-hour storyline allows things to land before they get old.
The battle ranged from troubling to acceptance, but it was generally functional and at least able to get the job done. But its visual flare and solid performance certainly suffice here to justify the chaotic fun, delving deep into this nuclear North England countryside.
3 and a half stars (out of 5)
Highlights: A cool mystery that reveals in many ways. Luxurious British countryside and solid performance
Lowlight: A clunky gunfire and annoying stealth mechanism. There’s a bit too much backtracking
Developer: Rebellion Development
Publisher: Rebellion Development
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Available: Now
Reviews conducted on PlayStation 5 are conducted using pre-release code provided by the publisher.
