This game is not Fallout, that is a line I keep hearing in relation to it and it’s a pretty good mentality to go into it while playing. Atomfall is, above all things, very much not like that game and is instead a lot more similar to something like S.T.A.L.K.E.R in both gameplay style and how the world is. How does this interesting RPG stand as a full experience though? Let’s get radioactive and find out!
First things first, Story, Atomfall is set in an 1950’s alternative history version of North-West England in the area surrounding the very real Windscale Power Plant that had an actual Nuclear disaster during this time period. This time, instead of it just being a general Nuclear Meltdown and subsequent lockdown by the authorities there’s something else going on with the plant, and with it large technological strides such as automated laser turrets, giant automated facilities and big stompy robots! You play as… someone. We don’t know who you are or even what you look like as the game is played entirely in first person. Regardless, you wake up in a bunker inside of the ‘Zone’ (Nice S.T.A.L.K.E.R reference Rebellion…) and are told to find something called ‘The Interchange’. From there, the countryside is your oyster, go find this mysterious Interchange, or go to the nearest village, or even just explore the wilderness it’s your choice. The ultimate end goal of the game is to escape the lockdown, though the method to do so is entirely up to you. It’s a nice change of pace to have a game so open ended on how you tackle the narrative and all the different groups you can side with, though it has a problem that I will go into detail with in the negatives section. It plays a lot like a mystery, so treating it as such really helps to immerse yourself and enjoy the experience more. Overall, a decent story, though with some caveats.
The presentation of Atomfall looks very nice. As opposed to many other nuclear/post-apocalypse games the environments are bright, colourful and are generally rather pleasant to look at. It makes sense for a game set in Britain, and it reflects the local scenery rather well. The voice acting too is very well done, with you getting an audible tour around the entirety of the UK and everyone sounding like they are appropriately in character. Though I will always nitpick the fact that the Scottish accents are rather silly, can’t help it! Lighting in this game also looks great and really helps the emphasise the natural beauty of the world, especially with the more fantastical elements of the story that are almost always present in the distance with these visual improvements. I will say that the music wasn’t really anything special, I don’t think I could tell you a single track in the game, though it did have a nice end credits song. Overall then, pretty nice looking and sounding game, though nothing too spectacular.
Now the gameplay is going to be the biggest jarring factor to those who watched the trailers and expected a wild romp full of zany encounters with mutants and space robots, in actual fact, this just plays more like a survival game with WW2 shooter mechanics. Bullets are rare, guns are rarer unless you are happy with murdering soldiers, everything dies quickly, but so do you, and getting into fights is generally ill-advised as there’s no experience or levelling up and you don’t get a lot of resources from people. In fact, you can go the whole game without killing anyone if you want, or kill everyone, the game gives you both options shockingly! It’s nice to see a game with a bit of spine and letting you make bad decisions. Aside from that, it’s the usual aspects of scavenging, completing quests, meeting and talking with NPC’s and generally just doing typical Survival Game things. I did like the greater emphasis on avoiding fights as it’s very different to a lot of games from this genre, but I also recognised that it led to some parts of the game to fee rather boring. Indeed, many of the side quests felt a bit pointless aside from those that gave you a new ending. No unique weapons and no really insane things to upgrade your character felt like it meant doing a lot of the activities rather pointless. It did mean you could hyper-focus on the main objective of the game, escape, and thus give you plenty of depth with how you did it, but otherwise it just felt like the game gave you a lot of options to do, but no reason to do any of it. Shooting and melee mechanics feel ok, nothing too special, and stealth felt a bit lackluster despite a larger emphasis on it for combat encounters. Overall then, gameplay felt fine, once again, nothing too special.
The negatives then, and there are a few. Firstly, in regards to the story, without spoiling anything there’s a bunch you can get depending on choices you’ve made throughout the game and who you choose to side with, but a lot of them felt ultimately the same. It really felt as though there was not much point on replaying the game to get a new ending, as they all felt a bit too similar to be worthwhile. In relation to that, the game is quite short, with the world being a bit small and the story able to be completed rather quickly. Luckily, because I was playing this on Xbox Game Pass, this didn’t feel like too much of an issue for me, but I could imagine those who paid full price for the game may feel a bit ripped off, especially due to the lack of any real incentive to replay the game aside from challenge runs. A lot of the characters also didn’t really grab me, as many of them felt either just generic or uninteresting. Ironically, one of the more evil characters I ended up loving just because they were fun and interesting to listen to as well as charismatic. I also was not a huge fan of the stamina mechanic in this game as it’s tied instead to heart rate, which I felt filled up a bit too quickly for my liking meaning I felt like I was travelling very slowly in this world. For many that’s an opportunity to look at the pretty countryside, which is fair, but when I need to get to one side of the map to the other because of a lack of fast travel I don’t particularly want to look at the scenery, I want to get to my destination. Finally, I felt as though general combat didn’t engage me much, and I often felt more frustration than anything dealing with groups of enemies. I am aware it’s to encourage a more passive playstyle where you want to avoid conflict, but ultimately if you get stuck within it you have no choice but to deal with it, and it can be a frustrating experience to deal with.
In the end then, I think this may be the most middle of the road gaming experience I have encountered in a long time. It’s not a bad game, and for playing on the Game Pass I did enjoy my time with it, but I can recognise it has its flaws and many of them could be a dealbreaker. Maybe that’s just my fault for going in with the wrong mindset, but I think this is a (rather fittingly British) Marmite game, you either love the typical gaming standard it bucks to make a more immersive and involved world and story, or you hate the lack of QOL features and general disdain for engaging in combat. Looking at it from an objective point of view, I can say it’s a decent survival game that those in the genre may want to check out if they have the Game Pass, but unless the British setting really sells it for you I don’t know if I would pay full price for it. Either way, I don’t think I will be returning to this world for the forseeable future, which is a relief, my Scottish blood couldn’t stand the idea of being in England for a second longer!