When you were a teenage son turn up in the early 2000s , you got asked one inquiry a lot : What is your Book of Revelation endurance plan ? This is something that you needed to have an reply to — and agoodone , too — to remain in high social standing with your friends . I always had my go - to response rehearse . I ’d work my style to the coast , steal a houseboat , and live out at sea . It was a perfect design … aside from the fact that I do n’t know how to drive a gravy boat and ca n’t swim .
you could see that same style of badly - conceived doomsday prepping on exhibit inAtomfall .
In its latest natural process - escapade game , Sniper Elitedeveloper Rebellion lays out a solid plan to thrive in a waste of nuclear Revelation game . Rather than aping Fallout or Stalker ’s action RPG pattern , the more streamlinedAtomfallscavenges together some original mind in its deconstructed pursuance and an vehemence on bartering . That could have made for a compelling survival chronicle built around open - ended exploration , but it ’s those pesky item that will get you killed during a nuclear calamity . With poor execution where it matters most , Atomfallis as lose at ocean as I would have been had I ever correct canvass as a teenager .
Storytelling wasteland
At a surface glance , Atomfallmight just calculate and sound likeBritish Fallout . It is , but there ’s a little more to it than that . Its story is set in the backwash of the Windscale blast , a real nuclear disaster that ravaged the United Kingdom in 1957.Atomfalloffers an alternate history in which that event was even more devastating , creating a dead zone in the British countryside sate with soldiers , outlaws , and irradiated monsters . It ’s a large assumption , but one that Rebellion is n’t able-bodied to amply capitalise on due to special worldbuilding .
Atomfalllargely follows the trope of its genre to a thyroxine , often without much account . When the level begin , I ’m only treated to a short slideshow setting up its premise before take up command of an amnesic who wakes up in an surreptitious bunker . Who I am and how I got there is never really much of a question ; the only thing I ’m relate with is escaping the wasteland . I require to be willing to take any supporter I can get to fulfil that , ally with a small fistful of local anesthetic with ulterior motives who all tender their aid for a price . There are teases of a good mystery early on when I answer a ringing phone in a bright red telephone boxful and am recognize by a creepy voice telling me to kill Oberon , whatever that is , but the cryptic breadcrumb never really pay off through a flavourless sci - fi story .
Part of the problem is thatAtomfallnever really presents a coherent creation . The quarantine zona is overrun with brigand , but it ’s never clear why they ’ve decided to take up mansion house there ( a place with no money or valuables to steal ) at all . ahead of time on while exploring , I ’m attacked by a blue humanoid monstrosity in a bunker . I assume that ’s my first coup d’oeil into a spacious story , but I scantily learn anything about that enemy type after that . I ’m similarly in the dark about the killer plant lining stream , the swarms of poisoned hemipteran , or the zombified soldier who take XII of gunshots to take down . It experience like all of these thing exist because , well , that ’s what you do in a nuclear video game . Of course the military has advanced mechs that look like they belong in Fallout despite the fact that they ’re all carry rusty World War 2 weapons . Duh !
Atomfallnever feels like it expands past the confines of what we explicitly see in it .
I envisage that some of that is due toAtomfall ’s reach . This is not an enormous heart-to-heart - world game filled with Nonproliferation Center to forgather and a glut of lore logs . It ’s a refreshfully compact adventure that mostly takes berth across four pocket-sized areas link together by The Interchange , a science hub that players are tasked with power back up in society to fly the coop . There are only a few character reference to meet who each have one primary quest attached to them . The ripe thread follow a cult ( with visual ties toThe Wicker Man ) that idolize the poisoned grime . It ’s one of the few moments where I start to get a sense of what has pass so many people to the quarantine zone , but I do n’t get many other opportunities to learn about them or how they connect to the other faction of the world . They ’re just eubstance for me to gun down in search of another MacGuffin .
Atomfalldoes at least deliver some strong ocular design that helps play the underdeveloped world to life . Rather than painting the countryside in burn browns and greys , it throw players into a amazingly smart world filled with vibrant Green River . It ’s not what you ’d expect to see in the wake of a atomic disaster , feeling closer to the world of Alex Garland’sAnnihilation . Seeing a pristine telephone boxwood , its pigment and wiring perfectly intact , in the midriff of an empty field gives everything a surreal sharpness that excuses some of its missing pieces . Maybe it ’s more efficacious that we never know what exactly happened in the zone , but even cryptic storytelling penury to leave you feeling like there ’s more to uncover . Instead , Atomfallnever feels like it flesh out past the confines of what we explicitly see in it .
Rather than drop its efforts creating a 40 + time of day heart-to-heart - world game that ’s obtuse with distractions , Rebellion ’s focus was more used to craft focused gameplay systems that setAtomfallapart . The crux of that come in its originative glide slope to questing . There are n’t traditional quests inAtomfall ; instead , I lead off gather “ leads ” once I ’m out in the world . promiscuous pages and conversations with NPCs sometimes give me a narrative thread I can look into in any rules of order I require . Players who select to surmount the difficultness up wo n’t even get objective markers telling them where to go next . It ’s entirely open - all over , and you’re able to finish the biz by only really aid one character if you so choose . I hit credits on my first playthrough in under eight hours , opting not to snub likely allies that I plainly did n’t swear ( you could easily duplicate that playtime on your first go , but it would require discharge quest for characters that are at betting odds with the ones you ’re progress relationships with ) .
It ’s a gripping idea , and one that builds on the immersive sim DNA present in Rebellion ’s Sniper Elite series fairly well . The moments where that system comes together feels revelatory . In an former area , I chatted with a military loss leader who told me about a scientist he had locked up in a local prison house . He gave me clearance to the commonly locked down prison and place me to interrogate her . When I got there , she told me about a gimmick hidden in the facility that could misrepresent electronics . I decide to help her in exchange for the location , direct a prison house jailbreak that set her free . That turn the military against me , transform the once safe geographical zone into a hostile region that I could barely traverse through without taking a few bullet .
I can be as helpful or deleterious as I wish andAtomfallwill always have a response to that choice .
Much later , I regain myself in a research wing of the Interchange , where I got a different clue about the twist that I could have follow to notice it . Even later , I unlock a gear cache in a sand trap after hunting the region for a key and establish a written matter of that same machine inside . I did n’t involve to egg on a prison bacchanal to get that primal tool , nor did I need to interact with either of the characters I met along the way . In an alternative playthrough , I could havekilled them both . I can be as helpful or hurtful as I wish well andAtomfallwill always have a reception to that pick .
While that sequence sounds fantastical when write out , Atomfallisn’t nearly as exciting in its moment to moment gameplay . The mass of my playthrough had me collecting battery out in the worldly concern to power up the Interchange ’s various backstage . When I was n’t doing that , I was hunting down keycard to open locked room access in bunkers . In between all that , I was backtracking across the same few disparate field ( each feels a bit like a Sniper elect single-valued function in graduated table ) to get from one objective to another . I ’ve yet to find any path to fast travelling either , which imply that a few time of day of my playthrough were just dedicated to schlepping back across region by infantry to sing to an Nonproliferation Center or drop off an particular .
Atomfall ’s other original idea descend in the form of bartering , but that ’s another neat system let down by everything around it . There is no up-to-dateness in the zone . Instead , player can only get items from merchants by making an tantamount exchange . Each monger has a variety of particular that will be of value to them , and ace that will be worth less . It ’s a thematically sound concept , asAtomfall ’s story is all about survival of the fittest through mutual exchange . Everyone , including the musician , wants something and is willing to make a trade to get it . That pass to the independent tale , where escape comes with some sort of Leontyne Price no matter who you determine to hope to break you out of the zone .
But trading never really feel like a viable option in linguistic context . For one , inventory space is improbably svelte . I can transport a few arm on me at once , a grenade or two , and some healing item , but that ’s about it . I rarely ever have elbow room for something I ’m not using . There are n’t a surfeit of items to pluck up either . Atomfallis more in the vein ofThe Last of UsthanFallout , mostly leaving players to piece up on the loose crafting items and turn them into requisite like makeshift dud and bandage . I rarely ever had the right items on hand to complete a trade during my entire playthrough .
The limited stock infinite torpedoes other systems too . At one item , I unlock a perk that lease me craft good version of my weapons . That command me to have multiple versions of the same weapon on hand to complete a recipe . That ’s simply not feasible when I barely have room to carry the junk I ’m actually using . I just flat out never used the system at all , nor did I need to . I got through the entire escapade just fine with the weapon I scavenged .
The problem is thatAtomfallis build as if it ’s an RPG , but there are no actual RPG system in it . This is a fairly stable action - risky venture sandpile that just happens to have the kind of meaningful dialogue option you ’d find inAvowed . There ’s a tension here between streamlined adventuring and friction - filled survival that never meets in the middle . At the very least , Rebellion at least includes a suite of availableness feature to labour it further to each end of the spectrum . Those who want a pure survival experience with no waypoints can get that to an extent .
Cricket, anyone?
Perhaps the most frustrating facet ofAtomfallis its first - someone combat , another feature that feels torn in two directions . The idea here is that thespian can approach action in a few different ways . They can run into a bunker , guns blazing , rap bandit out with stealing , or even avoid combat altogether . I terminate up doing the latter for most of my playthrough , though not because I needfully wanted to : It was just preferable to scramble with my other alternative .
fighting is slender and does n’t feel terribly well balanced . Many of my guns feel feeble and imprecise , which makes gumption devote the 1960s setting . Still , it ’s annoying to walk into a way and have your scattergun exceed by a guy running up to you and throwing a few lick . It feel like Rebellion wants players to apply melee weapon alternatively , like cricket squash racket and stun batons . Those are more fun to toy around with , but each one represent more or less the same by using a light and hard attack . There ’s nothing as intricate here as the close - fight of bothIndiana Jones and the Great CircleandDead Island 2 .
In trying to make a game that could be tackled in a few different playstyles , Rebellion created one that does n’t really back any .
With the legal action as ungainly as it is , taking on a way full of the great unwashed is a formula for disaster . That would involve that perhapsAtomfallis more balanced for a stealth playthrough , but that option feels even forged . The only tool players really have at their electric pig for sneaking is a standard back approach . That never got me very far , because locating are either densely populated with enemies who would catch me during a farsighted takedown or the activity charter place out in the surface where there ’s no elbow room to enshroud . In one bunker , I spread a door and tried to sneak into a big room full of bandits . They spot me the 2nd I ill-treat in despite the fact that I was far off and kick upstairs . Every subsequent endeavour render the same result trigger a 10 - on-1 shootout . Each metre I die , a tooltip secern me I should render crouching to get around them . try that . Thanks .
In trying to make a game that could be tackled in a few dissimilar playstyles , Rebellion created one that does n’t really support any . Just watch how quickly your health streak miss when a automaton spots you in an open field of operation with no surfaces to obscure behind . It ’s a bit of a seismic disturbance consider that this is the studio behind Sniper Elite , one of the best stealth activity franchises still active today . It has cracked immersive sim action that rewards deliberate movement , but still gives players the agency to be lethal when plans go awry . That philosophy falls aside in a move to an capable - ended adventure as opposed to one that consider place in carefully constructed shot galleries .
I get the gumption thatAtomfallis less a game build for players and more one make for Rebellion itself . It ’s an experimental sandpit that lets the studio weaken spare from the franchise it has been focused on for the last decade and see what else it can do with its design chops . I ca n’t say that it make out together , as its limited scope does n’t give any of its neat ideas enough room to breathe , but maybe it ’s a necessary for survival of the fittest . In a fast - moving manufacture where stagnation means expiry , a creative sprint can be what ’s needed to outride out front of the blast radius . Sometimes you stumble . Sometimes you curve up behind the wheel of a boat that you do n’t recognise how to drive . But when you ’re facing down apocalypse , staying still will vote down you even ready . You may as well take a risk and have some fun while doing it .
Atomfallwas try onPS5 Pro .
