Since we’ve seen more of Atomfall, it’s become incredibly obvious that this is far more than the ‘British Fallout’ many of us were expecting. No, in both its gameplay and very identity, Rebellion’s upcoming first-person RPG confidently sets itself apart from Fallout, and gives us something uniquely European in the process.
That is to say that when I was running around the British countryside, I found myself thinking of Stalker more than New Vegas. The influence is still there – game director Ben Fisher has cited Obsidian’s Fallout game as an inspiration, after all – but the comparisons go beyond just aesthetics or gameplay mechanics. Instead, it’s most felt in how much trust it places in the player’s hands – for better and for worse.
Stumbling Around The Quarantine Zone
I played an hour and a half of Atomfall at a preview event in London last week, and was left utterly to my own devices. Dumped in a quarantine zone in the Lake District with no idea who you are or where you’ve come from, you have free reign to decide how you’ll survive, and how you’ll uncover the game’s mysteries.
And mystery is at the heart of Atomfall. When you enter the world, you can run in whatever direction you want, but you’ll have no idea where you’re going. You will be guided by the fact that enemies are likely to kick your butt, directing you to try an alternate route, but you can brute force it if you really want to. Or, like me, you can trial-and-error your way into finding a lead, and start figuring out the main narrative from there.
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Atomfall is shaping up to be far more than just British Fallout.
In the time I had with Atomfall, I found very little in the way of direction. In fact, I was dead just a few minutes after starting the game, as I ran into a group of NPCs called Druids. At this point, I had no knowledge of who they were. Turns out – not friendly. Unsure what the ‘correct’ approach would be (or if there even was a correct option), I gave them a wide berth, and largely played as a pacifist.
Incidentally, Atomfall does support that, as you can make it through the game without killing anyone. Good luck avoiding combat, because everything in the quarantine zone is trying to kill you, or to get you to kill something else on their behalf. When I finally found someone who didn’t want to shoot me dead on sight, she gave me a quest to retrieve an item from the ever-hostile Druids, forcing me into combat once again.
You can sneak, but this wasn’t always a reliable option. Enemies will give you a warning before attacking, offering the chance to walk away without consequence. Despite that, a few times, the Druids would run after me anyway, seemingly content to chase me across half of England for the crime of staring at them for too long. That was my general experience with combat – I can see what Rebellion is going for, and it’s great, in theory. In practice, brace yourself to fight the controls and enemy AI a bit.
Less Fallout, More Stalker
But again, the game’s intent is clear. To circle back to the Stalker comparison, Atomfall’s combat is relentless and realistic, and more than a little janky when it comes to enemy AI and combat mechanics. Couple that with the high difficulty, and you’ll want to prepare for more than a few deaths. A headshot will bring you down just as surely as it would an enemy, after all.
On the one hand, this gels well with the game design, because I quickly learned to appreciate my surroundings much more than I do in similar games. Often, it’s easy to fall into the trap of walking in a straight line to get to the objective on your map. I did this a few times, and was quickly killed for it. Instead, I naturally started paying attention to road signs, open roads, and foliage I could use to hide away from enemies. When this all works in tandem, it makes for a heart-racingly immersive experience, as I hid out of sight to count how many enemies were approaching, and then tried to find a vantage point to start picking them off, or another route to sneak past them.
On the other hand, there were a few times I was left wondering… why? Why do any of this? At this point, the mystery had not enticed me at all, so I was only fighting for the hope of being enticed later on. The New Vegas inspiration is clear here, since that also lets you approach the main story however you want, but it at least gives you enough information to get sucked into the narrative right out of the gate, and some idea of where you can go to sink your teeth in further.
The Best Part Of Atomfall Is The Village Of Wyndham
This did improve once my aimless wandering brought me to a couple of NPCs who didn’t attack on sight. They gave me some leads (the game’s version of quests or missions), which meant there was a little more purpose to my stumbling, until at long last, I found the village of Wyndham.
As opposed to the endless series of enemies I was running away from, Wyndham instead gave me endless dialogue with NPCs. This shed some light on why the Druids were attacking me, which was great, giving me part of a story that was unfolding very naturally. It also gave me some side quests which threw me right into a conflict between the townsfolk and the military that oversees them with an iron fist.
In Wyndham, you can come across two old geezers outside a pub, debating whether or not they could jump the massive killer robot that patrols the village. It’s all very authentically British.
If Atomfall is determined to let us play however we want, then this is how I’d like to spend my time with the game. For the most part, I enjoyed my time chatting with everyone in the village, However, I had some gripes with a particular NPC – the head of the military in the area – as he spoke for far too long, and didn’t say much of interest. Couple that with some awkwardly long gaps between lines of dialogue with a few characters, and conversations could sometimes feel a bit like sitting through a PowerPoint presentation about the town, rather than engaging in an actual conversation.
Despite its flaws, Atomfall is saved by its setting. Its recreation of the English countryside is as authentic as its English brand of authoritarianism – oppression without even the friendly face that we see in Fallout. Suffering for suffering’s sake. It makes for fantastic foundations for a survival game, but I’m still waiting to be sucked in.
Right now, my biggest concern for Atomfall isn’t the jank or the difficulty, it’s the hook. All of the ingredients are there, but if the story isn’t communicated in a way that’s more compelling than an NPC spewing fairly uninspired dialogue for about five minutes straight, then the brutal grind to uncover the truth might just be too much.
What kept me going through my run was the promise of something else waiting for me. If Atomfall can deliver on this promise, then all of these mechanics could come together to create something gritty and beautiful. If not, then it’s a decent, challenging shooter with a gorgeous backdrop. But really, Atomfall feels like it wants to be more than that, and we’ll have to wait and see if it can fulfil its lofty ambitions.
Survival
Action
Adventure
- Released
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March 27, 2025
- ESRB
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Teen // Blood, Language, Violence