Atomfall Review (PS5) – Apocalypse Highbrow
Rebellion has always been a developer I’ve rooted for. Ever since I got a little bit addicted to their long-forgotten multiplayer jaunt Strange Brigade, I’ve always felt like they’re a team that I’ve wanted to do well. They create games I’m interested in, particularly their stellar Sniper Elite series, so the news of them creating a brand new IP about an apocalyptic level event in the British countryside perked up my ears. I wanted to see them attempt something bold, something daring but still distinctly Rebellion. Atomfall is their answer and there’s plenty to discuss with this one.
If you’ve watched our video coverage of Atomfall /(find below) you’ll hear me babble on about how excited I was for this one. I had a lot of love for The Chinese Room’s 2015 walking simulator ‘Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture’, and Atomfall, at least in the trailers, looked like it was going to be a spiritual sequel, albeit with a whole new story – an alternative version of a real life power plant explosion in the 1960’s – and world to explore. The comparisons to Fallout were inevitable of course, but this is nothing like it. This is very much its own beast and playing by the rules it would appear to have made up itself.
And that’s the cool thing about Atomfall, it doesn’t feel like anything you would have played before. Once you jump into the empty, desolate and dangerous world the game inhabits, you’re pretty much on your own. You wake up in a bunker, hounded by a wounded NPC telling you to be safe but get the hell out, and there’s very few people that would like to keep you alive dotted around. Why? You have no idea.
Atomfall instead of guiding you to a glowing dot ahead of you effectively leaves you to explore and find your objectives. There’s a story thread throughout but in a terribly British turn of events, there’s no rush. Your character has no idea how he ended up in the bunker, so that’s probably the first question to answer right? Nah, there’s exploring to be done and you’ve got plenty of sites to see before you have any idea why you’ve woken up in a Northern village that appears to be under siege.
It’s yours to just put the puzzle pieces together at your leisure. Yes you’ll meet NPC’s that love a natter along the way – pay close attention because their information will more than likely be vital to pushing you in ‘a’ direction – some will be chatty and helpful, others will require you ‘barter’ with them for stuff that will be helpful along the way. More on that later.
The knowledge you need will begin piling up and soon enough, you’ll find yourself moving towards locations that are appearing on your map. There’s a lot of ‘you may want to go here to do this to find her who can tell you about this’, which is delightfully vague. I should stress this all kicks in a few minutes after you get yourself out of the bunker. From the get go you’re lost and utterly bewildered by what’s occurring and there’s no real tutorial to make sense of. You learn along the way when you reach a point that you need that mechanic, so don’t expect to know everything straight away. You won’t. It’s best knowing this going into Atomfall before you take the leap. If you’re not up for some serious exploration to know what the hell you’re meant to be doing this game isn’t going to be for you. It’s just that damn cut and dry.
I would normally bulk at such a mechanic. Whilst I’m no fan of handholding in my games, I do like a little kick just to get me started. And yet the intriguing aspect of Atomfall is you just want to explore. You can’t go everywhere immediately, you’re simply not powerful enough at the beginning to take on the ne’er do well’s that haunt these plains so you’re best keeping it locked to the first couple of towns to get your bearings.
There was a sequence where I headed into a boat shack completely randomly and picked up a key for a bedroom in a bakery. The bakery was back in the main square I was just exploring, full of soldiers and steampunk robots ready to pounce if you step out of line (it’s best to just go about your business at first. Stirring up trouble will activate the army and you’ve no chance of getting out of that one). I found the bakery and went to speak to the nice lady that worked there. We had a chat about what on earth is happening and she shared that her husband was slightly unwell but not to tell the soldiers. Ah, he must be hiding behind the locked bedroom door.
After our conversation I made my way upstairs, opened the door and there was her husband, staring back at me with glaring blue eyes. The wife came up after me and told me to get the hell outta there, which of course I duly obliged until her husband began to attack me. At this point I only have a cricket bat on me for defence so I’m going hell for leather on this guy like I’ve got red on me, and the wife also wants to get a few jabs in because well, I’ve somewhat betrayed her trust and she’s pissed.
I end up killing them both. I didn’t really want to do that but there we are, I was literally backed into a corner by each of them and well, it’s them or me. I make my way quietly out of the bakery so as not to alert the soldiers that I’ve just committed a double homicide and go on the hunt to work out why there was a key to her bedroom door in the boat shack in the first place. Atomfall! Wait, did I say something about glowing blue eyes?
Well yes. The village you’ve found yourself in is in quite the quarantine after the nuclear disaster, and the evacuation process has certainly taken its toll on these small towns. Many fell ill and were rounded up by the armies and some were simply left to keep calm and carry on in their own way. It’s not been great for those who survived and are still around, as outside of the quarantined towns are gangs and cults that have begun a new life of pillage and murder with no rozzers around to stop them.
Delve even deeper and you’ll discover the ‘druids’, former humans who have been taken by whatever on earth it was they were trying to keep under wraps in the nuclear bunker and walk the streets with a taste for murderings. They’re a pain in the ass to take out, and my first encounter with them saw me throw damn near everything I had at them and there were only three. Ah, such innocent times. Safe to say if you run into them run the other way, or if you have to, be very patient in the fight. They can spit on you and that will drain your health extremely fast. Either be ready for a scrap – and make sure you have at least one poison resistant tonic to neck – or just head off to somewhere else. Don’t even get me started on the beehives.
And that was the story of the poor husband in the bakery. The virus had taken him, but not fully. His humanity seemingly still remained in some form but was not happy that I just barged in on him. If you come across that particular quest, I have no idea if it was better to just leave them be. I haven’t gone back. I’d be a terrible murderer if I did, wouldn’t I?
But it’s those stories that make Atomfall compelling enough to learn everything that’s happened in this unfortunate village. The mystery surrounding you around every corner was compelling enough to keep my interest, and despite me getting my ass handed to me several times I kept coming back – thankfully there’s a fantastic difficulty system where you can make the game as hard or as easy as you need it to be with a wealth of custom options.
There’s a fair amount of combat in Atomfall and it’s mostly not brilliant. Early on, unsurprisingly, you’re basically a pin cushion and Atomfall doesn’t really help you out. Because the game is so free in its exploration you can almost hear the developers go ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have come down here yet, let’s see how this plays out’. And it do be like that, no combat encounter is ever particularly easy. Ammo is sparse, weapons are even harder to find and you’re incredibly vulnerable even when your stats are boosted. The aforementioned bandit camps are particularly unwelcoming and you’re immediately outnumbered. They’re all experts with a bow like they’re training for the Hunger Games and unless you’ve got yourself some handy weapons you aren’t going to last long.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, a strong offence can test you as a gamer and it’s certainly more of an observation than a complaint, but if the ‘walk around and find the clues’ mechanic didn’t already put off some players, I’ve no doubt the balancing (or lack thereof) of the enemies is going to push you over the edge. You’ve already jumped in with both feet to learn everything you can about why on earth you woke up in a bunker in a quarantined village with little to no idea of where to explore, only for the exploration to be jilted because the enemies are so much stronger than you. I’m not gonna say it’s unfair, and again you can tinker with their strength in the difficulty section – although they’re still rather formidable on lower difficulties -, but again it’s worth mentioning that you don’t have a hand to guide you around, you haven’t got one in a fight either.
Sometimes though you have a shotgun and you can blast them in the face and watch them fly. Oh, it’s satisfying.
You can stock up on ammo and weapons though if you choose to. The aforementioned ‘bartering’ system is by far the most interesting mechanic of Atomfall outside of the story. In order to trade with the locals that miraculously don’t want to butcher your face off you’ll need to offer them something of equal value, and a cool weighing system begins when you’re in the menu. This can mean you’re giving away some helpful items, but early on I found the weapons and ammo were helpful but not essential, as I just needed any clue of where the hell I needed to go. You’ll have better stuff to trade as the game continues obviously, and it becomes easier to part with certain goodies when you see what you could get in return. It’s very cool and only adds to the rather frightening dystopian world these quarantined souls have to struggle with. The bartering system adds to the narrative in unexpected and interesting ways, it’s well worth playing around with your inventory to ensure you have something on you at all times that you can barter with for better gear, ammo, health resources or hell, metal detectors.
Talking of, you can get a metal detector fairly early in the game. Do it. It’s brilliantly helpful.
It’s difficult to categorise Atomfall because it’s a deftly unique experience. Yes, it’s another apocalyptic survival game. Yes, it’s tough as nails if you’re nor ‘survivaling’ well enough, but gosh is it rewarding. There’s one hell of a story being told here and I’m delighted that Rebellion took the plunge to make something as interesting and well, batshit as Atomfall. It’s a successful swing for the British developer, who hasn’t ever made anything quite as expansive and, dare I say, gnarly as this.
It’s a game you really have to play to get an idea if you’re going to stick it out and see it through to its conclusion. It’s worth it but hey, I’m just a reviewer. Atomfall is a perfect Game Pass game for this exact reason.
If the combat was tightened up and the mechanics weren’t so polarising (I’m gonna assume some may jump off Atomfall fairly quickly whilst others will lap up the constant search for something to do), we could have been looking at one of the year’s best games. It doesn’t quite hit the halls of excellence, but Rebellion should be super proud of what they’ve made here, and we can only hope it’s the beginning of a new era for this cracking studio.
Bravo, Rebellion. Jolly good show!
Atomfall is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, Xbox Game Pass, PS5 (review platform), PS4 and PC via Steam.
Developer: Rebellion
Publisher: Rebellion
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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