Keiran McEwen
Keiran McEwenBy the 60s, the UK was returning to a decent economy with low unemployment, and Atomfall’s alt-history proposed a somewhat similar time frame. However, the fire at the Windscale nuclear power plant in 1957 seemed to be a bit of a setback; the incident was only two levels below that of Chornobyl on the INES. Stepping up the real-life downplay by the British Government, Atomfall sees a full-blown quarantine zone around the plant (a plant still active today) with a little bit more conspiracy, more pulpy aesthetics, and maybe just a slight exaggeration of the setting.
Indeed, “pip-pip, cheery-o” and all that, right up to the Dan Dare-era sci-fi/spy/action hero comics. Clad in some WWII-era service dress, you wake up in a bunker being told by Walt Whitman’s #1 British fan to escape the QZ and tell the truth about the Windscale Atom plant. The set-up is plain and simple, though, unlike the real-life cover-up by the government, Atomfall’s plot is a little bit more than just trying to maintain agreements with Americans for nuclear research. From Doomsday cults, military personnel, and even robots created by “BARD” (UKAEA), it all sounds a little Fallout.
Developed and published by the repeated irrigation of Nazis specialist, Rebellion takes on its first first-person title since Aliens Vs Predator, the same year they made a PDC darts game. A bit more than Bubbleton-on-Tweed (or wherever) from We Happy Few, there is plenty to be said about the setting and aesthetic, but the story of Atomfall is on less solid ground from which it sets off. Peppered with more regional accents than the BBC these last few years, you are practically thrown out of the bunker, told to find something vague, and there’s an obvious landmark right in front of you to give you some more direction.
Since its reveal last June, I’ve been excited (as have many) about Atomfall for several reasons, from the look and general comparisons made, right up to the British pulp fiction that is noted to have influenced it in several ways. That said, if you’re keeping the Fallout comparison in your head, you’re in the wrong place. Atomfall wants to be weird, different, and a sandbox open-world rather than a story-based RPG’s open-world. Crafting and survival take precedence over the plot and some more personal stories.
What I think is going to be quickly lost on basically anyone playing is that you aren’t supposed to be a super soldier, you aren’t supposed to be overpowered, and you aren’t anyone important. So when you’re out in the wild areas surrounding the charming little town of Wyndham, you’re going to be beaten to death with sticks and spat on like it was Cleator Moor, unless you’re careful. Combat is clunky and even described by Rebellion as “desperate” and “messy.” Mostly due to a stamina meter based on your heart rate: running or fighting will raise your heart rate.
Though stealth isn’t really key either, that’s where I think Atomfall feels odd. I’m all for limiting the UI and not doing the same as every other studio, but you can’t mark threats and despite having some large open areas, you can’t pull out binoculars to see the distance in detail. A lot of Atomfall feels very stripped back, which makes me hesitant to say it is much of an RPG. Not because it doesn’t offer damage numbers for weapons. In fact, I love that for the story of the character, but simply the amenities we’re used to in RPGs and wider games aren’t there.
Typically when you think of an RPG, there is a clear focus and though there is a mystery there is always a sense of direction. Atomfall gives you a sense of direction by offering quests by the fist-full, but with that and its nimble world, it does eventually feel like you’re being pulled in too many directions to truly have a focus. Take one of the team’s inspirations: Fallout New Vegas tells you to go to the big shiny bit called Vegas, as Fallout 4 directs you to Diamond City. The point is that it is more than just a name, it is a landmark you can see from several points. Atomfall tells you to find the mysterious Intersection.
I think it is about here I should probably highlight one of my favorite things Atomfall does that Assassin’s Creed Shadows also does, to a degree. Atomfall gives you map coordinates and leads rather than floating way markers, giving you vague directions to explore in allowing you to see the world more naturally than running head-first into enemy bases and clearing them out. The Outlaws are a bit more fluid, exploring and being just about everywhere possible, the druids have their area, The Protocol (army) stick to their posts, and the others made me nearly need a quarantine zone myself.
Yet for all that I love about the lead system sending you on your way, it becomes a tad laborious when avoiding roaming gangs of reasonably armed bandits. The Outlaws have a mix of melee and gun power, the druids are a bit more sickle and bow-based, while the army is of course a touch more, “We’ll have the robots stamp on your head until you’re a blood-soaked stump.” That’s where I think Atomfall succeeds best, it’s aesthetic and atmosphere to instill fear of what’s out there, paced like a 70s episode of Doctor Who, and depending on your play style maybe a touch of Matt Smith-era too.
On the recommended difficulty, you’re going to die, die, die, and die again. I opted for the keyboard and mouse-based setup because of this and, one it is a first-person game, and two, trying to fight and kill with this combat system and a controller seems like more of a task than the somewhat superfluous survival/crafting elements. Maybe I’m just a little burnt by the UI/UX, as healing items can only be accessed by opening your inventory, and doing so doesn’t pause or slow the action. That’s also where my “old” gamer brain got the best of me too, as I tweaked the difficulty just a bit.
If you have an issue with one specific bit of Atomfall’s difficulty, chances are you can change it, and change it I did. By default, you typically have health regeneration on to some degree and there is no way to turn it off, so I opted for “Intense;” which will slowly regenerate a small amount after a significant delay. One hit from certain attacks can and will take away your health bar like Malenia’s second phase. I’ll repeat myself, you’ll be beaten to death with sticks if you’re not careful.
However, sneaking around, being killed, and trying to do anything remotely connected with stealth isn’t exactly fun. Mostly because you’ve no idea who or what is near/around that corner. The combat isn’t all that fun either. So I’ve been left asking myself for a week what I do like about Atomfall, because despite my nitpicking, I do find it and its world charming, and delightful. Once you can sort out the way around the story pulling you in different directions, it’s actually not too bad either.
I think Atomfall’s aesthetic, world, details, and the fact that it isn’t either American-centric, mainland European-centric, or even London-centric. I’m not just saying this because there is a gun called the “Falkirk Battle Riffle” or the World War 1 monument looking somewhat familiar, the entire feeling of Atomfall is unlike that of basically anything else. As I said with Watch Dogs: Legion, I know this world, I know those street signs instinctively, and I know the little village that is focused around a small square (ok, it’s round), right down to the accents that change every two feet.
There might be more mystery than that of an Agatha Raisin and quiche-based plot, which settles down a little once you’re not thrown lots of different leads. There is more to Atomfall than just the mystery. The lead system and the dialog tell greater detail of what the world itself is telling you with beautiful design. Both the retro and the retro-futurism of atomic-powered robots are stunning, and with the smaller world scale, you get a bit more detail than you’d get with Fallout as of late.
All of this “glazing” aside, as the kids say, the performance and technicals are probably where I need to mention something small. Now I’ve played about 25 hours across three separate saves, all on the highest graphical settings (minus motion blur) on a PC with an i7, 32GB of RAM, and a 40 series RTX, which runs mostly at 60 frames per second. There have been minor dips to 57 frames here or there, mostly in busy areas when too much is trying to be loaded or there is an oddly timed auto-save.
Speaking of auto-saves, I’ve experienced a small blip on the occasional auto-save that means you’ll point in one direction, nudge the mouse during a minor freeze, and suddenly you’re pointing in the other direction. That’s the only performance issue I’ve had in my many hours aiming for different endings, of which there are at least five. It’s not a game-breaking or entirely unplayable state of performance, but it does get a bit annoying over time.
However, there is one “minor” issue that I think should be noted: depth of field while aiming. Be it with a rifle, a pistol, or even the typically overpowered bow, there is a depth of field around anything else you’re not directly pointing at. I’ve tried multiple graphical settings and even some of the detailed accessibility options, but nothing allows you to get rid of it. I don’t even want to say “I get it” because I don’t, it’s a faff on.
When you’re firing a weapon, especially one that is going to attract others to you, you need that peripheral vision to spot the next target and the one after that. It’s a nitpicky thing, but it is like all that time it takes to heal; it slows you down and isn’t so much fun. It somewhat takes away an option to pick people off and leaves you forced down a more melee route sometimes.
Atomfall is a wonderfully realized game with a clear Anglophile nature to it, with a wider reach that points beyond William Shakespeare or similar figures throughout history. It isn’t waving an English flag at you while walking a bulldog and shouting like a football (proper football) yob “This is England!” Understandably there is a “Northern” charm to it that isn’t jingoistic either, it’s beautiful not only in its setting but its wider reach that pulls in Scottish things too, presumably from head of design Ben Fisher and others.
Ultimately, Atomfall isn’t the best survival/crafting game, nor is it a fantastic action title either, but it is easily the best 20th-century retro-futurism game with nuclear disasters and set in the north of England. Ok, admittedly that’s a class of 1, but despite that, I don’t think Atomfall will be unseated from its spot anytime soon. Atomfall‘s aesthetic, setting, and story pull it through with combat that functions and stealth that feels negotiable but never going to be anyone’s first choice.
A PC review copy of Atomfall was provided by Rebellion for this review.
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26 Atomfall
$49.99
Pros
- Such a beautifully realized aesthetic and world.
- Despite being messy early on, an interesting story.
- Maybe a reference or two to Scotland beyond one accent.
Cons
- Stealth could be done a lot better.
- Maybe we could have quests not thrown at us like wedding confetti?
- Without fast travel, there is a lot of marching through hostile areas.
