At the time of writing this review, I have spent more than a dozen hours in the world of Atomfall. I will try to give you as much information about the game as possible without spoiling it for you because, and let me take this one away at the very start, I genuinely believe that Atomfall is a game that everyone should get to experience.
The Story of Atomfall
Compared to the other giants that it is often compared to, namely Fallout and STALKER, Atomfall is a relatively small game. This did not come as a surprise to me since the developers were very upfront about it from the beginning. It is, however, precisely as the saying goes: It’s not about the size but what you do with it. And Rebellion, the developer behind Atomfall, sure knows how to make the most of what they have.
The World of Atomfall: Small but Mighty
Atomfall excels at something that, if done right, is often overlooked. I am talking about the game’s world design. The developer decided against throwing you into a vast open world and opted instead to divide the game’s world into different sections that are separate from one another. When I first found out about this, I genuinely believed that it was going to be one of my main criticisms of the game.
Exploration is one of my favorite parts of any game, and at first, it seemed like dividing the game in this way might hinder that. However, while playing, I quickly realized that the division isn’t nearly as noticeable as I first believed it to be. This is mainly due to the fact that each region is chock full of things to explore and uncover. Because of this, you barely notice any barriers. Instead, I often found myself stumbling upon more things to explore than I had the time to. Frequently, exploring one location led to me discovering an alternate entrance to one of the other regions of the game.
Through these alternate paths of travel, the different regions are more intertwined and connected than meets the eye. As a result, I often found myself travelling between different areas without really noticing. Since fast travel is not a thing in Atomfall, the ability to effortlessly traverse the game’s world is key and certainly something that the developers succeeded in.
Oberon Must Die.
Oberon Must Die. These are some of the first and most memorable words in the game. When you first hear them, they raise far more questions than they provide answers. The words are spoken to you by a mysterious voice on the telephone, and you quickly come to realize that Oberon is at the very center of this strange world. And this is where the story of Atomfall really starts. You wake up in the quarantine zone with no recollection of how you got there or what you should do. All you know is that you need to escape and that Oberon stands in your way.
Now, it is up to you to decide where the story of Atomfall takes you. The developers have decided against a more traditional approach to story progression by eliminating quests as you know them. Instead, the game provides you with leads that you then have to follow. Sometimes, different leads may lead to the same goal, while others lead you down a path that you may not have been expecting.
Ultimately, the game has many different endings that are up to you to discover. Personally, I really enjoyed the story of Atomfall. It may not revolutionize gaming like Red Dead Redemption 2 did or cause me to break down in tears through sheer emotion, but it did a very good job of pulling me deep into the quarantine zone.
The main story serves as a guideline that gently nudges you in the right direction. In my opinion, however, the main story of Atomfall is not about escaping. Instead, the game’s story is told through the many fates and experiences that you stumble upon on your way through the quarantine zone. A lot of the time while playing, escaping wasn’t really on my mind. Instead, I wanted to explore every corner of the game’s world and take it all in before I ultimately gave in to my curiosity regarding the nature of Oberon.
Gameplay: Tough but Fair?
The difficulty of Atomfall is something that I already mentioned in my short preview on the game. That’s because something as essential as the difficulty of a game shouldn’t be overlooked. Out of the box, Atomfall is undoubtedly a challenging experience. Resources are rare, weapons are lethal, and enemies are plenty. Luckily, you’re not stuck with only a few predefined difficulty settings. Instead, the game lets you adjust its difficulty to your liking through differing playstyles. These can then be further fine-tuned to fit your exact preferences.
As such, if you like exploration but don’t care too much for combat, you can choose a playstyle that increases the difficulty of exploration while assisting you in fights. Even if you’re only in it for the story, there’s a setting for you, too. I left my settings mostly unchanged. However, on occasion, when the game suddenly turned into a horror shooter, I regretted that decision.
Overall, however, the game felt well-balanced and never too easy or too challenging. Be prepared to figure out how to approach certain situations on your own. Some enemies take five shotgun blasts to the head, making the use of your precious bullets worthwhile, while others can quickly be subdued with the well-timed swing of a club.
Atomfall: An Action RPG with Very Little RPG
Atomfall refers to itself as an Action RPG, though I am not quite sure that descriptor really fits what I played. When I think of an RPG, I think of things like character building, strategic leveling, and so on. Atomfall doesn’t really do any of that. The game lacks a traditional leveling system, and the few perks and traits that are on offer feel like an afterthought.
Furthermore, even after over a dozen hours of gameplay, I still haven’t figured out how to upgrade my weapons. There’s a Steam achievement for fully upgrading one of your guns, so surely, it must be possible. Whether this is a skill issue on my part or a flaw in game design remains to be seen. Other than that, the game does a solid job of letting you figure things out on your own without leaving you in the dark entirely.
And while I wouldn’t call the game an Action RPG, the lack of character building doesn’t bother me too much. While it would certainly be nice to have more of a connection to the character you play, the lack thereof doesn’t take away from the story. Something I do appreciate is the game’s dialogue. Atomfall gives you many different ways to approach encounters. I can’t say for sure how much your choices affect the game, though it does at least feel like they matter.
A Beautiful Game with Lots to See
I have already talked about the fantastic world design of Atomfall, so I won’t go into it again. But I do want to talk about the game’s graphics. Atomfall is beautiful. It’s as simple as that. The game just looks outstanding. Every region has a unique vibe to it, and every location feels different. The game’s small size becomes a significant advantage here, as no matter which region you explore, the destroyed Windscale plant looms eerily in the distance. If you’re like me and you enjoyed geography in school, you’ll quickly start to use it for orientation.
The game’s spectacular graphics design becomes especially apparent in locations like Wyndham Village and the Interchange. Wyndham Village looks serene, but the chosen style adds an undertone of impending doom. The Interchange, on the other hand, immediately feels like this big monstrosity that gave rise to almost incomprehensible evil.
The Performance of Atomfall
I played Atomfall on my computer at home. That computer is equipped with an Intel i9-13900K, an RTX 4090, and 64 GB of RAM. Atomfall runs great on my computer, and I didn’t notice any issues. I encountered very few bugs in general, which is surprising in an early build. If you do run into problems like micro-stutters, I recommend updating your graphics drivers.
Word of caution, though: Setting the frame rate to Unlimited caused my computer to go into overdrive. My graphics card jumped to 99 % load, which is something that no other game has managed thus far. As soon as I limited my frame rate to 120, the problem was solved, and as it turns out, Atomfall is actually far less resource-hungry than most other modern games. It seems like someone did a great job when it comes to optimization.
My Conclusion on Atomfall
All in all, I strongly recommend Atomfall to anyone who loves exploration and wants to jump into a great game for 20 to 50 hours. If you’re looking for a post-apocalyptic RPG like Fallout and aren’t willing to move away from what you know, Atomfall may not be for you. However, as a big Fallout fan myself, I encourage you to keep an open mind and give Atomfall a try.
The game’s great world justifies the $50 price tag on Steam, and if you’re like me, then the different endings are certainly going to allow for great replayability. I know that I will surely spend many more hours immersed in the world of Atomfall before I am able to move on to another game.
