Atomfall has encouraged comparison to Fallout ever since its reveal, thanks to its satirical take on retro culture in a post-apocalyptic setting. However, whenever anyone has got their hands on the game, it has forcibly resisted such comparisons like an unfortunate baker trying to fight back against the soldiers who’ve locked down her bakery.
The aesthetic is very much British Fallout. It’s a clever twist on the most famous post-apocalyptic setting in gaming which not only turns the American Dream into a British Nightmare, but adapts its apocalypse to boot. More picturesque quarantine than irradiated wasteland, the beautiful vistas of the Lake District are largely untouched by whatever disaster has befallen the area.
Clearly inspired by the pandemic, Atomfall’s setting is brilliantly realised and consistent throughout. From aggressive Druids to boot-licking vicars, the characterisation is reminiscent of Hot Fuzz’s Neighbourhood Watch Alliance or Jackie Weaver’s ill-fated Zoom call.
But the setting is only as important as how you explore it. Thankfully, Atomfall has a fantastic approach to quests.
A Trail Of Breadcrumbs
Before playing the game, I assumed that developer Rebellion calling Atomfall’s quests ‘leads’ was just marketing jargon. However, it’s actually a refreshing way to approach a game that’s reminiscent of immersive sims.
Your first lead might be stumbling across a note that says June has been sticking her nose into other people’s business. Then you’ll hear some gossip from the baker or the pub landlord. These clues will build up until you’ve got a vague picture of what happened to this poor woman. With enough information, you can locate her long-boarded up house and investigate.
It’s brilliant to hear so many northern accents in a game. There’s even a Scouser or two, although I’m not sure why they relocated to the lakes! The exotic holiday resort of Rhyl even gets a mention.
This isn’t a new system of giving quests – many games have dropped similar hints for minor plot points before. However, Atomfall’s commitment to this is admirable. On the recommended difficulty setting, you have no idea if a lead is important or will just open up a random side quest. Sure, if a note scrawled on a scrap of paper tells you the coordinates of an entrance to The Interchange, that’s probably the critical path. But other than that, you’ve no idea if a clue is vital information or a personal grudge between two villagers. Or both.
On that note, I’d recommend playing on the recommended difficulty setting for a few reasons. Turning it any lower makes quests lose their lustre (having markers to follow and important missions marked as such ruins the system), exploration dull, and combat turgid (more on that later).
That said, the difficulty is more than just a slider. You can really dive into things and adjust a precise area if you want to make it easier or more difficult without changing the damage you take or how quests are displayed. If you’re really struggling, head into the advanced difficulty settings rather than just switching the main slider one notch lower.
More Stalker Than Fallout
The gameplay loop is not at all what I expected. RPG elements in Atomfall are light, barebones additions that don’t really impact gameplay in any noticeable manner. If you’re coming into this wanting to craft a powerful sniper build through shrewd investment of stat points, you’re out of luck. If you want to build a makeshift grenade and sneakily place it in an enemy encampment, however? This might just be the game for you.
Just as there are many ways to approach quests, there are multiple ways to deal with combat. However, I woulstatic.aayyy.com/topic/dn/’t advise a gung-ho (or should that be gun-ho?) approach.
Atomfall actively discourages you from using its most powerful weapons. It surprised me that a game from the developer that brought us Sniper Elite would introduce such clunky gunplay, but it’s an intentional attempt to push you towards more stealthy approaches. Guns are loud and largely inaccurate. If you land a headshot, your opponent will fall like a sack of Maris Pipers, but it will alert all their mates to your location, and then you’ve got a real problem.
The best approach to combat is stealthy and methodical. A sneak attack from behind will take out an opponent in one blow. It’s pretty quiet, too, and can be more effective with the addition of perks. But you can’t do this to a group of enemies, or the others will see you. Hence the planning comes in.
Atomfall’s combat isn’t meant to be tackled like a Bethesda RPG. When you do so, it falls flat and quickly becomes boring. This is what makes the lower difficulties so uninteresting. This is a survival game through and through. Without the tension of skirting around a large group of Druids or crawling through a narrow gap in a heavily-fortified base teeming with soldiers, the exploration is dull. Without the constant threat, the entire gameplay loop falls flat.
Fight To Survive
I respect Atomfall’s commitment to its survival elements. It would have been easy for Rebellion to craft a generic RPG, but by going hard on survival, it has created something refreshing, something that requires concentration.
That’s not to say there aren’t downsides, however. I rate the lack of fast travel, but the crafting could be better. I found myself picking up enough loot that I rarely needed to craft anything. Other times, I had filled my crafting inventory, only to find that I coulstatic.aayyy.com/topic/dn/’t craft another grenade or pack of bandages because my item inventory was full. This restriction works well in other areas, when it comes to getting ambushed on your way back to civilisation and the like, but it leaves crafting redundant.
Similarly, the main narrative is dull. I coulstatic.aayyy.com/topic/dn/’t bring myself to care about Oberon or the science experiment gone awry. However, sub-plots and emergent storytelling more than make up for this. I found myself desperately caught up in the Wyndham town gossip and reminiscing on moments when I took out an entire encampment of enemies one by one, only to be ambushed by some roving hoodlums as I made my escape.
The RPG elements, namely the skill upgrades, also feel tacked on and unnecessary, not providing enough of a difference to impact your playstyle.
These elements keep Atomfall from perfection, but they’re easy to overlook when you’re crouched in a cave mouth awaiting the perfect opportunity to spring a trap on an unsuspecting soldier or following up a lead that you overheard in the Grendel's Head.
This is a game that really lets you do what you want. Side with the downtrodden villagers. Side with the despotic regime keeping them from leaving. Kill everyone on both sides. They’re all valid paths to follow. It can be a stealth game, an immersive sim, a detective game. I’m not convinced it’s an RPG, but that’s okay, too.
As someone who spent countless childhood holidays roaming these same Cumbrian hills before returning to a static caravan or family tent, Atomfall perfectly captures the British countryside. Combine that with a brilliant quest system and the tension of survival combat, and you’ve got a recipe for success. Now grab that cricket bat and decapitate a zombie before it eats your brains with Yorkshire puddings and gravy.
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Reviewed on PC.
Survival Action Adventure Systems 4.0/5 8.0/10 Released March 27, 2025 ESRB Teen // Blood, Language, Violence Developer(s) Rebellion Developments Publisher(s) Rebellion Developments Number of Players 1 Steam Deck Compatibility UnknownWHERE TO PLAY
SUBSCRIPTION- Nails the sickening, twee atmosphere of lockdown Britain
- Leads-based quest system is perfectly executed
- Survival elements add tension to combat and exploration
- Scousers
- Crafting redundant
- Main story not particularly enticing
- RPG systems feel pointless
