After I performed a number of hours of Atomfall at a preview earlier this month, the primary query Rebellion‘s action-survival recreation left me with (other than ‘the place’s the closest place I should purchase a vegetarian pasty to eat for tea?’) was simply how attention-grabbing would the bits that lay past what I’d performed be?
How deep would the intrigue go, when you’d actually began to crack open the razor-blade lined pastry of this tough and rugged journey to a Cumbrian quarantine zone arrange after a fictional variant of the true life Windscale fireplace?
Because it seems, the reply is probably rather less deep than I’d have favored. However right here’s the factor: I feel it relies upon lots on precisely who you might be whether or not this lack of depth can be a constructive or a unfavourable. To correctly rip the hastily-crafted bandage off, right here’s the scenario. I reached the ending to my first playthrough of Atomfall after simply 11 hours. That was with me pursuing a number of of the primary quest threads that every provide a special method to assault the ending, however not fairly all of them.
I used to be on the really useful ‘Survivor’ problem (the second hardest the sport gives), so I wasn’t doing something that may artificially shorten my run-up by probably mismatching the final hardness of issues to my already not uber-MLG talents. I didn’t have any particular pre-order bonus gear or something to assist out both. Atomfall’s only a recreation that, in the event you’re not planning on taking many extended breaks from pursuing whichever primary story leads you’re prioritising to show over each stone and comb by means of each location within the zone, doesn’t have that lengthy a runtime.
That’s to not say that what’s within the recreation isn’t recurrently intriguing, charming, or satisfying. Nor will you come out of whichever ending you go for feeling that you simply’ve been short-changed. However this truncated runtime makes the sport an attention-grabbing one to grade.
Given an opportunity to correctly settle right into a construct and crafting setup, I gravitated in the direction of a normal technique of shifting all over the place stealthily, then taking out most foes by sprinting as much as them, dodging any photographs or swings as greatest I might, and bonking my enemies to dying with a trusty cricket bat.
As soon as I took a perk to spice up my character’s melee injury, I discovered I might end off most human enemies with two or three hits, and so long as I stored a gradual stockpile of alcohol and material to craft bandages I might use at any time when meals and first support kits weren’t plentiful, I might simply recuperate from most injury this technique uncovered me to.
In eventualities once I didn’t need to threat charging in, I used weapons and a bow from a distance, with the latter and a bolt-action sniper rifle serving to whittle down enemies with a good chunk of well being from vary. In the meantime, my fourth massive weapon slot held an SMG that I might save for essentially the most brown trousers-time encounters so as to not burn by means of its comparatively scarce and simply burned-through ammo.
In direction of the tip, I began utilizing certainly one of my smaller backpack slots for a pistol I might whip out in close-quarters fights towards weaker foes if I fancied. The hardest foes – big BARD robots with flamethrowers and machine weapons – I simply snuck or ran like hell previous, as the sport very a lot appears to mean. On the opposite finish of the size, you’ll be able to kick or slap swarms of rats, bats, pigeons, and leeches to dying. Which is enjoyable.
The vast majority of my perks, nonetheless, went into survival and conditioning. Stuff that helped toughen me up and higher put together me to struggle the hostile environments you spend the overwhelming majority of the sport in. Three of those – Casterfell Woods, Skethermoor, and Slatten Dale – are open air areas of the sport’s above-ground sandbox, and every is patrolled by its personal enemy faction that’ll shoot you on sight. Masked druids, rowdy-looking outlaws, and British military troops often called The Protocol, they’re all to be handled in no matter trend you deem most sensible as you discover every of those thematically-distinct areas that each one boast a rugged magnificence matching their harmful atmospheres.
Wyndham is the fourth little bit of the puzzle, and it’s the most important of the uncommon protected havens you can dip into once you’re crushed down and in want of a fast reprieve from the kicking Atomfall offers you. That’s, until you mess with the Protocol troopers who’re occupying it, so it’s a bit much less protected than you would possibly first suppose. There’s some first rate intrigue happening throughout all of those areas, a good roster of pleasant NPCs to speak to, results in chase, and little mysteries to research.
As you push in the direction of the tip recreation, nonetheless, you’ll end up spending a whole lot of time in The Interchange – the secretive underground bunker you’ll must progressively carry again to life and acquire entry to totally different bits of with the intention to uncover what occurred on the recreation’s model of the Windscale plant to kick into impact the quarantine. I’ll not delve too deeply into spoiler territory, however I’ll say that what you uncover feels prefer it pulls bits from online game apocalypses it’s possible you’ll properly have performed by means of earlier than.
I used to be very a lot reminded of some components from The Last of Us, together with Fallout: New Vegas – particularly the Dead Money DLC. None of that’s a difficulty in a vacuum, Atomfall delivers its story with nearly sufficient distinctive flavour to maintain you hooked, however I do really feel prefer it solely scratches the floor of the potential its premise exudes from a story perspective.
The mechanic that delivers the story works properly. Except you go for a decrease problem that allows issues like map markers and additional hints to assist exploration, Atomfall’s detective-style lead system is a refreshingly stripped-back different to the UI-heavy quest and navigation techniques you’ll discover in most open-world video games ( those I imply).
It meshes properly with the narrative tone Rebel’s gone for, which could be very understated and retains a whole lot of its playing cards near its chest. That fashion of storytelling could be very British, and is a part of what makes Atomfall really feel totally different from the likes of Fallout, with the latter typically being extra open – both by way of simply pulling again the curtain as to what’s happening and why, or in acknowledging the philosophical dialogue at play.
In idea, each work simply nice, however I do really feel Atomfall’s strategy holds it again in locations from delivering one thing extra compelling or with a bit extra depth. Plenty of the lore – for lack of a greater time period – about The Interchange, the occasions of the quarantine, and the mysterious Oberon mendacity on the centre of all of it, is delivered through notes or brief conversations that always really feel like they cease in need of actually charming you and delivering a correct whiff of the attention-grabbing story Atomfall’s consistently teasing that it’s obtained brewing away.
I’ve seen 4 totally different endings to the sport thus far, and all of them felt a bit flat, like they had been failing to or breaking off earlier than they may conclude issues in a correctly satisfying trend. There are occasions when Atomfall’s mystery-weaving serves it properly as its narrative progresses and also you get some good short-term alternative in consequence, nevertheless it doesn’t drop the curtain a lot, even once you attain the purpose once you really feel prefer it ought to be, and the reveals you do get generally really feel like they’re the least curiously delivered end result potential.
It jogged my memory a whole lot of The Chinese Room’s Still Wakes the Deep on this approach – well-crafted, unquestionably good enjoyable, however with a narrative that feels prefer it’s in all probability the weakest a part of the factor, both as a result of it’s leaning a bit too closely on style tropes or holding again from truly committing to delivering on the weather that might transcend that.
There’s nonetheless a very good probability you’ll nonetheless find it irresistible. The gameplay loop is satisfying, the environments are enjoyable to discover, and the brief runtime makes it a perfect Recreation Cross factor you can provide a go with out having to fork over 60 hours that might properly get a bit stale by the tip. Nonetheless, I feel Rebel’s left what might have made Atomfall an ideal recreation relatively than only a good or okay one on the desk right here.
It’s nearer to puddle deep when it could possibly be a lake or ocean given its cool premise. Or, to place it in a extra Atomfall approach, it’s a pasty that doesn’t fairly ship a filling that matches how tasty the pastry seems.
Atomfall launches on March 27 for PC, Xbox Collection X/S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4. It’s going to come to Xbox Recreation Cross on day one. This evaluation was carried out on PC utilizing a code offered by the writer.