February 2025 was a fairly maboule month in terms of outings, since we were still entitled to three major titles, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Avowed and Monster Hunter Wilds, but March is just as intense with other future games. We started with the excellent split fiction (play Split Fiction is too good), there is WWE 2K25 which has just been released, The First Berserker Khazan of the Korean studios Neople and Nexon, Assassin’s Creed Shadows at the end of the month (I have soon finished the game, by the way) and a certain Atomfall that I am going to talk to you today. had the opportunity to play there a few weeks ago in the company of the developers on the final version and therefore to bring you my own gameplay captured in 4K on PC. We often compare Atomfall to Fallout, Stalker, Bioshock, but in the English countryside, by the story he tells, but also at the level of the gameplay. Can the analogy justified, can Atomfall create the surprise? This is what we will see together …
Atomfall, what exactly is it? It is to start the new game of the Rebellion studios, which you probably know for the series of Zombie Army, but especially Sniper Elite. It is a British studio that has existed since 1992, based in Oxford in Great Britain, and which therefore launches a new IP and especially their first Open World game. For this new adventure, they decided to take an interest in an event which is ultimately not well known to the general public: the nuclear disaster of Windscale, located in the north of England, and which took place on October 10, 1957. I do not know if we can really speak of a disaster, let’s say rather fire, but which was still judged level 5 on the Ines scale. Chernobyl is level 7, so yeah it’s still quite important. For the Rebellion studio, which is English therefore, it is a subject that has never been treated in video games and for a studio that tends to create games with a British spirit, it was obvious. And then the fact that the accident took place in 1957 was also a good opportunity for the developers to embark on an era that they had not yet treated.
Not Great Britain
As is often the case with events linked to nuclear disasters, we will find ourselves in a well -established contaminated area, exposed to significant radioactivity, which will give birth to unlocked people and often deformized creatures. So we start our adventure in this world 5 years after the disaster and everyone who lives there seems to have found a kind of stable balance. But we, players, we land there as a foreigner, amnesiac moreover, and that leads us to ask ourselves if these people are still healthy. This is something that we will see over the progress of course, but one thing is certain, the people you will meet on your road want your death, and it laughs zero. I don’t really know when I started my game session, but the enemies were particularly aggressive, landed in a group and above all, they did not hesitate to jump to our throat. Fortunately, I was already well equipped, with the choice between an ax, a cricket bat and a rusty rifle, but unfortunately without the slightest ammunition.
Atomfall is a game with a survivalist approach and clearly, firearms are secondary, it is rather your ability to manage the combat melee which will be important, and in particular this kick front very very useful to repel and stun adversaries for a short time, knowing that in addition to your health to monitor, there is also a stamina bar that must also be managed. There are obviously several ways to get out of it, especially as we can pick up the weapons of enemies, but also defend yourself with your fists. But sometimes, when the threat is too important, it is not ashamed to flee, to go hide in the tall grass, or outright go to hide in caves, out of sight. And what is good with these underground areas is that the game is launching a loading of zones, which makes it possible to really sow enemies.
Demerd my coconut
Atomfall remains nevertheless an open world, but which has trouble hiding these loading times, probably because it is the first time that the Rebellion studio has tried the open world with its home engine, Asura, which manages the sniper Elite games well, but shows its limits as soon as a project is more ambitious. But the British studio will try to fill its shortcomings with other aspects, in particular its colorful characters that we will cross on our road, the dialogues, very British in the soul, capable of debating the weather when there is in the sky a gigantic blue, semi-occult vortex. History and narration in Atomfall have also been treated through puzzles and interconnected tracks to assemble. These tracks can be followed in any order, even if they are all linked to each other, and do not require traditional quests. A choice that has several advantages, the first is to let the player make his adventure as he sees fit, give him this total freedom to go where he wants. The second point is for obvious production needs, since it costs less to do. No sophisticated questful design, no kinematics either to produce, Atomfall remains in any way an AA in his proposal.
In any case, offering less managed open worlds is a bit the trend today. We arrived at a moment of saturation where the players know by heart the usual Ubisoft way formulas, and that now, we no longer want to give us hands. And precisely, to stand out, Atomfall will offer something that is rarely used today: barter. In Atomfall, the resources are rare and the money is useless, so all the trade is done by barter and conclude a good agreement with a merchant can be of vital importance. One may want food and bandages, while another needs weapons, which changes the situation somewhat. There is also an interesting object in Atomfall, the metal detector, which is essential to recover other resources, such as scrap, medical supplies or ammunition. There too, it is super important to find resources necessary for survival. And besides, this survivalist side, austere limit, we find it with this notion of visibility. In dark places without light, it is important to have your lumber lamp with you, because without light source, you detect absolutely nothing, we see that slab. Worse, in the gaming portion that was offered to us, it was impossible to have your tail lamp with your weapon. It was either one or the other. A little hardcore indeed …
Hooked atoms?
If Atomfall is often compared to Fallout, it is more for its atmosphere, its universe that its gameplay in fact. Because unlike Bethesda’s game, Atomfall is not an RPG, it offers RPG elements yes, but in a really different way. We are more on the side of an exploration and survival game like Stalker, with a fairly similar progression. On the other hand, there is something atomfall promises to do, it is the choice to kill or leave alive. According to the developers, Atomfall is a game that can be finished without killing anyone. A promise that speedrunners will try to discover by taking up the challenge. The fact remains that even if Atomfall is already compared to the older ones like Fallout or Stalker, the game will beware with its unpublished proposals. See you on March 27 to be clear!