A British Gem
Rebellion, the folks behind the very successful Sniper Elite series are back with a bang with this new game, Atomfall. A first-person game that acts very much like the Fable or Fallout games. I was very interested in seeing this in action, it’s not really been on my radar as stuff but being a huge fan of Rebellion, I was eager to give this a go. I’ve played Atomfall extensively so far, and whilst there are gripes from a personal point of view, more to do with pacing than anything, Atomfall plays a very good game
First thing you’ll notice when you play Atomfall in the first hour or so, Atomfall is very, very british. I have this feeling that this game is going to be absolutely loved over hear, but overseas may crash badly. The voice acting is just as british as you’ll get and I applaud it. Seeing an old scouse lass argue with a scottish soldier who then reports to his welsh superior… Yeah, this is the kind of stuff that you’re going to embrace in Atomfall throughout, and I’m all for it! Some of it sounds hilariously bad, but it just isn’t out of place in Atomfall. Atomfall focuses around a military based place called Atom Plant, where things have gone very badly. You wake up in a bunker with next to no memories and it’s up to you to find out more about yourself and what has happened to the Atom Plant, and why now restrictions and armies are put in place in villages in order to keep you out. I can’t tell you how the story ends, but I’m enjoying playing this and getting little bits of the story as I am going through. This is a story that’s complex, but if you’re willing to give it the time, it’ll reward you.
Atomfall is not a traditional RPG. You don’t have main and side quests. Rebellion are not holding your hand in this one! It is up to you how you play this one out, and how you do so is complete your choice too. I believe that you could go through this 100% stealthily and avoid killing anyone. That’s the approach I wanted to…. until some welsh NPC give me a bit of verbal so I cracked him over the head with a cricket bat that I’d found back in the valley I was going through. You’ll need to make sure you are very down on your management of your items. Atomfall is brutal when it comes to supplies, especially when it comes to guns. I had a gun, a rifle, which only could allow 3 rounds at a time. That one bullet could definitely determine if you progress further in this game. I felt that the NTCs were a bit ‘too’ alert to my presence throughtout my play, which often let me frustrated. Like many games of this ilk, there are big hordes of grass that you can hide in, as well as the good ol’ fashioned takedown feature. There were times when I really wish that Sniper Elite was blended in so I could take down some guard with a sniper from miles away! One place where the game does have that Rebellion is there are very large areas. Because the game doesn’t have a waypoint so to speak, you’ll definitely find yourself getting lost within each village and as you enter ‘The Interchange’, things get a lot more complicated then too.
There isn’t a health bar so to speak in this, the game goes by your heart rate. You’ll be sure to stock up the things you need for a bandage when you are bleeding heavily, but I did find that I died on way too many occasions a little too easy. Whether that’s me being bad at the game, I’m not sure. So I mentioned that there were no quests so to speak, the game run on leads and investigations. You’ll explore each lead however you see fit and you’ll come to the same conclusion. There are dialogue choices that can affect your future game, and it’s about judging how that NPC is being with you to see what your response will be like. Think of how it works in LA Noire and it is pretty similar to that.
Rebellion have tried something new and with Atomfall it really has paid off. Maybe a bit too slow for my liking, I do prefer games of a more traditional RPG approach, but I can’t argue that this is a good game and one I’ll definitely be seeing out. Atomfall is one I’d recommend giving a go, and I think you’ll be surprised at how good it is. Fallout and Fable players will absolutely love this I feel.
A big thank you for Rebellion for the PlayStation 5 Review Code. This review is featured on OpenCritic.
