Atomfall launched in early access this past week, available first through the Deluxe Edition, which granted players a 72-hour head start. The full game officially released on March 27 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms. Regardless of whether you’re playing on current-gen or last-gen hardware, the game is available for purchase.
I opted for the Deluxe Edition, which became accessible on March 24. Atomfall comes from Rebellion, a studio best known for the Sniper Elite franchise. Earlier this year, they released Sniper Elite: Resistance, which I’ve played through—my thoughts on that experience can be found here. Rebellion is also behind the Zombie Army spin-off series, further showcasing their expertise in tactical shooters.
The premise of Atomfall is simple: It’s a survival action game, which is very different from what we’ve seen from Rebellion previously. The game itself is set after a real-life incident in the UK. The official website tells us the game “is set five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England.”
The Events Of Windscale
To explain some of the background to the events I’ll take this quote from Wikipedia. Some background may explain the premise of the game and the type of world we can expect..
The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in the United Kingdom’s history, and one of the worst in the world, ranked in severity at level 5 out of 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
For example, Chernobyl in 1986 is rated a 7 . For the events of Windscale only Chernobyl, Fukushima, and the Kyshtym disaster were worse. And it’s the aftermath in the early 1960’s our story takes place. We need to “explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight and talk your way through a British countryside setting filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies”. There we have a background to the world we find ourselves in and the story Rebellion have created for us. The official description of the games world is described as
A fictional reimagining of a real-world event, Atomfall draws from science fiction, folk horror, and Cold War influences to create a world that is eerily familiar yet completely alien
The video below showcases the early gameplay captured on the PlayStation 5 Pro. Though please note as it’s gameplay early in the game, it will contain some spoilers.
Playing Atomfall – What We Can Expect When We Play It
The first thing I properly noticed was the visuals. It captures a view of what the area looks like. For those unaware,it’s in the Lake District area of England which is in the North West. The BBC has discussed the game and the visuals, and one developer, Hannah Roberts is off the same thought with the visual representation. She studied at Carlisle, which is roughly in that area of the UK. They felt Rebellion really did the research on this release, as they said
The actual environments are spot on, they’ve got fantastic Morris dancing stuff going on – it really tickled me when I saw that,
I also know the area and nearly studied for a different degree at Carlisle and find the Lake District a relaxing therapeutic location and it was nice to see the setting faithfully recreated but given a darker eerie twist as well.
The sound is really well crafted, and we have voice actors who sound pretty accurate to what people in the area sound like. Though for me a couple of occasion,s they didn’t sound quite right. But it would be incredibly harsh if someone can’t speak in a local accent as well as someone else.
The Gameplay Experience
The gameplay itself seems really smooth, though I did have some expectations prior to the launch. Considering the experience of enjoying the Sniper Elite series, I went into this new IP expecting a positive experience and at least good combat. Thankfully, that’s exactly what Atomfall gave me. though some AI opponents were interesting. Some were more accurate with un-scoped rifles further away than close up. They will panic at the sight of a body and rush over to see if ok and will be distracted allowing a take down.
The trading is well designed and the inventory and crafting so far looks very well designed. The map is easy to follow as well. Conversations with npc’s can give you a series of dialogue options as well and I do recommend exploring all avenues of conversation as they can aid your quest or add to or explain the back story.
Conclusion
Having a previous successful IP doesn’t guarantee a new one will be a success. Though it can help, and for this release it certainly does. I’ve only had a chance to get a couple of hours or so in the game, but it’s captivated me. I want to explore it fully and really look forward to seeing more of the post-apocalyptic Cumbrian world Rebellion has created. Also, if you have a Game Pass subscription, the game is available to try out on that service. I have no regrets about purchasing on the PlayStation 5 Pro, which is where my footage is taken from. Though if you want a game similar to the style of Fallout and Stalker, you may want to look at this. They are different games, but offer some similar vibes. Well done so far, Rebellion.
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