Atomfall Review – Bunker Thrill

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In a nutshell, Atomfall is not identical to Fallout, despite their shared post-apocalyptic theme, mutants, warring factions, and central locked bunkers. However, there are moments when the resemblance becomes striking. While Fallout games primarily revolve around escaping from a hidden bunker, Atomfall invites players to delve into The Interchange facility. This fundamental difference in objectives sets Atomfall apart as its open-world design adds novelty and intrigue, although it sometimes struggles with issues related to stealth and combat.

In much the same way that Atomfall’s large artistic strokes draw inspiration from Fallout and other post-apocalyptic narratives, its narrative also leans heavily on familiar tropes. You find yourself waking up as an amnesiac in a 1950s British countryside. A call comes from a nearby phone booth, urging you to eliminate someone or something called “Oberon.” This mysterious voice will repeatedly contact you whenever you come across a phone booth out in the wilderness. Although the enigmatic messages are hard to decipher, they do propel you towards your goal: Locate and enter The Interchange, a sealed-off facility that appears to be the remnants of a science experiment gone awry. Should you decide to do so, Oberon can be destroyed within this place.

After this incident, the locals have been tasked with rebuilding, leading to the emergence of various conflicting parties. This includes a powerful military faction asserting control, marauding gangs exploiting the disorder for criminal activities, and a sect of pagans who view the disaster as a positive event. These territorial factions are usually separated within their own areas, which can be freely explored as interconnected open-world maps once you begin playing the game.

In the realm of Atomfall, the thing that truly stands out and keeps me hooked is its immersive narrative. As I journey through this game, I come across numerous characters brimming with stories, whispers of rumors, and quests subtly hinted at. What sets this game apart is its unconventional approach to guiding the player. Unlike many games that explicitly outline their objectives, Atomfall takes a hands-off stance. Instead of having a traditional quest log, you gather “leads” by discovering notes, conversing with NPCs, listening to audio logs, or venturing into unknown territories and uncovering secrets along the way. It’s a refreshing change from the usual, making each discovery feel like a genuine adventure.

In this game, you may come across information about a supposed location in a particular area, marked on your map. Using your compass, you can navigate towards this spot, which could be guarded by enemies or deserted but locked. The mystery of what awaits you keeps the adventure thrilling. At first, you might stumble upon a few clues, such as where to find merchants with changing stock, but as the game progresses, you’ll gather numerous leads categorized in various ways. The game doesn’t distinguish between main-story quests and side-quests or hidden treasures, making every hint valuable enough to pursue.

Since the game doesn’t impose a fixed path or schedule for your journey, it subtly arranges various elements in such a way that your experience is unique and unpredictable. It’s rare to follow the same sequence of events as others might have, so the flexible game world provides subtle clues throughout the map to expand your investigative leads, making your journey continuously evolving, regardless of the path you choose.

Everything leads up to a pivotal moment where the path you take diverges wildly, depending on your allegiance within the narrative. Choosing to leave the area also requires a decision, as some groups want to depart, while others prefer to remain for their specific reasons. To fully appreciate the branching nature of this tale, it’s beneficial to save frequently and try out various outcomes. During my gameplay, I encountered four significant endings by returning to a save just before a crucial decision, but keep in mind that smaller details also influence the final cutscene, much like New Vegas. So, going back even further into the story could have its own set of repercussions.

In most games, the world becomes repetitive over time, but that wasn’t the case with Atomfall. The 15-hour story allowed for continuous exploration without growing stale, as each new discovery felt well-deserved. One particularly intriguing moment occurred when I revisited a survivor hub called Wyndham Village. During my initial visit, I interacted with some characters, gathered a few leads, and found a portal to another map. The excitement of discovering the new map was enough that I left for hours. Upon returning, I discovered that several buildings within the village could be entered, offering numerous additional questlines of their own. These included missions such as saving a man’s wife from illness, unmasking a secret defector, and even solving a murder at a nearby church. If I had stumbled upon any or all of these quests during my first hour, they would have been engaging then too. However, the unexpected revelation that I had essentially overlooked several major storylines upon my return is an experience seldom found in open-world games.

In the game Atomfall, despite some areas that weren’t as strong, the thrill of exploration and self-directed narrative kept me hooked. The maps, detailed like those in Sniper Elite series, can make sneaking a challenge due to overly alert enemies. It was peculiar since these enemies seemed deaf, leading to a situation where avoiding detection meant maneuvering around enemies who heard too little and saw too much. I frequently managed to move close to them without being detected, but if I was far away with no direct line of sight, they’d spot me in a way that felt implausible, given what I’ve learned from other stealth games.

Fighting can be tough at times, no doubt about it. While close-quarters combat provides an exciting array of weapon choices such as a survival knife, stun baton, or even a cricket bat, ranged combat feels clunky, much like using first-person shooting (except for snipers) in Sniper Elite does. It’s just not very satisfying to aim with a controller in this game, and it felt familiar since I’ve recently played the latest installment of Sniper Elite. In essence, Atomfall appears to be a revamped version of Sniper Elite in certain aspects, with many assets borrowed from the WWII series and each map adhering to similar design principles. However, these elements didn’t feel repetitive as they did in my Sniper Elite: Resistance review where I complained about the monotony that the series has begun to exhibit. Despite the obvious shared foundation, the mission design keeps it engaging and sets it apart from other Rebellion games. What I wish is that the team could have made a more distinct departure from their other titles by addressing an issue that’s been hindering those for some time.

In a nutshell, Atomfall may seem like a Role-Playing Game (RPG), but it incorporates elements of survival games as well. The game’s difficulty, which emphasizes its impressive lead system, also makes battles challenging because enemies hit hard and are accurate. Unfortunately, your character, who is an amnesiac with no voice, isn’t particularly durable. To cope with these tough combat situations, the game offers a variety of crafting recipes such as Molotovs and bandages, but I found that this system was often inconsistent.

For instance, I never discovered an upgrade for increasing backpack capacity, which felt unusual given the abundance of crafting materials I had. This became particularly noticeable when my inventory was overflowing with crafting supplies to the point where I couldn’t pick up additional items due to a full backpack, and yet I couldn’t use those materials to create more items either because I lacked space. In essence, the resource management system in this game seemed unbalanced; I had an excess of resources but insufficient storage for them. Despite needing certain items, I often found myself with little room to store more.

In Sniper Elite, there were moments when I felt let down by the somewhat uninteresting skills I could unlock, like one that minimized weapon sway, which was already minimal in the game, and another that enhanced food items’ healing capabilities, though I seldom had room for extra supplies like a Cornish pasty or bread loaf. I often wondered why Rebellion didn’t include an option to speed up crouch-walking, a feature I immediately unlock in games that have it, considering the extensive crouching involved in their gameplay.

In this game, an interesting aspect is that most skills can only be acquired by discovering or buying them from traders before you can unlock them with skill points. This encourages exploration since it’s not guaranteed you’ll find all the skills, and there might still be one out there hidden in the British countryside that I haven’t discovered yet. However, I passed over many of the skills I did come across because they didn’t seem particularly useful to me.

While Atomfall isn’t the same as Fallout, this isn’t necessarily a criticism of Rebellion’s latest game. Instead, Atomfall offers a unique and captivating open-world experience unlike most other games, even those in the Fallout series. It manages to sidestep common cliches and some gameplay issues to feel fresh and worthwhile. New video game franchises often take time to fully define their identity, but Atomfall feels like it could become something exceptional with a sequel, provided it builds on its engaging storyline. For now, Atomfall is a good game with some self-imposed obstacles, but the journey of discovering your own path through its narrative is what you’ll remember long after you’ve finished playing.

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2025-03-25 23:10