Review: Atomfall is a Fantastic Addition to the Genre, But Lacks One Important Edge

Post-apocalyptic, nuclear sci-fi fans aren’t without options these days. Lesser-known titles such as Encased, Atom RPG, and Wasteland possess unique portrayals of the genre while poking at familiar mechanics with new perspectives. Popular franchises like Fallout, Stalker, and Metro offer a wide berth for those seeking a particular experience within the general setting. There truly is no shortage of this style of game, so new concepts need to stand out in order to find a seat at the table. At first glance, Atomfall might resemble these iconic series with its eponymous premise. However, as the secrets of the zone are unraveled, so too does Atomfall reveal a novel, engaging adventure inside a compelling world.

Loosely based on the real-life Windscale fire, a nuclear disaster that occurred in the northern part of England in 1957, Atomfall begins with a brief retelling of these events- adding its fictional spin on them in the process. You wake-up disoriented on a cot inside a bunker, as a wounded stranger in a hazmat suit stumbles into your room. The stranger explains you’re inside the quarantine zone containing the Windscale plant, and urges you to escape by any means necessary. He hands you a keycard for a place called the Interchange, and begs you to let the whole world know of what’s been happening within. You leave the bunker. An oddly placed telephone booth just a few feet in front of you begins to ring. You answer. A voice on the other end croaks, “Oberon must die.”

This is how your journey through Atomfall begins. With secrets on top of secrets. Uncovering new information only adds more layers to the ongoing mystery of the Interchange, and the various people you meet in the zone all guard their knowledge- and themselves- with fervor. In a landscape of games too quick to divulge every last detail of its world upon you, Atomfall insists on leaving the investigation entirely in your hands. Refreshingly, every ounce of information you uncover about the zone, the interchange, and the poor souls stuck inside is earned by braving dangerous locations, interrogating NPCs with evidence of their schemes, and finding your way behind locked doors and into hidden areas.

Typical quest structures are replaced by a journal of leads, cataloguing everything you’ve found. What you do with it is up to you; there are no waypoints in Atomfall. No objective markers that urge you to investigate a specific place or person. I absolutely adore this. Being left to my own devices, to deduce the answer to a riddle or triangulate the location of an item, is incredibly rewarding. Even when you’re wrong, the multiple areas you can explore in Cumberland yield new leads and answers to other mysteries. With so many unreliable voices to extract the truth from, and information drip-fed to you after harrowing encounters with the zone’s many dangers, Atomfall’s mysteries are captivating in a way other games in this genre don’t quite achieve.

This intense devotion to push players towards exploring as much as they can, and making their own conclusions based on what they learn, is woven tightly together by Atomfall’s self-touted action-survival gameplay. There are no RPG mechanics in Atomfall. Ammunition is precious. Enemies are deadly. Skills are revealed by reading their respective manuals. You then learn them by consuming special items typically found at the end of dungeons or in hidden areas. Currency doesn’t exist. Players must barter hard-won resources for valuable crafting recipes or tools. If not, they can brave the dangers of the zone to find them elsewhere. Even upgrading weapons is locked behind finding the proper manual that unlocks the skill allowing them to do so.

All of this is balanced out by static inventory space, and carrying limits on crafting materials and ammo. Only ever crafting when I needed to in order to preserve inventory space. Ensuring I had enough materials on-hand to make what I needed in emergencies. Forcing myself to only use my guns to deal with serious threats. Crawling behind a box after taking a hit that ate more than half my health so I could craft a bandage in a hurry. Despite all of my skills and upgraded guns, I would still find myself in tense situations.

This is all thanks to a key component of how Atomfall treats the player. You can get better at killing things, but you will never become harder to kill. Again: I adore this. It culminates in a consistently exciting chain of interactions. Exploring an early area yields an equally challenging encounter as one you might find deeper in the zone. It’s worth mentioning Atomfall has no fast travel; an intentional choice. Getting from Point A to Point B alive is about managing resources. Managing resources is a pillar of Atomfall’s gameplay. A lack of fast travel is integral to Atomfall delivering the gameplay experience it’s aiming for. Areas aren’t terribly large to begin with. You can walk from one end of them to the other in a couple of minutes. That being said, I wanted a faster way to get around when wrapping up loose ends while finishing my playthrough.

If any of this sounds exciting, then Atomfall won’t disappoint you. If only some of it does, Atomfall still has you covered. While its baseline difficulty (Survivor) was exactly what I wanted, you can customize your difficulty by tweaking various settings. These include adding waypoints for leads to your map, adjusting enemy behavior, bartering values, loot scarcity, and more. Difficulty settings are adjustable at any time during your playthrough as well. While we’re at it, Atomfall also has a modest selection of accessibility options. Mileage on these may vary, but audio cues, aim assists, and being able to automate functions such as forward movement and attacks are very helpful for those of us who need them.

So much of Atomfall is united in delivering an engrossing experience. Yet, I find it slightly lacking in the mystery’s most important facet: a satisfying conclusion. Good mystery doesn’t need to reveal all in order to deliver a great story. In fact, Atomfall will leave you with questions you can only hope to answer by putting the pieces together afterward- which is fantastic! Unfortunately, the big reveals towards the end aren’t as exciting as the lead-up to them.

Once I realized the quarantine was for more than a simple nuclear accident, I was hoping to learn more about those elements. I was looking to explore the mysteries of Atomfall through that avenue. However, the game is almost reluctant to explore this specific aspect of its world. Without going into spoilers: it would’ve been nice to have more the sci-fi alongside the high levels of curiosity Atomfall had injected me with.

Despite this, I was still incredibly impressed with Atomfall. Dense maps filled to the brim with things to discover. A strong delivery of world-building and storytelling. Engaging gameplay that wasn’t afraid to ask more of me. Not to mention impeccable sound design! It kept me on my toes as much as it convinced me of the spaces I was travelling through. In the end, I was thoroughly happy. I wanted more of this world and its secrets. If that phone ever starts ringing again, I will definitely answer.

Atomfall is now available PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

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