I will admit, I thought I’d know the deal with Atomfall entering a media preview event that featured a couple hours of gameplay. A survival-action game about a nuclear disaster, and a quarantine zone featuring outlaws, people driven insane, and even some murderous robots?
“Fallout, but make it England” isn’t really accurate here, however. What I found in Atomfall’s strange vision of the area surrounding the Windscale disaster, a real-life nuclear plant fire that released significant amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere in 1957, was more grounded and, at the same time, far stranger than Fallout’s retro-futuristic vision of the apocalypse. Content with playing coy and letting the player explore its many mysteries, Atomfall isn’t a game that lets you be a super-soldier rampaging through the countryside. Instead, resources are scarce, combat is frequently challenging with a heavy focus on melee action, and every new discovery is a little jolt to the system.
It’s in this mystery-laden countryside that you have to make a decision: Who do you trust? And what are you willing to do to gain their trust?
A picturesque apocalypse that likes to keep its secrets
Is this the end of the world around Windscale? If it is, it sure as hell is pretty. Contrary to the greys and dead plant life that are hallmarks of many games that feature nuclear disaster as a premise, Atomfall’s take is decidedly pastoral, and the green landscape of Casterfell Woods dominated my playing time with the game.
The Earth has begun to take back the land in these woods, with man-made structures overgrown with moss and trees. Don’t let the landscapes fool you, however, as there’s still outlaws, bandits, and crazed druids to look out for—as well as some stranger mutated creatures that can easily spell your doom.
As Rebellion’s head of design Ben Fisher said in a Q&A, the emphasis on a pleasant-looking landscape was intentional to not only stand out against other games like Atomfall, but also to reflect the very British roots of the game. “Arguably, if people were trapped in a quarantine zone in that kind of area, they would try to ‘keep calm and carry on’ and do their best,” Fisher said. “Having that sunny atmosphere emphasized that.” The beauty of the land also gave Rebellion the opportunity to flip very quickly to creepy locations as players dig deeper into bunkers and other mysteries.
I was dropped into this landscape with just a single objective written down in my notebook, suggesting I find a woman named Mother Jago to look for answers at a mine. My map was marked with a “rumored location” of the mine, but that was about it. No quest markers, no quippy sidekicks to guide me along while I tried to avoid dying at the hands of some of the aforementioned enemies. And so I wandered around, stumbling upon an old hydroelectric dam and a blue-skinned trader named Billy who wanted to assure me he wasn’t going to eat me. Thanks, Billy.
Dotting the landscape further are bright-red phone booths that occasionally have a phone ringing in them, waiting for you to answer. On the other end of the line is a strange, hoarse voice offering me advice. While I didn’t manage to progress far enough to figure out the source of these calls, it all added up to an intriguing and dangerous world that kept inviting me to explore and unravel its various secrets without the need for defined quests—as dangerous as pulling those threads may be.
Scrapping to survive
Rebellion was very clear up front that the player character is not a superhero, soldier, or any other power fantasy action-game fans might be used to. You can handle yourself in combat, but so can every enemy you face, as well as all their friends.
The game’s fights, then, aren’t to be taken lightly. Much of that will be up close and personal, with melee weapons being a heavy focus. As this is a very British game, players will notice there’s not an abundance of guns and ammunition lying around everywhere to use freely. I was dropped into the game with a couple of old single-shot weapons and a revolver, as well as scant ammo, but I found myself using a cricket bat much more often, saving my bullets for particularly tough enemies or larger groups.
But even within the combat, there’s a heart-rate system that functions something like stamina, as the higher your heart rate goes from sprinting or swinging a weapon, the slower you start bashing enemies. There’s also no pausing to heal here, with druids and outlaws attacking you as you pull a menu up, wondering if you’ve got another bandage you can use.
As such, maintaining your healing supplies, food, and other resources is very important, as is picking and choosing your fights. The devs at Rebellion also teased the ability to ally yourself with different factions, all of them with their own quirks and moral quandaries.
Escape is the goal—but do I really want to leave?
The main goal of the game is figuring out how to escape the quarantine zone (and presumably who you are, as you wake up with amnesia at the beginning of the game). But I found myself genuinely intrigued by the mysteries and little stories the game presented to me, as well as the method by which I had to uncover them all myself without simply following a quest marker around everywhere. I wanted to poke around every nook and cranny I could find, and I felt the game legitimately rewarded my curiosity, pushing me to keep searching.
With its attention to time, place, and some creative leaps in imagination, Rebellion has created one of the more intriguing games I’ve played in a while. I can’t stop thinking of where I left off, with Mother Jago promising me answers from beneath her wide-brimmed hat adorned with flowers, animal skulls, and bones—as well as what I’ll need to do to get those answers.
Published: Mar 7, 2025 09:00 am