Atomfall Preview - Man in the Wilderness

Rebellion Developments’ newest title, Atomfall, has been on the radar since its original announcement last year. It’s a game that takes some obvious inspiration from Fallout: New Vegas, and some others from that particular era of shooters and other adventure games.

Ahead of its launch on March 27, we had some time to sit down and get some real time in with Atomfall, and see just how the game has come together for folks looking for something new in both the action and survival genres.

After a quick introductory video, where we get a glimpse of what Atomfall is about – you play the role of a character who finds themself in Northern England some five years after a nuclear disaster has taken place. There’s a whole lot of mystery as to what happened, how things have changed, and what’s really going on in a landscape filled with many unsavory people, creatures, and even large robots while remaining very distinctly British.

Uncovering this mystery, while also learning about why your character is here, is the central point, and it’s a little of what we got to experience in a slice of the game part way through the main story.

To that end, we were dropped in the middle of a large forest area, which was littered with things like ruins, an old dam, and even a castle. As with any survival-type game, Atomfall seems to be what you personally make of it – there’s a lot of exploring involved, but not without strife.

There’s an enemy faction known as Druids that pepper the land, and they can be quite finicky. Some will attack you on sight should you enter their territory, and others will hold back and give you a warning. That’s your cue to either advance and attack them or back off and find another way.

Sometimes backing off is the right option in Atomfall. Combat has a bit of a learning curve, and the survival element comes into play hard with things like guns and ammo particularly scarce. Some of this can be eased through the game’s skill system, in which you’ll spend points to gain things like new abilities or increase health.

This adds to difficulty as well, as some of the enemies, such as the more mutated variety, hit pretty hard, and you’ll be dead in an instant if they’re not taken care of with haste.

Health is the key resource you’ll need to manage in Atomfall, and it can be chipped away quickly. In terms of combat, you can equip a range of items you find out in the world, such as rusted out rifles, axes, bows and arrows, along with other incendiary devices like the classic Molotov cocktail.

During combat, it’s useful to get yourself into a rhythm as enemies come at you. The player character can kick at enemies to push them back for a bit, which helps to regain your bearings – especially as the melee weapons have a bit of a wind-up to them.

On top of this, Atomfall has a bit that tracks character's heartbeat, and getting into these scuffles can ratchet it up, which in turn can reduce vision and hearing for a short period of time.

You can help reduce these effects immediately with certain items, some of which can be crafted. Crafting, in general, is one of the many learned skills in Atomfall and can also include things like healing items.

You’ll just need to be mindful of everything you do pick up, as Atomfall does force you to consider inventory space and management for all items.

Throughout the demo, we followed a handful of objectives that had our character travel across the map. Along the way, we met some other NPCs that were a bit more helpful – including those willing to trade with us.

Not only that, but they also provide useful information about what’s going on in the world, and during these interactions, you can question them further with dialogue options that reflect the feeling you want to get across to them.

Completing objectives requires the player to find little hints scattered around, such as on notes found in old buildings. The overarching theme of Atomfall’s mystery comes into play often with strange phone calls you can choose to answer. If you do, the caller on the other end gives you advice you can choose to listen to, or not.

Because Atomfall is a survival game, and at first glance, it appears there are a lot of untrustworthy people in this world. Or at least that’s the impression from the brief demo.

Otherwise, the core gameplay loop seems pretty solid, and that Fallout influence is on full display with the quests and, well, the fact that the world here has survived some nuclear incident.

There’s enough here that the larger plot has a pretty big pull, so it’ll be interesting to see if Atomfall’s gameplay can stay its course for the full length of the story. From the small demo we played the world seems large, and as we’ve only barely scratched the surface, hopefully the full game can continue to scratch that particular New Vegas itch.

TechRaptor was invited to play Atomfall at a digital event provided by the publisher.