Atomfall is a post-apocalyptic detective game

Atomfall is a detective game. Yes, the multiplayer post-first-person shooter from Sniper Elite Studio is more like a heaven killer than Fallout. Rather than stirring between the target markers around the map, Atomfall’s story revolves around a series of clues that are organically picked up and tracked as you explore its world. Its task is nonlinear and you will gently guide the points of interest. From there, you will refer to your task log and blend the stories of their world together.

Given the popularity of post-apocalyptic genres, the world of Atomfall may seem like a derivative, but its background and tone are very different from that of its peers. The match took place five years after the 1957 windshield fire, a real-world event in the UK and is considered one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. However, Atomfall envisions a world that has never recovered from a catastrophic event. The violent factions have emerged throughout England, with irradiated monsters roaming the wilderness, and of course, there may be some government conspiracy at work.

While this may sound like the consequence of England, Atomfall's tone is very different. The dark ironic humor of the wasteland is most Replace with a more solid type. Creative Director Ben Fisher does want to capture the look and feel of British speculative novels and science fiction in the 1950s and 1960s, such as Who Who Doctor and John Wyndham novels. The result feels like the British’s uniqueness of the apocalyptic environment.

When paired with the game, this ground state pitch makes sense. Unlike radiation, Atomfall is not an RPG. You are as vulnerable as most enemies, and if a particular encounter brings you sorrow, you won't be able to level up your character and come back later. Different weapons and equipment can give you an advantage in the exchange of fire, but almost every gunfight will be fatal. Fisher mentioned Stalker and Metro were inspiration for Atomfall, and although its dense or complexity is not as dense as GSC Game World's first-person shooter, the similarities are easy to spot. It’s hard to get items like ammunition, bandages, and health bags are priceless, and it doesn’t take much to put you on the ground.

But unlike stalkers, Atomfall places more emphasis on melee warfare. Given the scarcity of bullets, most encounters can be solved with an axe, a knife, a bat, or one of the many close-range weapons in the game. Melee combat is not as powerful as avoiding or dying light, but the weapon has a little tremendous content that makes melee combat tactile. It feels deadly when you insert the axe into the enemy, accompanied by some crisp sound effects.

While the Sniper Elite seems to be the opposite of Atomfall, it does retain the open exploration and combat method of Sniper Elite. As Fisher said, “You have a clear goal (in the sniper elite game) and then you find a way to achieve this over time, and then you have a sense of freedom in the field.” For Atomfall, the team wanted to “take that template and make the entire game structure a giant sniper elite mission.”

While it's hard to say whether Atomfall will live up to such lofty ambitions, the narrative structure can support such a thing. It does have an overall goal, but how you achieve that seems relatively open. The game will guide you loosely on its map of a handful of half-open worlds, but to bring together the mysteries of its worlds, it seems that there are multiple ways to reveal them, whether it’s to be friends with a hostile faction or spin every stone in an important dungeon. Unfortunately, I can only see the first area in my drama conference, so I can’t say how far these narrative threads are or how far or what they are involved, but if the rebellion pulls it apart, it could be an interesting way to tell a story.

It is also hard to say whether the battle will be as open as the sniper elite game. When you use weapons and approach weapons in any given encounter, you will get certain agents, but don't fully think that sniper elite games are famous. This may change when you unlock more skills and find new weapons, but the rooting approach to combat and the lack of climbing mechanisms don't match the open fighting method of the sniper elite. Given the tone and genre of Atomfall, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but fans of Rebellion's recent games may not have found as many toys in Atomfall's sandbox.

My biggest criticism I can raise criticism in Atomfall (at least based on 90 minutes I've played), which is easy to exploit for the enemy's AI. I thought early on that if I kicked a human enemy and then made a heavy attack with my trusty axe, it would be killed immediately. Since most enemies just drive you down, I'll wait at the end of the corridor and let them come to me. It gets more complicated when there are ranged combatants, but as long as I break their sight, they can't do it. Part of what makes Survival games so compelling is their sly use of NPC AI, and according to my gameplay, Atomfall doesn't exactly hit the watermark set by Stalker and our last game. Adjusting the difficulty and play style settings may mitigate this issue, but I don't have time to dig into these options during limited play time.

Atomfall seems to be the swing of rebellion. While it borrows from pieces and pieces from previous games, it was a real attempt for the team to get the team out of their comfort zone and offer something different. The narrative structure in particular made me eager to explore the world and blend its narrative together. I would love to know how narratives can keep as the world expands and more topics, but if done well, it may make a story that people can remember.