If you follow us on Gamer Social Club, you’ll have probably clocked that I’ve been excited about Atomfall’s release. Now that it is finally with us, is Rebellion’s brand new atomic IP a megaton of fun? Or is it more fission mailed? Let’s find out in our Atomfall review.
I’m going to do my absolute best to keep spoilers out of the review. There may be some minor details, but nothing that will ruin any story beats.
Bust out the Quarantinis
Set in the early 1960s, in the north of England, Atomfall’s setting is based on real-world events. More specifically, the worst nuclear disaster to happen in England, and the world, the Windscale fire of 1957.
Atomfall takes place five years after an ‘event’ at the Windscale power plant. The game’s play area is within a quarantine zone that has been set up around the wider area of Wyndham. A concerning blue energy swirls from the distant nuclear power plant. And you’ll notice some concerning things afoot in the quarantine zone.
You are an anonymous protagonist who wakes up in the quarantine zone. You seem trapped in some sort of underground bunker. Just as you’re getting your bearings, a hazmat-suited person barges in, wounded, and asks for your help. You soon learn that something’s amiss in the quarantine zone, and you’re unofficially tasked with finding out what’s going on and escaping the quarantine zone.
Over the 15-20 hours of the game, you’ll have to explore, discover, and uncover the truth about what’s going on, and use that found knowledge to help you escape. Uneasy alliances will be formed, cults will be encountered, and a whole load of British dialect will be heard!
There’s A-Doings A-Transpiring
The core of Atomfall’s raison d’être is that you are exploring the game’s play area to uncover secrets and make sense of what’s going on. Why is that dead sheep bloated and purple? Why is there a cult of druids living in the forest? What’s with the creepy, glowy blue Gollum-like monsters in the caves?
As you explore the picturesque scenery, you’ll encounter a wide range of ‘proper Northern’ folk who’ll greet you with a variety of caution, surprising warmth, or out-and-out hostility. Depending on who they are, their affiliations, and any secrets they might be hiding, will often give you clues to their motivation and how warmly you’re welcomed.
They’ll give you ‘leads’, pieces of information that you might want to follow up with and enquire about as you continue to explore. You’ll also find plenty of documents, notes, and confidential information scattered around the landscape, in bunkers, caves, and homes. Some information is background lore and less pertinent to your investigation, whereas other pieces of information are key clues to helping you uncover parts of the mystery.
We Don’t Do Things Like That Round Here
I’ve seen some criticism of Atomfall that it’s a bit tedious running around between objectives, and I have to say I disagree. Not necessarily with that sentiment, but with the way that people are expecting to play. If you just go for the objectives, then it will feel tedious just running between locations.
But that’s not how you are supposed to play. I picked up something in Slatten Dale that led me to Skethermoor, which I could get to straight away using a cave. But, I didn’t do that; there were plenty of other things to see and do in Slatten Dale. I feel like the game’s developers want you to see everything a particular area has to offer. Gather all the intel you can find, then head into your next area, better equipped and informed to take on what you might find there.
Just doing things fetch quest style does a disservice to what Atomfall is about, and yeah, you’ll probably find it a bit boring doing it that way. I found it fascinating uncovering little snippets of information, torn notes addressed to some random person, or finding a named dead body that might have some meaning in the future.
And that intel gives you extra options when interacting with the people of Wyndham.
Leads The Way
I enjoyed the ‘leads’ system; in other games, you often have ‘main quest’ and ‘side missions’. Nothing in Atomfall felt like that if you play on the recommended ‘survivor’ difficulty. On lower difficulties, you have more direction, but on ‘survivor’, you are expected to find your way, use your map, and explore. None of the ‘leads’ felt like side-quests and were often connected to some of the ‘main missions’. All of it, coming together to build quite a comprehensive picture of what went on in Wyndham and the quarantine zone’s inhabitants’ motivation.
Of course, you could follow the ‘golden thread’ and focus on the game’s main objective, powering up the secret research bunker, The Interchange. A secret research station set up by the British Atomic Research Division (delightfully abbreviated to B.A.R.D). As you explore, you’ll discover that B.A.R.D. were working on a secret project which involved something called ‘Oberon’. Oberon is a mysterious entity that you must learn more about and deal with. How you choose to deal with Oberon, however, is entirely up to you, and the choices you make in the game.
The main characters you encounter in the game will have different backgrounds and motivations. Some want to escape, others want to learn more about Oberon and work on it, and others will want you to destroy it, including the mysterious voice on the telephone (the one you might have seen in the trailers). You’ll learn lots about these main players in the game (well, most of them), which should tell you how you might want to proceed. You can escape the quarantine zone in one of six different ways, and who you escape with depends on the ending you get.
Hear All, Say Nowt
Because I’m a massive achievement whore, I was sure to follow what was going on, and made save points at key points, in case I couldn’t go back and see what would happen with different endings. Having seen all six endings, it felt a bit underwhelming. Each ending has a debrief of what you did, including a bit of a summary of how you conducted yourself, which I liked.
But the consequence of what took place during the main campaign didn’t feel particularly impactful. What are the lasting effects of what happens? Of course, this may be addressed in the upcoming story DLC, we’ll have to wait and see. I also wonder which ending is ‘canon’, would be curious to see which one Rebellion goes with. You also find out nothing about your character (that I saw anyway).
No one knows who you are, and no one gives you any inclination as to who you might be, and it’s never really discussed. It feels particularly British that, outside of the first comment of you saying you have amnesia or something along those lines, all the characters just don’t want to talk about it, not wanting to be rude and whatnot.
I did like how achieving each ending felt distinct from one another, although some were similar in what you were tasked to do, the actual making it happen led you down different paths and stories in the game’s four main play areas.
God’s Own Country
I loved exploring the world of Atomfall. Rebellion did a great job of creating a lush-looking world, with a lot of variety. Your standard outdoor space is green and sunny in most areas, which doesn’t sound particularly diverse. You’ll soon find caves, hidden military bunkers, and underground installations.
- Slatten Dale is the first area you explore, and is teeming with ‘Outlaws’ who are running amok, threatening anyone who isn’t an outlaw. Clad in 60s attire, including classic British copper hats and all sorts of other garb, the detail is great.
- Wyndham Village is quintessentially British, with an overtone of oppression. It’s where the common folk are housed in Wyndham as they try to get by in the quarantine. Protected by the ‘Protocol’, there’s a strong military with tall, threatening robots patrolling, keeping the peace.
- Skethermoor is like a no man’s land, with Outlaws and Protocol soldiers fighting for dominance. Robots are patrolling setting to fire strange blue growths in the area, whilst Skethermoor Prison looms in the background.
- Casterfell Woods is like the Mad Max area of the game, you’re dissuaded from going there for fear of being captured or indoctrinated into the cult of the druids who are worshipping the strange changes that are going on. Listening to the ‘Voices in the Soil’.
Oberon and On and On
And then there’s The Interchange, the main objective that you’re trying to activate, giving you access to Oberon. An interconnected hub to the other area in Atomfall that holds lots of secrets, dangers, and a whole load of angry flamethrowing robot enemies.
You’ll also get to explore the Windscale Nuclear Plant too, as part of the final section. I particularly loved that section, it was quite a contrast to the rest of the game and felt like a great culmination of what you’ve been working towards in discovering what Oberon is.
Fighting Mad, and Armed to the Teeth
Of course, to succeed, you’ll need to tool yourself up with a wide range of equipment, weapons, and items to survive. You’ll find all sorts of materials out about which you can use to craft bandages and antidotes to stay well, as well as offensive items, like makeshift grenades. You’ll unlock more recipes for more craftable items as you explore.
Many of the weapons you find will be melee items, cricket bats, scythes, knives, policeman’s clubs; there’s plenty of choice. The cricket bat was a favourite. It was particularly satisfying batting folk in the mouth. There are also a variety of ranged weapons. Many start off as ‘rusty’ in quality, but you can unlock the ability to upgrade them and improve their performance.
Ammo is fairly scarce, so considering how you handle combat is important. The stealth works pretty well, too, if you have patience, and is a great way to save ammo. Sneaking up behind your foe and taking them out is great, but there are often loads of enemies in an area so you often end up in an all-out brawl, which can be deadly.
Alas, the AI isn’t superb, and you can easily get out of sight, hide in some tall grass, and the enemies will lose interest in you fairly quickly. Or, in combat, they’ll cluster together a fair bit, making easy targets for grenades. Anyone familiar with Rebellion’s Sniper Elite games will recognise the recognition -> suspicious -> alert enemy indicators. Though some of the enemy’s vision is too good, they can spot you from quite a way off.
Ready for Some Fisticuffs?
In terms of the combat, your character is not a superhero and doesn’t seem particularly ‘trained’ to do anything. So your melee is clumsy, and you aren’t great with weapons, but you get by for sure. Combine that with launching Molotovs and grenades, you find, and you’ll be having a blast (pun intended).
But, you are quite squishy, you’ll take a fair bit of damage, and you can improve your resistance to melee, but firearms are another matter. Quick note to say that the Archer Druids are super annoying. So you can’t necessarily go in all guns blazing. Your medical supplies are limited, too, and crafting on the fly ain’t the done thing. Largely because you have to go into the menu to do so, and the game doesn’t pause in the menu, so unless you’ve got good cover, you’re taking some hits.
This becomes tricky when you get a status effect, like bleeding, poison, or some such, and you want to use a tonic / remedy, but you need to craft; if there are still enemies, you’ll largely have to take the damage. But that’s more fool you for not being prepared.
You can upgrade your survivability, as well as your combat prowess by seeking out ‘training stimulants’. These allow you to upgrade certain resistances and handling with weapons. You can find or trade for ‘field manuals’ throughout the game to unlock them. Get enough of the training stimulants and you can buff yourself. These were well balanced, none of them make you overpowered, they were measured in what they could do to upgrade you.
How’s tha fettlin’?
Something that had me smiling throughout my time with Atomfall was the voice acting. Rebellion, whose office is in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, has done a tremendous job getting a whole range of propa’ accents and dialects into the dialogue of Atomfall. Being greeted with ‘ey ups’, ‘how’s tha fettlin’ and other terms that I use myself on a day-to-day basis genuinely had me grinning and screenshotting loads.
I’ve always been a supporter of getting a diverse range of stories, backgrounds and experiences into media. Gaming is a great way to tell different stories and have different places and groups represented. But, seeing your vernacular and accent, and to some degree culture (seeing a bloody village hall in-game, just like all the village halls growing up was a bit real!), does mean something. Not that I needed telling that this is important, but it was a lovely reminder of the impact it can have on you.
Credit to all the cast and voice actors. There’s a whole range of folk that bring the characters to life. Even the heavily distorted voice on the phone, they portray an eerie mysteriousness that was welcomingly jarring every time you picked up the receiver.
By ‘Eck, It’s Crackin’ Flags
The game looks superb as well. I think the devs have done a wonderful job of creating a detailed world to explore. The character models look great and have a fair bit of detail on them. The world itself looks is vibrant and intriguing. Flashes of purple blue appear, indicating something amiss, reminding you of the task at hand. All the while, the power plant sits across a mere, surrounded that in suspicious aura (the interference field).
I had a similar experience as I did in Elden Ring, the first time I stepped out of the bunker in Atomfall, where you take in the world in front of you and it’s pretty spectacular to view.
The world itself is pretty hostile. There are many environmental hazards, including radiation zones, bloodthirsty leeches in the water, and rats, so many rats!
Similarly to the Sniper Elite games, there are a lot of posters, graffiti, and just random bits that help create a believable world. Littered across the world are a range of collectibles, too. Lunchboxes, comic books, and caches can be found. And don’t forget the gnomes! It was fun searching those things out, and getting to use the metal detector was a nice change to find stuff.
Do Us a Deal
I did find inventory management interesting; you can’t expand what you can carry, and there’s a lot of stuff you want. For several reasons. One of which is that traders deal in items you find (the other stuff is survival and objective-type stuff). There’s no cash; your scavenging for things is your currency. So, having a stock of things to hand is helpful when you want a key item or a new recipe to learn. In theory…
I found that, largely, I didn’t need the traders, as almost everything I needed could be found, for free, by exploring well. I found multiples of some items, and recipes, annoyingly, sometimes, after I had already done the trading. Trading is pretty cool though, each item carries weight, some traders but more value in some types of items, and you need to balance the value for the item you want to barter for. I liked this, as it felt much more genuine than the citizens of the quarantine zone having established a new form of currency whilst still existing in a functioning country.
Also, big shoutout to your ammo not being included as part of your inventory!
Is it Up to Scratch?
Technically, I had a great time with Atomfall. I know there were some people who experienced sound issues, but thankfully that wasn’t my experience.
The game operated very well, and I didn’t notice any performance issues throughout. Would occasionally spot some bugs with the enemies, sometimes they were stood inside each other, but this was only occasionally.
Done and Dusted
Exploring the world of Atomfall’s Wyndham, with its attention to detail, genuinely realised characters, and intriguing narrative, is truly endearing. Uncovering the mystery was a blast, even if the payload at the end fell a touch flat. The exploration, scavenging, and solving the mystery make it well worth your time. If you embrace Atomfall for what it’s trying to be, rather than expecting it to be Fallout Britain, then I suspect you’ll have a great time with Rebellion’s newest IP.
Atomfall is its own thing, and all the better for it.
Flippin’ eck, I tell thee, I reet enjoyed ar time with Atomfall. It’s proper cracking, lad.
Atomfall was reviewed on an Xbox Series X. It is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series consoles. It is also available on Xbox Game Pass.
Be sure to check out our Atomfall guides too.
Atomfall Guides:
- Unlock the Data Store Charlie Store Room Puzzle Guide
- Get the “Detectorist” achievement / trophy for free
- Unlock the “Target Practice” achievement / trophy
- Unlock the “Caught Red-Handed” achievement / trophy
- Unlock the “Grand Slam” achievement / trophy
- Unlock the “High Tea” achievement / trophy
- Unlock the “Orna Mental” achievement / trophy
- Unlock the “Batteries Not Included” achievement / trophy
- Unlock the “Unplugged” achievement / trophy
- Unlock the “Any Old Iron” achievement / trophy
