I knew little about Atomfall earlier than enjoying a demo of it at a current Xbox occasion in Los Angeles. I noticed its trailer throughout June’s Xbox Video games Showcase and assumed it was only a British tackle S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R, which is getting a sequel this yr. Though Atomfall actually has that very same survival edge and nuclear disaster setting, it additionally has RPG components paying homage to video games like Fallout: New Vegas — particularly in relation to its dialogue system. Atomfall is a daring swing for a recreation developer greatest recognized for the Sniper Elite sequence, and I used to be left wanting extra after my transient hands-on time with it.
Atomfall – Gamescom Trailer | Xbox Sport Move, Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, PC, PS5 & PS4
The preview construct of Atomfall I performed started close to the beginning of the sport. My amnesiac participant character emerged right into a postapocalyptic-looking countryside on this alternate historical past the place the Windscale hearth nuclear catastrophe in Northern England was much more devastating. As is the case in S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R, gamers are thrust right into a quarantine zone surrounding this nuclear catastrophe, and nearly everybody else there may be out for blood. On this early-game space, I walked across the ruins of a village whereas making an attempt to stealthily take out the crazed outlaws within the space, who had arrange an outpost close by.
Atomfall’s survival recreation roots actually flare up right here, as the sport appears fairly tough. Whereas enemies will go down after a few gunshot wounds and react to the place they’re shot, gamers are equally fragile. I couldn’t pause the sport to heal, so I needed to take account of that in gunfights. A minimum of early on, stealth appeared to be the way in which to go so I may construct up my arsenal of pistols, shotguns, cricket bats, and different makeshift weapons to combat by way of this apocalypse.
After that, I had a better time taking up these outlaws, however then ammo and therapeutic merchandise constraints grew to become my largest considerations. It’s deliberately robust. Sadly, the autosave wants some work to assist that problem, as I obtained caught in a irritating instantly-spotted-after-respawn loop at one level throughout my playtime. That’s the one facet of the problem that doesn’t really feel truthful proper now, but it surely’s actually one thing that developer Rise up Developments can tweak and kind out earlier than launch.
Rise up
Whereas Atomfall will launch after S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2, it does appear to be this might be a stable various for these already trying to transfer on from GSC World’s newest by subsequent March. It additionally does a greater job of interesting to extra normal gaming followers, primarily these of Western RPGs like Fallout. Whereas nearly each NPC in Atomfall needed to kill me, one didn’t. His identify was Nat Buckshaw, and after I spoke to him to collect details about this British nuclear wasteland, the dialog performed out like it will in Fallout: New Vegas. I had full traces of dialogue to select from, every related to a special emotion or tone.
Buckshaw would give totally different solutions relying on what the participant stated to him, and I even had the choice to homicide him with my weapons if I needed to. There are additionally ability and crafting techniques, though I didn’t have a lot time to go too deep with both of those throughout my playtime. None of this essentially breaks new floor in relation to RPGs, but it surely was a shock to see these techniques coupled with the nonlinearity and depth of a survival recreation. Contemplating that S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. and Fallout are each sequence about nuclear apocalypses, possibly I shouldn’t be shocked that the gameplay techniques every makes use of mesh properly collectively.
It’s fairly the partaking combine, and if Rise up types out the autosave challenge I encountered, I’d play extra. There have been fairly a number of areas, specifically nuclear bunkers, that weren’t accessible on this demo, and I actually need to know what’s behind these locked doorways.
Atomfall launches for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X/S in March 2024. It is going to be on Xbox Sport Move from day one.
