After I performed just a few hours of Atomfall at a preview earlier this month, the primary query Riot’s action-survival recreation left me with (other than ‘the place’s the closest place I should buy a vegetarian pasty to eat for tea?’) was simply how fascinating would the bits that lay past what I’d performed be?
How deep would the intrigue go, when you’d actually began to crack open the razor-blade coated pastry of this tough and rugged journey to a Cumbrian quarantine zone arrange after a fictional variant of the true life Windscale fireplace?
Because it seems, the reply is probably rather less deep than I’d have preferred. However right here’s the factor: I feel it relies upon rather a lot on precisely who you might be whether or not this lack of depth can be a constructive or a damaging. To correctly rip the hastily-crafted bandage off, right here’s the state of affairs. I reached the ending to my first playthrough of Atomfall after simply 11 hours. That was with me pursuing just a few of the primary quest threads that every supply a special strategy to assault the ending, however not fairly all of them.
I used to be on the advisable ‘Survivor’ problem (the second hardest the sport provides), so I wasn’t doing something which may artificially shorten my run-up by doubtlessly mismatching the overall hardness of issues to my already not uber-MLG talents. I didn’t have any particular pre-order bonus gear or something to assist out both. Atomfall’s only a recreation that, in case you’re not planning on taking many extended breaks from pursuing whichever fundamental story leads you’re prioritising to show over each stone and comb by each location within the zone, doesn’t have that lengthy a runtime.
That’s to not say that what’s within the recreation isn’t commonly intriguing, charming, or satisfying. Nor will you come out of whichever ending you go for feeling that you just’ve been short-changed. However this truncated runtime makes the sport an fascinating one to grade.
Given an opportunity to correctly settle right into a construct and crafting setup, I gravitated in the direction of a common technique of transferring in all places stealthily, then taking out most foes by sprinting as much as them, dodging any photographs or swings as greatest I might, and bonking my enemies to loss of life with a trusty cricket bat.
As soon as I took a perk to spice up my character’s melee injury, I discovered I might end off most human enemies with two or three hits, and so long as I stored a gentle stockpile of alcohol and fabric to craft bandages I might use every time meals and first assist kits weren’t plentiful, I might simply get well from most injury this technique uncovered me to.
In situations once I didn’t need to threat charging in, I used weapons and a bow from a distance, with the latter and a bolt-action sniper rifle serving to whittle down enemies with a good chunk of well being from vary. In the meantime, my fourth massive weapon slot held an SMG that I might save for probably the most brown trousers-time encounters so as to not burn by its comparatively scarce and simply burned-through ammo.
In the direction of the top, I began utilizing certainly one of my smaller backpack slots for a pistol I might whip out in close-quarters fights in opposition to weaker foes if I fancied. The hardest foes – large BARD robots with flamethrowers and machine weapons – I simply snuck or ran like hell previous, as the sport very a lot appears to mean. On the opposite finish of the dimensions, you may kick or slap swarms of rats, bats, pigeons, and leeches to loss of life. Which is enjoyable.
The vast majority of my perks, nonetheless, went into survival and conditioning. Stuff that helped toughen me up and higher put together me to struggle the hostile environments you spend the overwhelming majority of the sport in. Three of those – Casterfell Woods, Skethermoor, and Slatten Dale – are open air areas of the sport’s above-ground sandbox, and every is patrolled by its personal enemy faction that’ll shoot you on sight. Masked druids, rowdy-looking outlaws, and British military troops generally known as The Protocol, they’re all to be handled in no matter style you deem most sensible as you discover every of those thematically-distinct areas that every one boast a rugged magnificence matching their harmful atmospheres.
Wyndham is the fourth little bit of the puzzle, and it’s the biggest of the uncommon secure havens that you may dip into once you’re overwhelmed down and in want of a fast reprieve from the kicking Atomfall offers you. That’s, until you mess with the Protocol troopers who’re occupying it, so it’s a bit much less secure than you may first suppose. There’s some respectable intrigue happening throughout all of those areas, a good roster of pleasant NPCs to talk to, results in chase, and little mysteries to research.
As you push in the direction of the top recreation, nonetheless, you’ll end up spending numerous time in The Interchange – the secretive underground bunker you’ll must regularly convey again to life and achieve entry to completely different bits of with a purpose to uncover what occurred on the recreation’s model of the Windscale plant to kick into impact the quarantine. I’ll not delve too deeply into spoiler territory, however I’ll say that what you uncover feels prefer it pulls bits from online game apocalypses chances are you’ll nicely have performed by earlier than.
I used to be very a lot reminded of some parts from The Final of Us, together with Fallout: New Vegas – particularly the Lifeless Cash DLC. None of that’s a problem in a vacuum, Atomfall delivers its story with nearly sufficient distinctive flavour to maintain you hooked, however I do really feel prefer it solely scratches the floor of the potential its premise exudes from a story perspective.
The mechanic that delivers the story works nicely. Until you go for a decrease problem that allows issues like map markers and further hints to help exploration, Atomfall’s detective-style lead system is a refreshingly stripped-back various to the UI-heavy quest and navigation techniques you’ll discover in most open-world video games ( those I imply).
It meshes nicely with the narrative tone Riot’s gone for, which may be very understated and retains numerous its playing cards near its chest. That fashion of storytelling may be very British, and is a part of what makes Atomfall really feel completely different from the likes of Fallout, with the latter usually being extra open – both when it comes to simply pulling again the curtain as to what’s happening and why, or in acknowledging the philosophical dialogue at play.
In idea, each work simply tremendous, however I do really feel Atomfall’s method holds it again in locations from delivering one thing extra compelling or with a bit extra depth. A number of the lore – for lack of a greater time period – about The Interchange, the occasions of the quarantine, and the mysterious Oberon mendacity on the centre of all of it, is delivered through notes or brief conversations that always really feel like they cease wanting actually fascinating you and delivering a correct whiff of the fascinating story Atomfall’s continuously teasing that it’s received brewing away.
I’ve seen 4 completely different endings to the sport to this point, and all of them felt a bit flat, like they had been failing to or breaking off earlier than they might conclude issues in a correctly satisfying style. There are occasions when Atomfall’s mystery-weaving serves it nicely as its narrative progresses and also you get some good short-term selection in consequence, however it doesn’t drop the curtain a lot, even once you attain the purpose once you really feel prefer it ought to be, and the reveals you do get typically really feel like they’re the least apparently delivered end result potential.
It jogged my memory numerous The Chinese language Room’s Nonetheless Wakes the Deep on this method – well-crafted, unquestionably good enjoyable, however with a narrative that feels prefer it’s in all probability the weakest a part of the factor, both as a result of it’s leaning a bit too closely on style tropes or holding again from truly committing to delivering on the weather that would transcend that.
There’s nonetheless a very good probability you’ll nonetheless like it. The gameplay loop is satisfying, the environments are enjoyable to discover, and the brief runtime makes it a great Sport Go factor you can provide a go with out having to fork over 60 hours that would nicely get a bit stale by the top. Nevertheless, I feel Riot’s left what might have made Atomfall an ideal recreation reasonably than only a good or okay one on the desk right here.
It’s nearer to puddle deep when it may very well be a lake or ocean given its cool premise. Or, to place it in a extra Atomfall method, it’s a pasty that doesn’t fairly ship a filling that matches how tasty the pastry appears to be like.
Atomfall launches on March 27 for PC, Xbox Sequence X/S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4. It will come to Xbox Sport Go on day one. This evaluation was performed on PC utilizing a code offered by the writer.
