There are plenty of survival games that challenge you to scratch out an existence after the apocalypse. Fallout has players barrelling around a lawless, retro-futuristic America, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is set in the unforgiving wasteland surrounding Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant and Frostpunk whisks you away to its unforgiving, frozen hellscape. New game Atomfall, however, takes the end-of-times to a relatively new environment.
Inspired by the Windscale fire of 1957, the worst nuclear disaster to ever happen in the UK, Atomfall brings a delightfully English twist to post-apocalypse living. Unfolding in the quaint, picture-perfect countryside of the Lake District, with cute village pubs and health-replenishing pasties, the “British Fallout” (as it’s been dubbed by gamers on social media) has been stirring up buzz since it was first unveiled last summer. But Atomfall is so much more than familiar tricks in a fresh location.
It’s a “cosy catastrophe”
Set in an alternate history, Atomfall starts with you waking up in an underground bunker, clueless as to how you got there or what the years following the Windscale fire were like.
Luckily, a bruised and bloodied chap in a hazmat suit sets you straight. It turns out that after the fire, soldiers from London were sent down to Windscale to quarantine nearby Wyndham Village but, five years later, no one has been allowed to leave. The outskirts of this woodland prison are patrolled by trigger-happy bandits and a mysterious pagan group is knocking about. Naturally, hyper-aggressive wasps, birds and rats are also looking to do you in. Avoid all that and you’ll be one step closer to accomplishing your mission: escape the quarantine zone.
This is survival – but not as you know it
Rather than sticking neatly to the rules of the genre, Atomfall is more of a detective game that weaves together elements of survival, horror and thriller. “We didn’t want it to feel like a typical run and gun shooter, because that didn’t seem appropriate to the Lake District,” explains Rebellion’s Head Of Design Ben Fisher. “As a result, I’ve no idea what people are going to make of it but I’m excited to find out.”
Yes, Fallout was an inspiration (particularly the fixed-location storytelling of New Vegas) but developers also looked to ‘60s classics such as Doctor Who, The Wicker Man and The Prisoner. “There was a lot of fear about losing your identity, the tension of fitting in and the conflict between tradition and modernity in those stories alongside a healthy dose of Cold War suspicion. It all influenced the mechanics of Atomfall,” Fisher tells NME.
During a hands-on preview, we quickly sided with the rebellious villagers via gruff pub landlord Alf but after a conversation with Captain Grant Sim, the occupying Protocol Soldiers didn’t seem so bad either. “It’s brutal for you but it’s also brutal for them,” says Fisher. “When you’re making your way through the game, there’s no morality meter. There are no goodies and baddies – everything’s morally murky and it’s up to you to decide who you disagree with the least.”
There’s a lot of freedom in the apocalypse
According to Fisher, there are seven different ways out of the quarantine zone and countless ways to uncover each one (with more to come via planned downloadable content). You can kill every single NPC you come across (friend or foe) and still complete the game. You could even kill no one at all. But once you’ve made a decision, there’s no going back. The entire game is an interconnected web of open-world areas that auto-saves every few minutes.
Instead of a rigid quest system, Atomfall uses a series of suggestive leads to gently guide you towards salvation. It’s up to you to decide which ones are worth your time. The handy investigation window helps you keep track of who wants what from you, while combat, survival, exploration and auto-save can all be toggled in the menu, depending on how challenging you want your game to be. Dying also results in handy hints to try and stop that from happening in the future.
You can punch and kick your way through Atomfall but you can also make use of cricket bats, grenades and rusty pistols, though all ammo is extremely limited. If you’re more interested in stealth, then sneak up behind a distracted guard and quietly take them down or avoid confrontation altogether. Squaring up to one Protocol Soldier will anger the rest – and they’re sneaky bastards so be prepared. Some will confront you face-to-face while others slink away to higher ground to rain down bullets from above. Sure, you can learn new skills but your character is exceptionally average in every way, so there’ll be no rampaging through an army to achieve your mission. It feels similar to last year’s brilliant Indiana Jones And The Great Circle.
“You want to give the player freedom but you want to make sure they feel a sense of momentum and motivation as well,” says Fisher. “The run time [between 15 and 30 hours] is shorter than something like Fallout, but it’s more densely concentrated. We wanted to make sure the player could fit the whole story in their head, because things you learn at the start of the game might influence your choices at the end.”
Help! The Beatles don’t exist in Atomfall
The Beatles formed in 1960 and had their first hit in 1962 with ‘Love Me Do’ – but there’s none of their poppy rock ‘n’ roll in Atomfall thanks to a radio transmission embargo set up soon after the nuclear disaster. Instead, developers used regional folk music, BBC Radiophonic Workshop-inspired sounds and the occasional orchestral burst to create the score. “If you’re paying attention, it might provide some clues in understanding the true genesis of this disaster,” Fisher teases. And, if you’re lucky, you might stumble upon the meaning to ‘I Am The Walrus’ as well.
There are conspiracies to pick apart
Atomfall might be grounded in local history but there’s also a sci-fi edge to the game. While dashing through the rugged, postcard-ready landscape, a switchboard operator delivers hints and warnings via the red telephone boxes that are scattered about – which is nice. But a note found on a dead body suggests that only a select few can hear the phone ringing…
There’s also the mystery of a heavily guarded research facility that screams science-experiment-gone-wrong. And those bloodthirsty pagans used to be friendly locals until “the soil started calling to them” after the disaster. “Part of the process for Atomfall was embracing the weird, old edge that British culture has,” says Fisher. “It’s all a bit folk horror, all the time.”
‘Atomfall’ is out March 27 for PC, Xbox and PlayStation. It’s will also be a Day One release for Xbox Game Pass