I got to play roughly 90 minutes of Atomfall, Rebellion’s upcoming survival, horror, stealth game. It’s a day-one Game Pass launch on March 27th. Set in an alternate history where the Windfall Nuclear Incident of England’s past went a bit stranger. Blue ghouls, Wicker Man-style cults, and twee British charm are on tap. So, let’s keep a stiff upper lip as we break down this unconventional title.
What’s All This Then
I played via Parsec, running on a PC across the pond in England. My gameplay doesn’t look great, as I had 75 milliseconds of latency on everything. Still, I enjoyed the heck out of Atomfall once I learned how it works.
You’re a regular person, no superpowers or special abilities. After awakening inside the Windfall safety zone with no clue why you got there, you’ll have to search every section of the countryside to learn the truth and escape. This is a survival crafting game, but not in the “punch trees to get wood” type of way.
You’ll find lots of materials when you loot corpses or rucksacks. Combine those with blueprints, and that’s how you’ll make most of the items in the game. Inventory space is at a premium, at least early on, so finding a place to stash things seems wise.
We were dumped into the game “roughly 2 or 3 hours in”. There are no classic quests or waypoints in Atomfall. You’ll be given leads that vaguely point you to where to go. To get to your objective, you’ll need to sneak or fight your way through various terrains. I started in a forest full of creepy cult members who didn’t like me if I got too close.
There is a heartbeat meter that seemingly takes the place of any noticeable stamina bar. I could swing away and run like a maniac before any type of fatigue settled in. Despite having 90 minutes with the game, I felt like I barely saw any of it. I cleared three locations while completing only two smaller investigations.
British Fallout This Is Not
The gameplay is mostly stealth-focused. You are weak, and this is the UK. Guns and the ammo they require are at a premium. It was damned near impossible to aim over the cloud setup I was using. There were revolvers, pistols, shotguns, and rifles in my playtime. Most were covered in rust and featured laborious reloads. Melee-wise, I had a cricket bat, axe, sickle, and knives on offer for dispatching my enemies. Takedowns are available at the press of a button and seemingly feature a similar neck snap every time.
When you aren’t feeling homicidal, you can talk to folks, and how you choose to do so will vary up what happens. In one queue, I talked with a crazy lady who thought everything in her life was the same as always. The dilapidated state of her home seemingly couldn’t penetrate her damaged brain. After finding her manservant dead, I chose to break the news to her. She couldn’t handle it, calling me by his name almost instantly instead.
There is no set “go here, do this” type of quest system in the game. To find her, her butler, and what was going on anywhere, you’ll need to search high and low across the game’s multiple zones. I needed to find multiple notes to piece together leads. They would be on tables, underneath trees, or occasionally required using a metal detector to be found.
It is an interesting system, one that is slow, plodding, and requires a decent amount of effort to advance in. The resolution/settings of the PC build I played seemed rather low. Everything was shimmering, and the resolution made it difficult at times to see traps. I played a version last year at Gamescom that looked far better graphically, though it was a smaller section of the game. Also, there are skill books that let you unlock the game’s various abilities. I found a stealth one that let me be quieter while moving or snapping necks. Atomfall is all about taking your time and exploring.
Wrapping Things Up
Despite it being only three weeks away, this build of Atomfall I played felt pretty early. If the game’s story can back up the mystery it’s dished out so far, then I think Rebellion may have something interesting here. The gameplay felt serviceable enough, with less emphasis on shooting than the studio is known for. Keep an eye on XboxEra closer to the title’s launch date of March 27th for our full review.
Atomfall releases on March 27th on Xbox One, Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC and is Play Anywhere in GP
I downloaded it on Xbox sx and uninstalled it within three hours. There is a sound bug that makes the game unplayable currently. Until this bug is fixed I will not be playing it or having it take up space on the system. Outside of that I enjoyed it when there was sound.