In 2015, Bethesda gave us the last single-player game in the Fallout series, with the fourth installment taking us to the Boston Wasteland. Since then, fans of the saga have never had the opportunity to discover a new single-player installment.
In 2018, Fallout 76, the MMO in the saga, didn't really convince players, after a chaotic launch. Despite a huge amount of work over time to offer us, today, a game that lives up to our expectations, it remains a unique experience that is not yet up to the standard of a single-player game.
Unfortunately, Fallout 5 is not coming any time soon. After several years of development on Starfield, Bethesda is now working on The Elder Scrolls VI. The fifth installment in Bethesda's post-apocalyptic series will therefore not arrive for many, many years.
And that's probably why the Rebellion teams have found the right opportunity with Atomfall. It's clearly a modest alternative to Fallout, halfway between S.T.A.L.K.E.R., which was announced for late 2024 and is already available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, PS4, and Xbox One (and available directly in Game Pass).
Of course, Atomfall doesn't claim to be able to compete with the production and budget of a Fallout. However, the game offers some very nice qualities and allows itself to surprise us on many points.
Discover now our opinion on this title which could appeal to a good number of players.
Atomfall: the inside story of the Windscale nuclear disaster
Atomfall plunges us into an alternative reality of the 60s, during the Windscale nuclear disaster where the whole of the north of England is finally placed under quarantine. The Windscale region is irradiated, with a strange blue substance that contaminates the inhabitants, the fauna and the flora.
The game puts us in the shoes of a citizen of the area who wakes up in a bunker without really knowing what is happening. We are therefore thrown into the Windscale region, without any information in our possession. We'll have to investigate to understand where we are and how to get out of it.
So, the main objective of the game will be, initially, to find answers, and understand how the situation could have degenerated to this point. Then, your sole goal will be to get out of the quarantine zone. Of course, as the adventure progresses, we will find elements that will make us understand that behind this catastrophe there are quite a few secrets hidden and that a conspiracy could be at the origin of this incident.
Upon leaving the bunker, we discover the Windscale region, which is quite vast, divided into four zones with Slatten Dale, the village of Wyndham, Skethermoor and Casterfell Wood.
The regions are well detailed, medium-sized, but with quite a few main locations and secondary locations, sometimes hidden, that are a pleasure to discover and explore.
Atomfall offers a really nice atmosphere, reminiscent of England in the 1960s. The "alternative reality" aspect offers us a retro-futuristic style with the presence of robots that inevitably make us think a little more of Fallout.
The entire region is placed under military surveillance, which ensures that security protocols are applied. Of course, many citizens do not accept this martial law and groups of looters are forming in the different regions of Windscale who will be an additional threat to the player.
Barter, resources, crafting, true survival at all costs
Atomfall is not really an RPG game (unlike Fallout). It's more of an action and survival game. The Rebellion teams really focused on this aspect.
From the very beginning of the adventure, you have a wide range of options to customize your experience. Atomfall is therefore accessible to all players, even the most novice, by choosing very lenient settings for exploration, survival, and combat. Conversely, the game can be extremely demanding and become a true survival simulation for those who want a challenge.
In its gameplay, the game is very focused on the survivalist aspect. You will have to be careful with your resources, whether it is bullets for your weapons, first aid kits to heal yourself, but also all the various objects (fabrics, glass, alcohol, etc.) to create items such as antidotes, bandages and many other objects that will be essential to survive in the Windscale region.
Once again, the game settings allow you to choose whether the resources to be found in the world Opened will be rare or not. This will inevitably increase the game's difficulty.
Since 'Atomfall places us in a quarantine zone, the economy is non-existent. The game then offers a barter system where you will have to exchange objects and resources with other survivors in the zone and find common ground. The system is quite ingenious and fun.
The beginning of the adventure will be particularly difficult and we really feel this "survival" side which is extremely well transcribed.
Atomfall is not an RPG. You don't have a level, the enemies are not bags of life points. But, you still have a skill system via books that you must find in the open world and action points to spend that you earn throughout your adventure by completing missions. It's pretty well done and the skills are quite realistic and logical in the context of the game.
Atomfall is also full of good ideas with small details. Besides bartering, our character's stamina is characterized by their heart rate. Thus, during certain fights, negative effects (like poisoning) will weaken your character and their heart rate, and therefore their stamina.
The game offers lots of other well-thought-out ideas like a metal detector, which helps you find hidden objects and rare resources, a device to hack security systems and energy sources, a flashlight, essential in certain places. The game is full of small details that bring realism to the adventure.
Some shortcomings all the same
Atomfall is not perfect. Although it offers a fair amount of quality, it suffers from a few shortcomings such as its gameplay in the combat phases. The game doesn't offer a dodge button, which makes fighting the infected very unpleasant. These enemies are lively, fast, and carry out heavy successive attacks. It's therefore not uncommon to get killed when you come face to face with two or three infected.
The difficulty is also rather poorly balanced. Although there are a lot of adjustable parameters, if you keep the default settings, the game is clearly superior. The enemies do more damage, our attacks are less effective, the enemies always aim accurately and even from very far away. The fights are clearly not fair, especially against the infected.
Technically, the game also suffers from a few hiccups. We feel that we are still in a game with a modest budget. Graphically, Atomfall is rather beautiful in terms of landscapes and environments. On the other hand, the characters and animations are far from being up to scratch.
The game's storyline is pretty cool, and in total, you have six different endings. The game can be completed in about ten hours (including side quests). Thanks to this, the pace is always good, it gets to the point, and it feels good. It's becoming rare to have games that don't try to drag things out. On the other hand, we feel that sometimes, there are certain shortcuts in the narrative and some inconsistencies. The same goes for the ending of the game, which is quite predictable and leaves us a little hungry (no pun intended).
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