For more than ten years, Atomfall has been a cherished project for Jason Kingsley as CEO of Rebellion. He had been subtly mentioning it in conversations with PCG since as early as 2018, without revealing specific details.
Located in the core of rugged Cumbria following a nuclear catastrophe, it seems as if an armed Hovis commercial has taken over, and this game belongs to a lineage of challenging titles that includes cherished games such as Stalker, Morrowind, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Here, there are no quest markers; you must navigate on your own or risk perishing in the process. It’s possible that you may meet an untimely end during this endeavor.
It’s grim up north
In a nod to some of the best video games from 2005, Atomfall places you as an amnesiac, discovering consciousness within a confined area of the UK’s Lake District following the Windscale fire’s aftermath, which was the most severe nuclear incident in the country’s history.
In an unusual turn of events, Cumbria seems to have been transformed into a strange, eerie landscape teeming with creepy creatures, marauding outlaws, and a community that’s taken the crisis as an opportunity to let their inner Wicker Man shine. To maintain control, the British government has dispatched a tough-as-nails military unit – a band of stiff-upper-lip officers and battle-hardened soldiers – to ensure order prevails.
In simpler terms, when I played Atomfall, it didn’t provide clear directions or quest markers. Instead, it offered clues or leads, which were essentially collections of evidence under various categories. One such lead hinted that a medicine woman named Mother Jago was nearby, but I quickly found myself diverted from this clue instead.
Atomfall’s Cumbria isn’t a single expansive landscape, but rather a set of smaller, open-ended maps. Each map features caves, druid camps, and strange landmarks that can be seen in the distance, creating an atmosphere of mystery. As you play, you often encounter something intriguing, ponder what it could be, and then find yourself drawn away from your previous task entirely.
According to Kingsley, he’s never encountered a game designer who produced a game that was too modest. He prefers a well-crafted, compact game over a grand one that lacks focus on what matters to the player. For instance, Atomfall, with its built-in restrictions from the outset due to the massive concrete barrier separating the Cumbrian exclusion zone from mainland Britain.
Although Cumbria may seem compact, it certainly didn’t feel cramped or lacking. In truth, it seemed expansive and free-roaming to me during gameplay, even though it wasn’t as large as Just Cause 2. I only managed to explore a modest section of two out of its many maps.
In my travels, I encountered numerous druid settlements and lawless bands roaming about, ready for conflict. Along the way, I chanced upon various harmless NPCs who provided initial clues for larger questlines – a senile aristocrat living in her dilapidated manor who appears to believe all is well, and a fellow adventurer delving into an obscure research facility.
In some of my discovered missions, there were hints about ongoing, divisive decisions among factions. When the military supervisor tasked me with probing the local bakery, I was faced with a tough choice: upholding law and order or helping a woman who was struggling to hide her ill husband from authorities. Predictably, I chose the former path, venturing into the wilderness to find medicine for this tragic man, thus preventing the baker from experiencing the misery and humiliation of military intervention and punishment.
In my frequent interactions, I consistently found new opportunities (leads), became involved in intricate storylines, and even had my fair share of physical altercations (brawls). It seemed as though Phil Savage, one of ours, faced reservations when he tried playing it about half a year ago at Gamescom, regarding its combat. However, I sense that Rebellion has been devoting most of their time since then to refining this aspect. Now, the combat feels satisfying: striking someone with a cricket bat produces a crisp, forceful sound and sensation, while drawing a weapon feels almost like an unfair advantage.
In the United Kingdom, very few people possess firearms. A bullet can swiftly neutralize opponents to such an extent that merely brandishing an antiquated revolver can feel like an immediate resolution to any disagreement, akin to wielding a powerful weapon of mass destruction. It’s no surprise then, that I found myself drawn into confrontations with those who held different beliefs.
Wandering mind
The diversions serve as crucial elements in the game design. As stated by Kingsley, the developers aimed to instill a genuine sense of freedom in players. This freedom allows you to engage in activities such as becoming a mass murderer and shooting everyone, if that’s your preference. The game is designed to adapt to your decisions, much like New Vegas does.
From a purely game design standpoint, it’s delightful to fully exploit a computer’s strengths, such as its ability to respond to your actions and provide a unique experience each time. Excited to try this out, I swiftly targeted Mother Jago (after being sidetracked by a cave inhabited by druids, unraveling a village secret, mysterious phone calls from an unknown Welsh individual, and a solo attack on a nearby military base) and released an arrow towards her, anticipating it to be ineffective.
In the end, Mother Jago, whom I had thought was an essential character for the storyline, unexpectedly collapsed into her garden bed without so much as a greeting from me. There was neither a game over message nor a warning like Morrowind’s “you’ve made a big mistake, buddy.” Instead, it seemed like a smart move, as I discovered a letter on her person hinting at shady activities with the local druids.
In the game I was playing, my effort to steer its storyline in one direction instead led it down an alternate path, uncovering fresh leads along the way. However, if I had second thoughts about this choice, I could have simply restarted from a saved point. As Kingsley notes, it’s not only possible to make decisions that you later regret and rewind, but it’s almost expected in this game. The narrative elements are essentially tools for you to tinker with, adjust, save, then try again elsewhere.
Although my experience with the game wasn’t extensive enough to fully understand its limits, the concept truly sparks my enthusiasm. I’ll hold off on my final thoughts until I have the complete game at my disposal. It’s worth noting that this is largely uncharted territory for Rebellion as a whole. As they venture into creating a sniping game, they acknowledge that they are experts in that genre. However, there’s a significant difference between playing games and making them, which adds a touch of apprehension, but also anticipation.
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2025-03-07 17:17