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I approached the Woodmans Pub, or what was better known as the Wyndham Pub inAtomfall.
It’s a fantastic lineup of games that always captures my attention with the latest entry.
What’s behind door number 1?
Killing Adolf and the Nazi regime never gets old for me.
That’s a hint to MachineGames: make another Wolfenstein.
Atomfall is Rebellion’s first new IP since Strange Brigade.
Shotguns pack a punch when laying down a direct hit. Any misguided shots will only graze enemies.
Launching in 2018, Atomfall has been in the works ever since.
What they’ve created during that window is a mixture of Fallout meets S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Atomfall is a whimsical, dark tale that captures the imagination in ways only British science fiction can.
Leatherface in his early days.
My items feature a degutting shotgun, a profuse cricket bat, and a whomping fireman’s axe.
Trouble ain’t looking for me; I’m looking for it.
No slow-loading enemy bar for me.
This is the barter UI. NPCs will offer items for trade, and you can sell unwanted materials back to them as well.
Each thwack of a melee weapon is meant to highlight the capability behind the strike.
It’s plain and simple, nothing overly complex or in need of tooltips to get around.
Already, I had enough weapons to fill the four dedicated slots that the players will get.
You can drop her like a sack of potatoes, or follow her questline. It’s up to you.
That goes for both melee and ranged weaponry.
These are scattered throughout the quarantine zone.
In the main village, by side characters, enemy camps, bunkers, you name it.
Rather than bartering, you could kill her to clear out her inventory.
These and other story-driven notes will help to slowly draw the curtain surrounding the mysteries in Atomfall.
Another piece of infrastructure you’ll see plenty of are the random phone booths strewn about the countryside.
Approaching these will generally direct to some dialogue with a rather sinister-sounding operator.
Half-life checkpoint vibes.
For me, all he said was, “Oberon must die!”
Off to Casterfell, I go!
I find her parked outside an abandoned mine, sitting amongst some ruins, growing her plants.
Small sites are perfect places to pick up some much needed resources.
Definitely not the safest place.
You see, Atomfall is entirely autonomous.
you could do literally anything you desire within the confines of the game world.
I decided to try my hand at killing the local military force. I’ll save you a screenshot of the death screen that followed.
But we wanted to lean into that, just give the player that."
Want to go an entire run without killing anyone?
you’ve got the option to do that.
BOOM! HEADSHOT! FPS Doug would be so proud.
Desire to finish the job the nuclear disaster should have?
you could do that as well!
you’re free to kill literally everything or nothing; the choice is yours.
Is this the Interchange?
This autonomy was the angle I began to explore.
That’s just how divergent these playthroughs were!
My own experience was one nobody else shared.
Battle is chaotic and meticulous. Take stock of events around you before they unravel.
Continuing, he added a much-celebrated series, became a pivotal point in story creation.
That helped us to restructure the overall story again.
One thing I loved was that the game never blatantly rewarded or chastised you for a decision.
One of the many places I simply didn’t have time to visit in my playthrough.
Killing a character didn’t drop the all-ominous “questline failed.”
It’s all just choices and consequences.
What this means is that players will have drastically different experiences of the game.
Bro caught rabies mid fight and decided I was the target instead.
All of the little situations you find in the game are morally ambiguous from a certain perspective as well.
So, there’s not a best choice; there’s not a heroic crew and a villainous group.
How free could I be?
These leads will lead you on unique missions or to areas brimming with supplies necessary to survive your quests.
Attempting to ignore everything other than what I came across on my own walking path became my calling.
Where it piloted me was still somehow where I needed to be.
Thanks for the warning I didn’t head. Should have…
That’s just good damn game design.
I made my way down South and almost immediately regretted my decision.
After entering an all-too-normal tunnel, I came across my first Ferals.
There are even more bodies underneath my feet at this point.
These creatures from the blue lagoon emanate radioactivity and spray it at your character in earnest.
Spraying their nuclear venom led to the first of many deaths to come.
My demise was completely my fault, as I failed to even attempt to take cover.
Ducking tail is the best option at times. #NoShame
Did I mention you could chuck melee weapons?
My throw landed true, straight to the head (check screenshot above).
What inspires this madness?
Maybe the humans were easier?
Like I said before, Atomfall feels like a love letter to Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
from the perspective of a British Sci-Fi novel.
Fisher could see the influences were striking gold with me.
This Feral woke up to a grenade breakfast.
So, because it’s an interconnected narrative, these are characters that help you tell that larger story.
Stalker, Metro, but also Sniper Elite.
“What about media?
Ah, home sweet home.
Likewise, Fisher sought inspiration for Atomfall from the very same book.
“There are other John Wyndham books that were an influence, also the TV show The Prisoner.
The level of British sci-fi influence is quite obvious as well.
A nice little Fallout moment without the dramatic orchestral music.
The entire setting felt somehow comfortable and familiar, yet all the more uncommon with every step I took.
More exploring was in order, so I continued my venture forth in search of the unknown.
Remember that your village is one of the few remaining bastions of normality within the Zone.
What’s this? Glowy bits?!
Keep it that way!
Sadly, I couldn’t find anyone to report it to.
Immediately after exiting, a sound is blasted my way.
Always pick up the shiny things. Always. It’s like a main game rule.
Within the first 10 or so meters, the claim was proven to be true.
Ahead of me were six or so enemies, all sat upon a path.
Taking their measure, I drew my bow in hopes of picking off a few unmoving targets.
The storage system is a God send.
See, the enemy AI in this game is rather well-placed.
Sounds of shouts and gunfire travel well, and Atomfall’s systems make good use of that.
It’s this first effort that granted me the sweet relief of death once more.
Waiting for me? Here’s a little handmade grenade instead. :)
On my second attempt, I did the same thing.
While my stupidity didn’t get me killed, it did cause me to inevitably retreat.
It was then that I discovered the bunker that lay on my backside.
Multiple smaller areas to explore that I could spend hours browsing through.
Quickly, I sprinted in, hoping to find refuge.
For now, it seemed like they wouldn’t.
Upon running into four or five more ferals, I realized it could definitely have been either.
A hint and secret that pointed me to what the latest gameplay trailers have shown: the Interchange.
At the time, I had no idea what the Interchange was.
To my knowledge, this place wasn’t known to anyone.
Or at least, from the gameplay I had seen.
Before I left for the mystery-enshrouded facility, I thought I’d check around the bunker a bit more.
I was delighted by what I found.
Multiple small, very missable routes led to a satisfactory trip of exploration as I found item after item.
The bunker felt built with a purpose behind it.
Rebellion, good job on this one.
Enough of the bunker, though; it’s time to head off to the next big thing.
Luckily, I had just the keycard for it.
Earlier, when I started my session, I noticed a little red chip in my inventory.
I took note of it for later, but I hadn’t found any use for it until now.
What I received was the opposite of that walkout moment you see in a Bethesda creation.
Instead, I was burrowing into a vault.
One that looked like it had been locked up since the disaster had taken place almost a decade prior.
Walking inside, I was greeted with the only live visitors I would find: bats.
I made quick work of them with my trusty cricket bat and looked for a way forward.
“Ah, crap,” I thought.
The windowed room gave a sense of how large this underground lair is.
The only question remaining was how I was supposed to reach Oberon.
The body before me was the key.
Laying next to an atomic battery, I plugged the sucker into the panel, and viola!
The pneumatic tube, as it’s called, is Atomfall’s storage mechanic.
Any loot placed in the tube will be accessible at any pneumatic entry point.
I headed off to check more areas in the Interchange.
I needed atomic batteries.
That much was clear.
I wasn’t going to get them sitting around the Interchange.
So I hiked myself back to the exit without a care in the world.
Entering the vault from the main door was a nice little entourage of deadly paparazzi.
Dead as the bodies behind me.
Round two came, and I was ready.
Easy pickings from there with my rusty .22 caliber pistol I had found on the body inside the Interchange.
As I exited, I was met with the world once more.
Bright and full of possibilities.
I had minutes left, but it was definitely on the short end.
Minutes later, my time with Atomfall came to a close.
An audible “dangit” was heard from myself and multiple others.
After my play session, my interview with Ben Fisher took place.
Before I ended the interview, I had one final question for Fisher.
“Will there be bullet cams?”
Atomfall is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.
