Rebellion’s new post-apocalyptic survival sport is sort of prepared for launch however does a radioactive Lake District maintain the identical attract as a bombed out Boston?
Unless Bethesda get another person to make it, it appears most unlikely that we’ll see a brand new mainline Fallout sport till properly into the following decade. That appears very unusual given the recognition of the Amazon TV present, however there are all the time alternate options. The fan made Fallout: London, and different comparable initiatives, have confirmed very talked-about and whereas it’s not essentially a clone, Rebellion’s new title Atomfall takes very apparent inspiration from the sequence.
We performed the sport briefly at Gamescom final yr, once we had an extended chat with Ben Fisher, Rebellion’s Associate Head of Design. He defined that whereas the sport was impressed by post-apocalypse survival titles like Fallout, Metro Exodus, and S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. there may be additionally a giant affect from Nineteen Fifties period British sci-fi, resembling The Quatermass Experiment and Day of the Triffids.
The sport additionally pays homage to people horror resembling The Wicker Man, which may be very apparent in the primary art work and the part of the sport we obtained to play. We’re unsure the precise sport fairly lives as much as that confluence of attention-grabbing influences however should you’re determined for a brand new hit of Fallout-adjacent motion, then there’s definitely loads of curiosity in Atomfall.
The sport is about in an alternate historical past 1957, the place the Windscale nuclear disaster irradiated a lot of the Lake District and turned it right into a mutant-filled wasteland. In the Gamescom demo we noticed the remnants of a army presence, making an attempt to take care of order within the village of Wyndham, however this demo began out within the wilds, in an space the place the predominant risk is a cult of druids, whose dwelling base is an deserted citadel.
Your aim is to discover a treatment for radiation poisoning, which an area drugs girl is meant to know – though it seems that the druids have stolen her recipe guide and it’s important to infiltrate the citadel to get it again.
Rather than a single, contiguous open world the sport is break up up into plenty of smaller areas, though the one we discovered ourselves in was nonetheless fairly massive and whereas we may see the place we had been aiming for on the map, there’re no waypoints or goal markers. This means it’s important to examine the format of roads and cliffs pretty fastidiously earlier than pencilling in your route and hope there’s nothing harmful in the best way, that isn’t on the map – which there steadily is.
Although we did come throughout a couple of triffids (which look virtually precisely like the unique BBC adaptation) and a few mutated wasps (which may very well be pretty simply prevented) virtually all of the enemies we fought had been simply human druids, armed with easy melee weapons and bows and arrows. The one exception had been some zombie-like creatures that might shoot fireballs from their chest however had been inert till we got here close to them – it appeared as a result of they had been connected to weirdly glowing fungi, which could be seen in plenty of areas, significantly underground.
We did get to talk once more, briefly, with Fisher on the occasion, the place we admitted that there’s nonetheless a couple of issues we’re unsure about with the sport, together with precisely how tough it’s. There’s positively a specific amount of Dark Souls to it, particularly in the truth that the sport doesn’t pause whenever you open the stock, however whereas demise can come rapidly the enemies aren’t too tough to cope with if in case you have a good weapon (cricket bats work very properly) and don’t get boxed in.
According to Fisher the sport is meant to be ‘difficult’ however there are very granular problem settings, together with the flexibility to pause correctly, so it’s very totally different to Dark Souls in that sense. The punishment for demise, not less than within the demo, can also be very delicate.
Our principal concern although is the sport’s tone and simply how bizarre and/or comedic it will get. Rebellion is blissful to reference a lot of iconic British media as an affect however that didn’t appear to quantity to a lot in what we performed.
‘What we wished to do is ensure there’s a type of inside consistency all through it,’ mentioned Fisher. ‘If you take a look at one thing like Fallout it’s rather more of a picaresque narrative, the place every vignette can have wildly totally different tones.
‘Given we’re telling one coherent story there are esoteric characters, which have an odd perspective on the world, however we didn’t need to push the suspension of disbelief an excessive amount of. The Prisoner is one in all our principal reference factors, as a result of there may be some attention-grabbing tonal vary however total it’s fairly balanced.’
Anyone that’s seen the ultimate episode of The Prisoner will know that doesn’t rule out a lot however on a sensible degree we had been upset by each the dialogue and the voice-acting, each of which got here throughout as very primary and missing in persona. Many of the druids stored repeating variations of the phrase ’We don’t know what you propose’, which appears very unnatural and on the nostril – by way of what the AI is considering.
Perhaps a few of it’s placeholder dialogue however the demo was very action-orientated, with solely the medication girl, Mother Jago, being a named character. And whereas she didn’t go away a lot impression we didn’t have a lot else to guage the sport’s storytelling on.
The precise exploration and survival parts are attention-grabbing although, with a really restricted stamina bar and a coronary heart fee to control. Crafting, significantly for potions, is essential and naturally ammo is in very quick provide. You can use a metallic detector to search out extra although, which includes following its instructions to dig up hidden loot crates, whereas ensuring you don’t again right into a triffid when you’re staring on the floor.
Potions aren’t only for well being or curing you of afflictions although, as there additionally appears to be a whole lot of buffs obtainable, which you’re inspired to quaff earlier than coming into battle. Also, about midway by way of our playtime we realised we had a guide in our stock that allowed us to be much more stealthy as soon as we learn it (we assume the builders put it there to make the demo simpler), which helped drastically and made creeping across the citadel and the village outdoors a whole lot of enjoyable.
Naturally there’re additionally ability bushes, to be taught extra talents, though not practically as many as in a Bethesda title, with Atomfall by no means describing itself as a role-playing sport. There is little doubt it has quite a bit in frequent with Fallout although and will definitely scratch an analogous – however not equivalent – itch for followers. Whether it would do something higher than Bethesda’s video games we couldn’t say in the meanwhile (though it did appear largely bug free) however our best hope is that it makes full use of its uncommon British setting.
Formats: Xbox One*, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S*, PlayStation 5, and PC
Publisher: Rebellion
Developer: Rebellion
Release Date: March 2025
*obtainable on Xbox Game Pass day one
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