Few games throw you to the wolves as quickly as Atomfall. The latest from Sniper Elite’s Rebellion Developments, Atomfall is a post-apocalyptic survival-action game taking place in Northern England. Unlike Rebellion’s previous titles, Atomfall heavily focuses on narrative—primarily the goal of unearthing the mystery of the disaster at the Windscale Atom Plant.

The game uses the mostly unknown but real nuclear disaster as a jumping-off point for a compelling mystery and investigation. This conundrum is the highlight of Atomfall’s twenty-ish hour runtime. Each element smartly focuses your playtime on the central process of discovery.

What makes the mystery so compelling is how little guidance Atomfall gives you. After emerging from the bunker with no memory and vague instructions to “find The Interchange”, Atomfall’s world is almost entirely open. Bar those opening moments and the general shape of the conclusion, each player will have a unique journey; finding ‘leads’ in their order and tackling objectives with vastly different information and resources.

Leads are both a narrative element and an innovative mechanical feature. At its core, Atomfall is a game driven by investigation, one propelled by player curiosity. While wandering the lush hills and beautiful vistas, you’ll uncover clues hinting at the wider narrative. Leads organise this information into broad topics to serve as a direct reference for your examination.

Importantly, leads rarely give quest markers. While certain characters send you to particular locations, the onus is on you to be thorough in your investigation. Many of these leads become deeply interwoven, with the majority linking to the central mystery of the zone. If one element of Atomfall inspires other games, I hope more put their faith in players following leads rather than chasing quest markers.

Everyone and their mums are packin’ round here

Beyond a few starting skills and crafting recipes, all mechanical progression in Atomfall is unlocked through discovery. Manuals and training stimulants allow you to unlock new skills while crafting recipes provide throwables, consumables, and weapon upgrades. There is no experience bar, no levelling up, and no stat increase across the entire playthrough. This serves to focus you once again on the investigation. 

If curiosity is the nucleus of Atomfall, combat serves as the orbiting electron. Between reading documents, chasing leads, and delving into the secrets hidden within the zone, you need to be aware of the dangers around every corner.

Atomfall combat is scrappy. With only one upgrade for increasing maximum health, enemies maintain a consistent threat level. As a regular person, it isn’t shocking that a few stray bullets will easily put you down, so when fighting other humans crowd control becomes the focus. Luckily your enemies are just as weak to a lead diet.

You’ll often find yourself ducking behind cover to craft a Molotov cocktail or bandage in the heat of the moment, as bullets continue to whizz by. While I initially hoarded my explosives, Atomfall’s limited inventory size encourages you to use them frequently to thin large groups or deal massive damage. This becomes especially important against tougher enemies where it is wise to keep your distance or risk a swift death.

While there aren’t any hunger bars to manage, you will need to scavenge for crafting resources. The balance is precise enough that this is present but never overbearing. Unless you’re extremely reckless, you’ll always have enough resources to continue your investigation.

Enemy variety is, however, a weaker element of Atomfall. Much of your time will be spent fighting the same human enemies, and while there are some more interesting and monstrous threats to contend with, their appearances are limited to select areas. I wish Atomfall had done more to differentiate the combat against the various human factions, as currently fights against each feel very similar. Out of all the encounters, my fights against B.A.R.D robots and feral mutants were far more memorable than the more generic human enemies.

While not a graphical showcase, Atomfall has a fantastic visual design. The rolling green hills are distinctive and the retro-futurism 1960s technology gives it a unique flair. Stunning vistas dot the countryside, to say nothing of what lies beneath the surface. 

Atomfall is not a character-driven story, but I enjoyed the differing perspectives and morals personified by the relatively small cast. Despite some questionable facial animations, voice acting is strong across the board. The sound design overall is also standout, with punchy gunshots, skin-crawling whispers, and satisfying pings from the metal detector.

Survivor Bias

I’d like to commend Atomfall’s options and accessibility menu. In both difficulty and accessibility menus you will find countless options to tailor your experience in the zone. The granularity of the available changes is truly impressive. When I found myself easily escaping enemies after initiating combat, I adjusted their persistence. 

Suddenly escaping an ill-thought-out approach was more difficult, forcing me to be more deliberate in initiating combat without adjusting enemy aggression or my survivability. In the accessibility menu, there are options to assist you in aiming, keeping track of enemies, discarding half-used clips of ammo, or even guidance on your investigation. These options mean Atomfall welcomes players of all skill levels and needs. If you’re curious if Atomfall will be accessible to you, all the available options are also helpfully documented online.

Great expectations

Finally, I think Atomfall deserves a discussion on genre and expectations. According to Rebellion, this is a survival-action game. According to the internet, Atomfall’s most relevant contemporary is Fallout. During my preview, I said Atomfall felt more like a light immersive sim, and I still firmly agree with that prior assessment.

In the ways that BioShock felt like a stripped-back version of the immersive sim, Atomfall does as well.  It doesn’t give you the full suite of verbs necessary to truly rise to be part of the genre, but in many ways, it feels inspired by and indebted to it. For me, this became a double-edged sword. Atomfall’s strengths are when it wears these inspirations proudly, and the minor weaknesses are when it doesn’t rise to its promise fully. 

But, in the same way that we forgave BioShock for not being as complex as other immersive sims, I forgave Atomfall. When you’re piecing together documents from the B.A.R.D bunkers, discovering the secrets of the Casterfell druids, or exploring The Interchange – all of that fades away. The mystery is too tantalizing to not become engrossed in, and the world is too dense not to explore, investigate, and understand.