Atomfall Brings Fallout-Inspired Action to the Forgotten Corners of Northern England

It’s  looking more and more likely that an actual nuclear war is going to break out before Bethesda Game Studios makes Fallout 5, so it’s nice to see so many developers filling the void.

Atomfall is another Fallout-like game, and after an hour with the game, we’re excited to get lost in the woods of the North of England.

We were dropped in about two hours into the game, with vague instructions about a herbalist we should track down. Following a mysterious catastrophe, things have all gone a bit Threads, and society has reverted to a primitive state.

There’s a cult hanging around, waiting to be battered around the head with a baseball bat, and a mysterious blue, glowing fungus that’s literring the surrounding areas.

First of all, it’s very Fallout. That’s far from a bad thing. In fact, I’ve been burned before on games that trade on Fallout’s style and sensibilities and deliver a boring crafting game. This is a proper first-person RPG with dialogue checks, skills, and plenty of BGS-style whackiness. The other element that reminds us of Fallout is just how much we wanted to explore.

We finished a quest in an excellently designed castle, and were tasked with returning a book to an NPC. While on our way to do that, we found a random door that led us into an expansive sewer system full of new enemies we’d never seen before, and multiple quests.

Not only that, the sewer also served as a way to traverse most of the map underground, away from the dangers of the surface world. That Falloutian feeling of picking a random direction and seeing how far you can go, or seeing a small object in the distance and being drawn to investigate it is powerful.

Since the game is set in the UK, the first-person combat isn’t exactly Doom. We came across a few guns, most of which only had a few shots in them. The developer explained that the only guns you are likely to find are shotguns left behind by farmers or other small firearms. Instead, we took a liking to the bow, which made for some Far Cry-like archery-pokery.

We’re looking forward to getting our hands on the full game later this month. Quirky characters, an intriguing mystery, and a unique landscape to explore. It’s already started to scratch my Fallout itch, even after only an hour.

Atomfall is coming day one to Xbox Game Pass on March 27; it will also be available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.