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Atomfall plays like a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with Scouse accentsBleak district
Bleak district
Image credit:Rebellion
Image credit:Rebellion
Much like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the demo’s quarry town setting of Slatten Dale offered a blend of rural beauty and ravaged horrorscape. That said, this is no hardcoresurvivalsim, and certainly not the kind where you’ll be chopping trees for twenty minutes before perishing to Turbo Dehydration. Atomfall does let you craft various tools and weapons from scavenged scrap, but the only vitals you’ll need to keep an eye on are your health and your heartrate. The latter rises when you sprint, kick, or swing your bat into a blighter’s head, and elevating it too much will darken the screen and muffle sounds. But! You’ll never drop dead because you haven’t eaten any berries for a while. This frees your attention to focus on Atomfall’s actual pleasures, which in my experience so far, range from the expertly unsettling atmosphere to some surprisingly thrilling rusted-piece-of-shit combat.
I’m also hoping that its grim take on the Lake District – which is free-roamable but split into various zones and dungeons, including the spacious Slatten Dale – can feel like it has a little more going on. I couldn’t cover every piece of available ground in my forty minutes, but I was more likely to be passing through empty space than investigating a new point of interest. And although outlaws were a common threat, they rarely seemed to be guarding much: the vast majority of buildings are barren, with even the most basic resources make for a rare find.
This personality, and the high-stakes shooting, can take Atomfall a long way. I just hope that the dodgy up-close combat and certain practical elements of the world design don’t hold it back in turn. There’s definitely a good game in here, I reckon, even if those berks at Rock Paper Shotgun haven’t covered it until now.
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