Atomfall

War, war never changes... someone said, but that is not quite true. It takes different forms, however, where irradiated horrors are the common denominator. Over the years, Rebellion has established itself in various guises - but in recent times it has mainly focused on Sniper Elite.

In Atomfall, the British game developer takes its starting point from an actual nuclear accident that took place in its home country, the Windscale fire, here served in an alternative timeline with different names that brings to mind Fallout and Stalker in several respects. An action game from a first-person perspective where you mould your character with a play style that suits you, while having to survive in a game world full of different factions, some accommodating, some more secretive - others outright hostile. Who you choose to interact with is up to you, and you are encouraged to explore and find out what really happened when the reactor collapsed.

The game begins five years after the great Windscale accident of 1957 in the north of England, where a huge quarantine zone has now been established adjacent to the military nuclear power station that suffered a meltdown. Within the zone, no one is allowed to enter or leave. As the game begins, you wake up in an abandoned and dilapidated bunker, not knowing who you are or how you got there.

An injured scientist in a protective suit rushes through the doorway. I offer him help as it is the only reasonable thing to do when you wake up and meet someone who is visibly injured. The researcher is stressed and wonders where his colleague is - I don't even know my own name, but of course I take note of what the researcher has to say. At the same time I am given different dialogue choices, I offer to help him, but am interrupted where he points out that I should listen to him - he urges me to escape and that I should go to 'The Interchange' which seems to be some kind of secret facility. This place seems to be somewhere in the quarantine zone and it is clear that I should do my utmost to get there.

In order to get out of the bunker I have just woken up in, I need a key card that the scientist gives to me provided that I look after him. Given that he is dilapidated and bleeding to death, I listen and do as he says. I am given a recipe that allows me to make bandages, which acts as a tutorial for the crafting system - whereupon he hopes I can help him not to lose consciousness. In the next dialogue choice, I am faced with a moral dilemma - should I help him without knowing what is really happening? Or should I instead negotiate with him for the key card that is my ticket out of here - after all, he is injured and bleeding heavily, something to be considered an advantage in this context? As a player, you are constantly faced with choices that have consequences, big and small.

Kind-hearted as I am, I choose to help him, gathering both cloth and alcohol and making a bandage without questioning him. He thanks me for the care but notes that I am only "delaying the inevitable" and that there is a chance that he may change very soon. I get my key card as promised and he leaves me saying that 'the truth must come out' and that the secret lies beneath the nuclear power station. The scientist asks me again to search for The Interchange, a concept unclear to me at this stage but I take him at his word. I leave the scientist - whose fate remains unclear for the moment - and then the bunker.

A picturesque landscape is painted in front of me with green fields, massive mountains and a blue eye-catching shimmer rising in the distance that hints at something that does not belong to the typical British weather. In the middle of the field, a red telephone box stands a little further ahead and rings, I pick up the phone and the voice on the other side proclaims "Oberon... Oberon must die...". It is a mystery from the first moment wrapped in a sense of conspiracy where nothing is obvious or necessarily what it appears to be. Who was the voice on the other end of the phone? What happened to the reactor, both before and after the disaster? The game offers you small clues that you are encouraged to follow or find yourself on your own, not least because they create an understanding of the events and the game world in which Atomfall takes place - but also to guide the player forward in the story or send you on alternative paths with secrets to discover. The game eventually branches out into an open world with four major interconnected areas, including Wyndham Village with its pubs and neighbouring harbour, and Casterfell Woods with more occult elements and dense eerie forest. The opening section consists mainly of mountains, quarries, mines and bunkers.

The game world is dirty, rusty, homemade and mostly wonderful - provided you appreciate environments where half-nailed four-inch boards form the bridge over a stream or improvised sheds where, according to traditional building practice, steel beams were thrown away after the reactor detonated. Crashed helicopters, looted houses, abandoned harbours and boat sheds. The small abandoned shack by the side of the road that most likely housed a happy and contented nuclear family is today a memory where exposed skeletons crowd the space in the compost bin in the backyard.

Early on I run into a guitar-playing man in a dilapidated house who, after a few well-chosen dialogue choices, recalls hearing about The Interchange, which is supposed to be somewhere in the area. I manage to persuade the man further and am given information about a military bunker that may contain details about the events that unfolded but also potential supplies I need on my journey. Coordinates I consider reasonable to follow based on the warnings of dangers and threats that seem to lurk where I least expect. The dangers of the English countryside come in many different shapes and guises, human and mutated. Bandits, religious cultists, swarms of crows in the fields, bats in the mines, or swarms of leeches in the streams, all looking to suck the life out of me. Not to mention the dead sheep lying along the roads that can explode in a cloud of poisonous spores.

I head towards the secret bunker after pinning the destination on my map, but I don't have time to take many steps before I pass an impressive waterfall embedded in the rock. Curiosity takes over and I go closer, which of course turns out to be the right decision, behind the waterfall hides a cave with secrets. There is always something to discover in the environments provided you appreciate exploration and have an eye for detail. If you want to get the most out of the experience, you'd better explore and look around. Following the path to the next goal and avoiding the diversions is, of course, up to each individual - but it is often on these alternative paths that many of the game's interesting characters and secrets emerge. Atomfall encourages you to explore and you are rewarded for doing so. Encounters with characters or enemies give you new clues, both around the game's larger mystery but also many smaller ones that help to expand the universe and the atmosphere for the player.

Atomfall does not have a regular and traditional mission system. But it's 2025, you think, so surely you've got someone to hold your hand and a clear marker of which way to go? Here, Rebellion objects, in part, which is freshly daring in today's gaming climate - once you leave the opening sequence with the dying scientist, it's largely up to you to discover the world and where you direct your steps next and who should you trust. That said, I'll avoid going into more detail about what happens later in the game, as the game experience will be very different to each player given the way the game is structured.

A tab in one of the game's menus called Investigation collects clues and information, keywords and fragments about where you should go next. Your latest finds give you a hint of where you might find new answers to the questions asked: locations and coordinates mentioned through dialogue or handwritten notes you picked up, details about characters that lead you forward. That's not to say that there isn't a traditional story at its core - there is, of course, but you'd do well to recognise that it's not a flashing green marker on the map that will take you forward during the course of the game and the gameplay experience will vary greatly for different players.

This is because information and details are constantly given to you along the way - which works very well, even if it can be confusing at first. However, you don't have to worry about ever getting lost or feeling stranded - there are always rumours and clues to follow and they are soon joined by new locations and rumours to consider, which of course you should, as they gradually open up the game and take you in different directions.

Once in the bunker that the man with the guitar told me about, I realise that I'd better be stealthy, as a type of enemy called Ferals hide along the walls and react when I get too close. The game utilises a stamina system called heart rate where everything from melee strikes or sustained sprinting uses the meter. A high heart rate makes you less effective when sneaking close to the enemy, but also causes your aim with ranged weapons to waver. I creep closer to the monster, swinging my newly found cricket bat - which does more damage, but is slower than my one-handed axe - and smack the glowing zombie in turns, taking damage and becoming infected in the process. My notebook is updated with background details of the encounter with the infected enemy, the note states that voices in my head urge me to unite with the infection and that I should listen to the voice. Small elements that, for the whole, create depth and engagement with the story and the ecosystem.

Within the combat, you can be exposed to several negative status changes such as bleeding, burning, exposure to radioactivity or electric current. Parameters that cause your life meter to drop - or your heart rate to spike, affecting your ability and endurance in combat. You can, of course, also inflict the same handicap on enemies depending on your play style and choice of weapon - or if you have found or made any of the game's consumables that give a temporary effect suitable for combat.

In your backpack, you have room for a maximum of four two-handed weapons and twelve smaller items, but how you choose to use the space is up to you. Regular weapons and grenades (or incendiary bombs, throwing knives, etc.) can be assigned to a shortcut on the crossbar for quick switching if the situation requires it. Healing items or temporary combat-related effects are applied and used directly from the backpack. You can also craft healing items here, provided you have the required recipe and ingredients for crafting. Collecting scrap metal, weapons, gunpowder, alcohol and rags is of course required if you want to survive in Atomfall beyond the obligatory cup of tea that restores your health, as everything you might come across has a purpose. With merchant travelling characters in the countryside and villages, you can engage in bartering, with the game making use of an on-screen scale to determine what your loot is worth versus what you want to trade for it. There is no currency in the game, other than the items you collect, which you then use to either create items or trade for something else.

Along the way, you will also come into contact with an air pressure-based tube system that acts as an extended warehouse where you can dispose of your excess and all kinds of rubble you have picked up, which you can then access via a network that spreads to other locations on the game map. Collecting supplies and components is part of this genre. Your weapons can also be upgraded in different levels, which takes place in a submenu whenever you want, higher levels of upgrading require more and more advanced finds that you do not find everywhere, but in order to be able to upgrade your revolver or shotgun from rusty junk to shiny new condition, the game also requires a basic understanding of how to make the upgrades. Recipes are required if you are to be able to manufacture or upgrade on your own, these drawings can be found in the environments during the game or exchanged when you reach a safe harbour in the form of a slightly more civilised society.

A skill system is of course also available here which is divided into four categories: Ranged Combat, Melee Combat, Survival and Conditioning. It may sound sparse, but I find it just right for what the game is, namely survival in a barren world where you try to adapt both yourself and your weapons to the conditions. It's not a deep and traditional role-playing game where you are rewarded with skill points (XP) or level up and distribute your points across a canopy of different alignments, that's not how it works here. Training Stimulants act as skill points in the game, which are items you either find in abandoned buildings, as rewards for completing chores, or if you're lucky, when you use your metal detector to sweep the ground and manage to find a buried stash. These points are added to a pool, then you invest the points in any of the four categories you want to bet on with increasing requirements for more points the deeper within the category you want to go. So management and balance are key in this area too.

Do you want to get better at negotiating at the scales where bartering takes centre stage? Then invest in one of the subcategories under Survival, being able to defuse booby traps and obtain components in the process is another subcategory in the same tab. Under Conditioning you can, for example, strengthen your heart rate or increase your health meter maximum. Ranged Combat and Melee Combat, I think, speak for themselves and what they offer for each direction, however, they are not to be forgotten in the whole if you want to be able to perform in both firefights and melees.

You will of course have at your disposal weapons such as pistols, rifles and sub-machine guns necessary for survival. The ammunition for them, however, will not be in abundance. The bow is both silent and deadly and an effective weapon if you want to sneak into the facility patrolled by psychopathic druids wearing bearskin hats who have mined the entrance. Sneaking up on an unsuspecting guard from behind is an effective way to put them out of action. The choices in how you tackle the game's enemies are many. Some enemies will surrender and raise their hands when you point your weapon at them if they consider themselves outnumbered, others may recoil in shock and surprise when a shot is fired that they were not prepared for. However, the artificial intelligence is not flawless, as in some cases enemies have completely ignored me.

There is a slight dystopia in the game. Atomfall draws inspiration from British 60s sci-fi with British folklore and mysticism. Propaganda posters adorn the concrete walls, robots descended from the former government known as B.A.R.D. and used in the construction of the more secretive research facilities patrol the streets.

Gameplay mechanics are reminiscent of titles such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Atomic Heart. It's more action than tactical role-playing, although you always have dialogue choices with different approaches where you can be accommodating and helpful, blunt or aggressive, or diplomatically inclined with demands for negotiation - which makes the conversation take different directions. On your journey, you'll encounter a military unit called Protocol with a tough captain named Grant Sims - leader and self-appointed authority in the quarantine zone - but also a mysterious botanist in the deep forests along with religious druids who despise technology.

The game is built on the proprietary Asura engine, which is the same engine last used in Sniper Elite: Resistance. This is something that is noticeable and is one of the game's more prominent weaknesses. Indoor environments are much more detailed, where shadows and lighting are used in a different way than in the larger outdoor environments, which are sometimes both low-resolution and lifeless. The image is stable and is at 60 frames per second. The fact that the game is being released for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 indicates some resource management for the development of Atomfall, which is unfortunate in this context as it could have benefited from the extra horsepower of solely launching on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in particular.

The adventure unfolds in a way where nothing is served on a silver platter. The structure itself can be confusing at first - but you're not supposed to be in control of the situation or know what's going on behind the scenes. This is, of course, a deliberate choice by the developer. Each decision is a network of interconnected stories and events that lead you deeper into the narrative where your choices have consequences that affect the game as a whole, there are multiple endings to discover which contributes to high replay value. It's an interesting angle to the game, which is very much about exploration without guidance and ultimately creates presence, but with high demands on the player's focus. It's up to you to unravel the secrets where not everything is necessarily what it seems.

Rebellion has, with Atomfall, made a kind of rebellion against modern gaming storytelling which I appreciate even if at times I felt overwhelmed by all the clues I am asked to follow up. It's familiar in many ways but with a different approach to moving you and the story forward, but this isn't necessarily something that will be appreciated by everyone who instead wants a more clear and structured experience. Overall, Atomfall is a breath of fresh air from the developer that for the past ten years has been directly synonymous with slow-motion bullets and sniping. With the confidence the game developer shows here, I hope that they will continue to take chances and not just focus on World War II with one eye closed.