Atomfall Hands-On Preview: The Stanley Parable Meets Fallout

At a surface level, British Fallout sounds pretty cool. Not to live in, of course, but from the success of Fallout London it's clear it's something people want. However, to just be labelled as a British Fallout reduces Rebellion's Atomfall too much. To separate itself, Atomfall boasts of a completely non-linear story, and influence from British speculative fiction of the 20th century.

You awake in a restricted zone that has been largely abandoned by society, akin to something like STALKER. Your mission is essentially just to get out of the zone, but largely Atomfall gives you no way of knowing how to do that. As you roam around the map, you'll pick up leads which will introduce you to various factions and characters that promise escape. Most characters you meet will need a favour from you in order for you to take the next step towards getting out of the zone, which then sends you on another path, in which you can find another lot of leads.

In a way, the narrative is entirely up for you to find in Atomfall, and you'll end up creating your own story as you explore the map, taking on the various hostile forces and trying to discover as much as you can about the unknown world around you. It was a premise I was at first sceptical of, but after playing I warmed to it quite quickly. Armed with a couple of rusted guns and a cricket bat, I set out into the wilds, immediately discovering a cave packed with druids. After I realised I couldn't take on twenty of them by myself, I explored further, picking up supplies, ammo, and additional weapons here and there.

Exploration is a lot of fun in Atomfall, and you do feel like a local detective, piecing together the mystery of the places and people around you. While I didn't dig too deep and can't tell you how satisfying the answers to these mysteries are, it's worth noting the developers won't include the solution to all your problems, leaving some things open to interpretation. But, the richness of the world comes across quickly, and is enough to make you want to step out and explore even if you don't have a big marker hovering over the map telling you where to go.

Large wicker men, dilapidated castles and rundown mines decorate the map, each holding great potential for discoveries. Some will help you deal with the enemies in the map, such as an explosive lure I found to deal with groups, and in other cases you'll read of some other lead to follow. It's worth double-checking every corner, which might frustrate people who want a more linear progression system, but will be heaven for those who hate the idea of a question mark being left on a map.

Combat was described by the developers as something you might want to avoid in Atomfall, but some of the most fun I had with the game was sticking it to anyone who crossed my path with a cricket bat. It's simple combat, again comparable to something like a Bethesda RPG, but it's still satisfying, especially when you drop in on a group of enemies armed with bows and beat them all bloody before they can nock an arrow. Firearms and bows are used less, but if you can find the ammo and consider yourself a crack shot, they're really fun to play with. By not overcomplicating something like the combat, Rebellion has left plenty of room for its complex narrative.

Skills and crafting also feel rather simple but effective. If you have the materials and the recipe, you just hold a button down and the item you want is yours when it comes to crafting. Skills require points picked up from manuals, and allow you to focus more on things like melee weapon damage, stealth, and overall survivability. What is a nice addition that'll add an extra level of thinking when you're playing is your heartbeat, which works kind of like a stamina or second health bar, constantly rising if you're sprinting everywhere, and if it stays too high, you'll struggle to keep your aim steady and succeed in combat.

After just an hour or so with the game, Atomfall feels like a unique title that again fills that nuke-sized hole in people's hearts for more single-player Fallout. I threw in The Stanley Parable comparison in the title because while it is certainly more of an active game, the branching storylines and reliance on your input above all else really makes Atomfall feel like a game you'll want to play through multiple times, and we'll all likely have individual stories on how our adventures go in irradiated Britain. One thing's for sure, though: the cricket bat will be a key feature of all those stories.