When playing games nowadays, very often they will hold your hand relentlessly to a point that becomes ridiculous. Sony and its cinematic narrative games are always picked on for this trait. For example, in the recent God of War games, there is constant nattering about what you need to do at every point. A puzzle that should be there for you to work out yourself will be almost immediately answered by a companion. It makes sense in the context of the story, perhaps, but it doesn’t make for the most riveting gameplay experience. Another way games hold your hand is with a cluttered user interface (UI) with waypoints everywhere, quest descriptions or even controls on screen. Atomfall is a modern example where none of this is the case. It respects the player by letting them discover things at their own pace. There is no clutter on screen and just a strange world to explore, albeit not so much to us Brits. This is a wonderfully British game with personality and charm, but it certainly helps that underneath all that, it is a really well made game in its own right.

Atomfall places players within a quarantine zone in the Lake District, a region in Northwestern England. You wake up in some kind of bunker with a very distressed, injured man in a gas mask raving about something called ‘The Interchange’. He gives you a modified keycard to access it but that is all. Atomfall is not interested in giving you anything beyond that and instead wants you to discover things for yourself. There is no proper main story to follow in this game, it is purely based on you, how you interact with the world and how you are to escape this mysterious quarantine zone.

This approach to narrative design is old school in the best possible way. You are really left to your own devices and you can go about things however you want to. Whether it is speaking to everybody in the nearby town, asking for clues as to what’s going on, or scavenging around for notes that may give you an idea, there is so much freedom. After your introduction with the injured man, you immediately know this place is dangerous and it would be in your best interest to get out. If that was not enough of a warning sign, the outlaws that roam the world are even more cause to want to leave. How to go about leaving is the real question and you will only know through exploration. Speaking to people or reading notes gives you leads which are recorded in your journal. Make no mistake, these leads are not quest markers. You can track them but that merely gives you a summary of what you have heard or read. It will not tell you how important it is either so you have have to weigh up yourself what sounds promising enough to pursue. There are some strange people that you will encounter too and it is up to you who you think is trustworthy enough to deliver on their promises. It is so refreshing to see this amount of agency given to the player and big studios should take note.

Exploration of Atomfall‘s world is definitely enhanced by this search for answers but the actual gameplay systems of it are quite basic. The survival elements in particular are a bit undercooked. There are five difficulties and developer Rebellion recommends the 4th one up. Even so, this game is quite easy to survive in. There is an abundance of materials, weapons and ammunition to pick up and it is incredibly rare that you will be skint of supplies. The backpack is not massive by any means but most of the time, I had way too many throwables or healing items. So much so that most of the time, I had to leave them when coming across them or just dropped what I had. It would be interesting to see how this would be on the hardest diffculty but it cannot be drastically different.

Firefights with outlaws are engaging enough but so long as you have done at least a decent amount of exploring, you will have more than enough healing items and offensive capabilities to get you through. Due to the amount of long grass and cover across the world too, you have the option of avoiding combat entirely at points. So long as you have the patience, you can simply wait for the enemies to walk past and then continue on your way. If there was less resources, it would be interesting to see how much you are forced into this approach because often, it is just easier to shoot them all and move on. Guns you find are all quite strong and most enemies die from a single headshot. Making them more of a rarity, along with their ammunition, would probably make the combat much more tense and would distract from how basic it is.

Another thing that does enhance the experience is Atomfall‘s brilliant setting. Much of the write-ups for this game labelled it as a ‘British fallout’ and whilst that is far from true gameplay-wise, everything else supports that stance. All the characters have various regional accents, ranging from strong Yorkshire gruffness to the twang of a Somerset farmer. They have so many quintessentially British phrases throughout and none of them feel forced and strange. Rebellion is a British studio so there was no doubt they could get this right but often a game trying to portray Britishness comes littered with American stereotypes. There is a proper warmth to every delivery, even if it is an outlaw telling you to not come closer or he will “do you in”. The Lake District setting is also incredibly beautiful to walk around and is done justice.

As much as some elements of Atomfall do not feel quite as well thought out as others, those parts that do work elevate the overall package emphatically. The basis of the game is its exploration and search for answers and since them factors are done so well, they have a bigger weight to them. Basic combat and a few too many items are purely small transistional problems whilst exploring the world and are not the game’s focus or reason for being. Rebellion has created something exciting here that does not overstay its welcome and gives a rare feeling of discovery and mystery that big games today really lack. What’s more is that its problems are minimal enough that they could easily be worked on for a future project to make an even better experience. Only time will tell but Atomfall itself was a great experience that everyone should give a chance. It may not be for everyone but if it clicks with you like it did with me, it is a really fun time.