Atomfall is an upcoming survival-action game developed by Rebellion Developments, the studio behind the Sniper Elite and Zombie Army series. Set in an alternate 1962, five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England, Atomfall places players in a quarantine zone filled with cultists, irradiated creatures, and rogue government agents. As they are in almost any post-apocalyptic game, players are tasked with exploring this post-nuclear landscape, scavenging for resources and weapons, and uncovering the mysteries surrounding the disaster.
On the surface, Atomfall looks fantastic and has some really great ideas. In fact, it's one of the best-looking games in recent memory and it's hard not to appreciate the ambition. However, despite its captivating exoskeleton and noble intentions, the glaring problem is that most of Atomfall's best ideas are overshadowed by frustrating game design and needless mechanical roadblocks. At the end of a 30-hour playthrough, the game stands out photographically but isn't ultimately memorable.
Why Sniper Elite Fans Should Check Out Atomfall
Atomfall doubles down on everything Rebellion has learned with its Sniper Elite franchise, a dev tells The Best War Games in an interview.
Atomfall's Pride and Joy Is Its World
Atomfall's World Is Gorgeous, Immersive, and Eerily Unsettling
Just by looking at Atomfall, it's easy to discern that its priorities lie in offering players a world that is both captivating to see and enticing to explore. Rebellion has poured an immense amount of detail into Atomfall's world, ensuring that players are never bored with what they're looking at, where they're going, or what they find. Contrary to what may have been believed about it, Atomfall isn't an open-world game but more of a semi-open world that is split into several different sizable zones, each one teeming with the same greenery and wildlife but unique in many other ways. There are also numerous smaller zones to explore, like caves, mines, underground bunkers, and even a castle.
While other post-apocalyptic games like Fallout feature abandoned wastelands with minimal vegetation and occasional pools of irradiated water, Atomfall is a literal breath of fresh air in that sense, as its world is probably one of the greenest, most vegetative landscapes ever seen in a post-nuclear game world. In a way, Atomfall's abundant plant life offers a false sense of hope to the player, since almost everything else in the game is out to kill them for some reason. Nevertheless, it's a refreshing sight for a game like this, and I never once grew tired of looking at it.
Just because Atomfall's world is full of life doesn't mean it's pleasant, however, as its darkest corners are home to some incredibly tense moments that will likely have players scrambling to reload their weapon before they're torn apart by a Feral. Actually, there's nothing more terrifying in Atomfall than hearing a Feral huffing and growling as it runs down the hall trying to find its next victim, and once it catches the scent of its prey, it's difficult to fend off. In addition to those moments, the general atmosphere of the world is thoroughly unsettling, leaning heavily into folk horror and classic British sci-fi for something that feels less like Fallout and more like BioShock.
Atomfall's Exploration-Based Progression Is a Refreshing Change of Pace
Apart from its standout visuals, one clear indicator that Atomfall loves its world more than anything else lies in the way it ties character progression to exploration. Rather than featuring an experience-based progression system, Atomfall encourages players to explore every nook and cranny of its gorgeous world if they want to unlock better skills and improve their character's stats. This is accomplished through finding Training Stimulants in B.A.R.D. Containers and other places and then using them to purchase skills. It's a unique change of pace, as it makes Atomfall's gameplay less about killing everything in sight or completing every quest and more about taking in its context.
There are four skill categories in Atomfall — Ranged Combat, Melee Combat, Survival, and Conditioning — and each category has nine different skills, most of which are passive. Players begin the game with three skills available in each category that can be unlocked with Training Stimulants, and the remaining six become available once they find the associated Training Manuals through exploration. These books can be found anywhere in the game, whether they're in a chest or simply lying on a table, and finding them is a huge payoff. However, a system like this may be a bit of a downside to Atomfall's progression for some players, as it's possible to never be able to use certain skills if they can't find all the Training Manuals.
Even if players don't find all the Training Manuals, exploring Atomfall's lush world is always a rewarding experience. There are crafting materials, weapons, lore entries, and other rewards waiting around every corner, ensuring no venture is entirely fruitless. Even if nothing material is found, the richly saturated environments, sharp textures, and engrossing atmosphere are worth the journey. Unfortunately, it's all let down by some incredibly rough, immersion-breaking gameplay that is extremely difficult to ignore.
Why Atomfall's Protagonist Has Amnesia
The Best War Games recently spoke with Rebellion about the reasons behind the action survival game Atomfall's protagonist having amnesia.
Atomfall's Gameplay Is Rough In, Through, and Around the Edges
If Atomfall's world is its first child, its gameplay is most certainly its second. In other words, while its world design may be attentively cared for, its gameplay is left to fend for itself. In many ways, Atomfall's gameplay makes it feel like an early access game.
Atomfall's Enemy AI Is Buggy and Anything But Intelligent
The peak of Atomfall's flaws is its enemy AI, which is so unintelligent and bug-ridden that it frequently severs you from any immersion established by the world. Sometimes, janky enemy AI can lead to some charming and memorable gameplay moments, but Atomfall leans so heavily into that jank that it's difficult to play how you want. Instead of being encouraged to find creative solutions to actual problems, Atomfall's enemy AI often forces you to find creative solutions to inconsistencies in their behavior, making any challenge the real artificial element.
One thing that is quite enjoyable is how enemies in Atomfall vocally and physically react to a gun being aimed at them, but that's about where the enjoyment ends.
It seems like Atomfall really wants its players to utilize stealth whenever possible, especially in light of how much it emphasizes detection meters and how easy it is to become overwhelmed once a fight breaks out. However, Atomfall's stealth mechanics are so unreliable that it's almost more worth it to avoid using it altogether. This is because stealth situations rarely pan out the way they seem they will, and it can make players a sitting duck as a result. On top of that, ammo really isn't that rare of a resource for those who are willing to put in some time exploring and are skilled at pulling off headshots, so it's almost better to just use guns anyway.
Enemies in Atomfall tend to behave rather erratically, with inconsistent patrol paths and a keen awareness of the player's presence, even when they shouldn't be aware. Something seems to be baked into enemy coding that alerts them to the player's proximity, as getting too close to them can cause them to suddenly shift their direction or turn around. Ironically, with how supernaturally aware enemies seem to be of the player's presence in the area, they're also immensely thick at times. For example, after witnessing their companion die right in front of them, they often immediately respond in confusion with classic quotes like "Must have been my imagination" that have become memes of stealth-heavy games like Assassin's Creed.
I also noticed consistent bugs with enemy AI during my playthrough that were more frustrating than charming. I wanted to stay immersed in Atomfall's world, and technical issues like these just wouldn't allow it. Sometimes, I would find massive groups of enemies all walking together, and while that might not sound like a bug by description alone, the positioning of the enemies and their quirky behavior made it clear that this isn't how the game was designed to function. In these cases, I could tell that my presence in an area would trigger enemy spawns in that area, but rather than spawning in their patrol zones, they would spawn in a small, central location and then slowly make their way to their assignments as a group.
Atomfall's Leads System Is a Great Idea That Misses the Mark
One of Atomfall's best experimental mechanics is its Leads system, which replaces the traditional quest structure found in many other games with investigative leads — simple clues about where to go and what to do. The purpose of the Leads system is to immerse players in the game's narrative rather than making both its main and side stories a checklist of objectives to complete, and I find that to be a noble approach to the "open-world chores" problem. Once players find a Lead, it will point them in the general direction of their objective rather than pinpointing it outright, and those directions can become clearer the more Leads they find.
This is also how Atomfall's main story progresses, and while that should be the highlight of a game like this, the narrative is a bit derivative and lacks the originality to truly set it apart from other titles like it. Nevertheless, it does encourage exploration and player agency, both of which are important in a game like Atomfall. Some players will find this method of story progression to be disengaging, as it requires a bit more effort than it should. Games like Atomfall are arguably at their best when they tell a story rather than making players read it in pieces, and since Atomfall opts for the latter method, the story can be a bit hard to follow.
This is ultimately where Atomfall's Leads system fails to stick the landing. The primary intention of the Leads system in Atomfall is to disconnect players from a checklist and connect them to the game's main narrative and side stories, but there are some major elements working against this. Firstly, the open-ended nature of the Leads system can make completing some objectives very difficult at times, to the point that I frequently found myself wandering around aimlessly and even passing over items I was meant to find because the clues I had were far too vague to be of any help. One Lead that I had essentially said, "Find a book in a castle," if that's any indication of what the system is like.
It also doesn't take long to get so bogged down with Leads in Atomfall that its stories are challenging to manage, difficult to follow, and almost impossible to engage with. This results in substantially uneven storytelling and inconsistent narrative pacing, especially since Atomfall lets players tackle Leads in any order they want. You can understand what Atomfall is trying to do with its Leads system, and even appreciate its efforts. However, there is a reason the traditional quest system has been around for so long, so to abandon it entirely rather than find a middle ground somewhere may not have been the best move.
Atomfall does let players enable a compass and waypoint markers by changing their Exploration Playstyle to Casual or Assisted via a difficulty slider in the Options menu. Even so, Challenging is supposed to be Atomfall's normal mode, which means that is the way the game is meant to be played.
Atomfall's Combat Lacks Responsiveness and Fluidity
Atomfall's combat is another low point for the game, as it ultimately lacks responsiveness and fluidity. Melee combat, for one thing, is highly underwhelming, with negligible hitstop that makes every strike feel like it's hitting a pillow rather than a person. It's also immensely sluggish and unresponsive, and that's especially noticeable when every enemy in the game seems to be able to deliver melee attacks at an exceedingly rapid rate by comparison. Furthermore, Atomfall's protagonist can throw punches and even kicks, but for some reason, they never learned how to block or dodge, leaving players open to attacks if they can't keep enemies consistently stunned.
Using guns in Atomfall isn't as bad, except that enemy hitboxes may make even the most skilled players feel like a Star Wars Stormtrooper. Meanwhile, the game's enemies are frustratingly accurate and quick with ranged weapons, leaving players with little choice but to flee when they're spotted by a sniper or hope for a bit of luck as they try to snag a quick kill via headshot. Add to that the fact that using a gun can lead to what feels like every enemy in the area swarming the player, which inadvertently highlights the shortcomings of Atomfall's stealth mechanics. If stealth were a more viable option in Atomfall, the chaos of a firefight could be avoided.
Atomfall's unresponsive combat and unreliable stealth system also play into what could have been one of its best features: the freedom players have to either kill or spare every NPC in the game. According to Rebellion, it's possible to kill every single NPC in Atomfall and still beat the game, but it's hard to see why anyone would want to attempt that with how combat normally shakes out. It's apparently also possible to complete the game without killing a single NPC. However, the game's stealth mechanics aren't dependable enough to get players through undetected or unscathed, so attempting that route is likely to make the game even more frustrating than it has to be.
Atomfall's Story DLCs Will Go in 'Different Directions'
In a The Best War Games interview, Rebellion's head of design reveals that Atomfall's two post-launch story DLCs will go in 'different directions.'
Atomfall Readies Its Aim But Never Really Fires
Atomfall is a game that reaches for something truly immersive and unique, but in doing so, it ends up stumbling over its ambitions. While its world is undeniably breathtaking to look at and explore, offering a visually striking and atmospherically rich experience, the gameplay fails to live up to that standard. The Leads system, while an interesting deviation from traditional quest systems, can result in more frustration than engagement, and the combat lacks the fluidity necessary for a game that leans heavily on survival mechanics. Its stealth mechanics, enemy AI, and unresponsive controls only add to these frustrations, making progression feel more like a struggle against the game itself rather than the world it's set in.
Despite these shortcomings, Atomfall isn't without its merits. Its environmental storytelling and commitment to a haunting, folk-horror-inspired world set it apart from other post-apocalyptic titles. It's clear that Rebellion had a vision — one that, with a bit more refinement, could have resulted in something special. However, in its current state, Atomfall is a game that often feels like it's fighting against itself, offering players a world they may admire but struggle to fully enjoy in the end.
- Released
- March 27, 2025
- ESRB
- Teen // Blood, Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Rebellion Developments
- Publisher(s)
- Rebellion Developments
- Number of Players
- 1
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
- Gorgeous, Atmospheric World
- Fulfilling Progression System
- Buggy, Unintelligent Enemy AI
- Leads Result in Aimlessness and Uneven Storytelling
- Sluggish, Unresponsive Combat
- Frustrating Stealth System
Atomfall releases on March 27, 2025, for PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with its optional Deluxe Edition granting three days of early access. The Best War Games was provided a PC code for this review.