Join me on a violent journey through the English countryside, AKA: 90 minutes with Atomfall, the new survival-action game from Sniper Elite developer, Rebellion. I recently visited a pub in North London to have a pint and some hands-on playtime, and came away intrigued by Atomfall’s open-ended approach to mission design and eerie tone. I also may have lost my mind and decided to attack everyone I saw, including an old lady who likely didn’t deserve it, with a cricket bat. Let me explain why.
In Atomfall, every NPC can be killed, from the lowliest grunt to the most important quest-giver. As I started the demo, I decided to test this design. My approach was inelegant; barely two minutes into exploring this digital Cumbria, I triggered a tripwire alarm, forcing me to dispatch three alerted guards using the blunt end of a cricket bat, which I quickly dubbed my murder partner after it was baptized in their blood.
Later, I looted a bow and arrow, satisfying my love for archery in games. With the bow equipped, I was now prepared for both long and short-range encounters, allowing my cricket bat some much-needed rest. As I roamed, I spotted a towering wicker man, a nod to the folk horror undertones that form the backbone of Atomfall’s segmented world, which consists of multiple "open zones." This eerie setting contributed to the larger mystery I was trying to unravel: what exactly happened in this now-irradiated corner of England?
My musings were interrupted by a group of druids, likely connected to the wicker man. They became perfect targets for my newly-acquired bow. As I took them down one by one, my mind shouted, "I'M ROBIN BLOODY HOOD," before I snapped back to reality in the London pub. I swear, I hadn’t had a drink yet; it was only 10am.
The bow felt satisfying to use, but I was more intrigued by Atomfall’s innovative stamina system. Instead of a traditional depleting and regenerating bar, it uses a heart rate monitor that increases with physically taxing actions. Sprinting for too long could push your heart rate over 140 bpm, affecting your aim and accuracy. I later found a Bow Mastery skill manual that unlocked a perk to mitigate the impact of a high heart rate on drawing the bowstring. While the skill tree might not be the most complex, it offers enough flexibility to tailor your character’s abilities to your preferred gameplay style, whether it be stealth or gunplay.
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My only achievement so far was a pile of dead druids, leaving me to wonder about my overall goal. Aimless exploration of the Casterfall Woods region hadn’t uncovered anything significant, so I followed a note directing me to a herbalist, Mother Jago, near an old mine. Along the way, I encountered hints of the broader story, like a shimmering, oily swirl over a power plant—the apparent cause of Britain's post-apocalyptic state. A nearby phone box rang, with a creepy voice warning me to stay out of the woods, a warning I had already ignored.
The path was littered with environmental storytelling, such as an old boathouse rigged with an unsettling alarm system, adorned with the warning "get lost" and a mound of skulls and bones nearby. Atomfall’s atmosphere shifts from sleepy, leafy forests to creepy zones of terror, drawing comparisons not to Fallout, but to Stalker and its sequel in terms of tone and design.
After another druid massacre, where I looted their garden center home for herbs, I met Mother Jago at her quaint allotment retreat. She resembled Angela Lansbury turned to black magic aromatherapy, but her answers to my questions were frustratingly vague. This reminded me of classic point-and-click adventures, encouraging exploration of every conversation for hints. Jago offered valuable information in exchange for her herbalism book, which was being held hostage in the druids’ fortified castle. With a new lead, I headed back across the map to retrieve it.
Atomfall’s freeform design allowed me to approach the castle from any angle. I chose a side attack, encountering a druid patrol near an abandoned petrol station. The ensuing Battle of the Forecourt began with a grenade, but the enemy AI was not particularly responsive. Despite this, the visceral combat was satisfying, though it's clear Atomfall’s combat isn't its strongest feature. It's better to see enemy encounters as a fun sideshow to the main event of uncovering the world’s secrets.
After sniping a few axe-wielding brutes, I made it inside the castle’s outer walls. There, I found a locked hut with a note pointing to distant map coordinates for the keys. Atomfall doesn’t use objective markers, requiring players to manually study their map and place markers. My hunch told me the book wasn’t in the hut, so I headed to the central keep’s front doors instead.
Inside, I found more druids to dispatch but no sign of the book. I searched the dank hallways, finding only materials for crafting healing bandages. After a thorough search, I still couldn’t find the book, illustrating Atomfall’s challenging mission design. It doesn’t hold your hand, and items aren’t highlighted, which can be frustrating but also rewarding, pushing players to think like detectives.
Following the paper trail to the map coordinates, I ventured into the den of a poison plant monster. Rifle bullets were ineffective, and I died quickly. Reloading my save, I used my Skyrim bunny-hopping skills to bypass the beast and retrieve the keys from a previous victim. Back at the hut, I found a perk point and some ammo, but no herbalism book.
Feeling lost, I ventured deeper into the castle, killing the High Priestess and her followers. I found an SMG, a recipe for poison bombs, and an atomic battery, opening up new questlines I didn’t have time to explore. Again, none of these were the book I was looking for.
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After my play session ended, I learned the book was in the castle, on a table I had walked past several times. Before that revelation, I began to believe the book was a ruse. Frustrated, I returned to Mother Jago and killed her, hoping to find some hidden truth. Instead, I found a recipe to combat the poison swamp monster, which was the valuable information she promised. It seemed we could have saved a lot of time.
Atomfall’s runtime is substantial; Rebellion’s developers estimate it could take 25 hours to complete the story, with varied experiences for each player. Someone at the demo session had an entirely different adventure, encountering a crashed helicopter and exploring a new region with killer robots and mutants. Even skimming the surface, Atomfall promises depths, secrets, and mysteries.
Some objectives might be too obtuse for some players, but Atomfall rewards those who engage with its complex quest design. The blurred lines between side and main objectives add real peril to every action, encouraging players to craft their own narratives and discover unique endings. Despite killing Mother Jago, I’ll still see the story’s end, though it may differ significantly from others’ experiences.
With my hands bloodied from my violent spree, I embraced full-British mode: taking my cricket bat to the pub, and waiting for this all to blow over.
