Atomfall is an upcoming 2025 action survival game developed and published by Rebellion Developments. It is set in an alternate history 1960s where the Windscale nuclear disasters turned much of Northern England into a radioactive quarantine zone. The game is scheduled to release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on 27 March 2025.
| Atomfall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Rebellion Developments |
| Publisher(s) | Rebellion Developments |
| Designer(s) | Ben Fisher |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | 27 March 2025 |
| Genre(s) | Action, survival |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Gameplay
editAtomfall is an action game played from a first-person perspective. Set in an alternate history in which the 1957 Windscale fire rendered much of the Lake District, Cumbria in radioactive fallout. Players can collect various resources and scraps to craft weapons, or use firearms to defeat enemies, though ammunitions are scarce in the game. While Atomfall is billed as a survival game, players only need to manage the player character's health and heart rate. Combat, sprinting and kicking enemies will increase the protagonist's heart rate, resulting in darkened vision and muffled hearing.[1] Stealth tactics can also be used, and the game can be completed without killing any enemy.[2] Killing all characters in the game is also an option.[3]
The British countryside of the Lake District is a series of interconnected areas which can be freely explored by the player.[3] Players must interact with other non-playable characters and select dialogue options as responses. Players will eventually acquire leads which will lead to new objectives and opportunities. Players can pursue these objectives in any order after they are unlocked.[2]
Premise
editThe protagonist, an unidentified amnesic, must explore a quarantine zone established in the Lake District, Northern England five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster to uncover what had happened in the area.[4] Players will have to fight against mutated creatures, cult members, rogue military agents, and robots created by the British Atomic Research Division.
Development
editAtomfall is currently being developed by British developer Rebellion Developments. The game was inspired by Fallout: New Vegas, which was described by Ben Fisher, associate head of design at Rebellion, as a "dense" experience and one that valued player choice. Instead of building a single large open world area, Rebellion opted to build several smaller but interconnected zones due to the team's expertise in crafting maps of similar size, having worked on the Sniper Elite series for decades.[3] Metro and BioShock also influenced the game design.[5] However, unlike these games, investigative gameplay was prioritized by Rebellion in an attempt to promote players' freedom and facilitate world-building.[6]
Fisher described it as a "desperate" survival game. Both the player character and enemies in the game are easily killed. The team compared the gameplay to the film Children of Men, in which players assume control of an everyman instead of a skilled fighter. Pulp fiction also influenced the game, with The Quatermass Experiment, The Prisoner, Doctor Who, The Wicker Man and The Day of the Triffids cited as the team's inspirations.[3]
Release
editRebellion Developments announced Atomfall in June 2024.[7] The game is scheduled to release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on 27 March 2025.[8]
References
edit- ^ Archer, James (August 22, 2024). "Atomfall plays like a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with Scouse accents". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
- ^ a b Purslow, Matt (August 29, 2024). "Atomfall Isn't British Fallout, It's Something Much More Interesting". IGN. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Peckwood, Lewis (August 21, 2024). "A very British Fallout: Atomfall conjures up a cosy nuclear catastrophe in the Lake District". The Guardian. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
- ^ Kaur, Tessa (2024-08-24). "Despite Everybody's Assumptions, Atomfall Looks Way Cooler Than Fallout". TheGamer. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
- ^ Serin, Kaan (August 23, 2024). "1950s FPS Atomfall takes from Fallout, Metro, and BioShock to create "something new"". GamesRadar. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
- ^ Sawyer, Will (August 22, 2024). "Atomfall developer diary provides the most thorough look yet at the frightfully British survival action game that's part Fallout and part Bioshock". GamesRadar. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
- ^ Barbosa, Alessandro (June 9, 2024). "Atomfall Is A New Survival-Action Game From The Team Behind Sniper Elite". GameSpot. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
- ^ "Atomfall launches March 27, 2025". Gematsu. 2024-11-14. Retrieved 2024-11-14.