Alternative 60s, a radioactive disaster and secrets scattered by wastelands-that is what awaits players in Atomfall, a new game from Rebellion studio. The project transfers to the fictional version of the British Cambria, which has survived a nuclear incident, inspired by a real disaster at the Windscale factory. Five years have ed after the accident, but the zone around is still dangerous: it is inhabited by bandits, mysterious druids and mutating creatures, and the situation is saturated with tension and gloomy secrets.
The survival elements in Atomfall are felt especially rigid: lack of resources, high damage from enemies and the need to constantly take care of your health. However, it is due to this that the game should reveal itself from the unexpected side – like a real post -apocalyptic detective, where the player does not follow clearly defined quests, but explores the world, collects evidence and draws conclusions.
In Atomfall, you are not leading by the hand, but only thrown the aims and strange finds, leaving freedom of choice. Editor Xbox Wire Daniel Partis tried to figure out how such an approach changes the perception of the game and why it makes it special. We have collected all the most interesting information for you in this article in Russian.
Quests without markers
In traditional RPG, tasks are usually accompanied by clear goals: talk with NPC, go there, kill the enemy, bring the subject. Atomfall breaks this structure, offering an indirect research system. Instead of familiar markers, the player receives scattered evidence scattered around the world: notes, mysterious calls in telephone booths, unusual objects with an incomprehensible purpose.
For example, in one of the cases, the player is looking for a book for NPC, but in the process finds a huge battery. What to do with her? The hero only makes a note in the diary without offering specific actions. Soon nearby, the phone begins to call, and a mysterious voice hints that such batteries need to be found a few more. How will it turn out? It has to be found out yourself.
Another case: exploring the house, the player meets a strange old woman, claiming that he lives with her sister, who is now busy with some business. However, further in the depths of the house you can find a locked room in which its skeleton is located. This leads to a strange investigation that revealed more information about the comprehensive story of Atomfall.
The most interesting thing in all this is that each new evidence can lead to an unexpected turn. Unlike the usual RPG, where errors or deviations from the quest line are usually insignificant, in Atomfall they can lead to completely different scenarios. For example, if you do not pay attention to a phone call, you can miss a whole plot branch. And if you ignore the found note, then perhaps the player will never go on the trail of an important character.
You are not a hero, but surviving
One of the features of Atomfall is the sense of vulnerability of the character. The protagonist is not a hero, but an ordinary person who fell into extremely dangerous conditions. Even in battle, you have to carefully calculate each attack: cartridges are worth its weight in gold, the enemies are strong, and health goes not only from blows, but also from radiation. In the fights you have to improvise. Who to eliminate first? What weapons to use? Is it possible to get around the enemies imperceptibly? Any mistake can cost life.
For example, if you try to the battle with a group of druids, armed only with a bat, most likely, it will end tragically. But if you find a bow and take a favorable position, you can remove them from a distance by saving resources. There are no easy solutions here – each collision requires tactics, because weapons reserves are limited, and enemies are smart and aggressive.
This principle applies to research. You will constantly have to make decisions about where to go further, whether it is worth being distracted by side findings, whether you need to trust random oncoming and so on. Atomfall does not have a clear “true path” – only guesses, suspicions and your own detective intuition.
Different players are different stories
It is especially interesting that in Atomfall there are practically no two identical ages. It all depends on what the player will pay attention to. Some can focus on revealing the global secrets associated with the zone, while others can be carried away by local stories. The Xbox Wire article provides an example of how two people, playing the same demo, have experienced completely different events.
The developers promise that any clue in the game will one way or another will lead to the overall picture. Imagine a detective wall board on which evidence is connected with threads. In Atomfall, every new find is another thread in this pattern.
It is noteworthy that these are not just scattered side stories – all storylines in the game are connected with each other. In one area you can find information that will reveal the secret of another place. This stimulates research and makes the player conduct real journalistic or police work, analyzing every hint.
When to wait for the release?
It will be possible to explore the radioactive wastelands of Kambria on March 27, when Atomfall will be released on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S. The game will fall into the Game from the date of release.
