Atomfall Hands-on Preview

I spent some time exploring the world of Atomfall, and it's post-apocalyptic world was not what I expected it to be.

Atomfall is an alternate history survival shooter set in the Lakes District of northwest England. In the game, the Windscale nuclear accident in 1957 was even worse than it was in our timeline, and now five years later the area is irradiated, isolated, and left to fend for itself. As I began my hour or so hands-on time with the game that’s all of the background story that I had on it. I found myself emerging from a cave to find not a nuclear wasteland, but an almost idyllic forest with a stream running through it. I didn’t have much time for a leisurely stroll, though, as I soon encountered another person in the woods. This person wasn’t a mutant or irradiated zombie as you might expect to encounter in a game set after a nuclear accident, but rather a druid who wasn’t too happy to see me. Soon more druids came out of the woods roused by the first’s calls to alarm and I quickly found myself under assault from axes and an annoying barrage of arrows. I quickly learned that trying to fight off the assault was unwise, especially since I was only armed with a cricket bat at the moment, but death, at least in the demo, just meant a quick trip back to the latest autosave, which thankfully were rather generous. Running for my life wasn’t feasible either, since the game tracks your heartrate and if you push yourself too far physically, you’ll find that you’ll turn yourself into an immobile, panting mess. Escaping an assault right out of the Iron Age would take a disciplined mix of tactics and stealth. I attempted to flank an archer, using a tree as a shield for the arrows when I was sighted, and then laying low and sneaking through the brush until they lost track of me. I got close enough to draw a shot from one of them, move in while he was taking the time to notch another arrow, and then let the cricket bat do its work. Now I had a bow and some arrows, ho, ho, ho. Learning my lesson that clearing a thicket of trees from a mob of angry druids was a foolish goal, I used my few remaining arrows to pick off isolated druids around the group’s periphery, and stealthily make my way past them and into the clear.

Now that I had a few moments to catch my breath, I rummaged through my inventory to find that I possessed an old survey map of the area. It showed the roads and trails in the immediate area, as well as some landmarks circled in pen and identified by short handwritten notes. I also had a quest available directing me to a hermit herbalist living near an old mine, saw that the mine was one of the noted landmarks on the map, and began my trek to find her. I soon found that the druids I encountered in the woods had a quite extensive camp nearby, Wicker Man style monuments, and plenty of patrols in the area. I avoided the camp, preferring to face the druids a couple at a time when they were impeding my route to the herbalist.

As I made my circuitous way to the herbalist, I came across a power plant buzzing with the crackle of electrical energy, and learned that the entire area hadn’t been irradiated back to the Iron Age. I spent a little time poking around the plant and encountered a puzzle that allowed me to control which transformers were live and was able to find a nice little weapons cache – finally, a little ammo for my boomstick – as well as something called an atomic battery. I also got a notification of another buried cache, which I was able to find using a metal detector I had in my inventory to play a little game of hot and cold. Atomfall is a limited-resources type of game, so finding and looting these caches is important.

Once I left the power plant, I came across a highway littered with modern and completely disabled military armored vehicles. As I surveyed the wreckage and speculated what may have taken place there, I was surprised to hear a phone ringing, and even more surprised to see that it was coming from a bright red English phone booth someone had placed in the countryside for some reason. I answered the phone, and a mysterious voice on the line told me of the importance of the atomic battery I had found. He didn’t say why it was important or what it was used for before ending the call, but I was intrigued by who this could have been, why he was so concerned with atomic batteries, and how he knew I had one in the first place.

I was able to find the herbalist shortly after that, and was surprised to find that she was a very pleasant, grandmotherly lady who appeared dressed for a garden tea party. She was quite friendly and helpful in answering my questions, but before she would provide the help I really needed, she needed a little help herself retrieving her herbalism book. Of course, the druids were behind its disappearance, and I was a little disheartened that the camp I encountered was really just a camp. The main druid base was in a nearby castle, and I would need to find a way to infiltrate or assault it in order to retrieve the pleasant lady’s tome. Unfortunately, my time with the demo ended as I was in the middle of clearing out a druid sentry point before I was able to reach the castle.

I enjoyed my limited time with the game. Atomfall’s post-apocalyptic world was not at all what I expected given the game’s premise, and I am definitely intrigued by the mysteries I encountered while exploring it. I also liked the way that the playstyle of the game matches its environment and mystery – you’re in a dangerous place and at a decided disadvantage in terms of both equipment and knowledge. I really look forward to unlocking its mysteries when it becomes available at the end of March.