Featured in the PC Gaming Show’s Most Wanted with new gameplay footage, Rebellion’s Atomfall is essentially out to answer the question “What if Stalker, but in 1960s Britain?” The game is an alt-history that takes as its foundation the Windscale fire of 1957, the biggest nuclear disaster in UK history, which saw three days of fire and radioactive fallout spreading across the UK and Europe. At the time the UK government covered-up just how bad things had gotten: In Atomfall, the area around the disaster is quarantined, and things get even worse.
The Stalker comparison is probably jumping out at me because of the proximity of Stalker 2, but that and Bethesda’s 3D Fallouts are clearly the big influences on what Atomfall’s going for. It’s a singleplayer action-RPG set in the quarantine zone five years after Windscale happened, and those within it have been busy. Dotted with UK military bases and nuclear bunkers, those within the quarantine zone have also built up their own fortifications and post-apocalyptic boltholes, with one of the most striking images in the new PCGS gameplay footage a Wicker Man moment. And there are giant patrolling robots too?
“Explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight and talk your way through a British countryside setting filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies,” says Rebellion’s description. There’s also the dreaded promise of choices with consequences though, presuming one of those is getting to set fire to the not-Wicker Man, I’m down.
PCG editor-in-chief Phil Savage recently sat down with a build of Atomfall and sums up the vibe as “Mad Max, but with flat caps.” Atomfall seems to strike a nice balance between letting you explore and dotting clues around the landscape (one of the nicest touches is the importance of your metal detector, used to snaffle out secrets and buried treasure), with the whole thing centered around the mystery of what’s actually going on in here: And why the UK government is keeping it locked-down.
Atomfall has RPG-lite elements, allowing you to customise aspects of your character and upgrade various skills, though the combat in the opening hours seems more pared-back and leaning towards realism than the Fallouts or Stalker: Guns are scarce, slow to fire, and in some cases falling apart. With various military stuff to find there’s sure to be an assault rifle at some stage, but this definitely isn’t a run-and-gunner.
Rebellion’s Atomfall will release on March 27, 2025.
