Fallout rival Atomfall is ideal for Steam Deck, and you can play it for free

Bored of waiting for a new Fallout game? Yeah, we are, too. The good news is that Sniper Elite developer Rebellion has been cooking up a brand-new apocalyptic RPG in the form of Atomfall. You’ve likely seen it on your TikTok feeds lately, with the glorious Yorkshire accent representation thoroughly appreciated by myself. What I like more than that is that Atomfall is already running well on handhelds like the Steam Deck, and Xbox Game Pass is making it easy to pick up on Thursday, March 27, 2025.

That’s if you’re not fussed about getting the Deluxe Edition, which grants early access to Rebellion’s open-world game on Monday, March 24, 2025. If you can wait a couple of days, all you need is an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, as Atomfall is coming to Microsoft’s subscription service at launch. It even supports cloud gaming, bringing the Steam Deck into the fold to stream Atomfall wherever you may be. For those of you with Windows-based portable gaming consoles like the Asus ROG Ally or MSI Claw 8 AI+, you can simply install the game as normal.

While it might be easy to dismiss Atomfall as a ‘Fallout clone,’ Rebellion’s take on apocalyptic survival shares more aesthetically with gorgeous mystery games like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and, of course, the sprawling countrysides of any Sniper Elite game. That’s because Atomfall takes place in the Lake District, a vista of fields, hills, and idyllic villages in Northern England.

Set in an alternative history where the 1957 Windscale fire covered most of the district, a larger plot unfolds, and the British Atomic Research Division – a fictitious version of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority – may just be part of it.

It marks the potential start of a new series for Rebellion after the studio has mainly focused on the Sniper Elite franchise since 2012. It joins a roster of triple-A titles within the Game Pass library, although you don’t need to rely on Microsoft to play all of them.

Check out our Indiana Jones Steam Deck guide to get all you need about playing Machine Games’ excellent adventure on Valve’s handheld. You can also dive into our list of the Game Pass games currently on xCloud.

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