Atomfall’s Unique Approach to Quests Makes You a Post-Apocalyptic Rural Detective

My personal experience with Atomfall improved tenfold the moment I stopped trying to follow the quest line in a traditional sense. This might sound weird, but stay with me. During a recent hands-on session, we had the chance to explore a section of Atomfall ahead of its launch later this month, and get to grips with how the game redefines traditional RPG questing.

Atomfall takes place in an alternate version of a 1960s Cumbria, UK, and presents a fictionalized retelling of events following the real-life Windscale Atom plant disaster. Five years later, the surrounding area is still designated as a quarantine zone, and it’s up to you to uncover what’s happening.

Your goal first and foremost is survival in this place, which is overrun by outlaws, possibly possessed druids, remnants of aggressive law enforcement – and that’s just the human presence. The disaster has also birthed a whole host of nuclear oddities – in my 90 minutes of playtime I stumbled across a swarm of pulsating violet bees, a mysterious long-necked creature poking out of a pond, and a man bound inside a wickerman with glowing mushrooms spewing out of his chest cavity. All of these discoveries present enchanting narrative threads to unravel, but the first order of business is staying alive.

Survival is tough and these hills are unforgiving, but you’ll be rewarded for exploring. During my first druid encounter, I lurched straight in with a cricket bat and landed several satisfying blows before being immediately humbled by the surprising power of a few hardened hatchet-wielding menaces. Things got a little easier after picking up a bow, which allowed me to quickly and quietly pick off baddies with alacrity, each arrow landing with a confident thunk into unsuspecting victims. Ammo is scarce, which meant every kill at range needed to be calculated – I prioritised taking down fellow bow wielders in a group, before sieging any leftover enemies with whatever blunt weapon I had to hand (and then scavenging as many used arrows as I could). 

You’ll be able to loot most basic supplies from enemies, and it helps immensely to keep entirely stocked up on the materials needed to craft healing items. Enemies deal surprisingly high damage and it’s quite easy to injure yourself falling off a small ledge or wandering into a poisoned area. Eating food also helps with health, and the option to snaffle a quick tin of unbranded canned meat straight off the floor came in extremely handy for quick health top-ups.

The results were often messy and unpredictable, but it gives Atomfall a gritter edge than many of its peers. I don’t feel more powerful or tooled up than anyone else in the vicinity, which leads to careful planning, and chaotic, entertaining outcomes. This doesn’t just apply to combat, but also to how Atomfall leads you down a string of quests, not with actionable objectives, but with narrative clues and leads that you have to piece together yourself.

This is a particularly unique approach to the concept of quests; Atomfall doesn’t just chuck a bunch of skippable dialogue and a waypoint at you, it instead opts to let you discover where to go, how to approach your mission, and how rigidly you want to stick to the task at hand. In one section, while hunting down a book for someone, I stumbled across a large battery, its use unknown according to my character’s notes after collecting it. Instead of being given a new direction, a nearby phonebox rang ominously, with a mysterious voice telling me that I’ll need to find more for a purpose I’m yet to uncover. 

In that same area, I discovered a dead body with a note that led me to the rough location of another point of interest somewhere else on the map. After hitting a wall with my hunt for the book (I accidentally went to the wrong place, as it happens) I had a choice here – continue wandering around a location aimlessly, or follow this entirely new lead. In the interest of preview time, I chose the latter, which took me to an old manor and introduced me to a quirky old woman living within. Amid this dilapidated old house full of rotting food, broken furniture and mold, a kindly old woman assures me everything is fine and normal, and that her sister is busy attending to some tasks. Leaning into this character’s belief led me to discover her sister’s skeleton hidden in a locked room, and onto a path of odd investigation that uncovered more about Atomfall‘s overarching narrative.

In this instance, I’ve not deviated from a main objective, I’ve followed a lead that has given me more information about the story, enhancing the journey that I’m on. This method of discovery also breeds a certain uneasiness, as you meet characters that aren’t necessarily “bad”, but more, normal people that have been extremely damaged by the catastrophic events they’re living through. Brilliantly, Rebellion promises that every lead in the game, no matter how obscure, can lead you to another, all converging around the game’s central mystery. Think of it as beginning to piece together your own detective’s corkboard – the red string just keeps on coming.

And those leads are everywhere. Not unlike this year’s Avowed, having a keen eye and ear for a lead really is the heart of this game – those who engage and follow their instincts will find that there’s so much to discover. As if to prove that point, my colleague, playing the same build, at the same time, had a completely different experience of the demo to me.

You’re not here to pick a mission, see it to completion and then move on to the next one – new leads can pop up anywhere, they may take you in a completely different direction, and you’ll not always be able to confidently discern what the “right” path is. Atomfall lets your detective instincts take the wheel as you vacuum up every piece of information presented, never leaving you aimless, but refusing to hold your hand as you blunder (in my case) through its landscape in pursuit of a bigger truth. 

We’ve only scratched the surface of what appears to be a captivating story, but you’ll be able to fully explore the rolling nuclear hills of Cumbria at your leisure when Atomfall launches on March 27. Play it on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, and day one with Game Pass.

Atomfall

Rebellion

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

A survival-action game inspired by real-life events, Atomfall is set five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England.
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.
From Rebellion, the studio behind Sniper Elite and Zombie Army, Atomfall will challenge you to solve the dark mystery of what really happened.
Player Driven Mystery: Unravel a tapestry of interwoven narratives through exploration, conversation, investigation, and combat, where every choice you make has consequences.

Search, Scavage, Survive: You’ll need to scavenge for supplies, craft weapons and items, and fight desperately to make it out alive!

Desperate Combat: With weapons and ammunition scarce, each frenetic engagement will see you blend marksmanship with vicious hand-to-hand combat. Manage your heart rate to hold a steady aim and ensure you have the energy you need to reach for your cricket bat and land the killer blow.

Green and Unpleasant Land: The picturesque British countryside, with rolling green hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the dangers that await you. Navigate cult-controlled ruins, natural caves, nuclear bunkers and more as you explore this dense, foreboding world.

Reimagining Windscale: A fictional reimagining of a real-world event, Atomfall draws from science fiction, folk horror, and Cold War influences to create a world that is eerily familiar yet completely alien.