Speaking during the Future Games Show Spring Showcase, Atomfall lead programmer Richard May spoke about the ability that players have to kill every NPC in the game without having to worry about blocking themselves off from the game’s story. As caught by GamesRadar, May described the feature as a challenge to develop.
“I think we’ve found a good balance that allows you to have that freedom and still experience an interesting story, so we hope that that’ll give people a sense of freedom that they wouldn’t normally experience,” said May.
The ability to kill just about any NPC in a game has been lost in more recent titles, with the last major release that allowed players to do so being The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. Atomfall, however, has a different structure to how its story is slowly uncovered by players, and thus allows them to kill NPCs without having to worry.
“We leave you to your own devices, so you’re not told to go in a particular direction,” May said. “We give you a set of leads that you might want to follow, but ultimately it’s down to you as to what you do, who you interact with in the zone, who you become friends with, and ultimately who you kill. You can kill anyone in the zone if you want to – not saying you should, but you can if you want to.”
Atomfall is slowly creeping up to its March 27 release date on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The title will also be available on Game Pass from day one. Leading up to its release, developer Rebellion has released a video that provides players with tips and tricks that they can use to make their time in the game’s strange setting simpler.
The video instructs players about how they can deal with the various NPCs in the game, who often tend to belong to different factions while also having their own agendas that might run counter to the player’s. There are also tips for how to deal with combat scenarios, which can be particularly stressful since ammo will be scarce and players will have to do their best to build up a stockpile through scavenging and trading.
Art director Ryan Greene had revealed earlier this month that it would take players around 25 hours to beat the game. He also spoke about how the studio expected Atomfall to be compared to Fallout, since they both take place in post-apocalyptic settings. Greene also spoke about the fact that players will have the agency to kill off any NPC.
“You can kill anyone or everyone if you choose,” said Greene. “That’s fine. We have multiple finishes to the game, so some of those would shut down if you were supposed to work with them throughout, but you’ll find multiple other routes to finish the game and achieve a result.”
For more details on Atomfall, check out our thoughts on its open world, and how it works to feed a sense of investigation and urgency.
