We’ve been here before, right? You, an amnesiac drifter, awaken in a nuclear exclusion zone, your task to decipher clues, discover events preceding your predicament, finding ways to escape, these are the activities of a game treading a well-trodden path. And sure, you can stick to this surface-level assessment of Rebellion’s Atomfall if you like but delving deeper reveals that this might be the sleeper hit of the year, if not one of 2025’s biggest games.
In this feature, we’ll go through what we think are Atomfall’s biggest points of differentiation separating it from post-apocalyptic survive-a-thons S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Fallout, games which it has been so readily compared. We shan’t be discussing story or enemy types as we’ve covered these in features already published. So, without further ado, here’s what we believe are five big reasons Atomfall is one of 2025’s biggest games.
Setting
The verdant pastures, rolling foothills, and tranquil tarns of Northern England’s Cumbria aren’t commonplace amongst post-apocalyptic fiction’s familiar decrepit irradiation, but they breathe life into the genre here. For anybody acquainted with the Lake District, you’ll know its primordial beauty attracts over-abundant visitors, especially in the summer months, so to see it starkly isolated as presented here is immediately jarring.
The survivors penned inside a militarily controlled exclusion zone range between ordinary folk making do to roaming bandits and enemies, people who’ve abandoned reason, tradition, or modernity to live their lives in a modicum of prosperity. Yes, survivors forging a life in the shadow of nuclear disaster, the fallout from the real-life Windscale reactor fire imbuing this landscape with phantasmagorical threat, is very reminiscent of Stalker, but it’s their stoicism which Rebellion have so deftly captured. Visual touchstones like stone fences, thatched rooves, and – yes – red telephone boxes will evoke the same sense for players, but whether it’s survivors’ mentality or the look of the place, it all masks a darkness lurking out of view. There’s a sense something sinister is cloaking the brightness, of ordinary being steadily eroded by extraordinary. Searching for answers amongst this unique backdrop promises to be as unsettling as it is engaging.
Exploration
And this leads us onto the next of Atomfall’s principal features, it’s exploration. Organic exploration is fostered by the absence of a traditional quest system, on-screen checkpoints, and mini-maps. Finding your way via leads, clues, talking to NPCs, observing landmarks, and generally taking yourself off the beaten path are the keys to discovery. There is zero handholding. In fact, Atomfall doesn’t even give you specific objectives, merely vague directions – such as to find the very Fallout-esque vault ‘The Interchange’ – and it’s down to you when to follow these, to piece together your findings at your own pace. Along the way, plenty of other things might pique your interest; distractions and activities to flesh out the world’s story, creating emergent situations that will influence how your story pans out.
However, to be clear, Atomfall isn’t 100% open world. Instead, it’s a collection of open, interconnected maps which are all accessible from the very start of the game, although some areas will be laced with insurmountable hostility versus others that’re more manageable. Danger lurks everywhere though, and whilst exploration advances the story, reveals secrets, and uncovers essential resources, minefields lay in wait to blow your legs off and carrion puffs fumes that’ll fill your lungs with suffocating spores.
Survival
A huge part of Atomfall’s gameplay loop involves survival and crafting mechanics, and whilst supplies are essential to staying alive in Atomfall spending time resource gathering has significance which extends beyond obtaining food and drink to replenish health or, say, harvesting trees to ballast fortifications as is common in other survival-centric games. In addition to amassing materials, water, herbs, chemicals, string, and various other bits and bobs, crafting recipes dotted throughout the landscape provide knowledge on how to concoct rough-and-ready weaponry or brew special tonics that provide temporary stat buffs. The makeshift items shared thus far via Rebellion include shivs, poison bombs – a sort of Molotov cocktail which releases a noxious cloud as opposed to fire – and a combat stim which boosts melee damage. From this small collection it’s clear spending the time to locate as many recipes as you can is a worthwhile endeavour.
To assist you in scouring an area to its fullest is a rather nifty metal detector which can be deployed to uncover buried supply caches. Locked inside can be scrap, tools, raw materials, and even secret documents that can further the landscape’s mystery or provide clues on what to investigate next.
A further reason resource hunting is imperative to survival comes in the form of trading. Here, in this quarantine zone shut off from the rest of the world for over five years, money has no value. Instead, the items in your backpack are your currency, and there’re plenty of NPCs out there looking to barter and trade their items for yours, meaning everything in your possession has value. One person’s trash is another’s treasure, so the saying goes.
NPC interaction
We’ve already alluded to NPC interaction being crucial to discovering clues and furthering objectives. Indeed, most who you encounter – the non-hostile ones, at least – will provide you with a breadcrumb trail that’ll get you a little closer to understanding what transpired following the Windscale disaster. A handful of dialogue options accompany each interaction; perhaps you’ll follow your curiosity in asking leading questions, be wary or suspicious of who you’re speaking with, or talk vaguely or with aloofness, as how you choose to interact can inadvertently lock avenues for investigation. Furthermore, some breadcrumbs you’ll follow will lead to nothing which, above all else, reinforces the notion that you can never be sure who to trust in this irradiated version of the Lake District.
Without delving too deeply into story, NPC interactions hint at potential factional choices too. Following the instructions of the local military chief might yield a situation which evokes a sense of empathy in you, and you can then choose whether you want to follow their orders to the T or side with the local everyman who’s simply doing what they need to do to survive. It’s even been hinted at that anybody you encounter – even those doling out seemingly useful information – can be killed, further affecting the outcome of the game in interesting and unforeseen ways.
Combat
Atomfall’s combat is authentic and brutal, with savage melee weapons, ramshackle firepower, and a smattering of grenades and projective explosives the arsenal with which you’ll fight. Remember, guns won’t be plentiful, if they ever were before the quarantine-imposing disaster. What you’ll acquire instead are farmer’s rifles, or pistols long-since discarded by the occupying military. They’re rusty and ramshackle, with minimal ammunition to boot. Instead, a great deal of your time killing folk will be by whacking them with a smorgasbord of discoverable or craftable melee items. Axes, police truncheons, and cricket bats will be the tools in which you carve through the opposition.
So, to sum up, a Fallout this game may appear, but in harnessing influence from primitive sci-fi alongside horror and then choosing a setting as unlikely as Cumbria, Rebellion have crafted a game rich in detail and interest. Atomfall’s foundations are set, and an unlikely hit awaits.
