Atomfall Review: Cornish Pasties and Cold War Paranoia
- Nathan Walters
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Alright, hands up, i’m proper late to the Atomfall party. Rebellion’s Cumbrian quarantine zone has been sat on Game Pass for a good while now and i’ve only just gotten round to it, but having finally put a solid chunk of hours into the thing, I figured it was worth a proper write-up. Short answer? It’s a game that had me thoroughly charmed one minute and gritting my teeth the next.
“The whole thing is absolutely choc full of British mannerisms.”
Graphically, Atomfall sits in that same stylistic pocket as the Metro series, which is in no way a bad thing. Not an eyesore, not a showstopper, but it’s got a mood. That slightly washed-out, grainy British countryside feel fits the whole Windscale-gone-wrong vibe nicely and honestly, i wasn’t expecting to be won over by the atmosphere as quickly as I was.
Also, always pleased to hear some Valleys Welsh voice actors pop up in a game, haha, automatic personal points from me… even if most of them seem to be playing the outlaws (love you lads). The whole thing is absolutely choc full of British mannerisms. Cornish pasties (despite being in the North), tea, cake, the occasional “boffin”, “duck” or “love” thrown at you by villagers. It leans HARD into the atmosphere and it properly works. As someone who grew up on this side of the pond, it genuinely feels like somewhere I could have visited on a bank holiday weekend, only with more radiation and fewer ice cream vans.
Honestly, it feels and plays like a mix of BioShock, an Arkane game (think Dishonored or Prey) and a smidge of Fallout. First-person, narrative-heavy, exploration-driven, with light RPG elements. Which brings me to the heart rate system.
The heart rate mechanic is genuinely clever on paper. The more you sprint, jump, climb and swing a cricket bat, the higher it ticks. Just like in the real world. A racing heart means you’re louder, your aim goes to pot and eventually you can’t sprint or swing at all. Cool. Atmospheric. Grounded.
“the (heart rate) novelty wears off and it starts to feel like a Dark Souls stamina bar“
Then the novelty wears off and it starts to feel like a Dark Souls stamina bar wearing a trench coat, especially because THERE IS NO DAMN FAST TRAVEL. You do eventually unlock something called the Interchange that acts as a hub between zones, which softens the blow a little, but in the early game? You are walking. Everywhere. And the “realism” angle loses its lustre a bit when a cup of tea instantly drops your heart rate and a Cornish pasty patches up a bullet wound, clearly there is no concept of LDL and HDL cholesterol in this alternate 1962.
I wouldn’t mind it so much… if i ever had any room for food in my inventory. But more on the inventory disaster later.
Also, the easter eggs are proper top-tier. Right off the bat you can find a copy of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds tucked away. There’s a blue police box that is very clearly meant to be the TARDIS, and if you climb up to it you get left with a wide-brimmed hat that looks suspiciously like the one Tom Baker wore as the Fourth Doctor, and… no box.
“Atomfall nails that specific flavour of cheeky pop culture nostalgia”
In Slatten Dale you can spot what looks a hell of a lot like Mr Bean’s Mini. And in Wyndham village, there are four candles sat right next to some fork handles, a perfect little nod to the legendary Two Ronnies skit. THIS is the kind of thing that made the Fallout games so fun to explore, and Atomfall nails that specific flavour of cheeky pop culture nostalgia without just ripping Bethesda’s homework.
It’s pretty sandbox-y with minimal hand-holding, and the combat… it doesn’t wow. But then again, combat is usually the afterthought in these more story-driven, exploration-heavy games.
Outside of regular human enemies (outlaws, druids, Protocol soldiers) you’ve got the hulking B.A.R.D. mechs, which can shred you to ribbons with their machine guns or fry you to a crisp with flamethrowers. Those encounters genuinely have gravitas, and the first one caught me completely off guard. Be careful in the caves and cellars too, bats and rats swarm you like loot-goblins with rabies, chunking your health and stacking poison or bleed on top of it. Nasty little buggers.
One thing that did properly grind my gears… the loading screens. There are SO many of them. And looking through shop windows? You just see this static image of what’s supposedly inside, but it often doesn’t match up with what’s actually in there when you walk through the door. It’s like a poster glued to the glass, proper PS2-era trickery. Jarring, honestly. It kept reminding me mid-immersion that i’m playing a game, which is the last thing an atmospheric piece like this needs.
“the inventory management and trading system got under my skin fast.”
Similarly, the inventory management and trading system got under my skin fast. There’s far too much loot and far too little carrying capacity. It’s nowhere near as balanced as what Resident Evil Requiem pulled off with its scavenging loop, or what Alan Wake 2 did with its slick, restrained slot-based system. Everywhere you look in Atomfall there’s crafting mats and loot and you can barely carry any of it.
Then the traders, when you find one, run a full bartering system. No cash, no currency, just pure swap-shop chaos. So you find yourself hoarding guns you’ll never use purely to trade them in for something you DO need. But this also makes looting genuinely useful stuff like grenades or bandages more annoying, because it’s fighting with your “trade bait” for space. The system exists, it’s just not polished enough for my liking. Sorry, Rebellion.
“Rebellion clearly had a vision and they poured it into the world.”
Still, there’s plenty i enjoyed here. The sandbox nature, the ability to just cause chaos in the Lake District or follow the path of a particular faction like Protocol or the Druids (and yes, that choice genuinely impacts which ending you see, which is neat), the strange Cold War folk horror atmosphere that feels very distinct from anything else on the market right now. Rebellion clearly had a vision and they poured it into the world.
But sadly it misses the mark and falls a little flat without many of the quality-of-life additions that its competitor RPGs have. No proper clothing or armour system, no fast travel, and an inventory and trading setup that needs another pass in the oven.
If you’ve got Game Pass, give it a go, it’s absolutely worth a spin for the atmosphere alone. Otherwise, this is a pick-it-up-on-a-sale type of game, the kind you boot up for 20-30 hours while waiting for your next proper RPG fix. (Speaking of which, if you haven’t already, have a read of our Outer Worlds 2 review)
A charming, very British take on the open-zone survival RPG, undone by fiddly systems and one too many loading screens.
