Chris InglisAtomfall is an atmospheric first-person survival action game developed by Rebellion and launched on March 27, 2025, on PC and consoles. The game presents a chilling yet beautiful vision of a post-nuclear England and plunges players into the irradiated heart of Cumbria, a region now a hazardous exclusion zone. The atmosphere and gameplay reminded me of playing the Metro series of games with its limited ammo and scattered civilization, only now set in the British countryside. There is a real sense of isolation, where rolling hills are now scarred by radiation and dotted with abandoned bunkers and farmhouses, and everything is against you.
A fictional reimagining of a real-world event, Atomfall draws from science fiction, folk horror, and Cold War influences to create a world where exploration is paramount. Hidden notes and environmental storytelling unlock new map waypoints, incentivising off-path discovery. The mystery behind each area drives you forward, rewarding you for meticulously observing enemy patterns and uncovering hidden secrets. Resource scarcity forces a methodical approach at a slower pace where ammo and supplies are precious.
Atomfall’s mystery and intrigue lies in its hidden depths. Numerous caves and secret passages offer valuable loot and narrative clues, revealing the secrets and waypoints of other areas of the irradiated landscape. Combined with its atmospheric visuals and sound design, the emphasis on exploration at the player’s pace creates an immersive and unsettling experience. The tension of limited supplies and the ever-present threat of mutated creatures is evident.
Rebellion have successfully crafted a world where the quiet horror of rural decay, with crumbling buildings, bunkers and villages is amplified by the lingering threat of radiation and the unsettling presence of mutated anomalies. The character designs of these anomalies, grotesque distortions of insects and humans, are particularly effective. They have a distinct blue/purple glow and will lay dormant unless you get too close, and they can be brutally tough to kill too, especially with melee.
The AI of human enemies can be inconsistent at times where they would detect me, and the melee enemies would start running at me but get stuck at the base of steps or get stuck at an obstacle. Other times, ranged combatants, especially bow wielders, were super accurate even from long distances making it difficult to get them with a direct approach. And while ammo is scarce, I found myself relying on ranged combat as I would die too quickly in melee combat. I would rather carry spare ranged weapons than spare melee ones.
There is a heap of loot to collect in the form of weapons and ammunition and resources, and there’s a metal detector you can use in certain spots to scan for and locate hidden caches that can have collectibles. You can carry up to four different weapons in the weapon wheel, and smaller ones like knives and pistols that take up inventory space. You will also be collecting a whole heap of resources, and these can be used to craft things like bandages and tinctures to provide buffs for your character. However it all takes inventory space, so I found myself leaving a heck of a lot of loot behind. I did find some contraptions that offer global storage space, but they are few and far between. As someone who is normally a loot fiend in similar games, I struggled with this lack of inventory space.
Overall, Atomfall presents a unique post-nuclear atmosphere, an emphasis on resource management and radiation survival makes it a game well worth playing. The slow-burn mystery and rewarding exploration make it an immersive adventure that rewards you for delving into its secrets. If you’re a fan of atmospheric survival horror games and games similar to Metro/Stalker, then Atomfall is an easy recommendation.
This review utilised a Steam key provided by Five Star Games and Atomfall is available now on Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox and PlayStation.
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