Atomfallis the much-anticipated game from acclaimed developer Rebellion Developments, the folks best known for the incredibleSniper Eliteseries. In many ways,Atomfallfeels like a significant departure from sniping Nazis in idyllic French villages, with many more directly comparing it to the iconicFalloutfranchise. That comparison is certainly warranted, especially from a purely visual and thematic standpoint, as both games are first-person shooters that reimagine the past to be far more technologically advanced while contextualizing it within a nuclear fallout.
In fact, people have gone as far as to say thatAtomfallisFalloutin Britain, something that would perhaps feel more inspired were there not the expansiveFallout 4mod titledFallout: London. However, as much asAtomfallandFalloutdo have a lot in common, there are striking differences in their gameplay that may surprise those unaware. While it may disappoint players hoping for anotherFallout-esque experience,Atomfall’sdifferences are not only what make it stand out, but potentially make it a far better game.
Atomfall Isn’t Fallout In Britain
It’s Quite A Different Game
The most significant way thatAtomfall’sgameplay design is a departure fromFallout’sis in its non-linear storytellingand lack of traditional quest design.Atomfalldoesn’t really have main quests, but rather a series of core questions that the player needs to find the answers to, and a plethora of potential leads to those answers. Importantly, the reliability of those leads should always be taken into question, as each character inAtomfallhas their own beliefs and understandings of how things work, which naturally colors their perception of everything happening around them.
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In an interview withGamesRadar, Rebellion Development’s art director, Ryan Greene, explained thatplayers have the freedom to pursue whichever lead they want from the start. Naturally, players will uncover more and more, lock themselves out of others by killing certain NPCs or making the wrong choices, and ultimately end up with one of the game’s various endings. This is quite acontrast to theFalloutseries, which pushes players forward through a series of linear main quests and gives them the freedom to interact with its open world outside of that.
Ben Fisher, the creative director forAtomfall, further expanded on this idea. He explained that “there’s a giant spider web of leads” for players to follow, with the actions taken throughoutAtomfall’smain storyaffecting which leads are lost and which progress the player’s quest. All of this is recorded in a journal, which is used to keep track of everything that’s going on. Of course, this non-linear progression may make players feel like the story ends up becoming a jumbled mess, butGreene reassured players that despite the loose structure, players are still going to experience a rich story.
“Right from the outset, you can do whatever you want […] Even though we don’t feed it to you in a nice, sequential way, our setup makes for a really rich story. It’s kind of like one of those ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books we read as kids.”
Another key difference betweenAtomfallandFalloutis that the former is not an open-world game. Rather,Atomfallis split into multiple areas separated by loading screens. While this decision was initially made due to technical restraints, it allowed Rebellion to craft a more detailed sandbox that makesAtomfallone of themost-anticipated games of 2025. Additionally, Rebellion doesn’t regardAtomfallas an RPG, but rather “a detective game” with survival elements. It’s set to be tougher thanFalloutwhen it comes to combat, with resources being scarce, and also relies more on player intuition to guide the narrative.
Atomfall Borrows The Best Parts Of Fallout
The Vibes And Worlds Are Similar
Of course,Atomfallstill shares a lot ofFallout’sDNA, especially in the visual department.Atomfall’sreimagined version of Cumbria is full of giant robots reminiscent ofFallout’sProtectrons as well as skeletal enemies that evoke the haunting appearance of ghouls. Of course,Atomfallis significantly more colorful when compared toFallout’sdisappointingly drab setting, in large part thanks to the survival of the surrounding wilderness and its vibrant natural beauty. Nevertheless,the somewhat retrofuturism-inspired aesthetic very much placesAtomfallin the same style of apocalyptic sci-fi asFallout.
Additionally,Atomfallhas its own fair share of factions for players to interact with, each with their own ambitions and beliefs. Interestingly, these factions appear to be more dynamic thanFallout’swith, for example, more peaceful ones refusing to trade weapons, unlike those more aggressively inclined.Fallout’sbest factionshave always been an integral part of the experience as they help flesh out the world, andAtomfallhas cleverly adopted this aspect of its game design in order to better immerse players in each of its many sandboxes.
Those who are fond ofFallout’smore survival-focused elements and play on the hardest difficulty will also appreciateAtomfall’sapproach to difficulty. While it doesn’t offer traditional difficulty settings, it allows players to tailor their experience to have greater or more scarce access to resources, to make combat tougher or easier, and to have more or less guidance around the open world. Rebellion recommends players pick the more challenging options as it is the intended experience, withAtomfallskewing more towards the survival genre than action.
Atomfall Sounds Like A More Ambitious Fallout
It Is Taking The Genre In A Different Direction
While the two games share a lot of similarities,Atomfalloften improves upon the ideas it is inspired by and deviates when it wants to offer something new. The non-linear nature coupled with the more challenging difficulty and focus on survival makes it sound like a far more ambitious sandbox thanFallout. It similarly teases a greater mystery but trusts the player to solve it using the clues they’re given, rather than funneling them down a certain path. Of course, theFalloutgames often have multiple endings as well.
However, the impact the player has on the world inAtomfallwill seemingly elevate its choices and open-endedness in a way thatFallout’smore rigid design can’t allow for. That’s not to say thatFalloutis bad comparatively, but rather thatAtomfall’schoices, which ultimately make it feel less like Fallout and more like STALKER or L.A. Noire, are for the best. While it is always great to get more of what players love,Atomfall’sambitious design and unique approach to storytelling will hopefully give players something unexpected.
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Atomfallisn’tFalloutin Britain as much as it is clearly inspired by Bethesda’s beloved franchise. It looks set to be something completely different, one that utilizes the creative setting and retro-futurist ideas ofFalloutto recontextualize the Windscale fire while implementing its own ideas and gameplay mechanics inspired by the many years developing theSniper Eliteseries. While time will tell whetherAtomfallemerges a triumph, it is safe to say that, as inspired as it is by Fallout, it deviates enough to be its own game, and that is absolutely a good thing.
