Atomfall review: A hauntingly British apocalypse that’s fun, flawed, and frustrating

Rebellion Studios’ Atomfall is a step in the right direction as we (hopefully) near the end of an era where every big-budget RPG feels like a 60-to-80-hour commitment. After Assassin’s Creed Valhalla pushed the boundaries of just how much game a game could have — and not necessarily for the better — it’s refreshing to see an action RPG that actually lets you slow down, take a breath, and just exist in its world for a minute.

Rather than drowning you in an endless sea of map markers, side quests, and fetch missions that feel more like a to-do list than an adventure, Atomfall offers something different. It’s a game that trusts you to explore at your own pace rather than constantly screaming at you to engage with yet another system or mechanic. That’s a rare thing in 2025.

Yet while Atomfall never overstays its welcome, there’s still a part of me caught between seeing its simplicity as an element that allows it to shine, or as a weakness.

Warning: There are minor story spoilers ahead.

Welcome to Cumbria

Atomfall is an action-survival RPG set in 1960s Northern England, five years after the real-life Windscale nuclear disaster — one of the worst in history. UK-based Rebellion Studios takes that tragedy and twists it into an eerie, fictionalized quarantine zone where no one gets in or out.

You step into the shoes of a nameless, silent protagonist who wakes up in a mysterious bunker with no memory of who you are or how you got there. Your only objective? Find the Interchange — a secret research facility run by the British Atomic Research Division (B.A.R.D). Along the way, you’ll cross paths with all kinds of groups: ruthless outlaws, fractured military units, fanatical druids, and villagers doing their best to pretend that everything’s just fine. Oh, and there's the mysterious voice that talks to you through red telephone boxes.

All of this unfolds against the backdrop of a hauntingly beautiful rural county of Cumbria.

Unlike most RPGs, Atomfall ditches the usual objective-based quest structure in favor of its unique "Leads" system. Instead of waypoints and a checklist telling you exactly where to go, you piece together your next steps through conversations with NPCs, scattered letters, and old cassette tapes found throughout the quarantine zone. There’s no omniscient map marker holding your hand — just the clues you’ve gathered and whatever notes you decide to take. That said, you can manually place compass markers to help keep track of potential points of interest.

It’s a refreshingly intuitive approach to immersive storytelling that more games should experiment with. Elden Ring and Dark Souls employ something similar, but in a way that’s deliberately cryptic — hiding lore in item descriptions and letting players fill in the blanks. Atomfall, on the other hand, makes its world feel more organic, turning every discovery into a genuine "aha" moment rather than just another step on a to-do list.

For example, when reaching Wyndham Village — currently under occupation by The Protocol, the initial quarantine military units sent in that got left behind — I was stopped at the gate and told to speak with Captain Sims, a man with a keen interest in outsiders. Sims, suspicious of anyone who manages to wander into the zone, offers me information if I agree to do a little reconnaissance for him. He wants to know if any of the villagers are up to something shady — because, beyond just playing Big Brother, he’s got reason to worry. It turns out that, after the disaster, a significant number of villagers ran off into the woods and started a cult.

This set me off on a round of conversations with the town’s key figures: the barkeep, the baker, the priest, and the general store owner. Each of them had their own skeletons in the closet — secrets they were hiding from Protocol. From there, I had a choice. I could either rat them out to Sims or help them in their struggles, playing the long game in a town built on paranoia.

It’s moments like this that Atomfall does well, but overall, the story isn’t much to write home about. While the Leads system is certainly unique in presentation, at the end of the day, it’s still just a standard quest structure — except now, you’re piecing things together on your own instead of following a flashing objective marker.

And when it comes to the game’s six possible endings, the setup starts to feel a little formulaic. Every NPC who offers you an escape route from the zone follows the same basic pattern: two main missions, then a final choice involving the Interchange — the mysterious B.A.R.D facility at the heart of it all. Do you destroy what’s inside? Or do you use it to further someone else's objective? Or you can say screw it, go full chaos mode, and wipe out every NPC in the game. It’s entirely possible — and honestly, it's a blast.

Atomfall really wants to hammer home the idea of trust in desperate circumstances, but it isn’t exactly subtle about it. Some characters start off friendly, but the moment you gain their trust and follow their direction, it’s as if a switch flips — you can immediately tell you’re being railroaded into a "bad" ending. Across my 25-hour playthrough on PlayStation 5, I saw four of the six possible conclusions, and none of them felt particularly satisfying.

Worse yet, the game seems weirdly disconnected from its own mechanics. Despite its fast-paced, action-heavy combat — where nearly every enemy attacks on sight — the endgame slides had the nerve to chastise me for “choosing a violent path.” Huh? What game were you watching?

At the end of the day, Atomfall’s Leads system is a great idea with plenty of potential, but its execution leaves a lot to be desired. There’s something there, but it just doesn’t quite stick the landing.

What's it going to be then eh?

Despite Atomfall giving off some serious Fallout vibes, don’t be fooled — this isn’t a Bethesda-style RPG. It leans far more into action than survival, with only a sprinkle of RPG elements. Everything from combat to crafting to NPC interactions feels lighter and less complex compared to games like Fallout or S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

And honestly? That’s okay.

That said, Atomfall’s combat feels very much in line with modern shooters. Guns are heavy, realistic, and come with a hefty dose of recoil, while melee combat is slow, weighty, and brutally visceral. The game also introduces a heart rate (stamina) system, where high-energy actions like sprinting, jumping, or fighting affect your ability to aim or land heavy melee strikes. Managing this system adds an extra layer of tension, forcing you to think before you rush into combat.

Your arsenal consists of classic "roadman" weaponry — knives, police truncheons, and even a good old-fashioned cricket bat. You can also use the controller triggers to kick enemies back, keeping them at a proper distance when things get too close for comfort. But enemy variety? Pretty thin. You’re basically dealing with four types: ranged enemies, melee enemies, and two kinds of giant robots — one with a minigun and another with a flamethrower. And that’s about it. Oh, and the rats. Fuck the rats.

For ranged weapons, you have your four standard categories: rifles, pistols, shotguns, and SMGs. Each type has about two or three variations that you can loot from enemies or stumble upon in the world. And, of course, there’s the trusty bow and arrow, because no survival game is complete without one.

Oddly, you can’t craft arrows or ammunition, which feels like an oversight in a game that leans into survival elements. However, you will be scavenging for cloth, herbs, gunpowder, gun oil, and alcohol to craft healing items, potions, and throwable explosives.

Then there are the consumables, which lean heavily into the UK’s famously thrilling cuisine. You can drink tea to slow your heart rate, or chow down on tomatoes, potatoes, cake, and tins of meat — fully immersing yourself in the reality of just how bland the British diet can be.

Instead of a traditional currency system, Atomfall goes full bartering mode. Traders don’t deal in cash; instead, they judge your trade based on item value, with a simple indicator showing how fair the exchange is. Each trader has their own priorities — if someone has a stockpile of bandages, they aren't going to care much if you try to offload more. But if you’re offering something rarer, like a good weapon or food, they’ll be more willing to cut a deal.

Exploring the Quarantine Zone

If the idea of wandering through a radiation-soaked wasteland born from a catastrophic scientific failure feels familiar, that’s because it is. Plenty of games have tackled the "post-disaster exclusion zone" concept before, and Atomfall fits right into that tradition. In many ways, it shares a lot of DNA with Pacific Drive, the 2024 survival game about navigating an anomalous Pacific Northwest in a barely functioning car. But where Pacific Drive had procedurally generated areas, Atomfall trades that for four distinct regions of Cumbria — ones you’ll be tediously backtracking through over and over again.

Players will find themselves scouring every inch of Wyndham Village, Slatten Dale, Skettermoor, and Casterfell Woods. Minus the village (if you're a good boy), each area is controlled by a different faction, and they all attack on sight. The areas themselves aren’t particularly massive — you can walk from one end to the other in about five to 10 minutes — but actually reaching your objectives can feel like a bit of a slog. Thanks to the Leads system, you’ll inevitably find yourself bumbling into locations you weren’t supposed to reach yet, which can be either exciting or frustrating, depending on how well-equipped you are at the time.

True to its survival-lite approach, Atomfall keeps resources — especially ammo — scarce. You’re never stocked up enough to just go in guns blazing, which encourages stealth and precise shot placement to avoid getting swarmed by the game’s surprisingly large enemy patrols and encampments. However, the stealth system is barebones at best, and enemy AI is so painfully dumb that you can often clear out an entire camp without much effort.

That being said, Atomfall’s world is genuinely beautiful in that eerie, “nature reclaiming civilization” kind of way. Wyndham Village has all the hallmarks of a quaint post-war township now caught in an unsettling limbo. Casterfell Woods is dense and foreboding, packed with towering trees and strange creatures lurking in the shadows. Slatten Dale, a hilly, industrial landscape, revolves around its abandoned mine and quarry. And then there’s Skettermoor — once-picturesque farmland now reduced to scorched earth, patrolled by trigger-happy soldiers looking for an excuse to shoot first and ask questions never.

Atomfall’s RPG elements are about as light as they come. There’s a simple skill tree that gradually unlocks as you find training manuals scattered throughout the world — either bought from traders or hidden in specific locations. The placement of these manuals adds some great environmental storytelling, like finding a bow mastery manual in an abandoned castle’s archery camp or a combat training manual from a former soldier-turned-merchant in Skettermoor. That said, if traders don’t have them, they can be obscenely hard to find, and you don’t really need them to complete the game.

You can also collect skill points from B.A.R.D crates found in bunkers across the map. The skills themselves? Basic RPG fare — damage buffs, poison resistance, faster looting. Nothing groundbreaking, but enough to give you a slight edge.

At its core, Atomfall presents itself as a deep, complex experience, but the longer you play, the more you realize it’s a fairly casual adventure dressed up in survival-horror aesthetics. That said, credit where it’s due — technically, the game runs impressively smooth for a 2025 release, with few noticeable bugs or performance hiccups. And in an era where broken day-one launches are the norm, that alone feels worth celebrating.

Is Atomfall worth it?

Atomfall is one of those games that feels like it’s on the verge of being something special but never quite gets there. It has a strong identity — a post-apocalyptic adventure wrapped in eerie British folklore, with a heavy dose of survival mechanics and a unique quest system — but its execution is often at odds with its ambitions.

The Leads system is an intriguing alternative to traditional quest markers, allowing for organic discovery and player-driven exploration. However, at the end of the day, it still boils down to standard RPG quest structures. You’re just piecing together objectives through notes and conversations instead of being explicitly told where to go. It’s immersive, sure, but also frustrating when backtracking through the game’s small yet tedious world.

Where Atomfall does shine is in its atmosphere. The environments are beautifully crafted, from the eerie, cult-infested Casterfell Woods to the scorched farmland of Skettermoor. The game leans into its setting with immersive environmental storytelling, and it’s refreshing to see a post-apocalyptic world that doesn’t just look like a generic wasteland. It also runs remarkably well, with few technical issues — something that feels increasingly rare in modern game releases.

If you’re looking for an RPG-lite survival experience with immersive exploration, tense combat, and a uniquely British setting, then Atomfall offers enough to be enjoyable — especially if you go in knowing its limitations. However, if you’re expecting deep RPG mechanics, intricate storytelling, or a truly open-ended experience, you may walk away underwhelmed. It’s a game with a lot of great ideas, but it never fully commits to any of them. As a mid-tier survival-action RPG, it’s solid. Is this the next Fallout or S.T.A.L.K.E.R.? Not quite.

Atomfall arrives March 27 on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and PC.

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