Atomfall Devs Expected Fallout Comparisons; 25-Hour Playthrough

At first glance, you might mistake Atomfall for a Fallout-style game, perhaps even envisioning an *actual* Fallout set in a post-apocalyptic England rather than the familiar post-apocalyptic America. Atomfall is a first-person, post-nuclear game with an alt-history design, echoing the famed style of Fallout.

Ryan Greene, art director at developer Rebellion, fully understands where the comparisons to Fallout are coming from. The development team was well aware that Atomfall would be likened to Fallout right from the moment it was revealed. “Once you play the game, you realize it's not Fallout, but yes, we knew,” Greene told IGN. He also mentioned that one of their owners, Jason Kingsley, is a big Fallout fan, so drawing parallels was inevitable. “And those guys are great at what they do. And that's cool,” Greene added.

However, Atomfall isn’t just another Fallout clone. As IGN pointed out last August, Atomfall offers something far more intriguing than a British version of Fallout. Greene himself warned that the Fallout comparison can be “misleading.” “Once you play it for a bit, you're like, oh, this is its own thing for sure,” he explained. Rebellion, the independently owned British studio behind the Sniper Elite franchise, has crafted an ambitious game, though not on the scale of an Elder Scrolls or Fallout. “The reality is, here’s this very successful franchise and we're version 1.0,” Greene said. “To be compared to those guys… thank you very much… Yes, we appreciate it because that’s a skillful team that's making that stuff.”

Atomfall Screenshots

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Greene shared that an average playthrough of Atomfall would take around “25-ish hours,” but completionists can extend their experience significantly. To get a feel for the gameplay, check out IGN’s recent hands-on preview where Simon Cardy explored the game by taking a more violent approach, killing everyone in his path.

Interestingly, Atomfall allows players to choose their level of aggression. “You can kill anyone or everyone if you choose,” Greene confirmed. “That's fine. We have multiple finishes to the game, so some of those would shut down if you were supposed to work with them throughout, but you'll find multiple other routes to finish the game and achieve a result.”

Atomfall doesn’t adhere to the traditional RPG format of main and side quests. Instead, Greene described it as “a spider web of connected story.” “So even if you sever one thread, you can usually find another thread that leads you back to the overall mystery.”

For those who prefer a non-violent approach, Atomfall accommodates this playstyle as well. Greene is “fairly certain” that it’s possible to complete the game without killing anyone. “I've made it about nine hours in, probably close to halfway running at a pretty fast dev play speed and killed no one,” he said. “I'm fairly certain you can do it and there's no gating of having to kill anyone ever.”