"Survive the Fall: Exclusive First Look"

Long before Bethesda took the helm of the series and Walton Goggins donned ghoul makeup for his captivating role in the adapted TV show, Fallout was an isometric action RPG with a bird's-eye view. The upcoming Survive the Fall seems to draw inspiration from this classic style of wasteland exploration, as evidenced by my first few hours with the game. This post-apocalyptic survival tale builds directly upon the original Fallout's template, particularly with its robust camp development system. Its squad-based combat and scavenging create a fresh experience, although the somewhat static storytelling slightly hinders its overall charm.

As I embarked on quests assigned by Survive the Fall's numerous task-givers, I quickly appreciated its squad-based mechanics. Navigating a national park setting with a party of up to three survivors, I could manually search for resources like chemical compounds and lumber or delegate these tasks to AI companions. This division of labor feels intuitive and accelerates the exploration of settlements. However, the interface can become cluttered with button prompts when interactive elements are closely grouped, though this issue is relatively infrequent.

Combat in Survive the Fall is also team-oriented. Given the scarcity of rifle and shotgun ammunition in the game's early stages, I favored a stealth approach to encounters with marauders and ghouls. Infiltrating enemy camps felt reminiscent of Commandos: Origins, involving tactics like hiding in grass, creating distractions with stones, and silently eliminating foes before directing my squad to dispose of the bodies. The environment offers additional strategic options, such as explosive barrels and dangling cargo pallets that can be used to take out unsuspecting guards.

Survive the Fall - Preview Screens

14 ImagesClearing out clusters of cultists stealthily was satisfying, but when my cover was compromised, combat became somewhat cumbersome with a controller. Aiming with the lasersight was less precise than I hoped, leading me to rely more on melee attacks and dodging in close quarters. Fortunately, the ability to pause action and direct squadmates to target specific enemies, similar to systems in Wasteland or Mutant Year Zero, was a helpful feature, allowing me to manage larger threats while dealing with support units.

After a day of navigating the game's dangerous landscapes, Survive the Fall transitions into a base-building management simulation. Documents found during exploration can be researched to earn knowledge points, which are used to unlock various technologies in an expansive tree. These technologies enable the crafting of essential items, from bunk beds and kitchens to water filtration systems and armories. Resources like timber can be transformed into planks and used to build structures such as plant boxes or defensive gates, while foraged herbs and meat from wildlife can be turned into meals for your expedition team. The depth of this system suggests a significant investment of time in transforming the camp from a dilapidated state to a thriving settlement.

Beyond my base, Survive the Fall offers a variety of intriguing exploration areas. From a converted passenger plane used as an enemy fort to a farmstead overrun with Stasis-infected ghouls, each location is distinct and rewarding. However, the detailed environments, such as the luminescent mushroom clusters in the Mycorrhiza swamplands, occasionally suffer from performance issues, with a fluctuating framerate and rare game-breaking bugs that necessitated reloading my save. With the game's release approaching, developer Angry Bulls Studio has time to refine these aspects.

Survive the Fall offers rich exploration in any direction, yet the absence of voice-acted dialogue slightly dampens the interaction with squad members and NPCs, relying instead on text-based communication. While some characters, like the amusing Blooper who calls Stasis "fart wind," provide moments of levity, most interactions primarily serve to advance the next quest rather than deepen character connections.

As Survive the Fall is set to launch on PC this May, it holds considerable post-apocalyptic potential. If the developers can smooth out the rough edges in controls and performance, it could become a compelling survival-based action RPG well worth the investment of your hard-earned bottlecaps.