izigame.me

Atomfall isn't good or bad enough to elicit any emotion beyond boredom. This game is just there. It begs me to care and I just can't. Unexceptional in every way imaginable while being confused in its design. It's an open world, survival, detective, stealth, action, RPG-lite, adventure game and it does none of these things well.
The open world is lifeless with constantly respawning enemies and no dynamics to its fairly small and largely empty zones separated by loading screens. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. comparisons are laughable. The AI doesn't have half the complexity of the original Shadow of Chernobyl from almost 20 years ago. What you see is what you get.
The survival mechanics are nonexistent. Ammo, weapons, healing items, crafting materials, explosives are so plentiful even on the intended difficulty that I found myself having to leave valuable items behind because I either didn't have the space for it thanks to the incredibly stingy inventory system or because I had too much of it. Food might as well not exist. It just gives health, which is pointless given you can craft bandages that heal you for far more. Bartering is a massive waste of time. They have nothing to offer you can't just find yourself and they demand way too much to get it. I wasted so much time grabbing enough expendable crap to trade for a metal detector just to find one lying around in the same zone.
As a detective game, I found tracking leads to be very compelling initially as the game gives no clear direction emphasizing exploration and non-linear story progression. I respect the approach of forcing you to actually read notes and mark your map to find out what to do and where to go. Unfortunately, the many leads you accumulate don't have much depth beyond going to the place mentioned in a letter and looking for an item or person. There's no problem solving involved. It's pretty simple. Some forensics gameplay akin to Condemned or Shadows of Doubt would have made the gameplay more engaging. Perhaps a deduction board like the Sherlock Holmes games would have been cool. That's not what we got here. It's just a more classic way of handling quests.
As a stealth game, I'm shocked and appalled at how poor the stealth mechanics are. This is the same dev behind the excellent Sniper Elite games which I believe to be the best ongoing stealth franchise at the moment. Those games are tense with deep stealth mechanics. This game has less than half of what even the original Sniper Elite had. You can't hide bodies. There's no visibility mechanic. No sound masking. You can't decide between lethal and non lethal takedowns. You can't set traps, but enemies can. You can't even throw distractions despite empty bottles being EVERYWHERE. You can hide in tall grass and the game will mark you hidden, but even taller foliage like shrubs and bushes don't do the same. What kind of sense does that make? The AI is braindead. They can spot you crouched in darkness from half a mile away, but have all the peripheral vision of a telescope. They seemingly hear everything unless you invest heavily in stealth, but why would I want to engage more in this poor stealth system? Even the AVP games had better stealth. Did Rebellion forget how to do this?
The action gameplay was so poorly thought out, it makes me wonder why they even bothered. And don't tell me "this isn't an action game". When the game lets you invest skill points in being better at melee and ranged combat, it's a viable play style encouraged by the devs. It's just badly designed like everything else here. They literally labeled Atomfall "a new survival-ACTION game". The melee combat is literally just kicking and slashing with a charged attack. No dodge. No block. No parry. No grapple. It feels terrible. The guns feel and sound weak. Crazy considering this team made AVP which had awesome gunplay and melee combat. There's very little weapon variety with no unique creative high tech weaponry to reflect the retro sci-fi setting. It's all conventional weaponry. Huge missed opportunity. There's not much enemy variety either and none of them are interesting or unique. They basically copied the leeches from Half Life and the rats from Dishonored. The killer robots walking around feel like they were snatched straight out of Fallout. This game has no real identity to speak of.
The RPG mechanics consist of finding skill points to spend on skills that must be unlocked via magazines you barter for or find. It's serviceable, but it feels tacked on. With how certain playstyles are discouraged like combat, why even have skills for them and not more skills for useful things like expanding the inventory or increasing your painfully slow speed or blocking or dodging? Too many forgettable passive skills you don't really need.
As an adventure game, there are no puzzles. There are no memorable characters. I guess because you're allowed to kill everyone, they figure why bother having a cast of interesting characters. Exploration is unrewarding. You get hit with a lot of the same loot that you probably don't have any space for. Adventure games also thrive in presentation. This game looks unimpressive from an art direction and technical standpoint. The old comics and posters you find feel authentic, but the extremely dated character models, forgettable soundtrack, and flat lighting take away from any atmosphere this game could have. Northern Journey on a technical level is far behind Atomfall, but the art direction makes that game look gorgeous and atmospheric with its lovely soundtrack and ambiance. Also, the blurry textures scattered around the environment had me wondering if they're just not loading properly or it's supposed to look like a ps2 game. The story was at least told in a compelling enough way to hold my attention, but the gameplay made me wanna quit. The tedium is real. I do appreciate the commitment to the UK setting in the voice acting and dialogue. Far more authentic than Watch Dogs Legion's embarrassing attempt at recreating British culture. The thick accents and dialects with region specific slang made for an immersive experience.
Atomfall has the makings of a cult classic, but cult classics are usually polarizing and loved in spite of their issues. I can't say I feel that way here. I just didn't have fun. I would prefer a more focused title with a much more limited scope like Pathologic or the old S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games which largely played to their strengths and left out any unnecessary filler. Atomfall does too much with too little and suffers as a result. Very disappointed. If you want a good investigation game, go play The Darkest Files. It costs much less.