Poll of the Day > Atomfall is one of my favorite games so far this year.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not a perfect game, but it's just fun

Game doesn't hold your hand every step of the way. It encourages exploration and experimentation. Early on, enemy encounters can be overwhelming but you can use the environment and stealth to your advantage until you eventually acquire better gear and unlock new abilities.

They give you a bit of direction at the start but it's truly up to you the player in how you'll progress through the areas. You'll rack up several "leads" in your investigation and you can choose one to track and follow, or you can just sorta explore and figure shit out as you go, which has been my approach and it's been very enjoyable in the 10 or so hours I've put into it

Not sure how the story is gonna play out. So far it's your typical "post-apocalyptic amnesiac trying to figure out what happened to themselves and the world and people around them" plotline, but the mystery is compelling so far

Bought a bunch of games recently, including AC Shadows, and Atomfall stands out as something of a AA gem imho

Stark contrast from the AAA offerings of AC Shadows... I could barely get through the tutorial in that game. It was a slog playing through the establishing cutscenes and linear opening tutorial sections. Atomfall introduces you to the game and quickly gets you to the meat and potatoes of it all. Wish more games would just get to the fucking point.

I installed it but have not played it yet.

rjsilverthorn posted...

I installed it but have not played it yet.

Same here. I was trying to finish up AC Shadows first.

Glad it sounds like it was worth the purchase though. Did you start off on the Survival difficulty?

it gives strong new vegas vibes. not an exact replica by any means but close enough that i'm really interested. it's absolutely on my list of games to check out.

Nade_Duck posted...

it gives strong new vegas vibes. not an exact replica by any means but close enough that i'm really interested. it's absolutely on my list of games to check out.

I have been referring to it as Fallout New Britain.

Cacciato posted...

Did you start off on the Survival difficulty?

Yeah that's the default difficulty which is what I tend to play. I don't have the time or patience for hard mode any more lol I reserve that experience for games where I don't get a choice like Elden Ring

Feels pretty balanced so far. Ammo is not super-scarce and enemies aren't Star Wars Stormtroopers but they're also not Deadshot either. They don't take cover well, but they do tend to move. That might be one of my main criticisms is the enemy AI isn't all that sharp. But they do have an advantage in numbers. It's common to run across groups with several enemies so it's easy to get flanked or overwhelmed if you're not careful

You learn to craft bandages right at the start and materials for bandages are every where if you're thorough in searching, so keeping yourself alive is fairly easy

I ordered this on a whim the other day but won't have it until Monday. I've heard good things so far so I'm looking forward to it.

Nade_Duck posted...

it gives strong new vegas vibes

New Vegas was supposedly one of the major influences on the game. Which definitely makes sense. Metro is another influence supposedly, and I can kind of see that as well.

It's on my radar. But I definitely want to see what other people think of it after they've had a bit of time to actually play it all the way through. I could easily see it as a game I'd love, or a game I'd hate.

Difficulty level is definitely a factor. I'd much rather have a game with "narrative" difficulty that focuses on story, characters, and setting, versus a game that forces you into harder gameplay where most of the experience is literally just combat and survival mechanics. The ideal would be if they actually went full New Vegas and there were dialogue choices and where your choices were shaping the story and the world around you (as well as allowing you to decide for yourself exactly who your main character is), as opposed to the Metro style where you're basically just following a linear path through someone else's story.



rjsilverthorn posted...

I have been referring to it as Fallout New Britain.

A lot of people have.

Except for English people themselves, who have mostly been making jokes about how the game is just an accurate portrayal of what northern England is actually like.

I've got about 2 to 3 hours on it so far and it's pretty good. Reminds me of Atomic Heart. Yes, a lot of exploration, which I enjoy.

Far-Queue posted...

Yeah that's the default difficulty which is what I tend to play. I don't have the time or patience for hard mode any more lol I reserve that experience for games where I don't get a choice like Elden Ring

Feels pretty balanced so far. Ammo is not super-scarce and enemies aren't Star Wars Stormtroopers but they're also not Deadshot either. They don't take cover well, but they do tend to move. That might be one of my main criticisms is the enemy AI isn't all that sharp. But they do have an advantage in numbers. It's common to run across groups with several enemies so it's easy to get flanked or overwhelmed if you're not careful

You learn to craft bandages right at the start and materials for bandages are every where if you're thorough in searching, so keeping yourself alive is fairly easy

Im actually trying to blow through AC so I can get to it. I watched a couple more videos after I bought it that made me more interested. And yeah, I dont really do the start in hard thing anymore either.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Difficulty level is definitely a factor. I'd much rather have a game with "narrative" difficulty that focuses on story, characters, and setting, versus a game that forces you into harder gameplay where most of the experience is literally just combat and survival mechanics.

From the five minutes I had it open it looks like it does, which is why I was curious which one he started on. In this case the Survival difficulty is the 3rd of 4 options.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Difficulty level is definitely a factor. I'd much rather have a game with "narrative" difficulty that focuses on story, characters, and setting, versus a game that forces you into harder gameplay where most of the experience is literally just combat and survival mechanics. The ideal would be if they actually went full New Vegas and there were dialogue choices and where your choices were shaping the story and the world around you (as well as allowing you to decide for yourself exactly who your main character is), as opposed to the Metro style where you're basically just following a linear path through someone else's story.

It actually has fairly granular settings for difficulty. There are four or five default difficulties, but you can also customize it and adjust various settings for combat, exploration and survival.

The one annoyance I have so far is the inventory and the bartering system. Since there does not appear to be any sort of currency, you basically have to hold on to items to be able to trade for other items so even fairly early on I was running into a full inventory fairly often.

i don't like that the movement feels weird and boxy, like if you made a circle with the joystick you just move in a square

and also that going under doors or windows has you press an additional button to start a cutscene animation that's very slow to just...walk under the door.

I got really aggravated that common actions require you to hold the button, like looting bodies, that shit pisses me off. I didn't check to see if you can change it though.

Cruddy_horse posted...

I got really aggravated that common actions require you to hold the button, like looting bodies, that shit pisses me off. I didn't check to see if you can change it though.

There is a setting for it called Use Hold Toggles in the Gameplay section.

rjsilverthorn posted...

The one annoyance I have so far is the inventory and the bartering system. Since there does not appear to be any sort of currency, you basically have to hold on to items to be able to trade for other items so even fairly early on I was running into a full inventory fairly often.

Can you stash things? When I'd pick up every single thing I saw in Fallout or Elder Scrolls, I'd usually wind up having to find a container somewhere that wouldn't despawn, then dump everything until I could get a chance to sell it. Inventory management isn't quite so bad as long as you can store it somewhere.

But if it's a scenario where you can only pick up items and have to basically destroy them to free up inventory space (no storage, no dropping items on the ground), that's way more annoying.

ConfusedTorchic posted...

i don't like that the movement feels weird and boxy, like if you made a circle with the joystick you just move in a square

I don't like that you can't peek out from cover. As far as I can tell you have to strafe out or stand up which is annoying but I'm managing okay.

Crawling under doors is fine to me

Cruddy_horse posted...

I got really aggravated that common actions require you to hold the button, like looting bodies, that shit pisses me off. I didn't check to see if you can change it though.

There is an ability you can unlock to loot faster.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Can you stash things? When I'd pick up every single thing I saw in Fallout or Elder Scrolls, I'd usually wind up having to find a container somewhere that wouldn't despawn, then dump everything until I could get a chance to sell it. Inventory management isn't quite so bad as long as you can store it somewhere.

But if it's a scenario where you can only pick up items and have to basically destroy them to free up inventory space (no storage, no dropping items on the ground), that's way more annoying.

You can store items but it's a little annoying. Your personal carry is very limited. I haven't come across anything that increases what you can carry, yet.

To stash items you have to find these stash chambers that so far seem to only be in bunkers, military facilities, or research facilities, which makes sense lore-wise given the tech design they used for these chambers, but it's inconvenient. Sometimes you gotta schlep items back and forth from a firefight or loot cache, or like you said practice inventory triage. Oh, it's a shared system though so if you find a stash chamber you have access to all your stashed items no matter where you stashed them, which is a nice feature

Still, I've recently kicked up this game, Bloom & Rage, Eternal Strands, Ninja Gaiden Black, Somerville, First Berserker Khazan, Wanderstop, AC Shadows, and Conscript, and Atomfall is what I keep coming back to. Not perfect but I'm having fun

I did play a bit more of AC Shadows and Khazan last night tho. Khazan is fun and AC Shadows is better once you get through that boring-ass introduction

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Can you stash things? When I'd pick up every single thing I saw in Fallout or Elder Scrolls, I'd usually wind up having to find a container somewhere that wouldn't despawn, then dump everything until I could get a chance to sell it. Inventory management isn't quite so bad as long as you can store it somewhere.

But if it's a scenario where you can only pick up items and have to basically destroy them to free up inventory space (no storage, no dropping items on the ground), that's way more annoying.

You can't use containers to store items, and while you can drop items on the ground, they despawn pretty quickly. There is a sort of global stash that you can use to store up to 100 items, but you only have access from a limited number of places so you can't run off and stash stuff and then come back to grab more loot.

rjsilverthorn posted...

you can't run off and stash stuff and then come back to grab more loot.

I've done this a couple times in two different ways, admittedly when my drop point was in a reasonable walking distance.

Once, I got into a firefight nearby a trader NPC, and I ran back and forth from the corpses to the traders to swap for some of her inventory.

Another time I wiped out a squad of soldiers in a bunker and ran back and forth from their bodies to the storage drop.

But yeah if you don't have an option within range your loot will despawn unfortunately

Far-Queue posted...

I've done this a couple times in two different ways, admittedly when my drop point was in a reasonable walking distance.

Once, I got into a firefight nearby a trader NPC, and I ran back and forth from the corpses to the traders to swap for some of her inventory.

Another time I wiped out a squad of soldiers in a bunker and ran back and forth from their bodies to the storage drop.

But yeah if you don't have an option within range your loot will despawn unfortunately

Yeah, I managed that with Molly once but that seems like it would be a fairly uncommon scenario from my experience so far.

rjsilverthorn posted...

There is a setting for it called Use Hold Toggles in the Gameplay section.

This doesn't really do what I wanted, I still have to wait an extra second to interact with things so it only removes half the problem. particularly annoying when looting since you have to remain dead still while doing it.

I'm currently stuck early in game.

I can't access weapon testing to help out the doctor to get her notes. I have a feeling the key is in weapon testing to get to her office which would enable me to get her notes. Apparently many folks have been stuck here, it must be a glitch

And whats up with guns telling you random stats? Revolver says "High Damage, Low Accuracy" but an M1911 says "Average Damage, Average Range" like hello? Is the M1911 more accurate? What about the revolvers range?

Combat sucks, ranged enemies get to squirrel away from you at the speed of light in melee but you cant do shit to re-engage but waddle toward them, and melee enemies can Block you in the middle of a combo but you cant block or dodge them and have to weirdly try to sidestep them in the jankiest way possible.

Why do I only have 4 Keybinds on PC?

You have to manually enter into canned animations to duck under obstacles as opposed to just crouching or going prone.

Genuinely what the fuck is this game?

I dunno I'm playing with a controller and combat is fine for me

The feel of the game made more sense once I realized it is built on the same engine as the Sniper Elite games.

I am honestly unsure how I feel about this game. If someone told me it started life as an alternate history Sniper Elite game I would believe them.