ROYAL REBEL

ATOMFALL is a British STALKER that only Rebellion could make

- Joshua Wolens

For over a decade, Atomfall has been Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley's “dream game”, one he was dropping coy, detail-free allusions to in chats with PCG all the way back in 2018. Set in the heart of most barbaric Cumbria in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster, it feels like someone armed a Hovis advert, and it's part of a proud lineage of pain-in-the-ass games that includes beloved classics like STALKER and Morrowind. No quest markers here, sir. You'll find your own way or die in the attempt. Perhaps both.

But Atomfall also feels like a statement about Rebellion itself: the position it's obtained and the opportunities it's opened up for itself after years and years of quietly putting out Sniper Elites, Zombie Armies and the odd Evil Genius.

It's a studio that's mostly avoided the dramatic, precipitous upswings and downfalls that have defined the game industry for the last, well, forever, but which has been especially acute over the last few years of swingeing layoffs and spectacular crashes.

Through it all, Rebellion has quietly churned along in the background, gradually building its capacities and fiercely valuing its own independence. So, playing Atomfall, I can’t help but feel like it’s arrived on the crest of two waves at once. On the one hand, it’s part of a broader return of games born of that old-school, no-hand-holding mentality that’s also manifested in things like KCDII and STALKER 2. On the other, it feels like another point on the board for those rare studios that don’t answer to the whims and dictates of shareholders.

IT'S GRIM UP NORTH