Atomfall is the much-anticipated game from acclaimed developer Rebellion Developments, the folks best known for the incredible Sniper Elite series. In many ways, Atomfall feels like a significant departure from sniping Nazis in idyllic French villages, with many more directly comparing it to the iconic Fallout franchise. That comparison is certainly warranted, especially from a purely visual and thematic standpoint, as both games are first-person shooters that reimagine the past to be far more technologically advanced while contextualizing it within a nuclear fallout.

In fact, people have gone as far as to say that Atomfall is Fallout in Britain, something that would perhaps feel more inspired were there not the expansive Fallout 4 mod titled Fallout: London. However, as much as Atomfall and Fallout do have a lot in common, there are striking differences in their gameplay that may surprise those unaware. While it may disappoint players hoping for another Fallout-esque experience, Atomfall's differences are not only what make it stand out, but potentially make it a far better game.

Atomfall Isn't Fallout In Britain

It's Quite A Different Game

The most significant way that Atomfall's gameplay design is a departure from Fallout's is in its non-linear storytelling and lack of traditional quest design. Atomfall doesn't really have main quests, but rather a series of core questions that the player needs to find the answers to, and a plethora of potential leads to those answers. Importantly, the reliability of those leads should always be taken into question, as each character in Atomfall has their own beliefs and understandings of how things work, which naturally colors their perception of everything happening around them.

In an interview with contrast to the Fallout series, which pushes players forward through a series of linear main quests and gives them the freedom to interact with its open world outside of that.

Ben Fisher, the creative director for Atomfall, further expanded on this idea. He explained that "there's a giant spider web of leads" for players to follow, with the actions taken throughout Atomfall's main story affecting which leads are lost and which progress the player's quest. All of this is recorded in a journal, which is used to keep track of everything that's going on. Of course, this non-linear progression may make players feel like the story ends up becoming a jumbled mess, but Greene reassured players that despite the loose structure, players are still going to experience a rich story.

"Right from the outset, you can do whatever you want [...] Even though we don't feed it to you in a nice, sequential way, our setup makes for a really rich story. It's kind of like one of those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books we read as kids."

Another key difference between Atomfall and Fallout is that the former is not an open-world game. Rather, Atomfall is split into multiple areas separated by loading screens. While this decision was initially made due to technical restraints, it allowed Rebellion to craft a more detailed sandbox that makes Atomfall one of the most-anticipated games of 2025. Additionally, Rebellion doesn't regard Atomfall as an RPG, but rather "a detective game" with survival elements. It's set to be tougher than Fallout when it comes to combat, with resources being scarce, and also relies more on player intuition to guide the narrative.

Atomfall Borrows The Best Parts Of Fallout

The Vibes And Worlds Are Similar

Of course, Atomfall still shares a lot of Fallout's DNA, especially in the visual department. Atomfall's reimagined version of Cumbria is full of giant robots reminiscent of Fallout's Protectrons as well as skeletal enemies that evoke the haunting appearance of ghouls. Of course, Atomfall is significantly more colorful when compared to Fallout's disappointingly drab setting, in large part thanks to the survival of the surrounding wilderness and its vibrant natural beauty. Nevertheless, the somewhat retrofuturism-inspired aesthetic very much places Atomfall in the same style of apocalyptic sci-fi as Fallout.

Additionally, Atomfall has its own fair share of factions for players to interact with, each with their own ambitions and beliefs. Interestingly, these factions appear to be more dynamic than Fallout's with, for example, more peaceful ones refusing to trade weapons, unlike those more aggressively inclined. Fallout's best factions have always been an integral part of the experience as they help flesh out the world, and Atomfall has cleverly adopted this aspect of its game design in order to better immerse players in each of its many sandboxes.

Those who are fond of Fallout's more survival-focused elements and play on the hardest difficulty will also appreciate Atomfall's approach to difficulty. While it doesn't offer traditional difficulty settings, it allows players to tailor their experience to have greater or more scarce access to resources, to make combat tougher or easier, and to have more or less guidance around the open world. Rebellion recommends players pick the more challenging options as it is the intended experience, with Atomfall skewing more towards the survival genre than action.

Atomfall Sounds Like A More Ambitious Fallout

It Is Taking The Genre In A Different Direction

While the two games share a lot of similarities, Atomfall often improves upon the ideas it is inspired by and deviates when it wants to offer something new. The non-linear nature coupled with the more challenging difficulty and focus on survival makes it sound like a far more ambitious sandbox than Fallout. It similarly teases a greater mystery but trusts the player to solve it using the clues they're given, rather than funneling them down a certain path. Of course, the Fallout games often have multiple endings as well.

However, the impact the player has on the world in Atomfall will seemingly elevate its choices and open-endedness in a way that Fallout's more rigid design can't allow for. That's not to say that Fallout is bad comparatively, but rather that Atomfall's choices, which ultimately make it feel less like Fallout and more like STALKER or L.A. Noire, are for the best. While it is always great to get more of what players love, Atomfall's ambitious design and unique approach to storytelling will hopefully give players something unexpected.

Atomfall isn't Fallout in Britain as much as it is clearly inspired by Bethesda's beloved franchise. It looks set to be something completely different, one that utilizes the creative setting and retro-futurist ideas of Fallout to recontextualize the Windscale fire while implementing its own ideas and gameplay mechanics inspired by the many years developing the Sniper Elite series. While time will tell whether Atomfall emerges a triumph, it is safe to say that, as inspired as it is by Fallout, it deviates enough to be its own game, and that is absolutely a good thing.

Source: GamesRadar, Rebellion/YouTube