If there is anything I’ve learned about the Fallout franchise, especially its fan-base, it’s that you can trust that the Russians know how to make a post-apocalypse game. Fallout: Nevada was recently released with an English translation, and the level of care and attention to detail with the lore and its understanding of what makes a good Fallout game is unbelievable.
That same praise is how I would describe my time with Atom RPG, a not-so-subtle recreation that takes place in what can be described as an alternative universe of Fallout set in the Russian Wasteland of 2009—and a lot more self-aware jabs at communism. However, unlike Wasteland 2 which suffered an identity crisis, ATOM RPG manages to have its own character despite how generic it may appear, and it can be as immersive as the original Fallouts. It’s absolutely dumbfounding how much quality content and how much the devs understand what makes Fallout appealing at a time when Bethesda seems to have wandered astray.
It Don’t Mean A Thing, Comrade, If It Ain’t Got Stalin’
Starting from the character sheet and the UI, ATOM gives a clear resemblance to a Fallout experience, yet many will ask what Fallout game it recreates. Like Fallout1/2, it’s a single-party CRPG where you can recruit companions who will often make matters worse, and the gameplay largely borrows the same controls and mechanics. There are important deviations like Strength and Dexterity requirements for weapons, a larger need for higher skill stats, a tougher difficulty even on Easy, and many quality of life improvements like a journal system and a slimmer UI for skills. In these regards, Atom doesn’t fix what was broken from before, such as companion AI, but what it does do well it recreates the thrills from before.
What does set itself apart from other Fallouts is its tone. Fallout 1 was largely serious with only an occasional self-aware wink; Fallout 2 was littered with references and a more laxed narrative. Atom strikes a nice balance between being philosophically satirical, borderline on the absurd, and yet it never seems to cross the line of Fallout 2. One minute you have a quest for a daydreaming bartender to get a copy of The Lord of the Rings after talking Solipsism with a fisherman who wants a beer, and the next you are exercising the proletariat demons out of a man wearing a tinfoil hat into a pig as a sly Animal Farm jab.
Most side quests and the main storyline revolve around exploring the towns across the Wasteland and solving their day-to-day dilemmas for profit, information or circumstance, and often with five or six means to resolve those quest-lines. (Even NPC personalities are changed when you plays as the opposite sex more than simply another woo-woo option.) The conventional weaponry and items ranging from RPKs to perfume/cologne speech buffs, the real-world topics and the politics of the former USSR, and the more grounded take on the Wasteland all contribute to this surrealist post-apocalypse that, as Todd Howard would say, “It just works.”
The only lacking aspect is the main narrative thus far, but not from the lack of consequence. I should note I have yet to reach the Death Tunnel—there are many end-game quests that will be made easier once new areas are added—and I have many other side-quests to complete. You can sequence break the plot from its intended course, and there are some decisions that will really gnaw at you if you walk into them obliviously. In short, if Fallout 4 made you crave for punishment because the devs went limp, then Atom RPG will flog you when you make a mistake and you’ll find yourself enjoying it.
Atom Bomb Baby, Little Atom Bomb, I Want Her In My Lifetime
Honestly, as much as I would love to spend even more time praising what works in this game from its world-building to its stats and gameplay, it would be better to let you experience it for yourself as well as save my energy for when this game will be complete. (If you also wonder if the writing suffers being translated into English, worry not as every diary entry to dialogue has the same level of wit as you would expect from New Vegas.) Even on my fifth character build from my sledgehammer bruiser to my ignorant yet exceptionally lucky gal, I am discovering new options and new aspects to the game worth appreciating, and if the rest of the game is as compelling as what I have played thus far—especially how slick the Soviet Power Armor looks—it could easily be my game of the year.
Rating of Completion/Competence
This rating does not reflect its final quality; however, it is useful to express the state of completion throughout Early Access. Eventually, the game should reach a finished state and the scale should reach one-hundred percent.Here is a breakdown of the simple and detailed scale (1-5) into four broad categories (Content, Quality, Optimization and Productivity):
1 : A bug-filled mess with no content updated infrequently with no sign of change.
2: A game with the beginnings of ideas, yet too soon to invest your time. Check for updates to see if things improve. (Also, without all the basic features, such as promised multiplayer modes.)
3: A game that is in a playable state, yet may not have all its technical issues resolved. Features are all available while they may not be finalized. Games are cautious recommendations to buy, so you should check the updates.
4: A game that is in a playable state, technically competent, and has enough content to be worthy of purchase. Features are accounted and the updates are frequent enough to not discourage cautious buyers. Updates should be with respect to the size of the development team.
5: A game that could be considered finished. It is in the final stages of development with balancing and other last minute changes to be resolved to be fit for release.
Simple Rating: 3/5 - Detailed Rating: 11/20 (55%)
Content: 3/5
If I were to judge it from a single run, the rating would be perhaps lower given how many areas and unfinished quests are in development; however, accounting for how many choices there are as well as unique dialogue given to each gender, there is a substantial amount of content (20 – 40 hours).
Quality: 3/5
Compared to its earlier UI and its inspiration, there is a cleanliness and nostalgic look to the game that doesn’t detract from its quality. What does hold the game’s quality back is the background in the seemingly empty voids that look like a beginner’s first map editor, and I say that as someone who has created maps in Divinity Original Sin 2. There is also a bug with an early side-quest where if you sell the Toadstools by accident you will not find fresh Toadstools elsewhere to activate a significant amount of sidequests and one of the three HUBs.
Optimization: 3/5
For the most part, the game runs flawlessly and there are more than enough options to tweak the settings to your liking, but certain environmental effects and the number of enemies can slow down the performance. It’s enough of an occurrence to make it noticeable.
Productivity: 2/5 Now I want to clear that I think the developers are making good use of their time to flesh out the quests, choices, and the writing for both genders, but I do not believe they were realistic with their goal of five or six months. Most likely it will take to the end of 2018, and that is being optimistic given how much they seem to put into the three major HUBs in the game.
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