Developed by AtomTeam and Published by ATENT GAMES LLC, Atom RPG is a post-apocalyptic RPG game strongly inspired by the original Fallout games but set in the USSR in the 1980s. Originally released on other platforms in 2018 it has now finally made its way to Xbox consoles. I was a massive fan of the original Fallout games as the style of play with the isometric view and great storyline captured my imagination. This has emulated it almost too much as this feels very familiar but with newer graphics and the fact it is set in the USSR.
The story is a bit hard to follow at times but from what I played you are an agent of the military science group ATOM. You have been given the task to explore the wasteland in search of a special squad that was sent to investigate Bunker 317. But the wasteland is filled with mutants, creatures, gangsters and various other beings that wish you harm. You either have to use your intelligence and gift of speech craft to talk your way out of certain dangers or be skilled with either melee or guns to defend yourself should talks fail.
The game starts in the base of ATOM with you being shown the ropes by a fellow soldier. He explains your mission and offers to go over the basics you will need to survive. This is basically a free-roaming optional tutorial that is quite poorly executed. You wander around aimlessly and if you encroach an area of training then the fellow soldier pipes up and starts explaining a certain mechanic of the game. But the thing is there is nothing obvious to show where all the tutorial bits are, you just have to keep wandering around and hope to trigger something which just comes across as sloppy. The worse part of the tutorial covers the worst mechanic of the game and that is using an item from your inventory. A doctor gives you a medkit to use on an injured soldier but you are not given the right information to execute it. If you open the inventory and click the A button on the medkit then your character just equips the medkit which doesn’t help. If you hover over the medkit it says the X button uses the medkit which if you press X you use it yourself and oops, no more medkit for the injured soldier. The doctor scolds you for using it on yourself and you don’t get another try at it. What you’re supposed to do is equip the medkit like you would a weapon. Then press the Y button which is the initiate combat button and click to use it on the injured soldier. That level of clunkiness was not explained very well and it’s important to know that mechanic as you need to use it quite a bit in the game for other scenarios including reloading your gun.
The graphics are a real mix bag for me. You don’t normally get a post-apocalyptic game without seeing a lot of variations of grey as everything is rubble or ruin. There is plenty of grey on offer here but the in-game graphics look alright. But what I don’t get is the still art and cutscenes which look like they came out of a game from the late ’90s. That’s not to say the old school still art is terrible, it just looks aged. The cutscenes just look like the old-style FMV footage you uses to get with the older games. I don’t know if that was just the best that could be done or they were trying to capture that era of gaming.
It is hard not to compare this to Fallout considering the game plays like a modernised version of the originals; they mention bunkers instead of vaults, you can aim your weapon at enemies body parts like the V.A.T.S system, you have action points in the turn-based combat, and you can even obtain a dog companion. In also keeping with the original Fallout-style all the dialogue is covered by text and there is no voice acting at all. Each NPC you interact with has its own avatar image which 70% of the time matches their character model or the text description the game provides. I do enjoy the various conversations options and that if you have a high enough skill level in one of the options like strength, barter, speech craft, intelligence and personality you can amend the outcome of certain events. I do find that some of the skill levels have to be alarmingly high to succeed in the conversation challenge which is a bit of a shame but if you won them all I guess the game would be too easy.
The combat is probably the section that is most different from the Fallout games. In Atom RPG there are not many weapon options that are helpful and there aren’t many armour options either. There are occasional guns about but the ammo is scarce. Coupled with the fact unless your skill in melee weapons or guns is high enough then the percentage chance to hit is very low. The first person I had to fight only had a knife and I had a knife or I could use a brick. Even though I could sucker punch him first he still overpowered me and killed me 4 times before I beat him, and this was early in the game. I would like to say things get easier as you skill up and find more equipment but it only makes a minor difference. If whilst you wandering in the wasteland you come across a random encounter with someone with a gun then it’s almost a guaranteed loss. They seem to be very efficient with their guns and it doesn’t take a lot to put you down even on the easy setting.
The game does offer some variation and replay value as you can handle quests in different ways and spec out your character to be a stealthy melee warrior or an intelligent gunslinger. In a similar fashion to the original Fallout games, you wander the main wasteland between places of interest and usually, it will contain surprises that can be either good or bad. You might stumble across some enemies which you will have a chance to evade if you have a high enough skill to do so. Or you might come across a caravan with traders who might have just the items you need.
Atom RPG does offer a crafting mechanic which isn’t too complex but is quite mean spirited. You have limited items you can craft and you have to find recipes to craft other things. But even if you have the recipe and items there is still a chance you can fail to create the item as you need a high enough skill in tinkering to be successful. As I mentioned before with the clunky inventory system you can give yourself an edge with certain skills but it’s odd. You have two weapon slots you can switch between in combat but you can place other items in these slots which can give you skill bonuses. Holding a magnifying glass increases your tinkering skill to help your chance crafting items. But it’s just so odd you have to equip it before you craft an item and the same goes for having a crowbar and lockpicking locked cabinets. It should just be that if it’s in your inventory that you get the skill bonus. I find it weird they have done it this way as it’s just a nuisance to equip it for a task and then unequip it straight after.
Conclusion
Atom RPG is a fun and challenging game which seems to heavily use the original Fallout games as a template. That’s not a bad thing as I really liked those games and I enjoyed this game too. The story at times was hard to follow and not as interesting as the Fallout games but it still has its fair share of humorous and quirky quests. I think the combat could do with some balancing as it shouldn’t be this tough and the inventory mechanic is a bit clunky but it doesn’t make the game terrible. If you are a fan of the older fallout games or you enjoy a good isometric RPG then you might like this.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox Series S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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