Atomfall Devs Expected Fallout Comparisons, Game Lasts About 25 Hours

At first glance, you might mistake Atomfall for a Fallout-style game. Perhaps even an *actual* Fallout game, but set in a post-apocalyptic England rather than America. Atomfall is a first-person, post-nuclear adventure with an alternate history design, much like the iconic Fallout series.

Ryan Greene, the art director at developer Rebellion, acknowledges the inevitable comparisons to Fallout. "Once you play the game, you realize it's not Fallout, but yes, we knew," Greene told IGN. He mentioned that one of Rebellion's owners, Jason Kingsley, is a big Fallout fan, so some parallels were expected. "And those guys are great at what they do. And that's cool," Greene added, showing appreciation for the Fallout team while emphasizing Atomfall's unique identity.

IGN highlighted last August that Atomfall is far more intriguing than just being a British version of Fallout. Greene himself warned that the Fallout comparison is "misleading." He explained, "Once you play it for a bit, you're like, oh, this is its own thing for sure." Rebellion, the independent British studio known for the Sniper Elite franchise, has crafted an ambitious game. However, Greene clarified that Atomfall isn't on the scale of an Elder Scrolls or Fallout-sized experience. "The reality is, here’s this very successful franchise and we're version 1.0," he said. "To be compared to those guys… thank you very much… Yes, we appreciate it because that’s a skillful team that's making that stuff."

Atomfall Screenshots

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An average playthrough of Atomfall, according to Greene, lasts "probably 25-ish hours." However, completionists can extend their gameplay significantly. For an in-depth look at the game, check out IGN’s recent Atomfall hands-on preview where Simon Cardy explored a more violent path, killing everyone during his playthrough.

Greene confirmed that players have the freedom to kill anyone or everyone in the game. "That's fine. We have multiple finishes to the game, so some of those would shut down if you were supposed to work with them throughout, but you'll find multiple other routes to finish the game and achieve a result."

Atomfall doesn’t follow the traditional RPG structure of main and side quests. Instead, Greene described it as "a spider web of connected story." He explained, "So even if you sever one thread, you can usually find another thread that leads you back to the overall mystery."

Players also have the option to play through Atomfall without killing anyone. Greene shared his experience, saying, "I've made it about nine hours in, probably close to halfway running at a pretty fast dev play speed and killed no one. I'm fairly certain you can do it and there's no gating of having to kill anyone ever."