Atomfall developer diary provides the most thorough look yet at the frightfully British survival action game that's part Fallout and part Bioshock

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Developer Rebellion is trying a lot of new things with Atomfall, the anticipated single-player action survival game

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(Image credit: Future)

Associate head of design on Atomfall, Ben Fisher, breaks down the upcoming, single-player, survival action game in this developer diary shown at the Future Games Show at Gamescom Presented by Sid Meier’s Civilization® VII.

You might know of Rebellion's notable sniping sim series, Sniper Elite, but the studio is trying something new for its next game. Set in 1950s Yorkshire, Atomfall sees you wake up in a twisted quarantine zone created after a nuclear disaster based on the real Windscale fire disaster in 1957.

While you're scavenging or avoiding angry robots to survive, you'll also be uncovering leads and starting investigations to learn more about what happened to cause the quarantine zone to be created and why you're in this nuclear microcosm of northern England.

Fisher adds that while there are many mysteries in the game that all contribute to the worldbuilding and understanding what transpired, some leads don't always come to satisfying conclusions. "Part of the reason for that is to give you room to express yourself and to make those decisions yourself," he says. "But part of that as well is that the history of that kind of British storytelling is to open mysteries and not fully resolve them in a satisfying way, so it fits nicely with the kind of world that we're trying to build."

With a very Fallout-inspired, post-war, atom-punk aesthetic, Atomfall takes a lot of cues from Bethesda's RPG series, but as Fisher explains, the game is also inspired by thematically similar but less RPG-like series, such as Bioshock and Metro.

As a result, Atomfall seems less focused on traditional RPG elements, instead choosing to put the attention on crafting and survival, letting you pick your approach through what you find and make, rather than through skill trees and levelling – though some unlockable skills can be seen briefly in the video diary.

Fallout London might have to tide your over for now as Atomfall is billed for a 2025 release, though it will be launching on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, and PC. In the meantime, if the very British atom-punk aesthetic has piqued your interest, consider following the game on Twitter for the latest news and updates and add it to your Steam wishlist.

If you’re looking for more excellent games from today's Future Games Show, have a look at our official Steam page.

Will Sawyer
Will Sawyer
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Will Sawyer is a Guides Editor at GamesRadar+ with over five years of experience in writing online guides, news, and features, and has a BA (Hons) in Journalism. Starting as a freelancer, Will contributed to startmenu and Game Rant before joining the GamesRadar+ team in August 2021. Since then, he has written hundreds of guides about a huge range of games, with shooters and action games being his areas of expertise. Outside of writing about games, Will hops between multiplayer shooters with friends, such as Darktide and Helldivers 2, and delves into whatever has been on his backlog for far too long. He also tries to get through his never-ending Warhammer pile of shame of grey Tyranids, Aeldari, and Chaos Space Marines.