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How long is Atomfall is a question you may be considering, whether your journey through the Lake District is already underway, or you're thinking about picking the game up via Game Pass and are wondering how much commitment is required. While there was a lot of coverage at launch about the relatively compact setting for this adventure, the amount of time it will take to beat will largely depend on your approach, as you're left to investigate Leads and decide where to head next at your own pace. The world is restricted to a small number of rural areas and a network of underground bunkers, but our Atomfall review does mention the large amount of backtracking required within that limited area, so does that significantly affect the time to beat Atomfall? We've got all of the details below.
How long to beat Atomfall?
How long it will take you to beat Atomfall depends on a number of factors, such as which difficulty (or Playstyle, as the game calls it) you select and if you power through a single Lead to reach an ending or take time to follow multiple investigations. However, as a rough guide I think the time it will take is:
- Reach an ending: 10-15 hours
- Fully explore multiple Leads: 20-25 hours
- Get all endings and 100% completion: 40+ hours
Atomfall is an open-ended game of choices and it doesn't hold your hand at any point, so right from deciding whether to help the Scientist in Atomfall when you first wake up in the bunker your destiny is your own. You'll need to investigate Leads as you discover them, and these open up multiple routes you can take, but if you focus solely on progressing one of them and don't take time to fully explore the world around you then you can probably get to an ending in around a dozen hours.
However, we don't recommend that approach as you'll miss out on big chunks of storyline, as well as potentially critical items and information that will make things easier for you in the long run. Instead, you should take your time to explore and investigate multiple Leads on your first playthrough to get a thorough understanding of what's happening, which means it will take more like 20 or so hours to beat Atomfall.
For the completionists, if you want to tick off all of the Trophies or Achievements then a more significant investment of time is required. There are six different endings to discover, and although you can use save reloading to avoid six full playthroughs you will need to see through a number of Leads that are mutually exclusive in order to get them which isn't a quick process. There are also a variety of collectibles to find and specific challenges to complete, which we estimate will take a minimum of 40 hours in total.
If you want to get your playthrough off to the best start, then our Atomfall tips will help to steer you in the right direction, and we also have a walkthrough for how to open the Forgotten Cellar door in Atomfall as that is quite a difficult assignment but delivers a great reward.
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