The primary 5 minutes into my two-hour preview of Atomfall don’t go effectively. That is, admittedly, not Atomfall’s fault. I’m dropped unceremoniously into the Cumbrian wilds of Casterfell Woods from a pre-existing save file. A river wends its manner instantly forward, flanked by stone steps. I wander up the steps on the precise and into the ruins of a miner’s shack. “Dying to unbelievers!” a masked girl screams as a detection meter cycles by white, yellow, then purple. I flip tail to dash up the steps on the left, and straight right into a folks horror nightmare of cheery maypoles and human sacrifice. Alright, then.
As soon as I’ve battered my pursuers to loss of life with a cricket bat, the instantly acquainted mix of Bethesda-style RPG and light-weight survival recreation parts assist me get my bearings. This could be my first time in Atomfall, nevertheless it’s removed from my first time in Cumbria – although this model is just not fairly as I do know it. An Ordnance Survey Map is my solely information, an sudden throwback to my hike to Helvellyn a number of years again. Except for a couple of factors of curiosity, represented as rapidly scribbled illustrations, the map is in any other case refreshingly clean.
Rebel has taken William Blake’s “inexperienced and nice land” to coronary heart; Atomfall might be essentially the most vibrant and idyllic quarantine zone I’ve ever taken a stroll by. I’ve lengthy thought-about Cumbria the proper setting for an open-world recreation. Its fells and tarns, bothies and druids’ circles, all quantity to a primordial panorama as picturesque as it’s unsettling. You’re as near historical past as you might be to the wide-open sky, however that boundless freedom can sometimes tip into agoraphobia and even paranoia. When in style tradition is so preoccupied with London for the good thing about its international viewers, it’s an actual pleasure to choose by a panorama so near my very own cultural heritage – although I’d reasonably die than name a bread bun a teacake.
Hair-trigger druids apart, it’s instantly obvious that Rebel has needed to contend that the UK’s wildlife is sort of a bit extra docile than throughout the pond. No scorpions, rattlesnakes, or coyotes roam our countryside; even our badgers aren’t notably aggressive, although I’ve been cautious of a seagull or two in Whitehaven. As an alternative, the best zoological menace I face in Casterfell Woods are mutant wasps that emerge from their (presumably) irradiated hives to swarm me. Anybody who’s been in a pub backyard in Windemere is aware of the expertise effectively. The absence of sheep, cows, or horses is a little bit unnerving; these climbing trails have by no means seemed cleaner.
After all, Atomfall isn’t meant to be a Lake District strolling simulator. Rebel takes inspiration from traditional British speculative fiction like The Quatermass Experiment and Physician Who, plus trendy thrillers like Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Attain e book trilogy, and it’s the latter that makes me think about that Atomfall’s lack of livestock is a deliberate alternative. These colossal influences are fed by the filter of Cumbria’s pagan previous – although Atomfall’s wood effigies and festoons of maypole bunting evoke Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man greater than the Birkrigg stone circle. Atomfall’s ubiquitous purple phone field is maybe a greater illustration. It sometimes rings, and after I reply it, a gravel-voiced speaker talks in riddles and portents.
Following this phone field path leads me to Wyndham, a fictitious village that presumably pays homage to sci-fi novelist John Wyndham. It’s characterised by its low stone partitions, Union Jack bunting, and locals-only pub. Briefly, it’s the Cumbrian village archetype. Poking round its nation lanes and stone mills jogs my memory of childhood visits to Beamish, the Residing Museum of the North. On Wyndham’s outskirts, I meet Prudence Rook, an upper-class southerner who might simply rating a bronze medal in a Queen Elizabeth lookalike contest. She’s sequestered in her stately manor, within the relative consolation of post-fallout denial. “I used to be simply trying over the backyard. We’ve reasonably let it get away from us, I’m sorry to say,” she says apologetically. I look to my quick proper, the place ivy blankets your complete reverse wall. I look again at Prudence. Preserve calm and keep on, certainly.
Again within the village, the bandstand on the inexperienced has been overtaken by a plummy captain who blares the ethical risks of paganism from a tinny loudspeaker. Alf Buckshaw, the owner on the Grendel’s Head pub, tells me that the captain treats strangers higher than the villagers, then assures me that he isn’t a gossip. He does nonetheless handle to inform me concerning the arrest of a scientist, an area conspiracy principle, and London’s army occupation following the Windscale accident. “Lots ‘spherical right here reckon it’s what it could’ve been like if the Nazis had invaded in any case,” he imparts, however I didn’t hear that from him. In any case, Alf doesn’t gossip.
Atomfall’s solid of eccentrics goes a protracted solution to seize northern hospitality and aggression in equal measure; I’m known as a bastard as many occasions as I’m informed I’m jammy or, god forbid, mithering. Maybe extra importantly, Rebel doesn’t overdo it. My greatest disappointment? The obvious omission of Kendal Mint Cake, a Cumbrian staple and the vitality bar for would-be survivalists within the space. Kendal Mint Cake is an establishment that’s powered me up the steepest Lakeland fells, and the one cause I’ll settle for for its absence is that the denizens of Atomfall’s quarantine zone have merely eaten all of it. And don’t even get me began on the obvious scarcity of Cumberland sausage…
It’s tough to decouple Atomfall from the Bethesda formulation, however that’s not essentially a foul factor. I come away from my two-hour stint with an impression of a survival RPG that is aware of what it needs to be. If Avowed’s heat reception proves something, there’s nothing improper with delivering a stable expertise constructed on a tried-and-tested basis. Very like Prudence, I’m inclined to miss Atomfall’s clunky melee fight and scaled-back immersive sim parts for the consolation of an RPG that I’ve kind-of, sort-of performed earlier than. Atomfall’s setting is the true draw, and for this dyed-in-the-wool northerner, it’s sufficient to win me over.
The Atomfall launch date lands March 27.