"Atomfall Devs Expected Fallout Comparisons, 25-Hour Playthrough"

At first glance, you might mistake Atomfall for a Fallout-style game, perhaps even an actual Fallout game set in a post-apocalyptic England rather than the familiar post-apocalyptic America. Atomfall is first-person, it's post-nuclear (hence the name), and features an alternate history design, much like the iconic Fallout series.

Ryan Greene, the art director at Rebellion, the game's developer, understands the inevitable comparisons to Fallout. He acknowledges that the development team anticipated these parallels from the moment Atomfall was revealed.

“Once you play the game, you realize it's not Fallout, but yes, we knew,” Greene told IGN. He also mentioned that one of Rebellion's owners, Jason Kingsley, is a big Fallout fan, so some similarities were expected. “And those guys are great at what they do. And that's cool,” Greene added, showing appreciation for the Fallout series.

Greene warned that the Fallout comparison can be “misleading.” “Once you play it for a bit, you're like, oh, this is its own thing for sure,” he said. He also emphasized that Rebellion, an independent British studio known for the Sniper Elite franchise, isn't Microsoft-owned Bethesda. Atomfall is ambitious but distinct from the vast worlds of Elder Scrolls or Fallout.

“The reality is, here’s this very successful franchise and we're version 1.0,” Greene continued. “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

13 ImagesGreene estimated that an average playthrough of Atomfall would take “probably 25-ish hours,” with completionists able to extend their playtime significantly.

For a deeper understanding of the gameplay, check out IGN’s latest hands-on preview of Atomfall, where Simon Cardy explored a more violent path, killing everyone during his playthrough.

Interestingly, Atomfall allows players to go through the entire game killing everyone if they choose. “You can kill anyone or everyone if you choose,” Greene confirmed. “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.”

On the other hand, players can also complete Atomfall without killing anyone. Greene is “fairly certain” this is possible, stating, “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.”