'Decide About Using Each Individual Bullet': Atomfall Dev…

Atomfall is an action-adventure game, but not one where players can or should go in guns blazing, leaving a trail of death behind them. It's entirely possible to kill everyone in Atomfall, but players are going to have to work for it. Atomfall features a selection of melee weapons, ranged weapons, and stealth options (like a bow).

Atomfall is based in northern England, a place where not a lot of guns are just lying around. There is a military occupation because of Atomfall' s Windscale Incident, but even then, Rebellion "didn't want the game to feel like a war zone," Ben Fisher, head of design at Rebellion, told The Best War Games in an interview. Instead, its selection of weaponry and the availability of ammo feels more like a survival game than a traditional action-adventure game.

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By John Bonelli

Guns in Atomfall Are One Option

With a plethora of combat options including axes, knives, aged guns like a pistol or shotgun, and bow, players can explore Atomfall' s map the way they want. There are no real limitations on its exploration, and for some players, that may mean combat is scarce. For others, it may seem like the combat never stops. Players are going to have to manage the weapons they have on them, due to the limited inventory space, but also how they also use those weapons. An arrow from a bow can be retrieved, but once a bullet is spent, it's spent. Exploration, combat, and managing limited resources come together to help define Atomfall's gameplay. As Fisher explained,

"We wanted that sense of simmering tension that you don't know whether you should get into any fight because you might not survive. You shouldn't go into a place unprepared because you might get overwhelmed. That built into that feeling of being a detective uncovering the mystery....In the case of Atomfall, there's a military occupation, meaning there are more guns kicking around than you might expect, but we still wanted to make sure the player had to genuinely decide about using each individual bullet and whether it was a good call or not."

Indeed, players may encounter more weapons than they expect thanks to everything happening in Atomfall, but that doesn't mean there's ammunition left everywhere. Players may only find one or two bullets in some cases, and wasting them is only going to hurt the player. Of course, there are other weapons that players can use or resort to, if necessary, although they might not be as effective.

To Kill or Not to Kill is the Question

It's also entirely possible to play Atomfall without killing anyone, should someone elect to go that route. The inverse is also true: it's possible to kill everyone in Atomfall. How players explore the world and engage with its combat is up to them, but it's clear that Atomfall embraces all gameplay philosophies in its non-traditional action-adventure game approach.

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