Atomfall: What Exactly Happened During the Real Windscale…

Summary

Atomfall, a survival FPS RPG set in a post-apocalyptic British countryside, releases soon on March 27, 2025.
The title is inspired by the Windscale Nuclear Disaster that occurred in England and was downplayed by the government.
Atomfall will use the Windscale tragedy as its narrative basis while featuring sci-fi and folk horror elements.

Atomfall's release is fast approaching. Rebellion Developments' forthcoming title is set to drop towards the end of this month, on March 27, 2025. After a long line of entries in its popular Sniper Elite franchise, Rebellion is switching genres and setting for Atomfall, as it is a post-apocalyptic survival FPS RPG experience that will see players explore a radiated and quarantined British countryside.

Based on the above and what Rebellion has shown of it, Atomfall gives off heavy Fallout vibes. The studio also happens to be based in Britain, and Atomfall will be using a relatively lesser-known but still devastating real-life event that took place near the developer's back yard as its narrative and gameplay backdrop. The Windscale Disaster that occurred there is equally intriguing and terrifying, and the tragic story behind it could shed some light on how Rebellion may approach it, while also introducing its own takes into the tale.

Atomfall will be a Game Pass Ultimate day one release.

Survival Games Set in Real-World Locations

9 Best Survival Games Inspired By Real-World Locations, Ranked

These excellent survival games deliver compelling and immersive gameplay in rich settings inspired by real-world locations.

Posts

By Eduardo Ariedo

The Windscale Nuclear Fire Disaster That Atomfall is Based On, Explained

Britain's Windscale Nuclear Incident

Although it occurred decades earlier, the accident at the Windscale Piles nuclear site is sometimes known as "Britain's Chernobyl," as it was the worst disaster of its kind in the country's history. On October 10, 1957, workers at the site, which is located on the northwestern coast of England in what is now Sellafield, Cumbria, near the border of Scotland, noticed that measuring instruments were reporting odd results. Upon further investigation, they discovered that the temperature of one of the facility's two main reactors was alarmingly high, and quickly realized that a fire had been internally growing for the better part of three days, since October 7. They worked swiftly to contain it, but were hindered by a number of issues that caused a dangerous delay before it was safely extinguished.

It was ultimately determined that the Windscale fire that Atomfall is based on was caused by an unfortunate combination of faulty equipment and hasty construction. This was compounded by a series of human miscalculations and complications related to the proper venting of heat for the specific cooling process that Windscale required. Years later, the Windscale fire and the radiation risks its aftermath posed were rated a level 5 severity out of the maximum 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, putting it on par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, USA, in 1979.

The British government did not evacuate the immediate and surrounding areas, and Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time, downplayed its severity by ordering the omission of many details from the initial report regarding the extent of the damage and danger to the public. The report, composed by scientist William Penney, wasn't released in full until 1988. While, thankfully, no one perished in the fire itself, it did release heavy doses of radioactive elements, which caused an estimated cancer rate of fatal and non-fatal cases numbering in the hundreds.

As opposed to generating power like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, Windscale was a dedicated military-based installation.

Atomfall Will Feature Other Horrifying Elements On Top of the Windscale Tragedy

Though Atomfall takes the Windscale disaster as its core premise, it will place players in an alternate timeline set five years following it. Along with this, it will feature a range of genre inclusions, from sci-fi to folk horror. Somewhat similar to the Stalker series as well as Fallout, fans will face off against militias, mutants, cults, and other creepy creatures in Atomfall. The story promises to link all these together through an underlying conspiracy that players will be tasked with unraveling as they scavenge to survive. Taking the sobering real-life Windscale event and adding a heavy dose of more outlandish aspects makes Atomfall look like a promising, and scare-inducing, title.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image