PETER HOSKIN reviews Atomfall: It really is grim up north in Atomfall – a Great British spin on Fallout (complete with teashops, bandstands…and gangs of thugs)
Atomfall (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £54.99)
Verdict: Different but disjointed
Ah, what a beautiful Cumbrian village! A church steeple rising above thick stone walls and slate roofs. A bakery with little iced cakes in its windows. A bandstand where locals meet and while away the slow-moving hours.
Oh, and a great column of radioactive awfulness rising into the sky from the broken towers of a nearby nuclear facility.
Welcome to the 1950s world of Atomfall, a sort of Great British spin on the Fallout series — and proof that it really is grim up north.
What happened at the facility? That is effectively what you, after waking up in a bunker at the start of the game, have to find out — as well as discovering how you got there, who you are, all the usual.
So far, as I say, so Fallout.
Atomfall 2025 action survival game developed and published by Rebellion Developments
It is set in an alternate history 1960s where the Windscale nuclear disasters turned much of Northern England into a radioactive quarantine zone
This is no power fantasy, but a game of hiding, surviving and trying to make do with rusty weapons and scarce bullets
But it doesn’t take long for Atomfall to do its own thing. As soon as I ran into one of the gangs of loons who have taken over this quarantined zone, I was cut down almost immediately.
This is no power fantasy, but a game of hiding, surviving and trying to make do with rusty weapons and scarce bullets.
Atomfall’s landscape is more cut-up, too. Into distinct areas, rather one huge open world. But also by the way it presents its tasks to you, the player. Rather than the usual quests with their clear markers, you dig up a series of ‘leads’ to follow as and when you want.
It’s a good attempt at innovation. But it sometimes makes Atomfall feel disjointed — like you don’t entirely know where to be and don’t know what to do when you get there. Perhaps I’ll just pop into this teashop instead.
The First Berserker: Khazan (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £49.99)
Verdict: Difficult but delightful
Sometimes a name tells you practically everything you need to know. This is a game called The First Berserker: Khazan. And, yes, it involves a musclebound meathead with a massive sword cleaving through monster after monster in the name of revenge. Raaaaaaargh!
What more is there to say? A few things, I guess.
The first is that The First Berserker is extremely difficult, at least for the maladroit likes of me.
Like the Dark Souls series from which it takes inspiration, this game demands that you press your controller buttons just so to dodge and weave around enemy attacks, before pressing them just so again to launch your brutal counterattacks.
This is a game called The First Berserker: Khazan and, yes, it involves a musclebound meathead with a massive sword
The First Berserker is extremely difficult, at least for the maladroit likes of me
Like the Dark Souls series from which it takes inspiration, this game demands that you press your controller buttons just so to dodge and weave around enemy attacks
But it’s an especially unforgiving example of an unforgiving form. Sometimes, particularly in boss fights, it feels as though it’s one mistake… and you’re done
But it’s an especially unforgiving example of an unforgiving form. Sometimes, particularly in boss fights, it feels as though it’s one mistake… and you’re done.
It’s well worth persevering, though. Even I, The Clumsiest Berserker, started to make headway after a while, as my Khazan gained strength and skills. The sense of rising mastery is tremendously satisfying.
Besides, this cruel fantasy world, part of developer Neople’s Dungeon & Fighter setting, is quite… brutiful? It’s dark and red and full of eldritch things. But, thanks to the anime style, it’s also oddly pretty. The visuals sustain you.
And they will have to sustain me some more, since I haven’t finished The First Berserker yet. Like I said, it’s difficult. So here I go, once again, controller in hand. Raaaaaaargh!
