Rebellion’s upcoming Atomfall already draws strong comparisons with Stalker, what with it being an open-world shooter set in a cordoned off zone in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster. But it seems the latest game from the Sniper Elite devs may also be taking a leaf out of Dying Light 2’s book, if the words of lead designer Ben Fisher are anything to go by.
Speaking to VideoGamer, Fisher explained that Rebellion is using Atomfall to play with some ideas that they wouldn’t have otherwise attempted in other games, stating “We took the creative pillars we were aiming for and just ran with them, so there’s some experimental stuff you wouldn’t try somewhere else because you can’t guarantee a result.”
According to Fisher, this includes hidden events that can dramatically alter the world state, and Rebellion isn’t entirely sure how these creative choices will be received by players. “There’s events the player can trigger or completely miss that can have a huge influence on enemy population in the game world, and stuff like that… It might work, it might not… I’m looking forward to finding out.”
On the face of it, this sounds a little bit like the ideas Techland had planned for Dying Light 2, where player choices would affect which parts of the world were occupied by zombies and human factions. In the end, these ideas ended up being pared back in the final version of the story. But it was still an interesting idea that I’d like to see explored elsewhere.
That’s only my interpretation of Fisher’s outline, and the system he’s talking about could be entirely different. Fisher did provide some slightly harder facts about Atomfall in the same chat, stating that it was designed as a more challenging “high-intensity experience” by default, and that its quest design wouldn’t be overt in its directions, and that Rebellion wanted players “to feel more like a detective and [have] more of a sense of open freedom.”
This detective element was what PC Gamer editor-in-chief Phil Savage enjoyed most when he took Atomfall for a spin last September, remarking upon how it gives you “leads” rather than quests. “This is the good stuff—scavenging through a valley, poking around abandoned bunkers and finding clues that point to somewhere on the map. Teasing out mysteries that lead to conspiracies and unexplained phenomena and weird sci-fi nonsense.” He was less convinced by the moment-to-moment combat, however,calling it “A little bit janky and generally unrefined.”
That was six months ago, though, so hopefully Rebellion has found the time to tighten up the combat systems in the interim. Either way, we don’t have long to wait before we find out. Atomfall launches on March 27.