I don’t usually do posts about games I don’t like, but I figured I’d make an exception in this case since I happened to buy the Digital Upgrade for Atomfall and got early access, so have been playing the past few nights. If the things that bug me about the game save someone from spending their money on normal release day tomorrow, I’ll feel like I helped.

I should also hasten to add that I don’t think Atomfall is a bad game; it’s just a bad game for me and my personal preferences. In fact I think it’s a pretty good game for the right gamer, and even then there’s a lot I do like about it: the setting and the exploration are both top notch, and the voice acting is very good, though the cast is small enough that a lot of characters have the same voice. Also worth noting that it is launching at $50 and is on Game Pass at launch.

Finally, I’ve only played 4-5 hours so far so things could change. On the other hand I’m told it’s about a 20 hour game so in theory I’m a quarter of the way through.

OK enough with the pre-ambling. Here’re some of the things I don’t like about Atomfall.

Character Progression

I have to admit I’m a shallow person who likes seeing numbers go up. The industry’s RPG-ification of virtually every genre is something I embrace. Atomfall doesn’t have a lot of character progression. There’re no levels, there’s no experience points. The only character progression is via a skill tree. To get a skill you have to do two things. First you have to find/buy a Skill Manual. Reading one of these essentially puts the set of skills in that manual into your skill tree, but it doesn’t actually give you the skill. In order to unlock the skill you have to use some serum things that, again, you find or buy. It’s an interesting system but I do miss “leveling up” and getting skill points. Essentially the serums are your skill points, and how many there are in the world is anyone’s guess.

Gearing

The only gear in Atomfall are weapons. Weapon stats are not numerical but like “High damage, slow reload times.” Weapons come in 3 tiers: rusty, normal and pristine. You can combine 4 rusty weapons of the same type (along with some gun oil) to create a normal weapon, and I believe 2 normal weapons to create a pristine. Guns are fairly rare and so is ammo, so you’ll probably use melee weapons a lot of the time. Weapons don’t seem to degrade but of course ammo runs out which again nudges you towards melee. I kind of miss having more stuff to search for like armor or trinkets or something, but this just isn’t a looter-shooter (nor does it claim to be).

Combat and Expendables

There’s no real point to combat in Atomfall unless removing the person(s) you’re fighting is required to complete a task. The only upside to killing someone is searching their body and they don’t often carry all that much. Your health is replenished by bandages that you craft or find, and there are various potions (again, craftable once you find the recipe) that’ll buff you. But the game seems to really be pushing you towards avoiding combat as much as possible. The resources you need to craft things like bandages or Molotov cocktails don’t respawn, but the enemies do. This means you have to really weigh the pros and cons of each fight. Are you going to use more resources in winning the fight than you get back from looting the body? If so, probably best to sneak on by if possible. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this system but I’m more a guns blazing kind of player and I get bored with sneaking around pretty quickly. I also get a weird low-level anxiety about running out of materials in the world.

So those are my biggest issues, and none of them are flaws with the game; not in the least. They’re just systems that don’t really fit my particular playstyle, and if you think these things might bother you too, might be worth waiting for a sale or something (and of course if you have Game Pass you might as well try it). It is, in my opinion, an amazing setting and an amazing set-up and I really, REALLY want to love this game, but I’m just too impatient and too shallow for it to really hook me. I’ll still finish it and all, but buying the upgrade to get early access was a dumb move for me. Maybe this post will help someone else.