In my 7 Days to Die review, I talked about why zombies are so fascinating. For me, it’s the breakdown of society, and the musing on what happens in its wake. However, this musing is by no means limited to the zombie apocalypse, and indeed, it’s interesting to compare different versions of the post-apocalypse to see what they do differently.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the nuclear post-apocalypse genre which is, of course, also its own robust genre. Each game in this genre approaches with its own ideas and its own conception about what the world looks like after it ends, and I love them all. Atom RPG, with its unique setting and ideas, is no exception.

The apocalypse is a weird, weird place.

Atom RPG is a CRPG reminiscent of Fallout 1 and 2. You play as a secret agent, sent out into the world by a secret agency to do secret agent things. Despite the training in the tutorial, however, you are grossly unprepared to be sent out into the world, as within the first few minutes, you are robbed and left for dead. Thus the story begins.

When I say Atom RPG is reminiscent of Fallout 1 and 2, I say that both lovingly and seriously. Much like Fallout, the character moves through the world, interacting with those around her purely through text. While there is the occasional cutscene, these are far from the game’s strong suit, and only exist to convey a large amount of text at once. Atom RPG also uses a points system to give characters strengths and weaknesses, and to add or detract from particular traits. These allow for a large amount of character customisation, and thus, a different gameplay experience on each run. My character, for example, 5 points invested in guns, which I took to mean she had never heard of them, and was disinclined to learn. Instead I invested all those points in punching. Punching is, after all, the true way to experience a radioactive wasteland.

PUNCH

Atom RPG does differ from Fallout, however. Mechanically, it includes a crafting system, increasing the variety of what a character can actually do. There are craftable recipes to be found throughout the world, or the player can experiment and see what they find. It adds a nice touch of variety and a strong incentive to invest in the tinkering stat.

Atom RPG also has a very different setting. While Fallout places itself in a post-apocalyptic America, Atom RPG tells the story of the nuclear apocalypse from the other side, placing itself in a 2005 USSR that saw the end of the world in 1986. It’s an interesting decision on multiple levels. It of course gives a different setting, with Russian place names replacing American ones, or characters having names like “Beetroota” or “Agnieszka.” However, a post-apocalyptic wasteland and the concerns within it tend to look the same, regardless of whether it’s Americans or Russian who lay dead by the roadside. There are still mutant animals to contend with. Survival is still scrounging scraps from the dirt. The irradiated zones must still be avoided. Geography adds a flavour to the landscape rather than fundamentally alter it.

I’m pretty sure I did not find this in Fallout, though.

Instead, the interesting element is the timeline and the society that results from the collapse of the USSR. The original Fallout takes place nearly a century after the apocalyptic war, whereas Atom RPG takes place 19 years after. In Fallout, we see a world that has more or less left the previous order behind. However, the people of Atom RPG still remember the USSR. Some still believe in the ideals of communism and seek to recreate those ideals in a new world. Rather than the social order being one that has moved on, Atom RPG shows a world where that order is still being decided. All the facets of the old world are still clinging to life, and it is in some ways, up to the player to decide whether they will survive or perish in the wastes.

Or I could go to the circus

It’s here that Atom RPG began to disappoint me. While the game is clearly translated from Russian - odd dialogue options and all - it is not this element of the writing that I wanted more from. Instead, as I wandered through a variety of stories, it was the lack of exploration and the high bar to entry for those stories that left me wanting more. Characters are built around their stat points, and where the player invests those points determines what that character is capable of. However, I got to a point where who I wanted my character to be and how I’d invested my stat points clashed.

I invested my points in speechcraft and martial arts with the intention of playing a D&D-esque monk, roaming the world, bringing peace and justice. However, I got blocked from every skill check for not having invested enough points, and forced into a violent confrontation. My idea of my character ran directly into the game mechanics and created a contradiction that soured the game for me. I wanted this to be an RPG, and it is, but more in the sense that the character crafts the player, rather than the player crafting the character.

Pft, shows what you know about chickens.

None of this detracts from the fun I had with Atom RPG. It crafts a compelling world, full of living and dynamic characters, each with their own stories and experiences to share. The little secret agent very much has agency in this world - the question becomes whether that agency lines up with what the player intends. Before I hit a wall in what I could actually accomplish, I had a lovely time, exploring, chatting, and getting to know this world. It is a world I would love to spend more time in, but without the pressure of knowing I’m meant to influence it. Atom RPG is a worth successor to Fallout, but equally, builds a compelling world all its own.

Developer: Atom Team

Genre: Crpg

Year: 2018

Country: Ukraine, Latvia, Russia

Language: English

Play Time: 37-40 Hours

Youtube: https://youtu.be/y9Mr0-Vd_lU