We’ve had quite a few big-name game releases so far in 2025, with long-awaited titles like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and others proving to be very popular with players around the worldwide. Amidst all these major arrivals, though, there’s also an single-player indie that looks like it’ll have an exciting launch of its own: Atomfall. Set in the early 1960s in an alternate reality where the 1957 Windscale nuclear disaster covered Great Britain’s Lakeland region in deadly radiation, the Xbox, PC, and PlayStation game (it’s also coming to Game Pass) challenges players to investigate what happened in the quarantined area while fighting off mutated wildlife, the ranks of a violent cult, military soldiers, and advanced science fiction-style robots.
Atomfall — made by Sniper Elite and Zombie Army developer Rebellion — has garnered quite a bit of interest from fans of franchises with similar premises like Fallout and STALKER, so naturally, lots of folks are curious to see what reviews of the game have to say. Notably, those reviews are now live, with Atomfall achieving a “Generally Favorable” 75/100 Metacritic score and a 74/100 on Opencritic. These ratings come from the average of nearly 40 reviews, quotes from which you can find listed below:
- GamesRadar+ (90/100): “With a tightly designed world, and a level of player freedom rarely seen, Atomfall already represents some of the best offline adventuring 2025 has to offer. Best of all, it’s keen to allow as many people as possible to join the party.”
- IGN (80/100): “Atomfall is a gripping survival-action adventure that takes some of the best elements of Fallout and Elden Ring, and synthesizes them into its own fresh mutation. It presents a picturesque chunk of English countryside littered with alluring structures to pique and reward your curiosity, eccentric locals to meet, and absorbing mysteries to unravel, and uses classic iconography from British sci-fi and horror to consistently unsettling effect. In spite of some enemy behaviours that are occasionally less stable than a reactor in meltdown, Atomfall is a compelling, post-apocalyptic survival story that satisfyingly bends to your choices and discoveries no matter which direction you take.”
- TheGamer (80/100): “As someone who spent countless childhood holidays roaming these same Cumbrian hills before returning to a static caravan or family tent, Atomfall perfectly captures the British countryside. Combine that with a brilliant quest system and the tension of survival combat, and you’ve got a recipe for success.”
- Wccftech (75/100): “Atomfall is a thoroughly enjoyable game which looks and plays well, and offers a compelling narrative with surrounding exploration to keep you entertained. It’s well-polished, offers good replay value, encourages you to do things a little different, and isn’t bad on the eyes either, with a good design that allows it to both look good and support last-gen consoles. The score likely doesn’t reflect the game as well as it should, as I would heartily recommend this to anybody, with the added advantage that it’s coming to Game Pass.”
- VG247 (60/100): “It’s closer to puddle deep when it could be a lake or ocean given its cool premise. Or, to put it in a more Atomfall way, it’s a pasty that doesn’t quite deliver a filling that matches how tasty the pastry looks.”
- Digital Trends (50/100): “In its latest action-adventure game, Sniper Elite developer Rebellion lays out a solid plan to thrive in a wasteland of nuclear apocalypse games. Rather than aping Fallout or Stalker’s action RPG formula, the more streamlined Atomfall scavenges together some original ideas in its deconstructed quests and an emphasis on bartering. That could have made for a compelling survival story built around open-ended exploration, but it’s those pesky details that will get you killed during a nuclear disaster.”
There’s a pretty huge range of scores here, with most reviews awarding Atomfall a positive rating but quite a few giving it more mixed or negative scores as well. Generally, it seems that most critics praise the game’s open-ended freedom, exploration, world design, presentation, and writing highly, along with its optimization and polish. It also sounds like the game’s portrayal of Lakeland is very authentic and draws heavily on British fiction and iconography, which is sure to please British players in particular.
The game’s core combat and stealth systems, though, have been criticized widely, with many reviewers feeling that they lack depth and consistency. Some also argue that Atomfall does a terrible job of guiding the player on where to go and what to do, leaving them confused and lost. All in all, you’ll probably have a good time with Atomfall if you’re craving non-linear adventure and the joy of piecing together a mystery, but you may be left unsatisfied if you’re expecting engaging combat or stealth mechanics.
I should note that my colleague Michael Hoglund reviewed Atomfall for Windows Central, giving the open-world survival game a score of 4/5 stars. He wrote that he “adored Atomfall every step of the way, and had more fun as it went on,” and noted that “fans of Fallout, STALKER 2, and Prey will find a familiar enjoyment in this masterclass of player freedom that promotes curiosity and rewards exploration.” Like other reviewers, he loved the exploration and investigation half of the experience, but wished for better action and stronger NPC AI.
Ultimately, I think I’m going to wait for a steep sale with this one, but as a huge Fallout and STALKER 2 fan, I’m definitely interested in eventually playing Atomfall nonetheless. I might also resubscribe to Xbox Game Pass to jump in; if you don’t want to do that yourself but still want to pick up the game at a discount, don’t miss this deal that knocks it down from $49.99 to $38.69 at CDKeys. Alternatively, you could get the $69.99 Deluxe Edition for $51.99 at CDKeys, which would give you Early Access and some cosmetic goodies.
