Fallout set in the UK was always going to interest me, even if I am being forced into playing entirely in first person when I feel more comfortable switching between first and third when I wander around the wastelands… the lack of player customisation feels odd as well, and the only indication that my character is male has come from a, potential semi-senile, old lady in a stately home who thinks I look like her butler Jenks.

This being an RPG lite… Jenks has gone missing, and do I mind awfully going to look for him… she’ll only give the key to the conservatory to him to look after, and there’s something very important in there.

As luck would have it, I have another questline which is sending me his last known location… although why a butler would have any cause to wander off to the local Dam is beyond me.

Atomfall is not Fallout UK… it’s more STALKER light, ammo is limited, crafting materials are fairly abundant but there don’t seem to be many types, levelling up isn’t based on XP but how many Training Stim syringes you find, and often skills will need 4, 5 or more to learn.

You’re limited in what you can carry in your back pack, 4 large weapons (shotguns, rifles, spiked clubs etc) and just 12 smaller items (which include bandages, handguns, tonics and foodstuffs) along with 3 tools you can’t lose… a torch with limited battery, a metal detector for finding hidden items, and a device for switching power from one area of a room to another… vital for opening some doors and deactivating turrets in some areas.

It also starts slowly… being (cliché alert) an amnesiac, you don’t know who or where you are… personally I feel the small matter of my character wearing leather gloves from the offset is a little suspicious but that could be just me… and you’re given a modified keycard to escape your starting location… why you’re there when everything else in that bunker has turned to shit isn’t explained.

As your first interaction in the game is a crafting tutorial, finding materials and creating a bandage to help a bio-hazard suit wearing NPC, it may be telling that I did as I was asked and helped him… it seems other people used him as their first kill… I must go back and see if he survived, I have encountered other people in the same outfit described as “Thrall” when exploring other areas in the game… have they regressed that far?

So, out in the world I set off to explore… and get killed very quickly, seems a cricket bat is a fine melee weapon, but useless when faced with a couple of Outlaws tooled up with rifles… and it does start slow till you get the hang of the game, my first 2 hours feel a little disappointing as, to be honest, I was expecting the promised Fallout UK game.

When I go back the next day I change my approach and the game shines… I learn to work around the limited backpack space, learn how to ration my own ammo when In combat, learn to trade rather than buy items (no currency in this game, you want something from a Trader then you need to have something they want) and start to work out how questlines work.

I say “start to work out” as it’s still a bit of a mystery… you can complete the game leaving the zone with 6 other characters, so far, I haven’t favoured any of them, 1 is locked as I’ve chosen to help the villagers of Wyndham rather than inform the Army commander of any dubious happenings in the village… nor have I encountered what might be a “point of no return” with any of their tasks… I’m not entirely sure why one Scientist is after the location of another Scientist, so I haven’t told him… maybe it’s his glowing eyes.

The characters you bump into are superb, from the miner still working and living in the slate mine, to the scouse army trader, through to the mad old dear who’s lost her butler… for some reason she, and several “Druids” who attacked me on a bridge, bear a remarkable resemblance to the last Queen.

The core of the story is the Interchange, the base where these (and other) scientists worked which has caused the lockdown of the whole area for the last few years… it’s been closed off and powered down, and there doesn’t seem to be any progress in sorting out the mess that the local residents are now in.

*** Spoilers Ahead ***

If you chose to answer the ringing phone when you leave your first bunker, you’re told that “Oberon Must Die” by a gravel voiced male on the other end… once you get into the Interchange, and the central hub, you notice that the closed door straight ahead is marked with a big direction arrow and the word “Oberon” underneath.

To open that door, you need to power up 4 other hubs… A, B, C and D which all need an atomic battery… these also open up other areas of the Interchange such as the medical unit, and doors to help you move between the different locations easier… so far, we have Slatten Dale, Casterfell Woods and Skethermoor which houses the protected village of Wyndham.

I’ve powered up 3 to this point, the last (which another player I know has unlocked as their first section) is filled with “plants” that will kill me off if I venture in to the point I can insert the battery… this area also contains (from the guide I used) a comic book collectable I need.

One of the scientists gave me a vaccination which means a normal infection won’t kill me instantly, and I suspect, having took him a sample of something from the Medical bay, he may have an improved shot to give me if I follow his questline further.

For now, I’m off to the Dam, another scientist who specialises if Robotics has asked me to collect some information from there, so off I pop… an online map also says there’s a Trader there, and nearby a delinquent butler to look out for… so it seems a logical place to go to.

At this point the play clock on my save is just shy of 13 hours, I’ve hunted down and massacred 10 garden gnomes for an Achievement (there are more scattered around the village, you need to smash 10 and I know of at least 12 locations for them) and dug up around 20 lunchboxes found with the metal detector… oddly the special ones don’t count towards the main Achievement for digging them up… you need 5 special ones for another Achievement and I’ve got at least 7 to this point.

I’m really enjoying it… and will probably start the process of picking each of the 5 potential saviours in turn and following their path to the end… before a second run where I side with the Army commander and ignore the ringing telephone… hint… don’t tell the locals you hear a voice on the phone, they get suspicious seeing as how phone lines were cut off years ago.