Atomfall Is The British Fallout Game I’ve Always Wanted

The post-apocalypse has never been hotter. In the wake of the Fallout TV show, fans of the series are taking to their consoles to breathe new life into Fallout 76, to reassess Fallout 4, and to discover the wonders of Fallout: New Vegas, the best game in the series.

However, I had a different reaction to the show. I thought it was good – not great – but I was intrigued by its inherent Americanness. For once, Bethesda Game Studios director and executive producer Todd Howard was right: Fallout can only be set in America. America is baked into the setting, from the naivete that Howard describes to the aesthetic, the music, and the cultural touchstones. Fallout’s vision of post-apocalypse is intrinsically American.

So what’s the British version, I wondered. I don’t count Fallout London for a few reasons, including the fact that it’s a mod, that I don’t think Fallout can be unAmericanned, and that it doesn’t actually exist yet. I pondered the subject for a long while and eventually settled on (spoilers) Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture.

It’s got that twee British village aesthetic, a British apocalypse (people just disappearing is so polite), and a British reaction to it (wandering around kind of aimlessly). Quintessentially British, definitely post-apocalyptic, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture is the British version of Fallout. Or it was, until Atomfall was revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase during Summer Game Fest.

Atomfall Is The British Version Of Fallout

Atomfall doesn’t go for the idyllic tweeisms of the British countryside. Instead, it channels that World War 2 ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ aesthetic that makes so much sense as a foil to Fallout.

I’m not sure that this wartime aesthetic has travelled beyond our borders, but it’s an epidemic in England. Go to London, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Cotswolds, or any other tourist hotspot in the country and you’ll be faced with that five-word slogan splayed across mugs, tea towels, cushions, t-shirts, commemorative plates, and goodness knows what else, usually accompanied by a Union Jack. Keep Calm And Buy Some Tat.

This country has a general sense of nostalgia for the ‘blitz spirit’, especially the older generation. Those that actually lived through it are nearly all gone, but I know that my grandfather refused to talk about living through the war. The generation born after, in a time of prosperity, looks back on a time they didn’t know with misplaced fondness. This, combined with the fact that we were actually at war in that time, makes the period ripe for satire.

The Atomfall trailer starts with a choir singing the classic British hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful, with that idyllic British countryside panning across the screen. Perfect. And then a robot fires a flamethrower.

We get the iconic British touchstones like bright red telephone boxes and bunting. We get the received pronunciation voiceover. We even get a cricket bat to lay out our enemies with. It’s a very clever spin on the Fallout vision of post-apocalypse, from the authentically British perspective of developer Rebellion.

Religion Plays A Major Part In Atomfall

The trailer holds countless small details that serve as a certificate of this authenticity, too. There’s a wickerman, the remnants of Britain’s pagan history, and a Norman castle to assail.

This blend of religion and retrofuturism ensures Atomfall has a unique approach to the post-apocalypse. It seems that pagan rituals may have caused the apocalypse, rather than Fallout’s nuclear bombs, and as you venture underground you seem to uncover the source of the issue.

This is where we get blue-tinged zombie-esque creatures, sacrifices strapped to strange, symbolic altars, and a fantastical element to proceedings. White America has no such mythos to draw from, and Fallout (rightfully) steers clear of misappropriating Native American mythology for its creatures and stories in favour of the irradiated monstrosity angle.

The religious undertones tie back into the hymn that Atomfall’s trailer began and ended with. It’s a clever twist which not only works aesthetically but has deep reverberations within the game’s narrative as well. If Atomfall is the British version of Fallout, I can’t wait.

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