How's the game?

[Thatguy]

To anyone who's got early access to it, how is it?

[Ki11s0n3]

Originally posted by Lv1 Magikarp:

Originally posted by Ki11s0n3:

I don't expect it to hold my hand but I do expect them to give more objective direction then just find the interchange. So far the world is super bland, The story telling/world building isn't great and the combat is lackluster. It's an interesting premise, but for the couple hours I've played it feels like they could have done a whole lot better.

I also don't care for how super limited your inventory space is. Nothing makes a game more annoying than having super small inventory space where you pack is full after picking up 5 items. Especially for a game that wants you to pick up loot.

I'm hoping it gets better, but for the first couple of hours I'm not super impressed.

You need to explore more, i've found all sorts of places to go just in the first area from finding notes about certain locations etc which get circled on your map.

Agree about the backpack though, could be better.

I do explore, but exploring doesn't fix a lot of the issues.

[Ki11s0n3]

Originally posted by archonsod:

Originally posted by Ki11s0n3:

They basically throw you into a world with nothing expecting you to figure it out and to try and survive enemies with perfect aim and can spot you from a mile away even while you crouch and hide.

I've yet to see any enemy exhibit perfect aim, in fact I've seen them blow themselves up with grenades/molotovs on a couple of occasions. Nor do they spot you from a mile away, unless you're trespassing or you approach them in most cases if they do notice you they'll just shout at you to clear off. Unless you point a gun at them, in which case they'll clear off.
Stealth is odd. Crouching only works to an extent unless you're in long grass and get the 'hidden' status, at which point it's almost godlike - I've had enemies bump into me while hidden and only the enemy who bumped me was aware I was there - their friends in fact cheerfully went about their business as normal while I beat the alert enemy to death, after which their friends would occasionally shout about finding a corpse.

Not for me. I've been shot at through walls and alert enemies while crouched peeking out of a door hundreds of feet away. It's not every enemy, but it's happened enough to be annoying.

[Papy]

What's great about this game is the quests, which are completely undirected. There are no markers, and you have to figure out what to do and where to go on your own. Hence the importance of reading the documents carefully and talking to the various NPCs found throughout the game world, which makes exploration so rewarding and essential. As you progress, you discover clues that will help you complete the various quests. And what a pleasure it is to explore the world of AtomFall, given the level of art work that has been put into it; the setting tells its story, and it's so well written.
The loot is quite plentiful even on the maximum difficulty level, but you're still limited given the size of your backpack; making choices is essential. The hand-to-hand and gunfights are satisfying. There's a good feeling. A nice surprise.

[Lv1 Magikarp]

Originally posted by Ki11s0n3:

Originally posted by Lv1 Magikarp:

You need to explore more, i've found all sorts of places to go just in the first area from finding notes about certain locations etc which get circled on your map.

Agree about the backpack though, could be better.

I do explore, but exploring doesn't fix a lot of the issues.

Sounds like these games aren't your cup of tea then.
(Pun not intended)

Originally posted by Papy:

What's great about this game is the quests, which are completely undirected. There are no markers, and you have to figure out what to do and where to go on your own. Hence the importance of reading the documents carefully and talking to the various NPCs found throughout the game world, which makes exploration so rewarding and essential. As you progress, you discover clues that will help you complete the various quests. And what a pleasure it is to explore the world of AtomFall, given the level of art work that has been put into it; the setting tells its story, and it's so well written.
The loot is quite plentiful even on the maximum difficulty level, but you're still limited given the size of your backpack; making choices is essential. The hand-to-hand and gunfights are satisfying. There's a good feeling. A nice surprise.

Exactly.

[Ki11s0n3]

Originally posted by Lv1 Magikarp:

Originally posted by Ki11s0n3:

I do explore, but exploring doesn't fix a lot of the issues.

Sounds like these games aren't your cup of tea then.
(Pun not intended)

Originally posted by Papy:

What's great about this game is the quests, which are completely undirected. There are no markers, and you have to figure out what to do and where to go on your own. Hence the importance of reading the documents carefully and talking to the various NPCs found throughout the game world, which makes exploration so rewarding and essential. As you progress, you discover clues that will help you complete the various quests. And what a pleasure it is to explore the world of AtomFall, given the level of art work that has been put into it; the setting tells its story, and it's so well written.
The loot is quite plentiful even on the maximum difficulty level, but you're still limited given the size of your backpack; making choices is essential. The hand-to-hand and gunfights are satisfying. There's a good feeling. A nice surprise.

Exactly.

The genre is fine. The problem is the game and I'm not the only one saying so. The Combat is lackluster, the exploration and story telling isn't great and the world is just bland. It's not a bad game, but it is pretty mediocre.

I still plan on maybe finishing the game at least once, but I don't plan on multiple playthroughs like the game seems to want you to do.

The game just tries to be like so many games that it just doesn't do any one thing that well. It's a good premise and wouldn't be opposed to them trying again in the same universe, but for this title they tried to be like everyone else that they didn't make their own mark on the genre.

I just hope the game gets better as it goes on.

[Tommy]

This is just my personal opinion. Some of my negatives might sound like nitpicking but again this is just my view having played and loved many games like this.

Good
• Beautiful game
• Intruging story
• The option for mostly unguided quests and story progression
• Sound design is so far great. You can hear the sounds of the countryside all around you and almost feel the footsteps as you walk.
• An interesting take on a stamina system. The heart rate monitor instead of a stamina bar is a much more realistic expression of stamina.
• Lots of dialog freedom. Most NPC interactions offer you the choice of being decent to neutral to downright dastardly. You can even attack people instead of talking to them.
•Small point here but I LOVE how pressing reload with a loaded weapon plays an animation where we check the weapon for a bullet instead of it doing nothing. It's a cool design choice.

Bad
• Movement feels slow and sluggish. As if you are walking around with weights strapped to your arms and legs. It's less Dying Light and more Resident Evil 8. In such an open world I wish movement was a lot faster and felt much smoother. You jump down from even a small height and the character stumbles foreward as if they need a moment to regain their footing. This feeling may be because I have been spoiled by Dying Light 2's amazing movement freedom.
• Melee combat is virtually non existent. What I mean by that is that for Melee combat there is only the attack buttons. 1 for a light attack and 1 for heavy attack. That's it. There is no dodging mechanic, no blocking and no combos. So the entirely of melee combat is to spam the attack button as fast as you can until the person you are fighting dies, or you do. This might be a deliberate design choice as this game feels more geared towards stealth/ranged combat. Again this might be me recently playing Dying Light and being spoiled by its amazing melee combat. But that aside this games melee combat is not great at all. It is all button mashing with no strategy.
• There is no way to heal during gameplay. This feels like a really silly oversight. But every other game I have ever played has some way to heal your character during gameplay. But for some reason in Atomfall the only way to currently heal is to soft pause the game to open the inventory/backpack screen, then select the healing item from there. This really messes with the flow of gameplay and makes healing impossible during combat. I really don't understand this choice by the developers. If they wanted to make healing realistic then they could have had there be a short animation when the healing button is pressed that shows the character kneeling down, pulling out a first aid kit then opening it to use the items within. But it seems really silly to have to leave the game temporarily just to use one of the fundamental aspects of any gameplay, which is healing. Even Call of Duty: WW2 managed this perfectly. When they did away with the infinite health bar for First Aid kits it was a single button press to request a first aid kit from a squad mate and a single button press to use it.
•Inventory Space, or more specifically the lack thereof. For a game that appears to have a heavy focus on survival, crafting and bartering it was an insane decision by the developers to give us so little inventory space. You only have room for 4 large items, such as Shotguns or long melee weapons. This INCLUDES the weapons you have equipped. Everything else goes into the same pot too. Healing items from the good to the bad all take up the same single slot. I find myself constantly going back and forth to the stash machine when I need to barter for something. You are also very limited on the amount of crafting items you can carry. Up to a maximum of 20 of each, despite the fact that some items require multiple amounts of something to craft. This tiny inventory is frustrating and punishing. After only my second hour of play I was already leaving most loot behind simply because I had no room for it.

All that being said, this is only the second game EVER that I pre-ordered and even payed for the Early Access version. So based on the trailers I really liked it and I really want to like it and I want it to do well. I really hope as time goes on the developers listen to the feedback from the players and refine this into the amazing game that I hope it soon will be.

[rambletripe]

Originally posted by Thatguy:

Ouch... would you say it's better than stalker 2?

It's different to Stalker 2 and I think both are fine games but doing very very different things.

The game is great so far figuring out where to go (and why) without a glowing yellow arrow is refreshing. A few things I wish were a bit more robust but some of that is me getting used to the game mechanics.

Still undecided on the backpack size. It really forces you to stop loot-hoarding and rely on crafting on the fly.

[NinjaJellyBeaN]

Its not an open world, its follows the format of Fable 1 gives you the illusion it is
i wasn't intending on completing the game already and i took it slow fr... 10hr on the save on playtime about 20hrs maybe? the melee feels heavy slow n clunky but can work well 1v1 groups are abit more to worry about, i think gathering at the acheivments * Complete under 5hrs* tells you how quick u can complete it with like 6 different endings. Feels like a MGS GZ. felt like a demo not sure how to feel lol. overall its a decent game but for the cost id pick up on sale maybe

[Lv1 Magikarp]

Strange, i've only just gone to the village after like almost 7 hours.

[lentinant]

It is mixed bag. Execution is rough around edges, but the exploration and non-linearity are pretty good. I would recommend this to people who enjoy those aspects, and tolerate moderate amounts of jank.

[cozi]

Originally posted by NinjaJellyBeaN:

Its not an open world, its follows the format of Fable 1 gives you the illusion it is
i wasn't intending on completing the game already and i took it slow fr... 10hr on the save on playtime about 20hrs maybe? the melee feels heavy slow n clunky but can work well 1v1 groups are abit more to worry about, i think gathering at the acheivments * Complete under 5hrs* tells you how quick u can complete it with like 6 different endings. Feels like a MGS GZ. felt like a demo not sure how to feel lol. overall its a decent game but for the cost id pick up on sale maybe

wow that's short, thanks for the comment! i was just about to buy it but that seems a bit short for the price, i might just play it on gamepass instead.

[Thatguy]

Wanted to thank everyone for the info, great to see all these takes and opinions

[M19*Haunter]

Amazing game. Certainly one of the best games of this year.

[tlesnick]

I'm also enjoying it. The backpack definitely needs to be larger - a half dozen tomatoes would fill most of it up. I think it would be big enough to carry your basics for exploration, but not big enough to stash a few extra items for selling. A full backpack leads to less incentive for exploring and metal detecting. Feels weird to walk around safe areas brandishing my weapon. The game is certainly odd enough to keep my interest! I don't understand what is going on, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

[M19*Haunter]

Originally posted by tlesnick:

Feels weird to walk around safe areas brandishing my weapon.

Jeez, just press the same digit again.