ATOM RPG: Post-apocalyptic indie game

ATOM RPG's writing takes the worst parts of Fallout 2 (out-of-place references, fourth wall breaks, and "funny" dialogue) and cranks them up to 11. The game never settles on an actual tone, jumping from shlocky hijinks to having a side questline about an incestuous family, complete with dialogue about rape and castration. Neither the hijinks nor the actual attempts at serious writing are done well. As for the gameplay, it's not irredeemably horrible, but it's eclipsed by all the slime and worms that infest this game's story. I'm sure that, given enough time, ATOM team can make a good game- they just need to replace their writers with someone who's either competent enough to cook up a good narrative or someone that's actually funny, preferably both.

Fans of the CRPG genre should find some enjoyment from this game. There's a lot of reading. I gave it a 3 because of the forced 45 degree camera angle I had to use a mod to change. It does not work well with this game and no mini map. It also resets the camera every zone so I have to manually adjust it back to 15 degrees. The games stories are interesting, but while playing I sometimes felt the game could be better. The crafting system, for example, isn't as useful as I would like it to be after investing a lot of points into it. I've only used to to make ammo for my first pistol, which has been replaced. So far, level 9, it's very difficult to find toolboxes making the crafting system even less useful. One more critique *SPOILER* the dog recruit encounter is badly designed. The dog and owner both died before I could even get close enough to shoot anyone with a pistol.

So for starters, the game seems to be pretty cool. It's like FO with some extra crafting stuff and updated tech, like others have said. It could use a little more work on the storylines and dialogues, but hey, with it being an indie game... let's cut the devs/creators a break. It DOES hoever have a few bugs, one of the nastyest ones being the loadscreen art remeing overlayed, although the local/word map has loaded and stuff is till there. Quick save/loading crashes it. And, it does also crash randomply sometimes. I'm not about to quit just yet, but I do wish it had these things solved.

This game should be seen as what happens when a small team brings Fallout 2 to modern quality standards and and changes the setting to a more gritty, realistic(ish) post-Soviet setting. And in this, they succeeded very well imo. Sure there are nitpicks and ideas that didn't quite pan out or feel like dead ends. The core of the game is very solid however. The story is decent enough to keep going, the sidequests are interesting. The writing is very fitting for the setting: cynical and often curt, with a typically eastern European sense of humour. The game can be hard, especially early on. But it also rewards a player for being careful and resourceful. Violence can almost always be avoided if you want it. Given the complexity of games such as this and modern standards, I think the devs did a great job with very limited resources. I had fun playing it throughout all of my 80 hour playthrough.

Growing up during the 90's and early 2000's it is really hard for me to still be entertained by new video games. Atom RPG is a classic video in the making by every stretch of the imagination. IMO it is the best game of 2019 (or 2018?). There is just no chance anything is going to come close to how perfectly non-linear, complex, immersive and difficult this game is. Sure it doesn't have voice acting. Sure it doesn't have the most amazing graphics ever. But this was an indy game. Corners had to be cut somewhere. The graphics are good enough where you don't you feel like you're playing a dated game. I'd recommend this game even to people who don't even like the original Fallout. It's that much of an improvement in my opinion. I'd also recommend playing on Expert difficulty the first time you play it because these old style RPGs can be ruined by too liberal a use of savestates.