I want to like it because it does incredibly well on resource management and it makes you feel like an adventurer learning more about how to survive as one. Wearing cloaks to protect armor from rain, keeping a spare weapon in case your main weapon gets damaged or disarmed, keeping spellbooks and scrolls protected, it does all this really well. Unfortunately it's a exercise in frustration. So many times you die you had no way to stop it without knowing ahead of time, or not getting the required gear even if you did. Nothing is explained, so if you cast a lightning bolt and dont play dnd you dont know it bounces off walls back to you, dont know a rust monster destroys your precious sword (Unless its made of something nice). Using a guide is basically required and then you'll probably still die anyway. Im fine with experimentation but this is a game about resource management. I dont wanna waste all my gear trying stuff out and hoping it works out. Ive read a lot about people playing this for over a decade and not beating it, I cant rationalize that kind of gameplay. Shops are random unless they're themed and then it only spawns those types of items. If I have a torch but no flint and steel along with some tinder im not exploring the dark part of a dungeon, and no one will lend me one. Those cloaks for the rain? Better run into the horrible dungeon and hope to find one. Everyone talks about how great the lore is and im sure its fine but the world itself is bland. there's really not a lot going on with the overworld, everything is in the background of your adventure while you pitter patter over all the corpses of your last character. Its fine if you have time to kill but dont expect a grand adventure, honestly I think it'd be better to just remove all the fat and throw you into the Cave of Chaos from the start and just let you explore it and go from there. Everything else feels tacked on. Hard to recommend
I couldn't like this game. The mystery of the cryo pod wasn't enough to keep me enthralled. The game is pretty brutal in every aspect, from combat, where you might manage to win but you'll get cut and bruised and (While realistic), just discourages engaging in combat at all because youll bleed to death or lose valuable items because you ran. If you arent lucky you wont find enough clothing to stay warm before you freeze to death. You have one day to hopefully cover yourself. There's nothing here that really POPS and grabs your attention to hook you in and make you think "I gotta try again, I gotta have answers for those questions." It's difficult so you'll constantly be reloading and remaking your preferred character over and over again. In my personal opinion this is one of those times where too much realism has been detrimental to the gameplay. You'll either love it or hate it, go play the demo first either way.
After all of the hype about this being a Russian Fallout 3, I was dissapointed. People seem to misunderstand what makes Fallout so amazing, the deep net of dialogue to flesh out a character and make their adventure their own, and the ability to play the game however you want and more than likely succeed if you do it smart. ATOM RPG focuses HEAVILY on combat, to the point that I don't think you can do a no-kill run like in Fallout 1 and 2. Despite playing a combat heavy character, Fidel as a companion with both of us kitted out in good gear, we routinely got destroyed by enemies on the lower level parts of the world. You will routinely be outmatched and outgunned to the point of being unfair even on low level quests. You will fight multiple enemies that can inflict 20+ damage a turn while you inflict 3-9 with your rusty pistol. It amazed me to find I was playing the game on easy. I dont think a game with constant save-scumming is a very good RPG. Buy it if you like the game over screens.
This game does a lot of stuff right, the setting, the lore, the interface. It feels good to play once you get the controls down. My biggest problem with the game is the lack of direction at times, exploring feels good but when you want to get a quest done and the only help the game offers is the repeated dialogue from the NPC asking for help it can be infuriating trying to find where you need to be. This problem is so pervasive that even the online walkthroughs rarely tell you exactly where to be. Another big problem this game has are the puzzles, theyre almost like old point and click adventure puzzles but on a 3D plane. It can really ruin your mood once you finally google it and realize you needed something from an unrelated room, hidden under something you never had a reason to move. Overall I have a love/hate relationship with the game. I'm going to finish it to see it through because it's a good dungeon crawler when it wants to be but if I were thinking about buying it i'd just save the money and watch a Let's Play before making the final decision.
