Try to imagine a western studio making Stalker. Even if they were to attempt a 1:1 conversion and followed the basic design principles as closely as possible, the cultural beliefs of the development team would seep into the bones. ATOM is Fallout, and yet not Fallout. The eastern European flavour doesn't merely amount to an occasional cultural reference, but also manifests in survival elements (it's a Russian thing), and unsanitized writing that opens up roleplaying opportunities most modern western RPG developers would balk at.
ATOM cannot eclipse Fallout, but it's distinct enough to avoid being labelled a lesser copy that makes you wish you were playing Fallout instead.
I'm convinced that the authors of Atom RPG are Fallout 1 / Fallout 2 super fans or they reverse engineered the games; I'm saying it as a compliment, I'm a big fan of both Fallout games and have to say I'm super impressed with the Russian counterpart. Almost every single aspect feels like playing good old Fallout, to name the few: the keyboard shortcuts, inventory mechanism, turn based fighting, progressing through towns and maps, skills, random events, gaining companions, little screen in the bottom left corner of the game window which informs of what's happening in the game using one line description, and even some sound effects are near identical.
If you are a fan of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 you will enjoy Atom RPG. Having said that, I would prefer if there were a bit more high tech stuff in the game and perhaps the game was based in a bit further future.
Great game otherwise, a real successor to real Fallout concept.
If you enjoyed Fallout - definitely grab this piece! If you like RPG games and want to go postapocalyptic.. Here you go. And don't forget the Trudograd DLC when you finish base game ;)
So really ,the game is trying to recreate the glory of older games like Fallout, as many people have mentioned. Problem is they didn't really accomplish their goal. It's kind of somewhere between a roguelike and an RPG. In the early game it's frustrating because you kinda suck, as you do at 2nd or 3rd level. Then you get jumped by 6 bandits. Time to reload. This time you gt jumped by 5 dudes burning books. Time to reload. This time you get to fight 2 rats. Ok, you can make it a little further into the wilderness. On the one hand, I like the inconsistency, on the other I do not.
Take the bunker where you need to go gor your mission. Full of rats and ants, so a low level dungeon. Sure, but the only way in as a lower level toon is to talk to these 3 yokels who will absolutely murder you when you come out. Unless you give them all your stuff and you're back at square 1 again. So then go back at a higher level for a less satisfying but ultimately survivable experience. At least one clue was changed from the Russian to the English version of the game from a logic puzzle to something no one will ever guess or understand unless they look it up online. The game is full of inconsistencies like this.
So far as the story is concerned, if you don't like old style RPGs where you should talk to absolutely everyone to get lots of fun ,or at least colorful quests you won't like the game. There are no quest indicators or trackers, which I don't mind, but lots of people will be disappointed. There is a lot to see and do in the game and there is a lot of cool story, you just gotta survive long enough to get some armor and decent weapons to get to it. Frustrating in the beginning, grindy in the middle... haven't gotten to the end yet. If you are persistent and don't mind dying a lot, it can be a fun game, if not... well, prepare to be disappointed
Are you a fan of both Fallout/Wasteland, and/or STALKER, turnbased CRPGS and/or post apocalyptic games in general? Then this is the game for you!
Combat wise, it's not too different from Fallout, although you can't directly control party members, but in this you can issue vague orders to them, like be defensive, aggressive, avoid enemies, when to heal, focus on a target, etc (holding left click on them while in combat)
The companion AI is dumber than dogs*** most of the time, your dudes will die more often than you do in a lot of cases, even if you give them the appropriate tactical advice. Speaking of dogs***, I can not count the number of times I had to quickload from the dog companion dying, because apparently everyone in the wasteland *really* hates dogs.
Speaking of quickloads, in the famous words of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, "Bind quicksave and quickload to the left and right mouse buttons". This game is kind of hard. Certainly harder than Fallout 1/2 or Wasteland 2/3. You will be quicksaving and quickloading. A lot. Even on normal. The small blessing is that you can quicksave in combat, and them RNGs will reroll, thankfully.
There isn't a ton of companions... there are only 6, I ended up getting 3. I *would* have gotten a 4th, and had a full party, but of course the dude was locked behind a Personality (6) stat check. One of the companions are obscure to hire, and ends all other quests if you hire them, and the last one won't fight in battle, just a pack mule. So, better get that personality stat up to snuff if you want a full party.
Unlike Wasteland 2, this game is actually fairly optimized, and doesn't run like dogs***.
If you prefer a squad/turn based PA CRPG where you can fully control your party members, than I recommend Wasteland 2/3 or Fallout Tactics over this. If you don't mind not being able to control your companions directly, then still give this a shot, it's good when it's not being slightly unforgiving somewhat poorly balanced nonsense.
