ATOM RPG: Post-apocalyptic indie game

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.

If you love the original Fallout games and want to play a modern equivalent to that style of gameplay. The base story isn't so original but it still has great characters and atmosphere and good enough to keep you interested.

First the engine is Awesome, really speaks to what in my opinion Fallout 3, N.Vegas & 4 should have been. The ability to pan, angle, move and zoom your camera is great really allows for you look around your environment easily and accurately. The graphics quality is good and doesn't look like stacks of blocks or blobby. Sound is also good quality and the music selections help to add to the ambience. The "Paper Doll" of the character is lacking in the Inventory screen (but you can see your character in the world) and the Inventory Slots on the character in comparison to modern games are a little low. More then what is in the original Fallout 1 & 2 if you have played them. The crafting portion is interesting and provides a way to get better equipment without having to steal from or murder everybody you come across. Kind of gives a reason to scavenge and adds to the environment when you can create your gear from the past civilizations remains. The economy is so-so there could be some better ways to sell your gear a little more quickly and reduce the "Grindiness" of killing some bandits then hoping to come across a Caravan that actually has stuff worth trading for or money. The Story, characters and your effect in the world as you play is really limited, you gain very little connection to the world as you adventure, the mission seems a little run of the mill and questionable. The characters you come across are very plain and uninspiring, I had no real desire to interact with them except that is what your supposed to do in the game and you want to sell stuff. Helping them or hurting them doesn't really matter in the process of the game. The combat is really one-sided in the beginning so you or you companion if you do pick one up will die over and over. Which isn't always bad just tedious right in the beginning of the game, especially due to a power imbalance versus superior tactics. Overall it worth the buy to encourage more, but it is middle of the road.

So a lot has happened in the world of post apocalyptic role playing games. Now we have multiplayer and looter shooter Fallout, well to each his own. If you are a fan of the classic Fallout 1 and 2 formula this is definetely for you. There's also some of the mysticism and weirdness you could see in games like Stalker. On the bad side there's a lot of long unnecessary dialogue and jokes that don't connect (some might be due to bad translation). All in all it's a highly enjoyable experience and definetely worth the price, plus the developer keeps the game up to date with Patches and Expansions.

To repeat what others wrote before- if you liked Fallout 1 & 2, then this game is for you. In this case, you won't need much of an introduction or tutorial either- just get out into the wastes ;) For anyone else- the 2D isometric view is made quite well, you can zoom in, rotate and shift. Nothing to ask for. Musik and sound are so far okay, story and delivery are about 3 hours dep into the game (just started- if anything changes significantly i'll update) somewhat better then "some other game". But, that's just my opinion. I just like it.