Atom RPG
The term that comes to mind to describe Atom RPG is "old school." It's a game very much in the vein of the first two Fallouts. Sure, it takes place in a Soviet post-nuclear wasteland, but it shares the isometric view and many of the design elements from that era. That includes things like being able to make a character build that is severely disadvantaged without really trying and grinding a lot for XP, money, and possible gear. It's easy to be a few hours into the game before finding a half-decent firearm and enough ammunition to use it, which makes dumping starting points toward that end questionable. Some encounters can be brutally hard or trivial depending on when you trigger them. Moving around the map feels slow to the point of frustrating at times. There's a lot of text to read.
A lot of those remarks are criticisms, but it's not a bad game overall. It's reasonably engaging and the story has a few twists that are at least somewhat unique. There's the opportunity to rebuild a settlement (though it appears I didn't pursue that fully and got to it a little late) and you can play a part in politics of a few towns. Mostly, it just changes what happens in the epilogue.
Overall, not a bad purchase if you like those types of games, but it's not revolutionary.
Spoilers
Being part of the secretive and well-equipped "ATOM" organization, the PC is sent out to track down a missing squad. Then there's a mugging and loss of all starting equipment. Woo! So, you get to run errands, make money, and investigate. It turns out the missing group was tangled up with a cult that is connected with a pre-war project. You discover the result of this project is sort of a sentient, telepathic fungus colony that's scattered between multiple bunkers. There's evidence that this thing is benevolent, at least in intent, but it's still creepy to meet the first group of missing ATOM agents all will glowing green eyes and giving voice to this mushroom-entity. It asks to be allowed to be transported to the cult base for reasons it senses are important, but it cannot explain. That had me interested enough to let it go from two different sites, bringing the pieces together.
And at the end, you come face-to-(sorta)face with this thing speaking through the leader of the missing squad. It explains that an asteroid was found to be on collision course with Earth (exactly how, given the state of current tech and the 30-130 year impact timeframe is suspect, but whatever). It decided humanity's only chance of survival is to join its hivemind, as without that unity, civilization won't advance enough to do anything about the killer space object in time. So it sets up the final moral choice - support the infection/unification by spreading spores or fight the fungus.
Assuming the forecasted asteroid impact really is a given, that actually makes for a sort of interesting choice. Objectively, I could say a lot of that information is suspect, given its coming from something with a distinct agenda. Taking it at face value, though, it's an extreme version of weighing independence versus security that provokes a little more thought than I expected.
Whichever way you go, though, the epilogue only tells what happens to certain people and places in the near future without addressing the final fate of humanity, so it's hard to say either way is "right."
A lot of those remarks are criticisms, but it's not a bad game overall. It's reasonably engaging and the story has a few twists that are at least somewhat unique. There's the opportunity to rebuild a settlement (though it appears I didn't pursue that fully and got to it a little late) and you can play a part in politics of a few towns. Mostly, it just changes what happens in the epilogue.
Overall, not a bad purchase if you like those types of games, but it's not revolutionary.
Spoilers
Being part of the secretive and well-equipped "ATOM" organization, the PC is sent out to track down a missing squad. Then there's a mugging and loss of all starting equipment. Woo! So, you get to run errands, make money, and investigate. It turns out the missing group was tangled up with a cult that is connected with a pre-war project. You discover the result of this project is sort of a sentient, telepathic fungus colony that's scattered between multiple bunkers. There's evidence that this thing is benevolent, at least in intent, but it's still creepy to meet the first group of missing ATOM agents all will glowing green eyes and giving voice to this mushroom-entity. It asks to be allowed to be transported to the cult base for reasons it senses are important, but it cannot explain. That had me interested enough to let it go from two different sites, bringing the pieces together.
And at the end, you come face-to-(sorta)face with this thing speaking through the leader of the missing squad. It explains that an asteroid was found to be on collision course with Earth (exactly how, given the state of current tech and the 30-130 year impact timeframe is suspect, but whatever). It decided humanity's only chance of survival is to join its hivemind, as without that unity, civilization won't advance enough to do anything about the killer space object in time. So it sets up the final moral choice - support the infection/unification by spreading spores or fight the fungus.
Assuming the forecasted asteroid impact really is a given, that actually makes for a sort of interesting choice. Objectively, I could say a lot of that information is suspect, given its coming from something with a distinct agenda. Taking it at face value, though, it's an extreme version of weighing independence versus security that provokes a little more thought than I expected.
Whichever way you go, though, the epilogue only tells what happens to certain people and places in the near future without addressing the final fate of humanity, so it's hard to say either way is "right."
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