How Sniper Elite Made Atomfall a Better Game

Originality is hard to travel by these days, particularly successful video games. Trends predominate the landscape; conscionable look astatine however galore conflict royales popped up aft the monumental popularity of PUBG and Fortnite. Digital storefronts similar Steam are flooded with lookalikes, and adjacent the biggest studios often take the information nett of remakes and remasters implicit the uncertainty of processing a brand-new franchise.

Rebellion broke that mold with Atomfall. Despite the risks of stepping into unfamiliar territory, the workplace launched a bold caller task successful a genre they'd ne'er traversed before, and it paid off.

That's not to accidental they did it alone. Atomfall stands connected the instauration built by the studio's earlier work, peculiarly the Sniper Elite series. Here, I'll delve into however Atomfall came to be, what it borrows from Rebellion's past, however it carves retired a unsocial identity, and what its aboriginal occurrence could mean for the studio's future.

Before Atomfall: The Legacy of Rebellion

It's intolerable to speech astir Rebellion Developments—the workplace down Atomfall—without mentioning Sniper Elite. Rebellion was founded successful 1992, but it wasn't until the mid-2000s that the institution genuinely deed its stride, acknowledgment successful ample portion to the occurrence of Sniper Elite and its sequels.

Rebellion has dabbled successful astir each genre you tin deliberation of, from superior subject shooters similar Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Call of Duty to licensed titles similar The Simpsons Game and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's adjacent taken connected sports games, including Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf and PDC World Championship Darts: Pro Tour. But contempt that eclectic history, Sniper Elite is wherever it struck gold—a homegrown deed that anchored Rebellion some commercially and creatively for its aboriginal endeavors.

All of this is to say: Atomfall wouldn't beryllium without the groundwork laid by those earlier titles. That goes for some the studio's fiscal quality to greenlight a caller task and the plan philosophies it has refined implicit the years. While Sniper Elite is simply a tactical World War II shooter focused connected stealth and signature X-ray termination cams, and Atomfall is a post-apocalyptic endurance crippled that emphasizes narrative, exploration, and world-building, the lineage is wide arsenic day.

What Atomfall Takes From Sniper Elite

You mightiness not announcement each the similarities close away, but starting with what's nether the hood, Atomfall owes a batch to Sniper Elite. Both games tally connected Rebellion's in-house Asura engine; a seemingly insignificant detail, yet 1 that provides captious continuity for the improvement team. This familiarity allows them to enactment faster, accommodate much easily, and afloat leverage the tools and workflows refined crossed erstwhile Rebellion projects. Atomfall also uses the aforesaid photogrammetry techniques for biology assets, a deliberate determination aimed astatine enhancing immersion and ocular fidelity.

However, the astir important happening Atomfall borrows from Sniper Elite isn't technical, it's philosophical. The squad built connected the sandbox plan principles established successful Sniper Elite and scaled it up dramatically: vast, sprawling maps, aggregate approaches to each ngo (or "leads," arsenic they're called successful Atomfall), and state to tackle objectives your way. As Rebellion's caput of design, Ben Fisher, told Game Rant, "We person taken these learnings and dialed this up a notch successful Atomfall by expanding the scope of the sandbox and offering the subordinate adjacent much bureau successful the mode they play the game."

That ethos translates into existent subordinate choice. Right from the start, you tin spell wherever you privation and bash immoderate you want. You tin implicit the full communicative of Atomfall without warring a azygous idiosyncratic oregon you tin slay everybody. Ryan Greene, creation manager astatine Rebellion, described it to GamesRadar arsenic "kind of similar 1 of those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books we work arsenic kids."

Sniper Elite offers meaningful state wrong each level; Atomfall builds an full crippled astir it.

How Atomfall Stands connected Its Own Two Feet

As a caller entry, Atomfall has people drawn comparisons to different games—not conscionable Rebellion's ain Sniper Elite, but besides heavyweights from crossed genres, including Fallout, Metro, STALKER, and even LA Noire.

And to beryllium fair, Atomfall is a layered experience, truthful overmuch truthful that adjacent Rebellion struggles to categorize it. Greene admitted, "It tin beryllium hard to wrapper your caput astir what this crippled is. There are RPG-ish elements, but it's decidedly not an RPG. Atomfall is a detective game. It’s a endurance game."

While it's casual to spot Atomfall's influences, it doesn't instrumentality agelong to recognize you're playing thing distinct. First and foremost, Atomfall leans into enigma similar fewer others. The chartless isn't conscionable retired successful the world, it begins with you.

You play arsenic a faceless figure, with nary name, age, race, oregon gender. It's up to you to portion unneurotic your story, and successful galore ways, signifier it. As you hunt for answers, you'll travel crossed the leads I mentioned earlier. These leads regenerate accepted quests and connection a level of subordinate bureau seldom seen successful games, with nary bias geared toward swaying your decision-making. Even Fallout, the crippled Atomfall gets compared to most, holds your manus more. In Atomfall, you tin opt for fundamentally zero guidance, making each solved pb consciousness similar a genuine accomplishment.

As you'd expect with a crippled similar this, determination are a multitude of antithetic endings too. There's conscionable thing linear astir Atomfall.

Why Atomfall Might Define the Studio’s Future

Regardless of wherever you basal connected Atomfall, you person to respect what Rebellion pulled off. This is simply a workplace champion known for Sniper Elite, and to a lesser extent, Zombie Army, Strange Brigade, and Evil Genius. Atomfall, by contrast, is acold removed from thing they've done before. Taking connected a task similar this was a monolithic leap of faith—one that Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley summed up perfectly to GamesIndustry.biz: "Our size and stableness mean that we tin instrumentality risks to make thing arsenic antithetic arsenic Atomfall. Happily, that hazard is paying off."

The numbers backmost him up. Atomfall has present amassed implicit 2 cardinal players (as per @AtomfallGame connected X), making it the astir palmy motorboat successful the company's 32-year history. You besides person to deliberation that overmuch of the "size and stability" Kingsley referenced stems from the occurrence of the Sniper Elite series, different reminder that Atomfall is the merchandise of everything Rebellion built earlier it.

Where Rebellion Goes From Here

Atomfall's triumph is poised to ripple crossed each of Rebellion. Kingsley has already said helium wants to proceed expanding halfway franchises like Sniper Elite, Zombie Army, and Strange Brigade, but with the by and ample affirmative reception to Atomfall, Rebellion besides plans to reward its newfound subordinate basal with adjacent much contented for the breakout hit.

Beyond expanding its existing franchises, Atomfall's strong showing mightiness beryllium conscionable the momentum Rebellion needed to particulate disconnected different long-dormant ideas. Kingsley has expressed involvement successful exploring the medieval and phantasy genres next. Whether oregon not that comes to fruition, 1 happening is clear: if it happens, it volition undoubtedly propulsion from the DNA of Atomfall—just arsenic Atomfall drew from the games that came earlier it.