The writing in the first Atom is already really good, which I can't believe I'm actually saying about a slav game. Usually slavjank has a god fucking awful story and writing, and most often is translated into broken English which only serves to drop the tier of the writing even further from "bad fanfic" to "basically incomprehensible". This is not the case with Atom. There are some typos in the English version here and there, so I would expect there to be in the Spanish version as well, but the writing is so good you can easily ignore it. From what I have come to understand through my years of gaming, the Ruskies have the ability to make some truly, truly godawful jank. Anyone who has ever played a slavjank "boomer shooter" knows exactly what I'm talking about.
However, goddamn can those Ivan's make a good cRPG. Fallout Nevada, Fallout 1.5, et cetera, et cetera. It is the one genre in which I believe they truly excel. The Russians truly are video game savants - they do every other genre horribly but whenever they decide to do cRPGs suddenly they become galaxy brain game developers.
Atom however, is a goddamn mastercraft. It goes above and beyond just being a good cRPG in my opinion. Of all the games that claim in their marketing material to be "influenced by the original Fallout" or "a spiritual successor to Fallout", Atom is the ONLY game that I have ever played that has actually lived up to this boast. It is up there in quality with the likes of the very first STALKER. No, it's better than STALKER (clarification: from an RPG perspective). I would even dare going as far as to say Atom is just as good as the first Fallout.
You know how you can tell when a game developer is extremely passionate about the game their making? I can't point out how because it's one of those things that doesn't translate into words correctly, but you when you play a game you can just tell. You can feel the atmosphere almost bleed out of the game and into reality itself, the game reaches out to you and effects you on a profound personal level. Everything is handcrafted lovingly to as close as the developer could get to perfection - and there is usually that one moment, that one location in the game that you just stop and come to a realization that the creator(s) poured their heart into this product. So much so that it transcends being a game itself and becomes a piece of artwork, a way for the player to connect with the developer in a very special way, despite being half a world or more apart from them and from an entirely different culture that doesn't even speak the same language. It somehow finds and surfaces that basic human ability to have a connection with each other, a moment in time no matter how brief where there is a mutual understanding of each other on a personal level, an unexplainable bond that forms between two people who don't even know each other. They say music is the universal language. Well, I've come to find video games can evoke that same feeling, that same connection between creator and player. Not to sound ridiculous here, but it's a magical experience when it happens - as rare as it is.
Well, for me at least, Atom was one of those games.
It's not like they save the good writing for the main quest, and just fill everything else up with filler like other old school RPGs (Morrowind). The writing is universally good across the board. Yes, you will find typos and weird colloquialisms that didn't quite translate over correctly because there are certain nuances of the Russian language that may not exist in English/Spanish/etc, but as I said earlier the writing will be good enough that you can easily look past this.
I remember the first time I got the "Skin Worm" encounter. It's a very simple random encounter that you can get when you're running around on the world map near Otradnoye, the first village of the game and what will always be your first stop (basically Atom's Shady Sands). I won't go into spoilers, but it's a very simple encounter, three men on the side of the road who are having a dilemma in which you can choose to help solve. I save scummed just so I could get every possible line of dialogue out of that encounter, and when I was finished with it, walked away with a major appreciation for the game's writing and worldbuilding/fluff. And that was just one random encounter.
Anyway, if you're a fan of the original Fallout - which, what the fuck are you doing here if not - then I firmly believe Atom isn't just a great time, I feel it's mandatory gaming for cRPG aficionados - just like the original Blood and Shadow Warrior should be mandatory games to play at least once for those who love boomer shooters.
TL;DR - I don't think I could give this game any higher praise. I never really like giving out 10's because I think the standard rating system has been abused to badly by game critics that high scores are basically meaningless, with them willing to give a mediocre shitpile of a Ubisoft open world game an 8, but this game is without a doubt a 10/10. Play it. Also, buy it if you can, don't pirate it. Support the devs, they're probably not having the easiest time right now, what with everything going on over in Russia and the Ukraine.
However, goddamn can those Ivan's make a good cRPG. Fallout Nevada, Fallout 1.5, et cetera, et cetera. It is the one genre in which I believe they truly excel. The Russians truly are video game savants - they do every other genre horribly but whenever they decide to do cRPGs suddenly they become galaxy brain game developers.
Atom however, is a goddamn mastercraft. It goes above and beyond just being a good cRPG in my opinion. Of all the games that claim in their marketing material to be "influenced by the original Fallout" or "a spiritual successor to Fallout", Atom is the ONLY game that I have ever played that has actually lived up to this boast. It is up there in quality with the likes of the very first STALKER. No, it's better than STALKER (clarification: from an RPG perspective). I would even dare going as far as to say Atom is just as good as the first Fallout.
You know how you can tell when a game developer is extremely passionate about the game their making? I can't point out how because it's one of those things that doesn't translate into words correctly, but you when you play a game you can just tell. You can feel the atmosphere almost bleed out of the game and into reality itself, the game reaches out to you and effects you on a profound personal level. Everything is handcrafted lovingly to as close as the developer could get to perfection - and there is usually that one moment, that one location in the game that you just stop and come to a realization that the creator(s) poured their heart into this product. So much so that it transcends being a game itself and becomes a piece of artwork, a way for the player to connect with the developer in a very special way, despite being half a world or more apart from them and from an entirely different culture that doesn't even speak the same language. It somehow finds and surfaces that basic human ability to have a connection with each other, a moment in time no matter how brief where there is a mutual understanding of each other on a personal level, an unexplainable bond that forms between two people who don't even know each other. They say music is the universal language. Well, I've come to find video games can evoke that same feeling, that same connection between creator and player. Not to sound ridiculous here, but it's a magical experience when it happens - as rare as it is.
Well, for me at least, Atom was one of those games.
It's not like they save the good writing for the main quest, and just fill everything else up with filler like other old school RPGs (Morrowind). The writing is universally good across the board. Yes, you will find typos and weird colloquialisms that didn't quite translate over correctly because there are certain nuances of the Russian language that may not exist in English/Spanish/etc, but as I said earlier the writing will be good enough that you can easily look past this.
I remember the first time I got the "Skin Worm" encounter. It's a very simple random encounter that you can get when you're running around on the world map near Otradnoye, the first village of the game and what will always be your first stop (basically Atom's Shady Sands). I won't go into spoilers, but it's a very simple encounter, three men on the side of the road who are having a dilemma in which you can choose to help solve. I save scummed just so I could get every possible line of dialogue out of that encounter, and when I was finished with it, walked away with a major appreciation for the game's writing and worldbuilding/fluff. And that was just one random encounter.
Anyway, if you're a fan of the original Fallout - which, what the fuck are you doing here if not - then I firmly believe Atom isn't just a great time, I feel it's mandatory gaming for cRPG aficionados - just like the original Blood and Shadow Warrior should be mandatory games to play at least once for those who love boomer shooters.
TL;DR - I don't think I could give this game any higher praise. I never really like giving out 10's because I think the standard rating system has been abused to badly by game critics that high scores are basically meaningless, with them willing to give a mediocre shitpile of a Ubisoft open world game an 8, but this game is without a doubt a 10/10. Play it. Also, buy it if you can, don't pirate it. Support the devs, they're probably not having the easiest time right now, what with everything going on over in Russia and the Ukraine.
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