He is not Fallout to you. ATOM RPG review

Black Isle – This is a legendary company, no more, the team that stood behind the origins of that universe that influenced the entire genre RPG and inspired many developers to create their own followers, and this project was Fallout. And when on December 8, 2003 the studio closed, and with it, all the developments were canceled with it to create a sequel under the auspices of the already beloved team. And what happened in the future, under the leadership of the new copyright holder, pleased far from all gamers, despite the loud exclamations of critics. After all, if the war never changes, then Fallout It was not recognized.

And suddenly in 2017, according to a model of early access, he came out Atom RPG, developed by the team “Atom Team”, The backbone of which came from the CIS, because of which, during the development, the project was called “Our Fallout”. And yes, the game borrowed a lot from the dilogy, be it both positive points and disadvantages, releasing in 2018 our Fallout, When yourself Fallout Already 20 years. The game imitates Oldskul, without introducing some extravagant ideas to his own project, submitting classics in his own performance. But whether the game spoils the “old -school” that is inherent in Atom RPG, We will try to figure it out.

From the apprentice to the blacksmiths

The idea of ​​creating the ideological successor of Fallout was ripe in the heads, at that time of future developers, after cancellation Fallout Van Buren. And already at that time the concept itself, the idea and general understanding of the project atom was formed. The team was going to recreate their own ideas back in 2008, the idea is still the same, thought out CRPG In the Soviet post -core setting, inspired by classic CRPG, But starting, first of all from the mechanic of the first two parts of Fallout. But due to inexperience, the team decides to freeze the project before “Best days”, Soon, having finalized the concept, to start creating a project with knowledge of your business.

After which the team spread out where, whose backbone managed to work on World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, and also “The adventures of Sherlock Holmes “. Not to say that these are those projects that helped developers to imbue the creation of role systems and write the script, but without a doubt gave experience in working with engines and other specializations of the technical part.

And finally in 2015, the re -formation of the team began, which included former colleagues, hired freelancers, or those who realized that without their help, developers can not do.

I got to the project thanks to a pure chance, I saw a review on the atom, downloaded Kickstarter Demo, and I was hooked. I contacted the team and offered my help in development. They agreed in an instant.It turns out that the team has long been looking for an animator, but this is such a rare and capricious beast in the expanses of Gamdev that it is quite difficult to find a quality specialist. At first, we were a little woven, I looked around and realized that all animations were collected on asses from stores, free and not very. I had to strain and raise the entire combat system from scratch. In addition, add characters’ lives, process monsters, animals and other inhabitants of the post -Soviet wasteland.

Before expanding the full -scale development, the team created a prototype of the game on its own engine, but whose implementation, unfortunately, did not work out for technical reasons. The project was left without an engine, but the developers were not in long wanderings in the search for the very one, and immediately stopped at Unity 5, Considering the engine with the most optimal option for the reconstruction of the post -Soviet wasteland.

We finally were able to completely give ourselves to the development of the game, forgetting that we need to constantly modify the engine. Moreover, Unity helped us accelerate the work. We walked along the path of least resistance – since we took Unity, we will use its technology glass. This turned out to be the right decision, because as the experience showed, the pile of “its” engines over the Unity is an extra layer that also needs to be supported. If you sit well and think, it turns out that Unity has everything you need to implement game tasks. So the mistake of novice unity programmers is that they are initially aggressively tuned to the engine-technologies of the engine, and this leads to superfluous, and sometimes to fatal overhead consumptions.

And after the launch of the crowdfunding company on Kickstarter, Having collected the amount of $ 33,000, exceeding 2 times the initial requests of the team ($ 15,000). The developers decided to bring new features to the project, such as: their own base, craft, and most interestingly, attitude towards the player on the basis of gender.

And in 2017, the public presented early access Atom RPG, in which one of the 3 locations were available to players, which over time filled with content. The team actively caught the feedback from the audience, thereby making adjustments to the problems that the community indicated to them. Over time, bugs came to naught, and those who remained did not represent any catastrophic problems for the enthusiastic player. And already in 2018 year The project saw the light, receiving The title of “Folk Fallout” At least it was not quite so … The game gathered the love of gamers around the world, and our players finally saw the ideological successor of Fallout, in our native setting for us.

Bombs fell, nothing has changed

You are an agent of a secret organization Atom, so secret that in common people from formidable power, turned into bikes. And you are a newly made cadet of the organization, sent to a super -secret task to search for the missing expedition of General Morozov. And after a brief briefing, you are sent to the wasteland, equipping everything necessary. And as soon as the character arranges the first night on the wastelands, putting a tent and removing the equipment, the local fraquers will not get a gop that you are used to taking what, in their opinion, lies incorrectly. And after a short dialogue, you will wake up in the same place with a ringing pain in your head, and only the devastated flask will expect from things, and the understanding that the adventure begins. From this moment, your path will lie through the nearest village under the name “Otradnoy”, in which you will slowly become on your feet, getting out with a simple equipment, collecting fly agaric “here is behind the fence”, fulfilling the instructions of the chairman of Kovalev, and quietly preparing for survival in the harsh Dan, wastelands.

If you compare the surroundings with the series Stalker, which the team was still inspired, then you can see that bombs in the world Atom RPG, inflicted much more damage than a double explosion of an nuclear power plant in the universe Stalker. Therefore, many dwellings are built of iron sheets and slate, and those houses that have survived do not look like a strong living structure. But in the game, all the usual high -rise buildings and huts, trading zil or a penny spanned for spare parts are still found.

The characters are probably one of https://coldcascasino.co.uk the most remarkable aspects of the project, which seem to be such acquaintances as if he went to his own courtyard to talk with his neighbors behind a glass of Kvass. A familiar jargon was satisfied, grannies behind the counter that it is not a fact that they will give a discount even with a priority in a pumped communication, the corrupt police of the Red Banner and Simple Celes, some of which impersonate former citizens USSR, With the same mentality and habits that in the pre -war time.

But the world of harsh wasteland would not be harsh without what happened, new civilizations arise on the ashes of old civilizations, and, as always, pests appear, some of which terrorize the local population, or crush the already created structures from the principle “There is a larger fish for each fish”. In general, everyone survives as they can, someone by a violent way is trying to secure the future at the expense of others, while others build what was buried under a layer of radioactive ash. And what pleases, the game does not lead the handle, guided by the principles of morality, or other personal considerations, offers the player to himself.

Fallout combat system, what it is

The combat system is one of the main aspects in any RPG where there are battles. And in short, then this is a phalaut. But if you generalize, then the breaks of both positive aspects and disadvantages follow here. Crutches, scarce interactiveness of the environment, and wretched AI, all that was famous for the fighting of the original Fallout on the spot. But the fact is that the last part of Fallout was released in 1998, and Atom RPG was released in 2018. The battles work according to the same principle of duel, especially in random meetings, where opponents are most likely to go first, and if the player has a team, due to the lack of layout of the troops before the battle, they are without a bunch of consumables and shoot machine guns, and glistens Save Load. Okay, not even focusing on this, there are plenty of problems due to the variety of battles. The battles in the game are not bad, and I personally liked it, but the problems that are described above and the absence of elementary shelters reduce the tactics to naught.

And as for the partners, it is difficult not to express myself with abuse, because I have not met such AI for a long time. Where when disclosure with a partner of the question “Fire in your own”, He will still swear in the back, even if there is an ally bypass, and sometimes he will be enough to start loading the last conservation. AI bugs even when giving elementary decrees, such as holding the point where the ally will put down as outside himself, and as a result, the whole plan will fly to the famous place. A logical option for solving the problem I see the transfer of allies under the management of the player, which would solve many problems of mechanics.
But before drawing conclusions that partners are not needed, and you can cope in the solo by taking talent “Lone wolf”, then this is not so. After all, every partner is a person with whom it is pleasant to conduct a dialogue and hear his own opinion on the solution of certain problems, thereby forming a team around him, which will not be indifferent to you, even despite the player’s cage, one of the team members, one of the members.

Systematics of the combat system

Atom RPG Even the most ordinary player in terms of the diversity of builds will surprise, yes, the game does not have such types of weapons as laser, energy weapons as in the Fallout dilogy, because of the setting, they are given other alternatives of firearms, the variety of which will not leave the player indifferently.

Types of weapons are divided into:

But, as in any step-by-step combat system, the player will be persecuted by all kinds of entry percentage, which directly depend on pumped skills and on the values ​​of the characteristics, if the machine gun requires 7 strength, and you only have 5, then the probability of hits will decrease significantly, and from potential 80%, 50%will remain 50%. You can correct this only by biting the skills necessary for your class, if you have the same machine gun, then with the improvement of the “automatic” skill will increase the chance of getting, and with the most pumped indicators, will increase your indicator by 95% and higher (Max. 99%).

But not little attention was paid to fans of Mordoboy, the use of all kinds of devices for hand -to -hand combat and the use of cold weapons, which are also represented in the form of perks.

Role system

Like the rest of the elements of the mechanics that were borrowed from the original parts of Fallout, similarly to the role system. The changes affected only the perks and characteristic talents by virtue of the setting. Everything is the same, when creating a character, the player once distributes characteristics without the prospect of improving in the future by obtaining a new level. Having decided on specialization, put skills in the profiles. But from the whole variety of skills, I personally want to distinguish the communication perk, and the advice will be to pump this skill to at least level 100, because the game will often have to solve problems, and communication will facilitate this problem many times, because even in the world in which the principles of morality have long disappeared, not power is still important, but the ability to find a common language with people.

To the talents, they are called features here, it is also worth paying attention to starting from the specialization that you have chosen. If you are a pacifist, That to you Obviously They will benefit Sexuality And Diplomat increasing charisma and communication to the detriment of combat skills, and if you Not alien clean snout his own opponents, then to help Anabolikov fan And Black belt increasing strength and hand -to -hand combat.

I think everyone will find something for himself in this field, but this aspect does not carry something outstanding in themselves, because everything (with the exception of a pair of talents) does not carry any gameplay chips, but only affect the indicators of characteristics.

In addition, most characteristics, sooner or later, can be useful in the dialog box, be it intimidation of the gang attacked the player (strength), The charm of a lady is not indifferent to your person (charisma), or knocking out 10% discount from a sloppy merchant (communication or barter) and t.D. But path situations also occur when when checking the skill in the dialogue, you are faced with failure. In this case, all kinds of consumables, such as meldonia, BSF-12, spirits, jambs and other consumables, are saved, which temporarily give certain buffs to characteristics, with unpleasant, but temporary consequences. Or extremely rare, but increasing characteristics (already forever) of consumables that can be found during the passage of the game.

But in addition to the mentioned role system that allows the player to flexibly play the right character and a fascinating combat system, the game also offers to dilute the existing game process by other gaming elements, both successful and not very.

Stealth

One of the aspects that is able to distract from the execution of quests and the shootout of all living things in the radius of visibility is stealth. Which works according to all the same principles, the more secrecy skill is pumped, the harder the enemy will find you. But it is difficult to call it the usual stall, there is no special button here, which transfers you from the usual state into secretive, and secrecy is just a separate item in the pumping menu. This element may come in handy Pacifists, To avoid clashes with opponents, well, as well as hacking and theft of the enemy ubiquitous from under the nose.

Theft and hacking work similarly, the higher you have the skill, the higher the probability of the success of your action. Unless it can confuse the absence of the visual probability of the outcome of your action, which sometimes drives into a certain misunderstanding of the necessary level of skill, which is of course not a catastrophic problem, but makes the process less intuitive and from that uncomfortable.

Craft

Extremely controversial, but at the same time and at the same time an extending player element. Everything is as used to, from the very beginning a small number of basic crafts are available to the player, which in the future we can expand by studying the necessary literature. But the strangest thing in the entire system is the percentage of the craft of each of the things, and how much you pumped the craft skill, with such a probability you will crawl all the necessary, which for me personally put a red cross on this feature, and depreciated it at first. Perhaps this is a subjective matter, but this moment did not seem the most successful.

Gambling and fishing

Some of the most entertaining ways to spend free time in the open spaces of the post -Soviet wasteland, both options are presented in the form of a text quest, where the outcome of both actions depends on your good luck, if the task is to take out all the casino for frequent, then you have a good luck and the perk “gambling”, and only one thing is required for fishing, it determines which fish determines which fish is heavierPlayer.

Aesthetic question

Regarding the visual component, the project looks very much, I do not mean graphics and 3D models of some objects, and the overall combination and perception of the world as a whole, the atmosphere of the post -apocalyptic USSR is conveyed amazingly, all the elements of the environment inherent in the setting remain in the place, starting from the life of the architecture, as well as the corresponding elements of the time, such as the spread out of cars and Soviet symbols.pre -war times.

As for other aspects visual design, It seems like icons of characters, which, in general, are carried out to bendlessly, whose creation procedure was not so complicated, a certain character was taken as a basis, and on the basis of a certain photograph, its own portrait was created. Therefore, it is not rare for us in the process of passage to the quenching characters where Yakubovich is trying to sell us a car! And a coward, dunce and experienced try to take away the last belongings.

But unfortunately, many of which were performed through the sleeves, lazily processing in Photoshop, laying them out on the public display with a familiar phrase “and will go away so!”. In general, there is a problem, but there is a problem, and I hope when creating the next projects if there is a decent budget, the developers will pay their attention even to such, on the one hand, a trifle, but from the little things a holistic picture is collected.

Musical accompaniment is one of the pearls of this project, granting the right mood for certain points. Inspired by a layer of old -fashioned Soviet films, inspired by the captured notes of the sound engineer, although the Soundrect’s stars, but most importantly, gives the game and guidelines, was not closing from the sky.

Quests

I applaud standing, the team managed not only to recreate a good role system on the basis of Fallout, but also to prescribe really memorable quests, most of which go through many ways, where you often have to use pumped skills, opening new moves to complete the assignment. In the game, of course, there are exceptions like “Bring 500 kg of waste paper” or generated orders for the heads Breaks. But these are just exceptions.

Also, many things you created can incur all kinds of consequences, as they say “It is good to rob caravans, and to fight off from tightly booked mercenaries is not very”

A little lyrics

In conclusion, I would like to say that Atom RPG did what some of the developers require millions of infusion, Atom Team managed to create an inexpensive, but very interesting and breathtaking spirit game. Whose visual is not amazing, but attracts, and the gameplay captivates no worse than in the old Fallout, diluting the process with its own chips and unique surroundings. Atom RPG is clearly the project that gave an impetus to the Atom Team team, and I’m sure that In the future, this team will be able to hit us Another thought -out role -playing game. Therefore, I extremely recommend the project to purchase.