While the initial impressions of Rebellion’sAtomfallsaw the title referred to as “BritishFallout,” preview coverage and hands-on experience have revealed that description not to be as accurate as initially thought. Instead,Atomfallis an action survival game built around the idea of investigation. That core pillar of its gameplay has allowed the title to take an atypical approach to quests, progression, and exploration that set it apart from similar titles. To support these investigations, Rebellion has developed a Leads system, which ultimately paves the way for the player to become a sort of post-apocalyptic detective who must carefully manage their allegiances and who they trust.
Atomfall’s Leads impact more than just alliances and character relationships, allowing Rebellion to do away with the typical quest markers and moretraditional game elementsin favor of organic investigations that deepen the title’s sense of immersion and open up multiple paths to a single goal. In a recent conversation with Game Rant, Rebellion head of design Ben Fisher spoke in detail about the Leads system, making sure to point out how it supports the team’s goal of makingAtomfall"a mystery game" that emphasizes player agency while not restricting them to one specific optimal route.
Atomfall’s Leads System and Investigative Gameplay Have Interesting Origins
Early inAtomfall’s development, Rebellion had positioned the title as a3D Metroidvania game, where players gradually unlock new equipment and abilities that allow further progression into the environment and along the game’s critical path — a mechanic known as “ability gating.” From this initial gameplay model, the team realized they could instead grant the player every tool from the outset, opening upAtomfall’s world and allowing the player agency to govern the “optimal” path through the main quest. Fisher elaborates, noting:
“We wanted to take a risk and really trust our creative pillars, so we asked the questions, “What happens if we unlock the progression and let you go anywhere? What if all the characters are optional? What if you’re able to kill anyone? What if there are no quests at all?” Answering these questions resulted in the “leads” system you see now, and the sense of nonlinear freedom that seems to naturally, organically, drive you toward the Windscale plant.”
Fisher also remarked that the team “really felt we crackedAtomfallwhen we started to establish the investigative style of play,” and that thelast year ofAtomfall’s developmenthas primarily been focused on “trying to find the sweet spot where the player has just enough to go on while staying engaged with the observation/planning/deduction aspects of the game.”
How the Leads System Governs Atomfall’s Moment-to-Moment Gameplay and Progression
Contrary to most games featuring some variation of quest markers or objectives to help guide the player along the critical path,Atomfallleans heavily on the Leads system, doing away with most of those more traditional elements. Fisher goes into more detail describing the Leads system:
Atomfall has Leads instead of traditional quests or missions. Leads can be picked up through conversations or finding letters and items within the quarantine zone. Discovering a new Lead will give you hints on where to go next, but they are essentially puzzles that you will need to piece together yourself. You never know where a Lead will take you, or if you are being sent in the right direction as your sources of information may have competing interests
Ultimately, the Leads system emphasizesAtomfall’s investigative approachto gameplay. Fisher revealed that the team at Rebellion “took this approach because we wanted the player to stay engaged with the ‘observation’ aspect of gameplay” along with “emphasizing the importance of freedom through exploration.”
