The upcoming action survival titleAtomfalltransports players to the quarantine zone, a fictionalized version of Britain’s Lake District left permanently changed in the aftermath of the Windscale disaster. Within the quarantine zone, players can gather loot, barter with NPCs, join or oppose various factions, and ultimately journey toward the Windscale facility to learn about the truth of the incident.Atomfallplayers will be accompanied by an evolving soundtrack drawing from various musical influences.
Game Rant spoke toAtomfallaudio director Graham Gatheral about the process of designing the game’s evolving soundtrack. He explained that the goal was to begin by emphasizing a sense of normality and security early in the game with a soundtrack suitable for exploring a rural English setting. As players learn ‘sunderlying mysteries, such as the truth aboutthe Windscale incidentand interact with more people and factions, the soundtrack responsively becomes stranger to emphasize their new knowledge.
Atomfall’s Soundtrack Begins With Normalcy, Then Embraces The Bizarre
“One of our key goals was to give players a sense of normality at the start of the game,” said Gatheral. He explained that the soundtrack in the early portions ofAtomfallrelies heavily on fairly conventional instruments and sounds, such as “orchestral, string-led pieces.” However, as players learn more of the game’s mysteries, the music becomes creepier and incorporates more electronic elements, drawing onAtomfall’s folk horror influencesand science fiction inspirations. Gatheral described the later-game soundtrack as such:
“As the player ventures deeper and encounters more unsettling things, we introduce experimental elements (electronic textures, unorthodox time signatures, unconventional instruments) to reflect the unfolding weirdness and heighten the sense of mystery and unease that permeates Atomfall’s world.”
Atomfallis based heavily on player choice, featuring Leads rather than traditional quests or objective markers. However, the game does feature a central mystery in the form of the true nature of the Windscale incident, what caused it, and how it affected the world. As players explore that mystery, the game’s music will evolve alongside them, further creating a sense of uneasiness and reminding them that, while some parts of the quarantine zone might feel like idyllic English countryside, something truly not normal is going on.
Music Is Used To Distinguish The Game’s Various Factions
Atomfall’squarantine zone has been cut off from the rest of the world for five years, and, as a result, various factions have developed that struggle for power and influence within the closed-off area. The amnesiac player can ally with or oppose the factions they encounter. These include the government response force Protocol, the folk-horror adjacent Druids, the British Atomic Research Division (BARD), and many more - not to mention potentially hostile creatures inspired byscience fiction stories likeDoctor Who.
The game differentiates these factions by assigning them different musical themes and letting the soundtrack change and evolve depending on who players interact with and where their loyalties ultimately lie. According to Gatheral, the factions’ musical themes reflectAtomfall’s many influencesincluding “outlaw culture and military force…cultist rituals and sci-fi futurism.”
Theworld ofAtomfallis filled with surprises. Players can enjoy a pint at the pub with some friends one moment, and delve into a tense nuclear mystery the next. The game’s soundtrack is perfectly designed to complement the juxtaposition of normal and bizarre, gradually shifting from familiar-sounding strings to more exotic instruments and electronic sounds. Whatever sort of journey players undertake in this heavily choice-based game,Atomfall’ssoundtrack will be the ideal accompaniment.
