Atomfall was so much more than the ‘British Fallout’ everyone described it as after seeing the first trailer. It was less RPG and more survival game, featuring great stealth sections and brutal combat. I scoured every inch of the Lake District, lapping up its secrets and figuring out what actually happened at the Windscale power plant. Now, we can return to those beautiful hills to figure out the crux of another conundrum, this time involving those mechs that stomp about the place in the name of BARD.
The teaser trailer doesn’t offer much, barring a name. Atomfall’s first piece of story DLC will be the Red Strain, which appears to refer to some kind of fungus. It could be a new variant of the blue mist that appeared throughout the base game, or something new entirely, it’s not clear.
As one of this year’s most underrated survival games, it’s no surprise to see more from Atomfall. The narrative is also being kept under wraps at present. The teaser shows us a malfunctioning mech, which overrides its protocols (ha) to use lethal force and destroy an unseen target. And they were so friendly in the base game.
There are a couple of hints. Firstly, the logo on the robot’s chest. Where in the base game these displayed the BARD acronym (standing for the British Atomic Research Division), this one displays the word CORE. We know even less about this mysterious faction than we do the DLC, but if there’s a mystery to be solved, I’m there.
I do wonder how this story will fit into the base game. Part of the joy of the main campaign was the way in which you collected leads instead of being directly given quests. It could be frustrating to do that all over again for a mission you know exists, but it seems simplistic and counterintuitive to Atomfall’s clever quest design to just add a map marker this time around.
However the Red Strain implements its quests, I’m just happy to return to the unnerving Lake District countryside to take on more robots, zombies, and scientists.
Atomfall The Red Strain releases on Tuesday September 16. You can buy it on Steam here.
If you want to play something similar until then, our list of the best open-world games has you covered. Alternatively, start revising your Atomfall crafting recipes in time for the new update.
What do you think the strange red foliage is? Let us know in our community Discord server, where readers and staff put forward their theories for all the latest gaming teases.
