Best known for its Sniper Elite and Zombie Army series, British developer Rebellion this time tries its hand at an open world adventure, Atomfall. Based on the same in-house engine as its other projects and running on both current and last-gen machines (plus PC), it’s nonetheless a steep departure for the studio – and therefore an interesting challenge for its Asura engine that we last saw in 2022’s Sniper Elite 5.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of all is Atomfall’s alternative history Cumbrian setting, which sees the player wake up in a bunker near a nuclear diaster quarantine area. There are elements of the refined run-and-gun gameplay that Rebellion is known for, with plenty more on top: survival elements, multiple pathways, branching dialogue with NPCs, stealth and investigation. It’s a welcome jump into new territory, drawing comparisons with Bethesda’s Fallout series, though there are plenty of differences here too.
One notable tech change is that Atomfall tends to divide its environment into chunks, with loading screens in between, though its areas are still suitably vast. Viewed from afar there is a beauty to its landscapes, but it’s clear from our testing that there are also rough points in its technical delivery – that could be attributed to the decision to target both current and last-gen consoles. We’ve tested the game on PS5 Pro, PS5, Series X and Series S for this face-off, and even on current-gen machines there are certainly better and worse choices of platform.
Before we get into the platform comparisons, it’s worth discussing some of the less favourable elements of the game’s tech. Texture quality falls flat on current-gen systems, for a start, with low resolution assets used for a great many surfaces. Screen space reflections (SSR) are also a distraction, where the technique used on console has large water bodies flicker with player movement. And finally, image quality is lacking, due to the game’s anti-aliasing method struggling to address the flicker and noise during any camera movement.
Clearly, Atomfall is built with some scalability in mind to older, last-gen consoles – like PS4 and Xbox One – but does that ensure a locked 60fps experience on the current-gen machines we’re focusing on? Which is the best platform to experience the game? And does the PC version scale beyond the console limitations to deliver the definitive edition of the game?
To kick the comparisons off, let’s take a look at the internal resolutions per machine. PS5 and Series X are a match in pixel counts here, running at between 1440p to 1800, with matched visual settings too. Xbox Series S, on the other hand, runs at a fixed 1080p, with cutbacks to SSR and tree LODs, while also being capped to 30fps. Official PS5 Pro support means that the game runs at higher resolutions on Sony’s mid-gen refresh, maxing out at a native 4K – though dynamic resolution scaling between 1440p and 4K is typical in most scenarios. Otherwise, textures, shadows, draw distances are seemingly identical between both PS5 systems.
The matter of image quality is where Atomfall still disappoints, no matter which platform you pick. Sadly, scaling artefacts are a problem even in the best case on PS5 Pro, where the issue is slightly mitigated by rendering more pixels on average. Anti-aliasing is engaged on all consoles, from Xbox Series S right up to PS5 Pro, but pixel crawl is surprisingly obvious across the frame in action. The lack of temporal AA seems to be part of the issue here: oftentimes, player movement produces glaring bouts of flicker, notably across swaying grass or brightly lit geometric edges. The upscale process from resolutions as low as 1440p on PS5 or Series X isn’t helping matters either – and it sticks out massively on Series S at its typical 1080p.
The PC version shines a light on the root cause of the issue. Looking at PC fully maxed out, running with the best available ultra AA preset and at a native 4K, there are still issues with pixel crawl and shimmer. We don’t see many modern open world games ship without some form of TAA, and Atomfall makes it clear why the technique has proven so popular. Only a post-process AA offered here, likely FXAA or SMAA, and it simply isn’t up to the job of tackling visually ‘noisy’ areas on-screen, even when fed a fixed 4K resolution frame. Untreated points of fine detail, such as foliage and mesh fences, are particular eyesores, and ultimately Atomfall isn’t providing enough of a breadth of options on PC to truly clean up the image.
In terms of visual options on PC, you do have the ability to separately engage or disable multiple shadow settings that are all enabled on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles: ambient occlusion (AO), screen-space shadows and obscurance fields. AO is the most familiar option here, simulating diffuse shading across the ground and in the corners of the environment. Screen space shadows sound similar, but instead they add contact shadows across the world, as cast by sunlight. Hence, you’ll spot extra shadows added beneath rocks, and an extra layer under grass too. Obscurance fields are described by Rebellion as ray-traced soft shadows around the player and NPCs, strictly applying to character models rather than the environment.
| Platform | Internal resolution | Frame-rate target |
|---|---|---|
| PS5 Pro | 1440p to 2160p | 60fps |
| PS5 / Series X | 1440p to 1800p | 60fps |
| Series S | 1080p | 30fps |
The issue on console is that the combining of all of these shading options ends up giving characters a heavy, dark silhouette. It feels like overkill, and tends to look a bit odd. Thankfully on PC there is some flexibility in how many of these shading techniques you want to layer on, but on console you’re locked into a heavily shaded look.
Moving on, there’s the reflection issue. Base PS5 and Series X appear to run at PC’s low or medium reflections setting, which ends up causing visible shimmer as you move nearby. It’s glaring, especially for a current-gen console release, and is one of the more distracting uses of SSR I’ve seen in a long time. The good news for PC users is that the ultra reflection setting fixes that shimmer for the most part, and even high does a good job of avoiding it. Of course, all the usual SSR limitations remain, with occlusion artefacts and a drop-off in detail towards the screen’s edges. It’s par for course, and a shame that there’s no push for proper RT reflections to go along with its RT shadows option. Still, the PC release does still offer a workaround for one of the game’s issues on console.
In terms of world draw distances, PS5 and Series X match up well with PC’s top presets. The only lingering issue is the texture quality: on console we’re getting equivalent to the high preset, which falls shy of the assets possible on PC’s ultra setting. It’s not a radical difference in truth, but by maxing out the PC version it again helps to minimise the distraction of seeing certain objects or walls up close.
Attribution
There is an upside to playing on PS5, PS5 Pro, and Series X in that each runs at their target 60 frames per second. At least so far, every battle in the open world and rapid sprinting across towns flags zero issues in my testing. That’s with one bizarre exception, where I caught performance tanking into the 50s when battling a marauding gang for an extended period. After dying, the area played out at the usual 60fps once again. I also had a crash to the system menu – funnily enough, after trying to eat food from the inventory. Broadly speaking though, PS5, PS5 Pro and Series X hold up well.
More of a frustration is the Series S release. Despite its resolution and settings cutbacks, being restricted to a v-synced 30fps makes for a noticeable increase to input latency and visual responsiveness, and it’s hard to recommend this version on those grounds – though its frame-rate is at least rock-solid at that 30fps target.
The turnout for Atomfall is mixed when judged purely by its tech then, but it’s without doubt a compelling idea. The Lake District setting plays host to a paranoia-fuelled adventure, one that forces you to conserve ammo, take the stealthy road, and guide your path with NPC dialogue. If that appeals, the PS5 and Series X versions put in a solid 60fps rendition of the game, even if the textures, reflections and lacking image quality are rough points. For the most blemish-free take on the game, the PC release obviously offers solutions by running at ultra settings, though maxing out its graphics menu only does so much. In terms of the offered settings, Atomfall makes some surprising omissions – with no modern anti-aliasing options like TAA, let alone FSR or DLSS, on show.
All signs point to a cross-gen developed game with last-gen machines still very much a focus. With that in mind, it’ll be interesting to see whether Rebellion’s next effort will totally commit to current-gen machines – and equally, if Atomfall will perhaps, be a good scalable fit for Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2.