Atomfall: The Red Strain Review – A Worthy Expansion With Shortcomings

Atomfall is one of the more charming RPGs to release this year. It’s a distinctly British Fallout-like with a compact scale packed with fun combat and choice-driven dialogue. The first DLC, Wicked Isle, was something of a step back in terms of quality. Sure, it added more weapons and a new area to explore, but the incessant backtracking deflated my enthusiasm. I went into the second DLC with tempered expectations but came out nearly as enthused as I was going through the base game. The Red Strain isn’t quite a homerun, but it’s certainly a step up from Wicked Isle. Let’s break down why.

The Red Strain is accessed near the starting zone of the base game, inside the Slatten Coal Mines. A previously defunct elevator shaft whisked me away to a completely new area called the Scafell Crag, the base of operations for this DLC’s content. Like Wicked Isle, the new location has a single entrance with no Interchange shortcuts. That’s not a deal-breaker, but Scafell Crag’s entry point is far from any Interchange nodes or major zones, forcing players to trek on foot across long stretches. At least the first DLC started within the hub-like Wyndham Village. While the distance isn’t unbearable, it makes backtracking more tedious than it should be—and, two expansions in, there’s still no fast-travel option.

“The Red Strain takes place in the self-contained Scafell Crag, a region housing a top-secret research campus.”

But for the most part, The Red Strain takes place in the self-contained Scafell Crag, a region housing a top-secret research campus with a rocket ship of all things nestled within. My introduction to this new region was pleasant. The mysterious loudspeaker and abandoned trainyard reminded me of Gordon Freeman’s entrance to City 17 in Half-Life 2, at least to a small degree. Exploring the rail tracks and small operator rooms reminded me why I enjoyed the environments in the base game so much. There’s a level of fine detail and a strong British sense of place here, something I found missing in Wicked Isle. I also enjoyed the linear progression curve of enemy encounters. You start out alone in the trainyard, able to peruse at your leisure, until inciting the anger of some infected citizens near the local village. I guess I just like that I’m not terribly swarmed right from the get-go. The player gets to ease oneself into the new DLC area.

Things take a more puzzling turn when leaving the station and small village. A huge wall with turrets surrounds what is called Test Site Moriah. Contained within Moriah’s walls are the meat and potatoes of the DLC’s main quest. So, naturally, getting inside should be rather straightforward and clear, right? The opposite was true in my case. I was lead on a wild goose chase that lasted over an hour thanks to misleading Investigation leads.

“Some leads don’t acknowledge previously completed quests, unfortunately.”

The game naturally leads the player to various notes divulging how to open the entrance inside Moriah. These notes tie into the Windfall Shipment quest from the base game, a quest which leads to the Signal Redirector key item. A vast majority of players getting into this DLC will already have the Signal Redirector in their inventory. Yet, these new leads still mark the Windfall quest as ‘ongoing’, pointing players in the vicinity of the Signal Redirector. In short, the leads to get through the gate  don’t recognize the completion of a prior quest, encouraging players to backtrack to places already completed.

To complicate things further, some journals mention a new “Signal Redirector MK II,” which seems tied to the Windfall leads. After wandering all the way to Skethermoor in search of the Windfall shipment I already retrieved much earlier, I realized I didn’t need the MK II at all—I was just using the MK I on the wrong control box. Some of that’s on me, but the quest design could be far clearer. And without a fast travel option, that kind of backtracking becomes exhausting. This goose chase is partially on the game for being so obtuse and misleading.

“The new zone has a lot of terrain verticality and oodles of fresh content to explore.”

Once I realized what I actually had to do to open the gate to Moriah, I began enjoying the DLC again. The Moriah Site has a lot going for it. It’s got great terrain verticality, a host of new opponents to combat, and a tight layout that’s far more convenient than the sprawl of Wicked Isle. Moriah is dotted with a series of facilities in a circle-like configuration with the command center at the far end and a neat underground tunnel allowing for quicker traversal. The interesting vertical geography, including a rocket ship of all things centered in the middle of the map, just makes exploration all the more fun. You’re rarely exposed in a wide open spaces getting ambushed by common bandits here; the terrain is too varied and terraced for that, and the enemies are almost exclusively unique.

You’ll see some common bandits here and there after opening the Moriah gate, but the area is almost exclusively populated by new stuff. Scafell Crag sees the player facing off against a new organic variation of the BARD robots, Red Strain variants of Ferals, and my favorite, cute pesky little drones which fly out in packs shocking every non-infected person in sight. The drones in particular emphasize your new combat equipment well. The new SMGs are perfect for spraying down drone flyers, and electric grenades are even more effective for their wide blanket effect. As far as the larger robots go, you have a new heavy machine gun and flamethrower that tears them to shreds. I didn’t find much use for the new suppressed weapons, but it’s cool they added them in the game. All in all, I never felt too overwhelmed by enemy encounters and there’s enough variety here to keep the gameplay feeling fresh and different from the core game and its first DLC.

“The new heavy machine gun and flamethrower tears BARD robots to shreds.”

What’s more, you can even use robots and turret systems against foes with the handy new Signal Redirector MK II. Just hack away at the applicable robotics and they’ll patrol and shoot down anyone threatening you. It’s especially handy to hack turret systems for those erratic and unsuspecting drone swarms. There’s also some new Skills and items that I won’t spoil here, suffice to say they’re more or less in line with what Wicked Isle brought to the table.

Unfortunately, all the new gadgets and weaponry has to be frugally managed in your increasingly limited inventory. That’s because there’s been no expansion to inventory or tweaks to the core gameplay systems related to it whatsoever in this DLC. It’s surprising because one of the core issues since the base game’s release was how clunky inventory management was. Manually scrolling through each individual unsorted item in storage is made more tedious here due to the additional items and loot – and with no increase in item cap size, constantly selling off or discarding stuff is a necessity. At least there’s a lot of storage tubes populating the new zone. I can’t imagine how tedious it would’ve been to have to backtrack all the way to the Interchange just to store and retrieve your loot. The dlc requires you fill your inventory with a myriad of key items necessary to advance the main quest. And without any kind of inventory expansion, collecting all the new gear becomes stifled.

“Unfortunately, all the new gadgets and weaponry has to be frugally managed in your increasingly limited inventory.”

One of the key items you’ll be lugging around are brains. Yes, that’s right, brains… in jars. Your main objective is seeking out five or so jar-brains hidden within the various facilities of the Moriah campus. The facilities each fulfil a specific function of the operation, much like the different wings within the Interchange. There’s not as many cool gimmicks or interesting thematic level design here as the Interchange, but the effort to differentiate the buildings is still notable. But back to jar-brains. Inserting each brain into the command facility unlocks access to new facilities and unravels more of the mystery of the red strain virus infecting everything in the zone.

It’s a nice narrative conceit that pushes the player forward both in terms of new locations and story revelations. And each brain has a unique personality too, adding some characterization to an otherwise lonely quest. The story dispenses lore and worldbuilding via the numerous notes and journals left by prior inhabitants (and sometimes the jar-brains). It’s more or less the same style of worldbuilding as the base game and the first DLC. The main Oberon plot is also tied into this DLC, as expected. You didn’t think a viral outbreak named the Red Strain wouldn’t have any connection to the Oberon artifact, did you?

“Your main objective is seeking out five or so jar-brains hidden within the various facilities of the Moriah campus.”

Speaking of Oberon, this DLC includes two new endings. Both endings involve backtracking to the final quest of the main game to complete. In other words, there’s no new ‘final dungeon’ or anything. You must do the same Oberon journey from the base game’s ending, albeit, with the added backtracking to the new zone afterwords. I wouldn’t mind ending it at Oberon again, but having to hoof it back to the Moriah Facility is pure tedium. Again, the game desperately needs some kind of fast travel option. The same slideshow style endings are present for both endings of the DLC. While the endings aren’t any more flashy than the core game’s, they do provide thought-provoking decision-making between the two opposing quest-givers. There’s quite a bit of moral reasoning and questioning to digest with this story’s endings, which I appreciate.

The Red Strain is a pretty notable improvement from The Wicked Isle DLC. The new zone is much more interesting to explore and the added enemy types and fresh weaponry is more dynamic and fun. And while some old woes remain unchanged here, there’s at least far less backtracking this time around. If you only have the budget to pick up one DLC for Atomfall, The Red Strain is the better option of the two.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.