Long before Bethesda took over the series and Walton Goggins donned ghoul make-up for his captivating role in its TV adaptation, Fallout was an isometric action RPG viewed from a bird's eye perspective. The upcoming Survive the Fall draws inspiration from this classic style of wasteland exploration, as evidenced by the initial hours of gameplay I experienced. This post-apocalyptic survival tale builds upon the original Fallout's framework—most notably with its robust camp development system—and introduces squad-based combat and scavenging that contribute to a refreshing experience, despite a somewhat static story presentation that hinders its full personality from emerging.
Unlike many other post-apocalyptic settings, Survive the Fall's devastated world isn't the result of nuclear fallout. Instead, it's the aftermath of a comet strike that decimated a significant portion of the population, leaving behind a crater that emits a toxic mist known as Stasis. Survivors either avoid this mist or harness its power to mutate into enhanced forms, sacrificing their humanity in the process. As you navigate Survive the Fall, your expanding squad of scavengers must forge alliances with various factions scattered across its three biomes to survive and thrive, from the Stasis-addicted Shroomers to the enigmatic cult called the Sighted.
Engaging with the game's numerous quest-givers quickly made me appreciate its squad-based structure. As you guide your party of up to three survivors through the vast national park that sets the stage for the story's beginning, you can manually search through abandoned chests for chemical compounds or chop down trees for lumber, or simply delegate these tasks to your team members. This approach feels more intuitive and accelerates the process of scavenging each settlement you encounter. However, the occasional clutter of button prompts when multiple interactive elements are close together can be a minor annoyance, though these instances were infrequent.
Combat in Survive the Fall is also team-oriented. Given the scarcity of rifle and shotgun ammunition in the early stages, I prioritized stealth when confronting marauders and ghouls. Infiltrating enemy camps felt akin to navigating the recent Commandos: Origins—utilizing stealth tactics like hiding in long grass, throwing stones for distractions, and quietly dispatching foes before directing my squad to conceal the bodies. Environmental hazards, such as explosive barrels and precariously positioned cargo pallets, add to the tactical depth, allowing for creative eliminations.
Survive the Fall - Preview Screens
14 Images
Clearing out clusters of cultists was satisfying, but when stealth failed and combat turned to gunfire, the experience became somewhat clunky, particularly with a controller. Aiming with the lasersight was less precise than I'd hoped, often leading me to rely on melee attacks and dodging in close quarters. Thankfully, the ability to pause and direct my squadmates to focus on specific targets—similar to systems in Wasteland or Mutant Year Zero—proved invaluable, allowing them to handle tougher enemies while I dealt with the support crew.
After a day spent combating mutants and gathering loot in the treacherous badlands, Survive the Fall transitions into a base-building management sim at your camp. Documents found in the world can be researched to earn knowledge points, which you can then use to unlock various technologies, from bunk beds and kitchen areas to water filtration systems and an armory. Resources like timber can be transformed into planks for constructing new structures such as plant boxes or defensive gates, while foraged herbs and meat from wolves and deer can be prepared into meals for your expedition team. The depth of this system promises hours of engaging gameplay, turning your settlement from a heap of rubble into a thriving hub.
Beyond my base, Survive the Fall offers numerous intriguing locations to explore. From a repurposed passenger plane turned enemy fort to a farmstead overrun by Stasis-infected ghouls, the game rewards exploration in every direction. While the detailed areas like the luminescent mushroom clusters in Mycorrhiza's swamplands are visually stunning, they also contributed to occasional performance issues, such as framerate drops. Additionally, I encountered some game-breaking bugs that required reloading my save, though with a release date still a month away, there's hope for further optimization by developer Angry Bulls Studio.
The absence of voiced dialogue in Survive the Fall does detract from the experience, as interactions with your squad and NPCs rely solely on onscreen text. While some characters, like the quirky Blooper with his amusing reference to Stasis as "fart wind," provided light-hearted moments, most conversations felt like mere prompts for the next fetch quest, lacking deeper engagement with the game's factions.
As Survive the Fall gears up for its PC release this May, it shows great potential in the post-apocalyptic genre. If the developers can smooth out the existing issues with controls and performance, this could become a standout survival-based action RPG, well worth the investment of your hard-earned bottlecaps.
