"Survive the Fall: Exclusive First Look"

Before Bethesda's iconic touch and Walton Goggins' memorable portrayal in the TV adaptation, Fallout was an isometric action RPG, viewed from a bird’s-eye perspective. This classic style of wasteland exploration serves as the inspiration for the upcoming game, Survive the Fall, as evidenced by the initial hours I experienced. Survive the Fall builds upon the original Fallout's framework, especially evident in its detailed camp development system. The game combines squad-based combat and scavenging to deliver a refreshing experience, though its somewhat static storytelling slightly dampens its overall charm.

Unlike many other post-apocalyptic narratives, the world of Survive the Fall wasn’t destroyed by nuclear folly. Instead, a catastrophic comet collision wiped out a significant portion of the global population, leaving a toxic mist called Stasis in its wake. Survivors either shun this deadly fog or harness its alien energy, mutating into stronger beings at the cost of their humanity. As you navigate through Survive the Fall, your squad of scavengers must form alliances with various factions across three distinct biomes to endure and prosper, ranging from the Stasis-inhaling Shroomers to the enigmatic cult known as the Sighted.

Engaging with the game’s numerous quest-givers, I quickly appreciated the squad-based mechanics. Navigating your party of up to three survivors through the expansive national park setting, you can manually search for resources like chemical compounds or delegate tasks to your AI companions, enhancing efficiency and realism. This division of labor makes scavenging more intuitive and speeds up the process of exploring each settlement. However, the interface can become cluttered when interactive elements are too close together, though this was a rare occurrence.

Combat in Survive the Fall is also squad-focused. Given the scarcity of rifle and shotgun ammunition early on, I prioritized stealth, approaching enemy camps with tactics reminiscent of Commandos: Origins. This involved hiding, creating distractions, and executing silent takedowns, with my squadmates assisting in disposing of bodies. The game offers environmental hazards to exploit, such as explosive barrels and falling cargo pallets, adding depth to strategic encounters. However, when stealth failed and combat ensued, the controls with a controller felt less precise, leading me to rely on melee attacks and dodging to manage enemies effectively. Thankfully, the ability to pause and direct squadmates to target specific enemies, similar to Wasteland or Mutant Year Zero, proved invaluable.

Survive the Fall - Preview Screens

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After days spent battling mutants and gathering resources in the harsh wilderness, Survive the Fall transitions into a base-building management simulation at your camp. Here, you can research documents to gain knowledge points, investing them in a comprehensive technology tree to unlock crafting options for bunk beds, kitchens, water filtration systems, and even an armory. Resources like timber can be transformed into planks for constructing essential structures such as plant boxes and defensive gates. Foraged herbs and meat from wildlife can be turned into meals, equipping your expedition teams for their next ventures. The depth of this system suggests a rewarding experience in transforming your settlement from a dilapidated state to a thriving community.

Beyond your base, Survive the Fall offers a variety of intriguing locations to explore, from a repurposed passenger plane fortress to a ghoul-infested farmstead. Each area is rich with detail, though the impressive visuals of places like the luminescent mushroom clusters in Mycorrhiza can sometimes lead to performance issues, such as fluctuating framerates. Additionally, occasional game-breaking bugs, like getting stuck in menus, were encountered, but with the game's release still a month away, there's time for developer Angry Bulls Studio to refine these elements.

The game's dialogue, conveyed solely through text, lacks the depth that voice acting could provide, making interactions feel somewhat flat. While some characters, like the amusing Blooper with his reference to Stasis as "fart wind," brought moments of levity, conversations often felt like mere triggers for the next quest rather than opportunities to deepen faction relationships.

As Survive the Fall approaches its May release on PC, it promises a rich post-apocalyptic experience. If the team can smooth out the rough edges in controls and performance, this survival-based action RPG could prove to be a worthy addition to the genre, captivating players with its blend of exploration, strategy, and community building.