Survive the Fall: Initial Preview Released

Before Bethesda took over the series and Walton Goggins donned ghoul make-up for its captivating TV adaptation, Fallout was known for its isometric action RPG style viewed from a bird's eye perspective. This classic approach seems to be the inspiration behind the upcoming game, Survive the Fall, at least from my initial hours of play. This post-apocalyptic survival tale builds directly on the original Fallout's framework, especially evident in its robust camp development system. The game's squad-based combat and scavenging mechanics offer a fresh experience, although the somewhat static story presentation occasionally hinders its full personality from emerging.

Unlike many post-apocalyptic settings, the devastation in Survive the Fall wasn't caused by nuclear fallout. Instead, it resulted from a catastrophic comet impact that decimated much of the world's population and left behind a toxic mist called Stasis. Survivors either steer clear of this deadly haze or harness its power, mutating into stronger beings at the cost of their humanity. As you navigate Survive the Fall, you'll build alliances with diverse factions across three biomes, ranging from the Stasis-addicted Shroomers to the enigmatic Sighted cult, to ensure your group's survival and prosperity.

I quickly grew fond of Survive the Fall's squad-based system as I tackled various tasks from numerous quest-givers. Navigating a sprawling national park, you can manually scavenge for resources or delegate these duties to your team, streamlining the process of exploring and looting settlements. This division of labor feels more intuitive and speeds up gameplay, though the interface can become cluttered when interactive elements are too close together, a minor issue that occurred infrequently.

Combat in Survive the Fall is also squad-focused. Given the scarcity of rifle and shotgun ammo early on, I prioritized stealth, approaching encounters with marauders and ghouls like a tactical mission from Commandos: Origins. This involved sneaking through grass, creating distractions with stones, and silently taking down foes within their vision cones. Environmental hazards, like explosive barrels and precarious cargo pallets, add depth to these engagements. When stealth failed, combat with a controller felt a bit clunky, though the ability to pause and direct squadmates to target specific enemies helped manage tougher battles effectively.

Survive the Fall - Preview Screens

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After surviving the dangers of the wasteland, Survive the Fall transitions into a base-building management sim. Here, you research documents to gain knowledge points, which you can use to unlock a variety of crafting options, from bunk beds and kitchens to water filtration systems and armories. Resources like timber are transformed into planks for constructing structures like plant boxes or protective gates, while foraged items and hunted meat become meals to fuel your next expedition. This depth in base-building hints at the potential for significant time investment in transforming your camp from a dilapidated outpost to a thriving community.

Exploring beyond my base revealed a variety of intriguing locales, from a crashed passenger plane turned enemy fort to a farmstead overrun by Stasis-infected ghouls. These diverse environments showcase Survive the Fall's attention to detail, though some areas like the Mycorrhiza swamplands, with their beautiful yet performance-heavy luminescent mushrooms, occasionally suffered from framerate issues. I also encountered game-breaking bugs that necessitated reloading saves, but with a release date still a month away, developer Angry Bulls Studio has time to refine these aspects.

The game's dialogue, conveyed solely through onscreen text, can feel a bit flat. While characters like Blooper, who humorously dubbed the Stasis smog "fart wind," added some levity, most interactions felt more like quest prompts than opportunities to deepen character relationships. Hopefully, these bonds will strengthen as the full game unfolds.

Survive the Fall is set to launch on PC this May, brimming with post-apocalyptic potential. If the developers can smooth out the rough edges in controls and performance, this survival-based action RPG could prove well worth the investment of your hard-earned bottlecaps.