"Survive the Fall: Initial Preview Released"

Long before Bethesda took the helm of the series and Walton Goggins donned ghoul makeup for his captivating role in its TV adaptation, Fallout was an isometric action RPG viewed from a bird's eye perspective. The upcoming game, Survive the Fall, seems to draw inspiration from this classic style, as evident in the first few hours of gameplay I experienced. This post-apocalyptic survival tale builds upon the original Fallout's foundation—particularly with its robust camp development system—and introduces squad-based combat and scavenging that refresh the experience. Despite a somewhat static story presentation, the game's personality still peeks through.

Unlike many other post-apocalyptic settings, the devastation in Survive the Fall wasn't caused by nuclear fallout. Instead, it was a catastrophic comet collision that decimated a significant portion of Earth's population and left a crater emitting a toxic mist called Stasis. Survivors either avoid this mist or harness its otherworldly power, mutating into stronger forms at the cost of their humanity. In Survive the Fall, your growing squad of scavengers must forge alliances with various factions scattered across its three biomes—from the Stasis-absorbing Shroomers to the enigmatic cult, the Sighted—to survive and thrive.

Engaging with Survive the Fall's numerous quest-givers, I quickly appreciated its squad-based mechanics. Navigating the expansive national park setting at the story's start, you can manually search for resources or delegate tasks to your team members, enhancing efficiency and allowing you to focus elsewhere. While managing multiple interactive elements can occasionally clutter the screen, these instances are rare. Dividing tasks among your party feels intuitive and speeds up the process of exploring and looting each settlement.

Combat in Survive the Fall is also team-oriented. With limited ammunition in the early stages, I prioritized stealth, approaching enemy camps with tactics reminiscent of Commandos: Origins. Using the environment to my advantage, from explosive barrels to dropping cargo pallets, added satisfying layers to encounters. When stealth failed, combat became challenging with a controller, though pausing to direct squadmates helped manage tougher fights, similar to systems in Wasteland or Mutant Year Zero.

Survive the Fall - Preview Screens

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After a day of battling mutants and gathering loot in the deadly badlands, Survive the Fall transitions into a base-building management sim. Documents found in the world can be researched to earn knowledge points, which you invest in a comprehensive technology tree. This allows you to craft essential items like bunk beds, kitchen areas, water filtration systems, and an armoury. Resources such as timber can be transformed into planks to build structures like plant boxes or gates to fend off nighttime raiders. Foraged herbs and meat from wildlife can be prepared into meals, ready for your next expedition. The depth of this system promises hours of engaging settlement development.

Exploring beyond my base, Survive the Fall offers diverse and intriguing areas, from a crashed passenger plane turned enemy fort to a farmstead overrun by Stasis-infected ghouls. While the game's detailed environments, like the luminescent mushroom clusters in Mycorrhiza, are visually stunning, they can sometimes cause performance issues, such as framerate drops. Additionally, occasional game-breaking bugs, like getting stuck in menus, were encountered but should be addressed before the game's release.

The lack of voice acting results in interactions with your squad and NPCs feeling somewhat flat, relying solely on on-screen text. While characters like Blooper, who humorously refers to the Stasis smog as "fart wind," provided some entertainment, most conversations felt like mere quest prompts rather than meaningful exchanges.

As Survive the Fall progresses, deeper connections with characters may develop. Set to release on PC this May, the game holds significant post-apocalyptic potential. If the developers at Angry Bulls Studio can refine the controls and performance, Survive the Fall could become a compelling survival-based action RPG worthy of your attention.