Long before Bethesda took the reins of the series and Walton Goggins donned ghoul make-up for his captivating role in its adapted TV show, Fallout was an isometric action RPG viewed from a bird’s eye perspective. It’s this classic style of wasteland-wandering that the upcoming Survive the Fall appears to be using as its reference point, at least based on the first few hours of gameplay I experienced. This deadly post-apocalyptic tale of survival builds on the original Fallout’s template – quite literally in the case of its robust camp development system – and its squad-based combat and scavenging help it craft an experience that feels fresh, even if the somewhat static story presentation prevents its personality from totally shining through.
Unlike many other post-apocalyptic settings, *Survive the Fall*’s ruined world wasn’t caused by nuclear negligence. Instead, humanity faced a disaster akin to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, when a comet collided with Earth, decimating a significant portion of the population. This event left a smoldering crater that emits a toxic mist called Stasis. Survivors either avoid this interplanetary plague or embrace it, absorbing its otherworldly power to mutate into stronger forms at the cost of their humanity. Throughout *Survive the Fall*, your growing squad of scavengers must build bonds with various factions scattered across its three biomes to survive and thrive, from the Stasis-huffing Shroomers to the mysterious cult known as the Sighted.As I undertook each new task from Survive the Fall’s numerous quest-givers, I quickly grew fond of its squad-based setup. Navigating your party of up to three survivors through the sprawling national park that sets the stage for the story's beginning, you can manually search abandoned chests for chemical compounds or chop down trees for lumber, or simply delegate these tasks to your cohorts with a button press. This approach feels more natural and efficient, allowing you to focus on other aspects of the game while your AI companions handle the grunt work. The only minor issue was occasional clutter from button prompts when interactive elements were too close together, but these instances were rare.
Combat in Survive the Fall is also team-based. Given the scarcity of rifle and shotgun ammunition in the early stages, I prioritized stealth in encounters with marauders and ghouls. Each infiltration of an enemy camp felt like a careful stalk through Commandos: Origins – hiding in long grass, throwing stones to create distractions, crouch-walking around enemy vision cones, and silently taking them down before ordering a teammate to hide the body. The game also offers satisfying environmental hazards, from explosive barrels to dangling cargo pallets that can be dropped onto unsuspecting guards with a well-timed shot.
Survive the Fall - Preview Screens
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Clearing out clusters of cultists was satisfying, but when my cover was blown, combat became a bit fiddly with a controller. I suspect using a mouse and keyboard would offer more precision, but with a controller, aiming with the lasersight was challenging, leading me to rely more on melee attacks and dodging. Thankfully, the ability to pause the action and direct squadmates to focus on specific targets – reminiscent of systems in Wasteland or Mutant Year Zero – helped manage encounters, allowing my team to wear down tougher enemies while I dealt with the support crew.
After a day of mutant-murdering and loot-harvesting in the deadly badlands, Survive the Fall shifts into a base-building management sim at your camp. Documents found in the world can be researched to earn knowledge points, which can then be invested in a sizable technology tree to unlock crafting options for everything from bunk beds and kitchen areas to water filtration systems and an armoury. Resources like timber can be crafted into planks for new structures such as plant boxes or gates to fend off nighttime raiders, while foraged herbs or meat from wolves and deer can be prepared into meals for your next expedition. There’s considerable depth here, and I can see myself spending a lot of time transforming my settlement from rusty rubble to a cozy haven in the finished game.
Outside of my base, I discovered numerous intriguing areas to explore. From a crashed passenger plane converted into an enemy fort to a farmstead teeming with Stasis-infected ghouls, Survive the Fall rewarded exploration in every direction. The impressive level of detail in some areas, like the luminescent mushroom clusters in the Mycorrhiza swamplands, was occasionally marred by a volatile framerate and game-breaking bugs. I encountered issues like getting stuck in inventory screens or building menus, but with another month before release, developer Angry Bulls Studio has time to optimize performance.
Survive the Fall seemed to reward me with distinct locales in any direction I pointed my compass in. However, the lack of voice acting might not be resolved in time, and that’s a slight disappointment because interacting with your squad or NPCs feels a bit flat with onscreen text alone. While I did enjoy some humorous moments, particularly from a character named Blooper who referred to the Stasis smog as “fart wind,” most conversations simply served to cue up the next fetch quest rather than leaving a lasting impression of each faction member.
Perhaps the bonds will deepen over the course of the full journey, and we won’t have to wait long to find out. Survive the Fall is set to release on PC this May and is brimming with post-apocalyptic potential. If the existing rough edges in controls and performance can be polished by then, this could well be a survival-based action RPG worthy of your hard-earned bottlecaps.
