Introduction
TheGreatEvilKing? What is this?
Atom RPG is an indie post-apocalyptic RPG with a twist - instead of playing in the ruins of the United States post nuclear war, you're playing in the ruins of the USSR - specifically, the area around Moscow. Instead of a vault dweller, the player character is a member of ATOM, a secretive USSR scientific and military organization created to restore the civilization of the USSR to its prewar glory and help out around the Wasteland.
That sounds cool! I bet we could get a lot of story potential out of adventuring in the USSR!
The game actually engages with this somewhat. It wants to discuss the legacy of the Soviet Union, and we'll get to how it does that. It's...got a rather unique set of takes on the matter which it executes, in my opinion, poorly.
Oh, so this is like that Tyranny game you're also LPing?
Tyranny is a flawed game that has some interesting things to say about totalitarianism. It's not well written on a structural level, and the gameplay is bad, but it's a game worth examining that will make you think. I would describe ATOM's writing, but why should I do that, when the developers' dialog perfectly sums up the experience of playing ATOM?
This is not a good game. The writing is a bunch of Eastern European (the team is based in Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, and Russia) memelords making as many dumb jokes and references as we can fit in one game - and it will not surprise the reader to learn that Fallout references are everywhere. The actual gameplay is a miserable slog, with a questionable skill tree that has to be seen to be believed. The game is unable to settle on a consistent tone, whiplashing between "hilarious" hijinks like Fallout references and a sexual partners counter to Very Serious And Dark Moral Decisions.
It can't be that bad, right?
The portraits for the female PC are taken from mug shots of American prostitutes.
What?
Really. They did. It's a recurring theme in the game, where many of the character portraits are taken from various celebrities and inserted into odd places. Would you expect Jay from Redlettermedia to be running a Nazi rape torture snuff film dungeon? I wouldn't, but that's in the game! Now, to be fair to the developers, they apparently did try to get permission beforehand and offered to remove it if Jay objected, but the entire thing is just one giant pile of wacky references wrapped around truly miserable gameplay and bad decisions.
This is going to be a screenshot LP, so sit back and enjoy the game's load cinematic.
The game opens with an old CRT monitor.
Ronald Reagan!
It's clunky, but it's a Russian translation. It's also completely untrue, as a ton of the NPCs will talk our ears off about Communism and whatnot. Just roll with it.
Keep this in mind going forward. This is going to be a theme, and the game is going to handle it...questionably.
Sir Not Appearing In This Game.
You might be asking "if humanity is in a new Dark Age, who is manufacturing all the automatic weapons and ammo?" Don't question it. There is actual, no shit magic in this setting, so...
And with that, we're thrown directly into the character creation screen!
It's time for some good old audience participation! We need a name and portrait for our character. Gender is handled by your choice of portrait, so Valentina here is a lady and will, for example, get Sex Appeal bonuses against men if she takes that perk. Our choices of portraits are below:
Now, you might be asking, can we vote on skills? Unfortunately, the answer is "no" because we're going to be doing something very special with this character. While you might think the answer to combat in the homeland of the AK-47 is pumping our automatic weapons skills and shooting people with guns, the actual optimal answer is to pick up a sword and one-shot enemies. Thus, while our opponents wasted their time learning to shoot a gun, we mastered the blade. There is a perk tree. It is not well thought out, and to their credit the devs are overhauling it in the upcoming expansion.
Choose wisely!
Table of Contents
A Land of Bandits and IncoherenceI hate bandits, all my homies hate bandits.
I Award You One Darwin Award
Dan the Bandit Man
The Cormac McCarthy Zone
The OTHER Postmodern RPG
I'm A Doctor, not an Overused Reference!
While You Studied Mein Kampf, I Studied The Blade
FUCK Kraznosnamenny
Midnight Therapy
QAnon: The RPG
Krasnoznamenny Nights
Hot Sewer Sex
The Prokhanov Zone
Edgar Maddison Welch Cosplay
The Secret of Bunker 317
Bonus update: Conspiracy... of Apathy!
Deep Lore... by Ayn Rand
Look Mommy, I'm Post Modern!
Three Sewer Mafia
Curse Your Inevitable And Pointless Betrayal
In Which The Great Evil King Was Mistaken About What Was Next
OWNED By Dan, the Bandit Man!
The Election... of Apathy!
How the Emperor Ruined Halloween
A Real Dedication To Squandering Potential - and Genocide!
I Never Knew Time Travel Could Be This Boring
Revenge... of the Bad Pacing
The Tunnel of Instant Death
Bonus Update: Can We Fix This Game?
All You Have Belongs To Dan
Return of the Postman Conspiracy
The Triumph of Prokhanov
The Riddle of Cossack Steel
A Miracle Happens
What if Metro 2033, But Boring?
WHY???? [Warning: Disgusting]
Pizzagate is real! PIZZAGATE IS REAL!
It Was A Waste Of Time All Along!
The Last of All Sidequests
The End of ATOM
Your Choices Totally Mattered!
Xander77's Dope-Ass Pacifist Run
Unlike me, Xander77 actually knows Russian culture and can meaningfully comment on things besides my endless tirade of "this is dogshit".
Update 1
Pacifist playthrough - Otradnoye part 1
Pacifist Playthrough – Dan’s Bandits
Pacifist Playthrough - Random encounters and Roaring Forest
Pacifist Playthrough – Otradnoye part 3
Pacifist Walkthrough - spooky scary cultist-tons
Sex and Totally Unintentional Violence
Propaganda and Politics
Mafia and Criminal Activity
Crime and Punishment, I guess?
Clown world, amirite?
Mountain Pass of Woe and the end of Pacifism
Is it over
Final thoughts