You know all those post-apocalyptic games that have been coming out in the last few years? They’re all starting to feel the same, aren’t they? Open world shooters, RPG’s, zombies survival crafting rouge-like buzzword extravaganzas have all used the setting to their advantage. What could be done to possibly spice it up? Why, with a city building game of course, like Atomic Society.
It sounds like a contradiction, a post-society world in ruins isn’t the kind of setting you’d envision making a game about building a society. But it makes sense. The world is in tatters, everyone’s killing each other, and there are destroyed monuments of President Trump everywhere. It’s a great way to wipe out the rules of our world and allow the players to dictate a new world order.
It all comes together in the gameplay. You start with a small tribe of survivors and you have to build them shelter and other facilities. From there, your group turns into a bustling city. You play as town mayor, lawmaker, judge, and sheriff when the need arises. Everything is your responsibility, and how you rule will determine how successful your civilization is.
A big selling point of the game is its morality system. You set the rules for what this new world will look like. Is it a peaceful place with free healthcare and education, or is your city a warmongering tribe dedicated to destroying other tribes and forcing others to bend to your will? Don’t read too much into that last sentence, by the way.
The example given by the developers is about a murderer. You have the option to throw him in jail for life, execute or exile them, or re-educate them. Any of these choices will have consequences. If you exile him, there’s a chance he’ll come back with his buddies, and suffice to say they won’t be filing a grievance. Re-education sounds great in theory, but it takes a lot of time and resources, and makes you look weak in the eyes of potential bandits. That’s just one small situation, the possibilities are endless.
There’s a faction system, and every NPC is aligned with one of them. Everyone will have different ideas and goals, and it’s your job to either accommodate everyone, or pick a side and kill or exile everyone else. On top of that, you have the harsh conditions of the end of the world to deal with. Hot deserts and nuclear fallout are just some of the problems you’ll run in to, not to mention the raider groups that will attack you.
There’s a lot going on in Atomic Society. It sounds like a blend of Cities Skylines, Democracy, and Fallout 4. With a Kickstarter like this, what you most have to worry about are the developers and the dreaded feature creep. How experienced is the team, and can they cut back on features that are too expensive or time consuming to implement?
That question can’t be answered anytime soon, as developer Far Road Games is brand new. They’re a three person team with little experience in the industry, save for project lead Scott MacDowall who worked at Rare for about a decade. The developers are upfront with their lack of experience, so you can judge for yourself if you’re comfortable backing the project.
Still, the campaign is a well-run one. The developers have been keeping a development diary that shows how far the game has come in a short amount of time. The game still looks rough, rougher than many Kickstarter campaigns, but I think that has more to do with how early in development the game is, and the type of game.
If you’re interested in helping Atomic Society reach it’s $97,363 goal, you have 25 days to back it. It’s an ambitious goal, but this is an ambitious game.
Track the progress of the Atomic Society Kickstarter in our Campaign Calendar.
