I've been playing this one for a week. The game uses close to identical mechanics for Fallout 1 & 2. It is placed in Russia after the bombs, pretty soon after the bombs. All of the signs are in Russian, there is a lot of humor/irony from the Soviet Union, and the weapons are all soviet.
Far cruder in terms of language and topics than most RPGs. Quite a bit of it is gratuitous.
I am a huge fan of Fallout 1 & 2 and this game has good play balance and is harder - but it is lacking a couple of things that I like in RPGs. I'm not sure I'm going to finish it although my player is well into late mid-game at level 12. Some of the design features are quite interesting and others are frankly annoying.
I think it is the intro into the game and the player motivation that suffers - not the mechanics. Only mechanics issue I'm having issues with is an utter inability to keep any companion alive. I'm torn between stopping and writing a review, or playing on and working on a review.
I've gotten a stack of new tabletop games and am picking up 5 more used ones at Origins.
I've been meaning to get back into this game--I only played a few hours of it a few months back. Being a gamer, inevitably I got sidetracked with other games and ATOM fell off my radar.
Initially, the writing took some getting used to, but eventually it grew on me. I don't think it is a bad game as budget titles go, and the game certainly has its own unique flavor. The game definitely reminds of Fallout 1 & 2.
There is alot of support for the game and it looks like from their most recent major update, V1.1 The Dead City, the game is a bit more fleshed out. All the more reason that I would like to get back to this. Also, AtomTeam is releasing a stand-alone add-on to the game later this year.
Groggy