I've been playing ATOM: Trudograd for the past two weeks and here are my thoughts. My playthrough was done using an imported character from the original ATOM RPG which was fully completed just before playing Trudograd. I found ATOM to be a good game (6.5/10) but with plenty of issues which stopped it from being a great game. At many points in my review I will be comparing Trudograd to the original ATOM and their main source of inspiration, Fallout 1 & 2. Both ATOM and Trudograd were played with the latest available patches and I used a single mod for ATOM, which was to enable "Operation February", which was an exclusive time gated DLC.
Writing/Story -
The writing for the original ATOM was one of it's weakest points. I enjoyed the soviet style humour but the characters were generally poorly written and some have grammatical errors, even in the final patch. From the very start of Trudograd it was clear a big effort had been made to improve things. A rule of thumb I use to judge the quality of the writing is how often I skip through dialogues - and in the original I was guilty of doing this more often than not. However, the writing in Trudograd is generally engaging and characters often have meaningful stories to tell. There is far less repetition and conversations are fairly dynamic and can flow between multiple parties in a single conversation. It does however still have the "Additional questions" dialogue branch from the original game, where you ask what their name is, what they do and if they know any rumors - which still feels as clumsy as the original and if I am honest lead to most of the skim reading that I did in the game.
The english localisation is well done and I did not notice any major errors. Alexander Chernyavskiy (the main writer on both the original ATOM and Trudograd) credited this to the team putting a much larger focus on the english language version. Scott Hamm, who has done writing on Battle Brothers, Black Geyser, King's Bounty 2 and Age of Decadence, has done an excellent job as an Editor. It's definitely the best writing he has done so far in his career. According to his Linkedin page is wrote over 900k words across both ATOM games.
The main story is interesting but it is not the star of the show in Trudograd. I found that the little stories that the player uncovers by fully exploring the city and doing side-quests were the most rewarding. Many of the citizens of Trudograd have troubled pasts with secrets waiting to be uncovered. The friendly hobo who sings you a song if you give him a few rupees may be more than what he appears. I found it very rewarding getting into all these backstories and the lore of the city. The writers often leave it to the player to interpret what the "why" behind a characters motivations is.
The story does benefit from the player having played ATOM. There are references to events in ATOM throughout Trudograd and the player may not fully appreciate the meaning of these events. It can certainly be played without knowing the background story but the enjoyment may be lessened somewhat.
While the writing/story is not as good as Fallout 1/2 it's not significantly worse like how ATOM was.
Score: A
Location/Map design -
Despite being set in a single city Trudograd has a good variety of locations. The design is top notch and all the locations make sense and are highly believable i.e. The Factory looks like a functional factory with a well designed factory floor, warehouse, administration block and allowances for shipping/transport of goods. The Docks district has everything you would expect - brothel, gambling den, shipping warehouses, piers with moored boats etc. The designers have really put a lot of work into making the city of Trudograd come alive and it really pays off. I found exploring each new location highly rewarding. I never once got a sense of deja vu while playing - every location was distinct and nothing was borrowed from the first game.
The overworld map consists of the city and outskirts around Trudograd. Locations can be discovered by exploring location exits or uncovered through quests, talking to characters or reading books. The overworld map is significantly smaller in size (but not scope) than the original ATOM which significantly reduces time spent watching a dot move across the map - which is a good thing in my book.
For a classic isometric style cRPG Trudograd has done an exceptional job here, even surpassing Fallout 1/2.
Score: A+
Combat -
The combat from the original ATOM game was heavily based on the combat from Fallout 1&2 - which many people would consider a good thing. Trudograd doesn't make significant changes here. There are a few more tactical options i.e. stun grenades and some of the weapon skills have been tweaked. Melee and unarmed combat are more viable. Power Armour does add an additional system to combat as wearing it grants a bunch of combat abilities and unique weapons that can only be equipped when using the armour.
Combat is generally well balanced and largely optional. In the early game there are plenty of enemies which can be defeated by the player i.e. junkies. drunks etc. A large number of combats can be bypassed through conversation/attribute checks or stealth. It is possible to even complete the game without killing a single enemy! Although I imagine this would involve some save/loading and bypassing a small amount of content.
Score: A
Character Creation/System -
The character generator is heavily influenced by Fallout 1/2 with Attributes, Skills, Traits (Distinctions) and Perks (Abilities). In Trudograd it is largely the same as the original except skills now go up to 299 and bonus skill distinctions have been added at fixed skill level intervals i.e. 50, 100, 150 etc. Abilities are now also grouped into trees and have assigned tiers which govern how much they cost (rather than just having a linear increase per point spent like the original). The new character system is an improvement on the original and it gives a better sense of progression. Characters start at level 15 and can also be imported from the original and they retain their Attributes, Skills and distinctions (translated into Trudograd specific distinctions). Ability points are refunded and all attributes, skills and distinctions can be re-allocated during character creation. Any bonus distinctions earned during ATOM also transfer over i.e. "Streetwise", "Action Hero" and Tattoo's etc. No items are transferred. Bonus attribute points also are retained which can lead to you having a bit of a super human if you sought out all sources in the original i.e. (+5 extra Attribute points) and Trudograd (Another +3 Attributes) and choose certain stat boosting distinctions like "Retrograde" and "Lone Genius".
Trudograd is fairly generous with XP and you will find yourself leveling quite rapidly. If you are starting a new character you can progress up to level 20 fairly rapidly without doing any combat due to how each level requires more XP than the last - which helps prevent imported characters from being vastly more powerful than new characters (apart from Attributes).
Score: A+
Quests/NPC's -
Without a doubt this is where Trudograd shines. Gone are the fetch quests and kill a bandit etc. The quests and NPC's in Trudograd are outstanding both in variety and quality. Often follow-up quests can be triggered depending on how you solve each quest. Quests can involve investigations, interrogations, heists and rescue operations etc. Quests almost always have multiple ways to solve them and some solutions can involve very morally suspect decisions by the player. There is a vast amount of Choice and Consequence in the game. A good example of this is at one point in the game you encounter a wealthy capitalist who has been doing thought experiments on some poor unsuspecting residents. This is how it goes down:
Unlike ATOM, Trudograd has very few characters that serve no purpose. The player will encounter characters marked as "Passerby" or similar and these characters cannot be interacted with. In Atom they would have a few lines of meaningless poorly written dialogue which only really served to waste the players time. In Trudograd nearly all the characters have both interesting stories that can be revealed through skill checks or talking with other characters/interacting with objects. The vast majority of characters are involved (in some form) with one or more quests.
Score: A+
Items/Loot -
Trudograd heavily utilises the same items as ATOM. I was slightly let down that I pretty much used the same items for the entire game. Some of the existing items were tweaked but it felt like only a handful of new weapons were added which were mostly Chinese variations of Russian weapons. Power Armour was the best of the new items. It would of been good to have seen a few new European weapons like the fan favourite FN FAL make an appearance - odd since they included the FN Minimi which is a significantly rarer weapon.
The crafting system is also a disappointment. It is almost a carbon copy from ATOM. 95% of the recipes are straight from ATOM and the new recipes are just consumables/flavour items. I think there was only 1-2 new craftable weapons (Slime cocktail).
The only real change is the addition of a modification system for weapons. Mods can be attached by using the Tinkering skill.
Score: C
Graphics -
Trudograd is a big step up from the original ATOM. The level of detail has been improved significantly across the board. Characters models are generally unique and have better animations - especially in combat. Lighting was pretty basic in the first one but this time round it looks much more realistic. Textures are higher resolutions and they are far more varied.
Score: A-
Sounds -
While I quite enjoyed the Title song from the original, most of the music, ambient sound and effects were highly forgettable. The Trudograd title song isn't quite as memorable but the technical audio quality is better. Most of the sound effects have also been improved. Ambient noise is well done i.e. if you walk past a generator you can hear the generator doing it's thing and the sound fades out nicely as you walk away. The highlight for me was the sound of the Power Armour in the game (called Special Armour in the world of ATOM) - it sounds just like I thought it would sound like if such an armour existed in real life - imagine a mix of clanks and pistons.
Score: B-
Final Thoughts -
While I enjoyed the original ATOM it had some significant flaws i.e. weak writing, pacing issues cause by content bloat and balance issues. Trudograd addresses all these issues, introduces many Quality-of-life enhancements, and it presents a much more polished experience.
Did I enjoy playing Trudograd? The answer is a clear yes! I haven't had this much fun playing a cRPG in quite some time. I am surprised that I enjoyed it more than Wasteland 3. It would make my top 20 cRPG's of all time. After playing the original ATOM I was shocked at how good Trudograd is and I can't wait to see what the ATOMTeam deliver next!
If I had to order my favourite post-apoc cRPG's I would go with:
ATOM < Wasteland 2 < Wasteland 3 < Fallout < Trudograd < Fallout 2
Yes, I have scored Trudograd better than Fallout 1. If I took into account nostalgia I might score Fallout 1 higher but Trudograd is a better game.
Final score 9.25/10.
Writing/Story -
The writing for the original ATOM was one of it's weakest points. I enjoyed the soviet style humour but the characters were generally poorly written and some have grammatical errors, even in the final patch. From the very start of Trudograd it was clear a big effort had been made to improve things. A rule of thumb I use to judge the quality of the writing is how often I skip through dialogues - and in the original I was guilty of doing this more often than not. However, the writing in Trudograd is generally engaging and characters often have meaningful stories to tell. There is far less repetition and conversations are fairly dynamic and can flow between multiple parties in a single conversation. It does however still have the "Additional questions" dialogue branch from the original game, where you ask what their name is, what they do and if they know any rumors - which still feels as clumsy as the original and if I am honest lead to most of the skim reading that I did in the game.
The english localisation is well done and I did not notice any major errors. Alexander Chernyavskiy (the main writer on both the original ATOM and Trudograd) credited this to the team putting a much larger focus on the english language version. Scott Hamm, who has done writing on Battle Brothers, Black Geyser, King's Bounty 2 and Age of Decadence, has done an excellent job as an Editor. It's definitely the best writing he has done so far in his career. According to his Linkedin page is wrote over 900k words across both ATOM games.
The main story is interesting but it is not the star of the show in Trudograd. I found that the little stories that the player uncovers by fully exploring the city and doing side-quests were the most rewarding. Many of the citizens of Trudograd have troubled pasts with secrets waiting to be uncovered. The friendly hobo who sings you a song if you give him a few rupees may be more than what he appears. I found it very rewarding getting into all these backstories and the lore of the city. The writers often leave it to the player to interpret what the "why" behind a characters motivations is.
The story does benefit from the player having played ATOM. There are references to events in ATOM throughout Trudograd and the player may not fully appreciate the meaning of these events. It can certainly be played without knowing the background story but the enjoyment may be lessened somewhat.
While the writing/story is not as good as Fallout 1/2 it's not significantly worse like how ATOM was.
Score: A
Location/Map design -
Despite being set in a single city Trudograd has a good variety of locations. The design is top notch and all the locations make sense and are highly believable i.e. The Factory looks like a functional factory with a well designed factory floor, warehouse, administration block and allowances for shipping/transport of goods. The Docks district has everything you would expect - brothel, gambling den, shipping warehouses, piers with moored boats etc. The designers have really put a lot of work into making the city of Trudograd come alive and it really pays off. I found exploring each new location highly rewarding. I never once got a sense of deja vu while playing - every location was distinct and nothing was borrowed from the first game.
The overworld map consists of the city and outskirts around Trudograd. Locations can be discovered by exploring location exits or uncovered through quests, talking to characters or reading books. The overworld map is significantly smaller in size (but not scope) than the original ATOM which significantly reduces time spent watching a dot move across the map - which is a good thing in my book.
For a classic isometric style cRPG Trudograd has done an exceptional job here, even surpassing Fallout 1/2.
Score: A+
Combat -
The combat from the original ATOM game was heavily based on the combat from Fallout 1&2 - which many people would consider a good thing. Trudograd doesn't make significant changes here. There are a few more tactical options i.e. stun grenades and some of the weapon skills have been tweaked. Melee and unarmed combat are more viable. Power Armour does add an additional system to combat as wearing it grants a bunch of combat abilities and unique weapons that can only be equipped when using the armour.
Combat is generally well balanced and largely optional. In the early game there are plenty of enemies which can be defeated by the player i.e. junkies. drunks etc. A large number of combats can be bypassed through conversation/attribute checks or stealth. It is possible to even complete the game without killing a single enemy! Although I imagine this would involve some save/loading and bypassing a small amount of content.
Score: A
Character Creation/System -
The character generator is heavily influenced by Fallout 1/2 with Attributes, Skills, Traits (Distinctions) and Perks (Abilities). In Trudograd it is largely the same as the original except skills now go up to 299 and bonus skill distinctions have been added at fixed skill level intervals i.e. 50, 100, 150 etc. Abilities are now also grouped into trees and have assigned tiers which govern how much they cost (rather than just having a linear increase per point spent like the original). The new character system is an improvement on the original and it gives a better sense of progression. Characters start at level 15 and can also be imported from the original and they retain their Attributes, Skills and distinctions (translated into Trudograd specific distinctions). Ability points are refunded and all attributes, skills and distinctions can be re-allocated during character creation. Any bonus distinctions earned during ATOM also transfer over i.e. "Streetwise", "Action Hero" and Tattoo's etc. No items are transferred. Bonus attribute points also are retained which can lead to you having a bit of a super human if you sought out all sources in the original i.e. (+5 extra Attribute points) and Trudograd (Another +3 Attributes) and choose certain stat boosting distinctions like "Retrograde" and "Lone Genius".
Trudograd is fairly generous with XP and you will find yourself leveling quite rapidly. If you are starting a new character you can progress up to level 20 fairly rapidly without doing any combat due to how each level requires more XP than the last - which helps prevent imported characters from being vastly more powerful than new characters (apart from Attributes).
Score: A+
Quests/NPC's -
Without a doubt this is where Trudograd shines. Gone are the fetch quests and kill a bandit etc. The quests and NPC's in Trudograd are outstanding both in variety and quality. Often follow-up quests can be triggered depending on how you solve each quest. Quests can involve investigations, interrogations, heists and rescue operations etc. Quests almost always have multiple ways to solve them and some solutions can involve very morally suspect decisions by the player. There is a vast amount of Choice and Consequence in the game. A good example of this is at one point in the game you encounter a wealthy capitalist who has been doing thought experiments on some poor unsuspecting residents. This is how it goes down:
- The player encounters a distressed family living in a rundown housing block.
- Player talks to each family member (3) and gets the lowdown on the problem they are facing.
- Player investigates the problem but doesn't find anything strange.
- Player goes back to the family and says what they have found out so far.
- Player goes back to the scene and waits till late at night and finds the capitalist up to no good.
- Player can kill said capitalist - which you are highly encouraged to do.
- Player goes back to family and tells them what to do - multiple ways to explain what happened to the capitalist.
- Player lets capitalist go by:
- Promising not to reveal the experiment and then not revealing it to the family - family continues to get more and more distressed.
- Promising not to reveal the experiment and then revealing it to the family - this will have consequences for the family involved.
- Promising not to reveal the experiment and then revealing it to the family but convincing them to pretend you haven't told them.
- Promising to reveal the experiment - this will have consequences for the family involved.
- If option 7 is chosen and you keep the capitalist happy then much later in the game a follow up quest becomes available (once you purchase a house) and that quest can also have multiple solutions/paths. This quest is not available is you kill him!
- Kill the capitalist and find a note on his body revealing his plans.
- Work with the capitalist and explore a hidden location.
Unlike ATOM, Trudograd has very few characters that serve no purpose. The player will encounter characters marked as "Passerby" or similar and these characters cannot be interacted with. In Atom they would have a few lines of meaningless poorly written dialogue which only really served to waste the players time. In Trudograd nearly all the characters have both interesting stories that can be revealed through skill checks or talking with other characters/interacting with objects. The vast majority of characters are involved (in some form) with one or more quests.
Score: A+
Items/Loot -
Trudograd heavily utilises the same items as ATOM. I was slightly let down that I pretty much used the same items for the entire game. Some of the existing items were tweaked but it felt like only a handful of new weapons were added which were mostly Chinese variations of Russian weapons. Power Armour was the best of the new items. It would of been good to have seen a few new European weapons like the fan favourite FN FAL make an appearance - odd since they included the FN Minimi which is a significantly rarer weapon.
The crafting system is also a disappointment. It is almost a carbon copy from ATOM. 95% of the recipes are straight from ATOM and the new recipes are just consumables/flavour items. I think there was only 1-2 new craftable weapons (Slime cocktail).
The only real change is the addition of a modification system for weapons. Mods can be attached by using the Tinkering skill.
Score: C
Graphics -
Trudograd is a big step up from the original ATOM. The level of detail has been improved significantly across the board. Characters models are generally unique and have better animations - especially in combat. Lighting was pretty basic in the first one but this time round it looks much more realistic. Textures are higher resolutions and they are far more varied.
Score: A-
Sounds -
While I quite enjoyed the Title song from the original, most of the music, ambient sound and effects were highly forgettable. The Trudograd title song isn't quite as memorable but the technical audio quality is better. Most of the sound effects have also been improved. Ambient noise is well done i.e. if you walk past a generator you can hear the generator doing it's thing and the sound fades out nicely as you walk away. The highlight for me was the sound of the Power Armour in the game (called Special Armour in the world of ATOM) - it sounds just like I thought it would sound like if such an armour existed in real life - imagine a mix of clanks and pistons.
Score: B-
Final Thoughts -
While I enjoyed the original ATOM it had some significant flaws i.e. weak writing, pacing issues cause by content bloat and balance issues. Trudograd addresses all these issues, introduces many Quality-of-life enhancements, and it presents a much more polished experience.
Did I enjoy playing Trudograd? The answer is a clear yes! I haven't had this much fun playing a cRPG in quite some time. I am surprised that I enjoyed it more than Wasteland 3. It would make my top 20 cRPG's of all time. After playing the original ATOM I was shocked at how good Trudograd is and I can't wait to see what the ATOMTeam deliver next!
If I had to order my favourite post-apoc cRPG's I would go with:
ATOM < Wasteland 2 < Wasteland 3 < Fallout < Trudograd < Fallout 2
Yes, I have scored Trudograd better than Fallout 1. If I took into account nostalgia I might score Fallout 1 higher but Trudograd is a better game.
Final score 9.25/10.
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