It has been just a few days since I first wrote this missive about Atomic Picnic, and so today I took a quick look for myself to see what all the fuss was about. The question is, then: did I find Atomic Picnic to be a gentle walk in the park?
Actually, no, it very much wasn’t. I played a few rounds, I was running around on my own, and I got my backside kicked. No picnic was eaten.
I tried each of the four playable characters in the demo, taking them out for a spin at least once. Each time I managed to extend the duration of my play-time, but ultimately I was always overwhelmed before completing a run. Yes, that was almost certainly a skill issue. No, I’m not ashamed.
Feeling like Fortnite
Atomic Picnic has a real East meets West vibe when it comes to the visual design. The Steam listing talks up the craziness of the setting, which makes no sense at all, but I think that’s kind of the point.
It looks a bit like a Fortnite anime crossover event. You know the ones where two cultural inspirations have been pushed together to create something new yet familiar. The map that I played on was filled with broken bridges and floating stone islands, with containers arranged all over the place. It’s bright, it’s bold, and it invites verticality.
The grapple that you’re equipped with, when combined with the dash, allows you to really zip about the place. You’ve got a limited number of dashes on a cooldown timer keeping you in check, but I think that the movement system is in good shape overall. During my brief time with the demo I was able to put together some fun moves, darting around my enemies and then hitting them in the flank.
Like a true survivor
The roguish upgrade system means that every time you grab enough gems – kinda like Vampire Survivors – you can add an ability or improve one, picking from three options. You know the setup by now.
Choosing one upgrade might mean that your bullets have a chance of exploding on impact, or they get more powerful when your health is low. You can also add abilities, like a secondary attack that hits your opponents when you time a reload just right. I liked that one. Adding these elements to the mix elevated the gunplay and the longer I was able to stay alive, the more interesting things got.
The enemy designs were cute, but I also feel like I’ve seen them before somewhere. They are at least very shootable, and with loads of weird robo animals heading straight for you, you don’t have time to ponder one or two generic enemy types. You’ve just gotta hit them and hit them hard, using both your main and your secondary attack. Like the dash, this powerful attack is also on a cooldown, but when timed right it’s an excellent way of clearing a cluster of enemies.
Alas, I don’t have any friends at the time of writing, so I can only comment on the single-player side of things. Strangely enough, while I was able to play on my own, Atomic Picnic feels like a roguelite built for multiplayer, which is something of a rarity in this genre. I think I’m going to have find some friends from somewhere ahead of next year, when Atomic Picnic hits Early Access.
