Atomicrops Review

Atomicrops laughs in the face of the notion that farming can be a relaxing pastime. Bursting onto the scene like a caffeinated concoction of Stardew Valley and The Binding of Isaac, it presents an apocalyptic, roguelite farming sim/shooter that relies far more on a player’s bullet-hell experience than any sort of agricultural know-how. Atomicrops is frantic, unforgiving and just stressful enough to suck away the hours like a cactus soaks up water.

Farming is tough at the best of times, but Atomicrops’ protagonist has it harder than most. Starting their agricultural career at the onset of nuclear armageddon, they must grow their farm from the ashes of destruction while fighting off all manner of mutated wildlife and pests hungry for crops and farmer flesh in equal measure.

The ruthless nature of apocalyptic farming is reflected in Atomicrops’ difficulty. It’s a permadeath game, and as such, failure followed by an almost full restart is a part of the gameplay loop. The only progress that carries over from run to run are a series of bonuses unlocked by spending ‘Cornucopias’, a valuable currency earned by surviving subsequent seasons. The bonuses are plentiful and often helpful, but with the ‘merchant’ only offering a choice of two upgrades at any given time, Cornucopias are all-too often wasted on unwanted upgrades.

Each run of Atomicrops, for me, generally started the same way. I’d begin day one—springtime—on my barren, lifeless farm with nothing more than a handful of seeds, peashooter and my own two hands. With daylight hours (more like minutes) dwindling, I’d dash to the dangerous (but loot-filled) wilds to the East or West in search of seeds, farm animals, resources, items and upgrades. Seeds—obviously—are needed for growing crops, crucial in gaining power throughout a run. Different farm animals support the player in various farm-based tasks. For example, cows help with watering crops, bees speed up crop growth and chickens handle the dreaded task of weeding. Resources like fertiliser, beets and pickaxes increase crop value, restore health and allow for farm expansion respectively. Items are essentially ‘active skills’ that can be used to gain resources, temporarily boost the farm or deal massive damage to enemies. Finally, upgrades permanently increase the effectiveness of either the aforementioned collectibles or the player themselves for the run’s duration. None of these goodies are free for the taking however: each one is guarded by a pack of region-specific mutant enemies made up of bunnies, bulls, flies and a number of other beasties that defy recognition. All this is to say that my first day on the farm was always characterised by plenty of entertaining top-down shooting, looting and gathering; definitely not a typical start for a farming game.

With a pocket full of tools, a few animals keeping me company and enough seeds to start my own repository, I’d begin day two ready and eager to get my farming on. Growing crops is largely an automatic process, especially later on with animals taking care of watering crops, tilling soil and pulling weeds. All the player really needs to do is plant seeds and harvest crops. During the daylight minutes on the farm, my focus would be drawn to the trickle of projectile-firing enemies that appear every few seconds. While not difficult to fight by themselves, I would often lose a health point or two trying to balance farming and fighting. This mashup of two disparate genres works superbly and helps make Atomicrops’ basic farming mechanics something a lot more engaging for an action-orientated player.

If daytime on the farm can be summarised as a “fun little farming-shooter thing”, night-time would better fit the description of “bullet-hell nightmare that happens to take place on a farm”. When the sun sets, the mutated creatures that usually stick to their Eastern and Western (and eventually Northern/Southern) homes pluck up the courage to lay siege to a player’s farmstead. This night-time onslaught lasts only a few real-time minutes, but it’s a few minutes of frantic bullet-dodging, enemy-shooting and crop-defending. Confident (or desperate) players can still grow crops and earn currency during this time, but nothing will stop mutants from trying to chow down on the fruits—and vegetables—of their labour. Turrets and scarecrows can help fight and ward off mutants, but mostly, survival is down to the player and whatever remains of their reflexes post-armageddon. Like the farming mechanics, combat in Atomicrops is simple, but fun, and night-time provides a fantastic test of a player’s skill and ability to properly prepare for a true gauntlet.

Between night and the following day, players are taken to “town”, a post-apocalyptic trading outpost where currency (earned through harvesting crops) can be spent on weapons, items and health. Potential partners can also be flirted with here and eventually convinced to join players on the farm. This homage to games like Harvest Moon is appreciated but incredibly limited, requiring a lot of resource investment and essentially boiling down to little more than an extra gun tagging along for the ride. In addition, the town is where—at the end of a season—players are rewarded with a windfall of assorted goodies based on their overall crop output for that season. As a brief respite from the chaos of the farming (yes, the absurdity of that phrase is not lost on me), the town offers a chance to unwind, spend some hard-earned currency and prepare for the season ahead.

And preparation will be crucial if players hope to survive the boss encounters that cap off every season. Giant tractors, large rabbits riding even larger slugs, malevolent Suns and a couple more make up Atomicrop’s boss encounters. These encounters are challenging without being frustrating and are certainly unique enough to stand out from the regular enemies. Despite being fun to fight, however, there’s just not enough variety in the bosses to avoid twinges of monotony from creeping in at the edges, and the same goes for the rest of the game. While fun, the average player will see most of what Atomicrops has to offer within a few hours. It’s a shame: the game nails the ‘just one more go’ feeling—vital to any good roguelike—but there’s just not enough content to cement Atomicrops as a staple of someone’s gaming diet. I, for one, have sunk hundreds of hours into games like The Binding of Isaac. Without more content, however, Atomicrops will struggle to fill that gap for any player.

Atomicrops is more of a top-down shooter with a farming twist than a farming-sim in earnest. It’s frenetic, challenging and addicting in the way that all the best roguelike/lites are, with a silly streak that helps give the title its own identity. A lack of content does harm the game’s longevity, but even if it won’t become anyone’s ‘go-to’ game for years to come, there’s enough here to provide a hefty amount of violent, farm-based entertainment.