Last year, Atomfall was arguably one of the best games of the year. Now, obviously, it doesn’t compare to Split Fiction, Kingdom Come Deliverance II, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, or DK Bananza, but it does offer an interesting Role-playing experience.
If you have not heard of Atomfall, we could easily pitch it as British Fallout that isn’t Fallout London; otherwise, if you want to learn more about it, you can just read our Atomfall review. After being rather impressed with the base game, we eagerly awaited the release of the game’s Story expansions. Sadly, when the Atomfall Wicked Isle DLC was released, we were catching up on our PAX East content and unwinding at Colossalcon.
Despite missing out on the initial release of the Atomfall Wicked Isle DLC, we knew that we wanted to return to Atomfall, but didn’t know when we could return to The Interchange. After Atomfall was nominated for an award at The Game Awards, we decided that we would go back to Atomfall after the holidays to playthrough the Wicked Isle’s DLC.
Atomfall Wicked Isle Expansion Story
Developer: Rebellion
Publisher: Rebellion
Platforms: PC (Steam), Epic Games Store, PlayStation4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, & Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: June 3, 2025
Players: 1
Price: $19.99
When we first booted up Atomfall, we attempted to jump straight into the DLC. Sadly, based on our progress in the game during our review playthrough, we were not able to jump straight into the DLC.
Instead, we were required to create a new save and forced to redo our progress until we got to Wyndham Village. Once we reached Wyndham Village, we were able to find a captain on the village’s dock.
After our discussion with the Captain, we were finally able to explore a new area of the game. Despite being in a new area and having the ability to explore, it did not feel like it was truly downloadable content.
Instead, it felt like The Wicked Isle Story expansion was just part of the game that they weren’t able to finish, and made it a paid DLC; in a way, it almost felt like it was a part of the base game that was locked behind a paywall.
Rather than having a standalone story, the Atomfall Wicked Isle relies heavily still on the base game. Yes, a good bit of the new quests do take place on the island.
However, in order to complete any of the three new alternate endings, you will need to go back to the mainland multiple times. In order to complete two of them, you will need to return to the mainland and complete the base game’s quest.
After completing the base game’s main quest, you can then complete the Wicked Isle‘s quest lines. None of these quests truly feels like they stand out, and it is very easy to accidentally get locked out of any of the three. In fact, when we were playing through for the first time, we accidentally got locked out of all three potential endings.
Luckily, we were able to revert to a previous autosave in order to put us back on track, but that only enabled us to complete one of the three new endings. In order to experience the other two endings, we had to revert to a save that was made hours prior.
Between the base game and the DLC, we had hoped that Rebellion had expanded their game’s save slots and improved the game’s auto save mechanic.
Sadly, during those months, they did not, which resulted in lost hours; this feels like a missed opportunity when you compare it to other great RPGs like Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.
While the Atomfall Wicked Isle DLC might provide alternate endings to the game, it does not feel like it added anything revolutionary.
Yes, there are new enemies, but they feel rather similar to enemies in the base game and don’t truly stand out outside of the Aquatic Ferals (Blue Creators). The DLC does introduce a few key characters, but most are throwaways similar to the ghosts you start seeing in the one quest line.
The new weapons from this DLC make you feel like a little bit of a pirate, but that goes with part of the Island’s theme. Throughout the Island, you can find a new Metal Detector, a Blunderbuss, a Midsummer Bow, a Beekeeper Club, a Cutlass, and a Ritual Dagger. The game does feature two new consumables (Infected Honeycombs and the Druids’ Tonic), both of which will increase your spore poisoning.
After spending hours with the Atomfall Wicked Isle DLC, we can easily say that while the DLC does provide additional quests and story endings, but, it is not worth the base price ($19.99) on top of the game’s original price.
The Wicked Isle DLC feels more like an expansion that was cut at the last minute to create additional content; it does not offer enough content when you compare it to games or DLCs of a similar price. If you want to support the developers, especially if you got the game for free through Game Pass, then you should pick up the game’s expansions.
You can tell that Rebellion has continued to work on the game throughout the year, improving its graphics, gameplay mechanics, loading time, and audio, just improving its overall optimization.
When we previously played Atomfall in 2025, the game would take a while to load between areas, audio queues, and the hit detection system wouldn’t always work properly. Now, after the updates, it feels like a well-polished game that anyone can just jump into and enjoy.
If you are looking for a DLC that adds more to the game, then it would be worth checking out the Atomfall: The Red Strain DLC. If you have the Atomfall Deluxe Upgrade, it does include the Wicked Isle DLC alongside the Basic and Enhanced Supply Bundles; the Red Strain DLC is not included as part of the Atomfall Deluxe upgrade.
The Atomfall Wicked Isle DLC was reviewed on PC using a code provided by Rebellion. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Atomfall is available for the PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
