Missile Command is a classic arcade shoot-em-up that had a distinct quirk with its gameplay. Instead of getting instant shots that hit exactly where the crosshairs aimed, missiles and gunfire needed to be shot from below and travel to the crosshair destination. This meant that instead of aiming at the enemy directly, the player needed to aim ahead of the enemy, plotting their trajectory and hoping they wander into the missiles on arrival.
Atomic City is Missile Command but with some interesting 2024 modernisation. It is at a very budget happy £1.69 and focuses itself on the survive-as-long-as-possible side of difficulty. Instead of levels, Atomic City works in 60 seconds waves, with many of the early levels bringing in new enemies to fend off. Your cities health is impacted whenever something hits it so you need to reprioritise constantly what you want to shoot – the enemies or the carpet bombs they drop. You can shoot with your two weapons, tied to the left and right mouse buttons, and switch weapons you may have picked up using the mouse wheel. It works well as the entire game is one hand controllable and aside from pausing, the game doesn’t ask of anything non-mouse related.
Atomic City is hard. The first wave is very gentle but by wave 3 you’ll find you can’t shoot everything out of the sky before it attacks you. The problem is, the more you focus on clearing the enemy fire and not shooting the enemies themselves, the exponentially more things there will be to shoot down. Each wave brings more variety, at varying speeds and in bigger numbers until you are overwhelmed and killed, You cannot win the game, only survive for as long as possible. Your score then goes onto the online leaderboard showing how many waves and seconds you lasted for alongside a personalised message for other players.
Between waves, Atomic City has an interesting approach to its shop and cash. Enemies rarely drop cash, and weapon or health pick ups can be shot for cash. When you reach the shop, you can buy war stocks which either half or double in value every wave. You want to buy low and sell high, but its a gamble and a risk each time you leave your stocks alone. Most of the shop items are expensive so you have to play the stocks game to survive as your base weapon doesn’t cut it from wave 5 onwards. This does mean RNG can work against you, making a run feel needlessly harsh compared to others. Thankfully, your skill in aiming, trajectory management and prioritisation effects your survival rates much more – otherwise Atomic City could be unbalanced.
Once you use the war stocks, switch out your special weapons so you don’t waste them, and use some of the special features like a shield or radar, Atomic City opens up into a great game for the price point. The controls are silky smooth, the hit detection is solid and the graphics have a nuclear 80’s meets modern lightshow is distinctive due to the clever use of shadows. This is a fine variation on Missile Command that oldies like me will enjoy. It’s hard. Atomic City likes to keep you on your toes. You’ll often accidently shoot your health power-up and roll your eyes in annoyance, but you’ll come back for more. Enjoyable.
Review copy provided by developer. Out now on Steam.
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