Rise of Atom is a management game that puts you in control of Chad Ironjaw, CEO of a sprawling research and development empire. From his luxurious office he gazes out over Millenniumopolis, a city of gargantuan Art Deco skyscrapers studded with gargoyles and neon lights that pierce through the clouds. Each day begins the same way: elevator doors part with a hiss, Chad takes his seat, and his ever loyal AI assistant Helena briefs him on the agenda while a radio host named Johnny Hertz launches into another opinionated broadcast. From then on, you run the company however you please.
The choices branch in wildly different directions. You might steer the empire toward marvels of progress like robotic servants, flying cars, towering vertical farms or interstellar ships, ushering humanity into a golden age. Or the government's deep coffers might prove too enticing, leading you to design swarms of surveillance drones and bone liquefying sonic weapons for riot control. The ambitions can stretch further still, beyond profit and into outright world domination by force. Science in this game has no morality of its own. How Chad Ironjaw wields it is entirely your call.
The research possibilities lean hard into retro futurist absurdity. Compact fission and fusion reactors small enough to fit in a home basement sit alongside personal jetpacks, vacuum levitating trains and cybernetic implants that enhance intelligence, strength and longevity. You can hire distinguished scientists and train their skills, create a dream scientist in a vat from stolen DNA and extract his brain to boost productivity, or skip the biology entirely and use supercomputers instead. Advanced spacecraft and orbital habitats built to survive the harshest corners of the Solar System share a tech tree with stealth suits, robotic spy flies, truth serums and pacifying pheromones, because a calm citizen is apparently a happy citizen.
Quests test your moral compass at every turn. You might engage in philanthropic endeavors or ignore them, prevent mutually assured destruction or let it unfold, save mankind from famine and plague or shrug it off. Government requests for backdoors arrive with a tone that suggests cooperation is strongly advised. The spectrum runs from humanitarian savior to corporate tyrant to aspiring world conqueror, and Rise of Atom seems perfectly content letting you be any of them.