How to fix Atomfall's annoying Xbox audio bug (Update: Rebellion release hotfix)

Atomfall is a surprisingly fantastic open world action adventure game, with a heavy emphasis on exploration. The atmospheric breakout hit from Rebellion of Sniper Elite fame takes players into the picturesque Lake District of the northern English countryside. It's the 1950s, and a strange nuclear experiment has led to an entire valley being quarantined off — you're trapped in with the soldiers and locals, all of whom have gone a bit crazy, if they haven't mutated, that is.

The game is definitively "AA" in budgetary terms, but it's polished where it counts. Great combat, crisp visuals, and an intriguing story carry the game forward. A vast hand-crafted world boasts mountains of exploration opportunities, too. There is, however, one particularly annoying bug on Xbox.

As of writing, Atomfall's audio can randomly cut out, leaving you without sound. In a game that emphasizes stealth action and atmospherics, not having sound can be a bit of a drag. So far, Rebellion doesn't seem to have acknowledged the bug, and we've reached out to see if there's a fix coming.

In the meanwhile, my colleague (shoutout Jen) discovered what seems to be a permanent workaround. In this Xbox Help Game Guide, we'll go through how to solve it.

How to fix Atomfall's audio bug on Xbox

The fix for this issue is essentially setting the auto-save timeout to 10 minutes. By default, it's set to 3 minutes, and it seems that any type of saving event can trigger the sound to cut out until you reboot the game. If you set the save time out to 10 minutes specifically, for some reason, it seems you can now save whenever you like without triggering the bug.

Note: Certain auto-save events that result as part of the main story may still trigger the audio bug, even with this method. Once the bug happens, the only fix it to restart the game by force closing it from the Xbox dashboard.

1. While in game or on the main menu screen, go to the options menu. In-game, press the view button (two squares) on your Xbox controller to open the pause menu, where options is.
2. Inside the options menu, the game section should already be selected.
3. Set the auto save frequency to 10 minutes.
4. Exit the options menu by pressing B.
5. Viola, you should now be able to save without triggering the audio bug.
   
   Note: As of writing, the only way to "fix" the audio bug once it has happened is to close out of the game, and manually reboot it by selecting it from the Xbox dashboard, hitting the view key, and closing the game.

Atomfall is unexpectedly awesome

Atomfall might lack the prestige of STALKER but it's undoubtedly a good alternative if you've either maxed out STALKER 2 already, or are still waiting for further patches and updates. This capable shooter gives players a very impressive degree of freedom, and its hand-crafted locales and thoughtful exploration systems are as immersive as they are fun.

Atomfall is available now on Xbox, PS5, and Windows PC, and is up on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate as well.