Atomic Heart | Review

Initial Release Date: February 21, 2023

Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows

Developer: Mundfish

Genres: First-Person Shooter, Action, Adventure

Publishers: Focus Entertainment, Mundfish, VK holding, 4Divinity

Engine: Unreal Engine 5, Unreal Engine 4

SPOILERS WARNING!

Introduction

Atomic Heart’s developers really wants the player to know that they love Bioshock. There is even welcome to rapture-like sequence near the end of the game.

In my opinion, Atomic Heart actually has better overall gameplay than any Bioshock BUT. With that said, Atomic Heart really isn’t all that much like Bioshock at all. A big swing and a miss! Regardless, Mundfish made a great game that’s worth paying for.

Atomic Heart is it’s own game. But let it be known there are hints of Bioshock, Far Cry, Metro, STALKER and even Crysis seen throughout it’s DNA. Atomic Heart does some amazing things but at the same time has issues I’ll get into below. So keep reading. CRISPY CRITTERS!

Presentation

Atomic Heart is a first person semi-open world action adventure game that takes place in a futuristic-like Russia set in the 1950’s. Atomic Heart’s presentation is mostly positive due to it’s semi-high quality overall presentation.

Granted, the dialogue in the beginning was a little corny at times. For your references I played Atomic Heart via Gamepass on my Xbox Series X. I did notice some pop-in at distance. I also noticed enemies having major slow-down issues that broke immersion.

When you analyze Atomic Heart as a whole it’s very ambitious for a video game. You have an open world with underground labs that are fully explorable with hours of gameplay. The protagonist and NPCs have dialogue trees. You can craft and upgrade weapons.

Gameplay is dynamic and won’t be the same for any two players due to great and useful polymer abilities. Atomic Heart is a single player adventure game in the vain of METRO, Bioshock, Crysis, STALKER etc. It has that semi-open world exploration.

Atomic Heart has story with a few choices. It has true exploration. It has great action set-piece sequences. Atomic Heart has so much in it and going for it. It just makes sense that it has some technical issues as well.

Performance-wise Atomic Heart supposed to be Dynamic 4K at 60 frames per second. While inside interiors it does dip quite a few times. Like I said earlier, when in the open world machines do slow down when loading in from a distance.

So overall, I’ll say Atomic Heart is a pretty damn ambitious videogame Mundfish made. Technical issues are there throughout. Bugs-wise I did get stuck in walls a few times having to reload from the main menu.

Story

Atomic Heart takes place in 1950’s Soviet Russia where Dr. Dmitry Sergeyevich Sechenov discovers a special polymer that catapults Russia into the forefront of all technologies most notably robot technologies.

To make a long story short at the beginning of Atomic Heart the machines that help do everything for humans turn rogue and combative. You play as Major Sergey Alekseyevich Nechaev, ex soldier saved by Dr. Dmitry Sergeyevich Sechenov from war injuries.

I must say as a protagonist Sergey was pretty damn dense. This guy was naive throughout most of the game. Anyways, Dimitry orders Sergey to hunt down Viktor Petrov who’s the cause for the machine’s malfunctioning.

Char-les is P-3’s main assistant who’s a special sentient AI Glove with polymer powers. Let’s just say at some point in the story you learn that Char-les really is Chariton Zakharov who’s Dr. Dmitry Sergeyevich Sechenov’s old friend.

Char-les manipulates P-3 by putting him into “Limbo” realms while controlling him. After catching Petrov and fixing the machines you have a end game choice with Granny Zina.

You can either kill or not kill Dr. Dmitry Sergeyevich Sechenov. If you kill him you get a bad ending. Char-les’s intentions all along were to backstab Sechenov and usher in the AI robotic age destroying humanity. Sechenov wants the opposite.

Other characters of note are Larisa Filatova wife of Petrov who helps P-3. You also have Granny Zina who’s P-3’s mother-In-Law. I thought the overall story was okay with bad writing.

The story did try to come off as a Bioshock Andrew Ryan manipulating Jack clone but failed. I saw the similarities. Bioshock was better written than Atomic Heart plain and simple. If Atomic Heart had better writing the story could of been really good.

Gameplay

Atomic Heart shines like a diamond in regards to it’s gameplay and it’s loop within it’s gameplay designed world. Atomic Heart features a special glove called Char-les with polymer abilities that are actually useful and are dynamic in battle. You can also drive cars to traverse the open world.

I played so many games where you unlock an elemental ability or power or whatever and it’s not truly useful within combat. In Atomic Heart much of P-3’s and Char-les abilities are very useful when fighting in Atomic Heart. Finding Safe Rooms scattered throughout the world are called NORA stations.

NORA Stations let you upload weapon schematics to craft, upgrade, unlock abilities, craft every type of item or disassemble them for materials. You loot materials everywhere in Atomic Heart pretty much. Think STALKER.

The base of Atomic Heart’s combat mechanics center around melee weapons, guns and glove abilities. You can do both at the same time (glove + weapon). I used polymer shield while shooting guns or swinging a melee weapon much of the time. Enemy variety was good featuring small, medium, flying to gigantic robots with weak points.

I played on normal difficulty and died a few times but it’s not THAT difficult. True. Enemies such as Plyusch which are an organic polymer enemy can be annoying. Yes there are mutant humanoids and plant-like creatures to fight in Atomic Heart. Not just machines.

Combat is dynamic and flows well when properly equipped in battle. You have consumable items you can use in battle for health or adrenaline and energy. You have a few different melee weapons and guns. You also have your special glove powers.

When outside you can use terminal towers to call HAWKs down which shut down all robots in a area. You also have special combat labs scattered about that let you get the best loot. Think dungeons with puzzles and combat.

Atomic Heart has some of the best puzzles I played in a videogame so far in 2023. From the lockpick hacking of doors. To the door grid laser puzzles. To the main mission puzzles I really enjoyed the puzzles overall in Atomic Heart.

None of the puzzles were super difficult. Just designed in a interesting way. Boss-fights featuring huge machines were always a spectacle and well designed in a way that featured challenge and quick wits. My favorite bosses were The Twins, Natasha, Hedgie and Belyash.

Atomic Heart’s single player campaign is really good. It seemed at times like I was playing Half Life due to it’s good puzzles, enemy encounters and atmosphere. We don’t get many single player story driven first person games these days. This matters because Atomic Heart has great combat gameplay.

Visuals/Graphics

Atomic Heart has amazing art. It’s imaginative and eye catching throughout. There is above ground and below ground sections both looked striking from a visual standpoint. As for graphics and textures it looked really good on my Xbox Series X but not top-tier for current gen standards which I don’t think we seen yet.

Machine and organic creature designs were really impressive. Characters looked really good in cutscenes but less so in game for some reason. To me, Atomic Heart stands out as a visual force for it’s art. Overall, a really good looking current gen game.

Sound/Music

Save for some bad dialogue choices I enjoyed the music when fighting bosses and exploring the world. The main problem was sound mixing in Atomic Heart. It’s all over the damn place. One second Granny Zina and Char-les are talking at the same time then both stop.

Then I’m noticing I am walking in a muffled quite world with killer robots barely making sounds or footsteps. Some music choices were odd like playing that “Yes Boss” “Oh la la” song after meeting Granny Zina. Like what?

Tips and Tricks

This is my first time adding Tips and Tricks into my game reviews. Just sayin. Okay for Atomic Heart you need to know a few things. Craft and add Cartridge Modules to your melee and firearms for fire, ice or electricity damage.

You have to use the weapon wheel to add the cartridge to the desired weapon. Elemental damage is a big plus in some fights trust me. The main missions are kinda linear in design. Regardless, explore as much as you can and complete those special labs for the best loot.

Best abilities and skills I used were Polymer shield and Mass Gravity Lift. Max their skill trees out and kick some ass. Bossfights usually have weakspots to attack so use the glove to analyze them in combat.

Final Verdict

Atomic Heart is a great single player first person action adventure game with above average gameplay and a great artstyle. It does have technical issues via Gamepass on Xbox Series X. Writing wasn’t good either. Story could’ve been better.

With that said, if you liked Bioshock, Metro, Crysis, STALKER or Far Cry buy it. It has a lot of content and a linear 16 or 17 hour story campaign with many hours of side content. Later – Written by Jason not ChatGPT.