After more than half a decade of development, Atomic Heart is here as the first title from developer Mundfish. This BioShock-inspired shooter is an impressive debut in many ways, and it openly flaunts its influences – for better or for worse. The game’s dazzling world design, exceptional production values, and fast-paced combat make for a solid campaign, but the derivative storyline and often painful writing insist on dragging it down.
Atomic Heart’s premise is one of its most intriguing elements. The game is set in an alternate history of the Soviet Union becoming the world’s leading superpower after World War II thanks to Facility 3826’s scientific innovations. The player takes on the role of Agent P-3, an agent under the command of Soviet genius Dr. Dmitry Sechenov. When Sechenov’s latest social experiment goes awry, P-3 is tasked with fighting through the facility’s rampaging robots and murderous mutants to uncover the truth.
P-3 has access to uniquely upgradable weapons and elemental abilities, but the combat is less BioShock-like than it sounds. Instead of stealth, hacking, and environmental traps, Atomic Heart calls for faster and more reactive shooting to curb attacker outnumbers. Enemies have special weaknesses that can only be exploited with clever combos, like covering a vegetable mutant in Accelerator Gel before setting it ablaze with incendiary projectiles. Combat is both dangerous and rewarding, and the variety of opponents keeps combat exciting.
The world of Facility 3826 is also magnificently realized with Atomic Heart’s sublime artistic direction. From the first scene, the game inspires with its exceptional production values. Meticulous attention to detail is evident in everything from the communist architecture to the internal components of robots, and it makes the game’s what-if scenario seem genuinely plausible. The vast overworld of the Kazakh mountains also feels big without being empty; many surprising mysteries and varied environments complement the melee combat and spatial puzzles of the subterranean levels.
However, Atomic Heart’s biggest problem is the writing. Most of the dialogue ranges from irritating to downright unbearable. P-3 is an angry soldier who constantly yells, swears, and uses mindless sarcasm. He talks a lot – and mostly to complain about something. His interactions with the sexually frustrated crafting machine are particularly painful, and the rest of the cast isn’t much better. The script is not provocative; it just covers up a lack of substantial character development.
Unfortunately, the actual plot is also a big disappointment. Most of this is told through abrupt info dumps, which quickly undermines any sense of mystery and makes all events incredibly predictable. The story spends much of its time clumsily rehashing many of BioShock’s themes with a Soviet twist. Unfortunately, the best writing is hidden in the various terminals in the game, which contain most of the world building and connect other characters together.
On the one hand, Atomic Heart is a good game in its own right. The fun and frenetic shooting, superb visual design, and intricate level of detail in its world make for an experience well worth your time. On the other hand, it could have been so much more. The story and characters just don’t live up to the game’s thought-provoking premise, and some better writing would have done wonders. Nonetheless, Atomic Heart is still an exciting and memorable first appearance from Mundfish.
