Cool Atomic Heart artwork and Soviet robots grace an old-school FPS

When Atomic Heart first attracted attention for its first official trailer 2018 was all about the artwork. Set to a strutting Iron Curtain tango, then-unknown developer Mundfish’s surreal, retro-futuristic designs caused quite a stir: faceless, furry humanoids mixed with primitive robotics, 1950s utopianism in tatters, and a more abstract, gelatinous sort of organic horror. It was a more extravagant and colorful Soviet take on a Fallout or BioShock aesthetic with a pervertedly cheerful twist. It was natural to want to know more.

Now, just five weeks after release, the game remains steadfastly guided by art. I had the chance to play Atomic Heart‘s opening times plus a brief preview of a later section, recent; It begins with a table setting as grand as you’ve ever seen as the player is carefully guided through a spectacular tour of a flying city. It must be 40 minutes before you’re allowed to do more than admire the art team’s works and the utopian, technocratic, old-fashioned Soviet Union they envisioned. Spiral-drive drones zoom around, smiling vending machines hand out exhibits, streamlined airplane fuselages hang in an absurdly vast office lobby, and monumental Art Deco buildings tower over military parades.

But this is not the paradise we came to play. Voiceover – eschewing the potentially different effect of Russian accents in favor of the universal language of American macho video game banter – establishes the player as a special ops unit, codenamed P-3, commissioned by that society’s scientist-priest-king, Dmitry Sechenov . Sechenov hopes to herald a new age with his “neural polymer,” which will make it possible to literally inject knowledge into the bloodstream and potentially connect all human consciousnesses in the ultimate communist neural network. But there are problems on the surface: a robot uprising has thrown a magnificent research facility into chaos.

A Soviet-style poster showing some sort of mind-linking device towers over a canal street adorned with balloons, with a huge statue of a figure holding an atom in the distance

Before we go any further, let’s address the elephant in the room: Mundfish was founded in Moscow but moved its headquarters to Cyprus sometime last year when Ukraine’s invasion threatened sanctions on Russian companies. The developer’s website strives to portray it as an international operation and claims (plausibly enough, but not verifiably) to have Ukrainian team members. It has secured a French publisher, Focus Entertainment Atomic Heart.

For a year, Mundfish made no public statement about the war, either for or against it. Just prior to the publication of this article, the developer offered this very non-specific comment on twitter: “We want to assure you that Mundfish is a developer and studio with a global team focused on an innovative game and is undeniably a peace organization against violence against humans. We don’t comment on politics or religion.” It is unlikely that some players’ concerns will be allayed.

Regardless of the nationality or politics of the people who made it, there’s no denying that Atomic Heart is a deeply culturally Russian game, both in its setting and in the way it has internalized a certain flavor of late 90’s / early 2000’s hardcore PC gaming: graphically advanced, brutal, systemic and cynical in its worldview . Its cheerful use of Soviet iconography, and all the attendant echoes of Russian exceptionalism and imperialism, is hardly unique – many American and European studios have done the same, and without the specificity or imagination that Mundfish brings to the material. But in 2023 things will be different. For some it will be difficult to endure or support.

analysis, to what extent Atomic Heart examines the political dimensions of his imagery, must await verification. But the shadows of BioShock and BioShock Infiniteas well as half-life 2, tower over this game so much that it seems unlikely that it doesn’t examine them at all. Secherov is a ready-made character created by Andrew Ryan, while the research facility presents the game’s quirky, upbeat Soviet dream as a horrific wreck almost entirely deserted by humans.

A tall, dark facility, lit by red spirals on the ceiling, with shelves holding cylindrical canisters and human figures dangling high on long vines

Instead, at least in the early stages, our commando hero faces off against murderous robots and haywire machines while chatting in the disembodied voice of his neurally linked gauntlet. The gauntlet allows for some telekinesis and environmental scanning, as well as connection with neural polymers that give P-3 limited superpowers such as: B. an electric shock. But you must also dish out physical violence, using craftable and modifiable weapons of a blunt, old-fashioned kind: first a heavy ax and shotgun, later an assault rifle and a stun gun.

Atomic Heart is not afraid to be punishingly difficult. After the game’s long introduction, the brutal first combat encounter comes as a shock. Ammo is scarce, melee combat can’t really be avoided, and even the simple android enemies you face that look like jerky crash test dummies come to life pose a deadly threat. There are some stealth options, but this isn’t one sophisticated Arkane-style immersive simulation; It’s more about gritting your teeth, strapping in, and brutally enforcing the game’s systems until you get a better score. Sensibly, Mundfish doesn’t overwhelm the player with enemies, instead involving lengthy exploration spells, puzzle solving, and gathering crafting resources. These can be issued at an upgrade station, which is some sort of sex-crazed sentient closet and talks to P-3 in a barrage of crass, pornographic double entenders that are the most striking element of the script.

An android approaches in a large room with theatrical masks on the wall and tiny ballerina figurines hanging from the ceiling. In the foreground, the first-person perspective shows a hand holding a heavy bladed weapon

During the game’s opening hours, you’ll spend a lot of time in a claustrophobic underground labyrinth of corridors, laboratories, and offices, occasionally pierced by giant robotic boreworms on the rampage. In my preview, I had to jump to a limited open-world area that could be explored by car and consisted mostly of wandering enemies and entrances to more underground complexes. A sports arena served as the stage for a boss fight featuring a spinning, spherical, tentacled robot reminiscent of the Omnidroid 1000 The Incredibleswhose frenetic attack patterns were punctuated by periods of just revealing its weaknesses and sitting still.

Atomic Heart is a bit of a flashback, and that’s not all a bad thing; Nasty corridor shooters with spectacular artistic direction used to be ubiquitous, but they aren’t anymore, and neither is their brand of masochistic fun. It’ll likely do well on Game Pass, where it’s included from day one, if audiences can come to terms with its Russian roots – and if Mundfish can nail it (the build I played on PC was particularly erroneous).

Atomic Heart will be released on February 21st on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.