It’s hard to imagine that we’re nearly six years since the initial reveal of Atomic Heart; a game that at times felt like it was never actually going to come out and was more tech demo than actual game. But lo and behold, it’s 2023 and we’re actually able to play it.
Atomic Heart
Developer: Mundfish
Price: $60
Platform: PC, PS5, XSX
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
Set in an alternate 1955, Atomic Heart sees a Soviet Union that’s become a technological powerhouse and utopia. Unfortunately, days before the launch of a breakthrough new project every robot begins to malfunction, killing the populace, and you’re tasked with stopping it. Most of the game is you talking with your glove’s AI “CHAR-LES”, or Charles, and while Agent P-3 (the protagonist) and Charles develop a fun rapport throughout the game, the remaining cast of characters function more like a revolving door of brief appearances to remind you that you’re not alone in this game. Characters also spend a lot of time telling you how great the Soviet Union is, and how much of a utopia it is, but you’re not really ever shown that besides a brief moment. Narratively, Atomic Heart has an interesting hook especially when some more psychology horror elements start to tease their way into the plot. Contemporarily however, it’s a bit uncomfortable listening to your protagonist (almost cartoonishly) boast about how amazing Russia is when there’s a very real tension with the country right now. It’s incredibly heavy handed with it and has you constantly wondering when/if the shoe is going to drop on the eye-rollingly constant Soviet Union praising.
The zone you’ll be causing a ruckus in is called “Facility 3826”, a pretty large area that you’re free to explore at your leisure besides the few moments you’re sent into linear buildings. If Atomic Heart’s initial trailers gave you strong Bioshock vibes, that’s probably on purpose because the entirety of the game feels very Bioshock-lite. You’ve got a suite of weapons to use from Frankenstein’d melee weapons to traditional shotguns and even railguns. They all feel great to use for the most part and it’s a treat seeing how the robotic or fungus infected enemies shred apart as you attack them. Interestingly, Atomic Heart features a secondary ammo system with energy weapons. These will pull from an energy pool that recharges over time. Using melee weapons also adds to your energy so there’s a fun juggling act of using each of three weapon types when appropriate so that you’re always on the offensive.
All of these weapons can be customized and improved at upgrade stations where you can attach new mods you’ll find and level them up using resources you’ll scavenge around the world. The best part is that any upgrades you purchase, can be refunded for the full amount for no cost. This allows you to play around to see which mods you might prefer on a weapon without having to commit. They aren’t superficial upgrades either, I found a mod that changed my mace’s heavy attack from a basic slam to this whirlwind of death that sent the blades embedded in the mace flying out to telekinetically attack enemies indefinitely as long as I had the energy to do so. You’ll be able to find these special mods around the game’s world, but most are found in testing stations that you’ll find off the beaten path. These places (also called Polygons) feature three sets of logic, platforming or combat puzzles that you’ll go through for increasingly higher rewards. None of the puzzles are particularly difficult, but they’re a nice change of pace and these areas don’t take too long to go through either. The game will even tell you what rewards you’ll find in each Polygon, making it a total breeze to focus on the mods you want for a specific weapon.
The highlight of Atomic Heart’s combat however is the polymer glove you have that allows you to unleash a variety of powers. You can fire electricity, spray a cone of freezing ice, use telekinesis and more. All of these powers run off brief cooldowns, even faster after a few upgrades to a point where the combat moved so quick and frenetic some fights almost felt like I was playing DOOM. Also, there’s just something endlessly entertaining about levitating a dozen enemies, only to slam them violently into the ground. And like the weapon upgrades, any polymer skills you purchase can be instantly refunded for their full amount whenever you’re at an upgrade station. It’s something I really wish more games would adopt, since it allowed me to comfortably invest points into skills I probably never would have tried otherwise.
However as cool as using the polymer powers are, it’s a bit frustrating that you have to return to an upgrade station in order to swap out your equipped powers. Some of the powers are very situational and it can be really annoying when you run into a fight that requires a particular power you didn’t bring along. The game is even aware of this, citing it as a “strategic choice” you have to make, but for a game that comes off as very experiment friendly (in regards to how the refund upgrade system works) it seems weirdly strict about this one.
A big issue with the combat that kept rearing its ugly head was how the game handles its scanning system. Agent P-3 is equipped with a scanner that effectively lets you “detective vision” important items nearby. You’ll see enemies, items and terminals even through walls. More importantly, you’ll be able to scan an enemy to see what their weaknesses or resistances are; the issue here is that you can only scan an enemy when you’re within direct eyesight of them. So even though you can see them through a wall with your scanner, you can’t actually scan them until you are actually looking at them and the game doesn’t pause when doing so. It’s a backwards concept because having to get out of cover to scan an enemy allows them to promptly start attacking you, worse yet when you have to pull a scan during a hectic boss fight. It’s a mechanic I’d like to interact with more, but at a point I just stopped scanning enemies because it got me into more trouble than it was worth.
One thought that kept coming to my mind in my thirty or so hours with the game was that I just wished there was more to fully invest myself in the game’s world. Besides the puzzles in the testing stations, there’s no real reason to go out exploring. And the only company you have to keep is your AI glove and the surprisingly chatty dead bodies littered throughout (it makes sense trust me). It would have been fun to see how regular folk are reacting to a robot revolt instead of just your character’s singular view on things.
The Final Word
Despite the questionably tasteless tone its narrative takes at times, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Atomic Heart.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
