Atomic Heart has a unique premise, a strong setting, and an interesting player character. At its core, the game has a promising story and several design elements that make it stand out. However, as players progress, they will realize that the game stretches out its best and worst parts until nothing good remains.
The gameplay itself is bloated and monotonous. Players should expect a playtime of around 25 hours to beat the game. During that time, they will discover that less than half of it involves something interesting or fun. The rest is nothing but frustrating bloat. The result is a game that can be best summarized as an incongruent mess.
Story and Character Development
The story has its moments. Players step into the shoes of Major Sergei Nechaev, also known as P-3. He is a special assignments officer assigned to USSR hero Dmitry Sechenov. Nechaev wears an AI-controlled glove named Charles, which gives him someone to talk to and unlocks some special abilities throughout the game.
Sechenov is preparing for the launch of something called Kollective 2.0, and P-3 must discover and end a conspiracy that would prevent the launch. Along the way, a variety of secrets and relationships are unearthed, and there are a few exciting moments created out of the chaos.
However, chaos is woven into everything else related to the story. P-3 is pulled in every possible direction, and every character in the game is manipulating him. Everyone wants him to accept some truth, but none of them are upfront with the truth. This creates some seriously confusing dialogue, as P-3 finds himself playing both sides.
The back and forth between him and Charles flips so much that it’s impossible to ascertain what P-3 or Charles believes. The entire story is predicated on a choice between two evils, one that is bad and one that is worse, and players are incessantly shuffled between the two. That is an interesting setup, but by the end of Atomic Heart, none of it pays off.
Gameplay
Atomic Heart’s combat and gameplay, on paper, should be more than enough to overcome its distracting story. There are some survival and stealth elements, the need to find blueprints and resources, an open world sandbox behind Atomic Heart’s Facility 3826 setting, a unique “polymerization” of the world, mechanical and mutant threats, a wide variety of weapons and combat abilities, and more – all of which prove Atomic Heart is ambitious.
But in trying to achieve so much, the game ends up adding an equal amount of filler. For example, there are a few interesting things to do in the open world like finding new weapon blueprints and an activity called Training Grounds, but they are so infrequent that it eventually becomes uninteresting to pursue them.
With glove abilities, a variety of guns and element mods, and a plethora of enemies, the combat in Atomic Heart should have been engaging at the very least, but it isn’t. Whether it’s a SHOK ability, a simple shotgun, or something explosive, there is no strength behind any attack. Sometimes enemies will get knocked back, but most robots are capable of shaking it off and advancing undeterred. Players just have to whack away until the enemy, seemingly arbitrarily, falls to the ground.
Meanwhile, the game introduces plenty of bosses that seem interesting at first, but by the second or third, players will realize that they all essentially use the same strategy. As such, they end up being repetitive and boring.
Graphics and Audio
Atomic Heart has a unique setting, and its visual style is compelling. The world is stunning and full of detail.