Games worth discovering

A welcome mix of Bioshock and Fallout | Full Review - Atomic Heart

3K View2023-02-22

Atomic Heart is a new Action-FPS game with RPG, Open World, and horror elements, set in a utopian soviet-era society gone wrong.

🟩Pros

+Finely tuned compelling combat

+Stunning graphics and level design

+Main character is full of personality

+Smooth performance and optimization

🟥Cons

-Open-world feels out of place

After a string of disappointing New AAA IP releases recently, I was worried about Atomic Heart. It’s a new IP from a new developer, and it’s an AAA title. I feared it was going to have disappointing gameplay, poor performance issues, or worse, both.

Fortunately, we finally hit the mark with Atomic Heart as it is neither of those things. Joining Dead Space and Hogwarts Legacy as recent quality titles in the AAA gaming space.

Atomic Heart is a game that completely caught me by surprise. For an upcoming new developer — Mundfish — who has only developed a now discontinued VR game so far, that hasn’t stopped them from delivering an impressive game, and they have really hit it out of the park with this one.

Standing on the shoulders of some FPS giants

The graphics are absolutely stunning, and the optimization is surprisingly impressive. The world they've created is highly immersive, and it's a cross between Bioshock in gameplay and premise, and Fallout in presentation and humor. With also traces of Wolfenstein, Half-Life, and Dead Island sprinkled onto it with an alternate post-WW2 alternate history and survival horror elements. It's set in a beautiful jaw dropping rendition of a Soviet utopian society with an atompunk twist with all the cool technology and sci-fi elements seen.

Atomic Heart puts us in the shoes of Major Nechaev, a highly skilled soldier caught in a tragic uprising featuring rogue robots and gruesome mutants. His mission is to stop this uprising and reveal what is the true cause behind all of this chaos.

A talkative protagonist

Unlike other popular FPS characters, Major Nechaev talks a lot, bursting with entertaining personality and humorous commentary about everything around him. The sarcastic banter with his AI robot adds a lot of depth to the story and makes even the otherwise boring elevator and on-a-rail sequences in the game amusing.

All these boring waiting parts comprise only a small percentage of the game however as Atomic Heart features explosive action set-pieces one after the other, both cutscene or in-game form. Giving you a blockbuster level of cinematic eye candy that looks like it wants to top everything that came before.

The soundtrack that accompanies all of this is also equally amazing, resulting in goosebumps after goosebumps because it compliments the action really well. It’s not all action though, as Atomic Heart is also a terrifying game that can also be classified as a horror-game, with the unnerving soviet environment, uncanny looking robots and monsters, and an occasional low-key jump scare moments.

The level design is amazing in this game. After wowing us with an impressive sprawling flying soviet city, it takes us to Facility 3826 — where most of the game is set — a massive research complex that not only includes indoor laboratories, narrow hallways, but also its immediate surroundings: featuring woodlands and mountains traversable in an open world fashion.

The first hour of the story is basically a glorified tram ride tour / tutorial with some pretty smooth plot exposition to get you up to speed with the lore. From there, chaos breaks loose and we’re now slowly introduced to the gameplay mechanics, starting with the melee combat.

Gameplay Analysis

Atomic Heart is not your traditional FPS game. The combat is weighty and each swing and ammo counts. You can’t just go around bunny hopping and spamming your weapons around like a madman. It is more tactical when it comes to combat.

The combat in Atomic Heart is finely tuned. Aside from having traditional FPS melee and shooter elements, You can dodge in all directions to avoid melee attacks, and you have a “Force Lightning” skill called “Shock” along with two other ability slots to equip other unlocked skills throughout the game, like Frost or Telekinesis.

Ammo is scarce and the skill abilities you use have limited uses, every combat mechanic is just in the right amount of availability to make everything well balanced and utilized.

Hits and damages, especially melee attacks, are visually seen in enemies with great detail, with slashes and cuts accurately imprinted depending on the swing of your weapon, making attacks feel more impactful and adding to the immersion.

Weapon and character upgrades are available using the resources you loot from the levels and enemies. You can customize your melee and guns and fuse them with different bonuses, including elemental damages. It adds an extra layer of strategy to the combat that is both enjoyable and rewarding.

Atomic Heart takes a page out of Resident Evil by introducing Saferooms called Break Rooms, taking you out of the danger and letting you save your progress and sometimes offer upgrades as well.

The game also rewards exploration by providing more resources for the player to use in upgrades, as well as providing bits of lore and backstory by way of voice diaries. Platforming elements are present, but lightly implemented with some sections requiring you to scale walls or obstacles and avoid environmental hazards.

There are also all kinds of lock-picking puzzles from the typical Bethesda formula to more novel ways of hacking doors, providing a welcome breather from all the robot and mutant mashing.

Stealth elements are also present in the game, sometimes requiring you to use stealth in order to avoid unnecessary confrontations or to avoid bringing in more enemies than you need.

Open-World is not always a good thing

After a few hours in, when you unlock the open-world section, the game hits a lull and shows signs of over ambitiousness, the open-world mechanic feels forced; there’s nothing compelling to do in it besides being a massive area that just exists as a barren playground.

You’re mostly going to be interested in the narrative anyway, in which the open-world nature gets in the way of. Atomic Heart is at its best when it is a linear FPS experience like Bioshock or Half-Life, it strayed too much on the Fallout and Dead Island side with the inclusion of open-world, and the formula just doesn’t work.

Besides the lackluster open-world, most of the gameplay elements are well designed, from the combat system, to the level progression. Even the looting is immensely satisfying and user friendly. You no longer need to painstakingly press the loot button on every container or item you see, you just hold it and it will automatically pull in, open all containers, and satisfyingly suck all lootable items like a mini Black Hole.

Technical Performance

From my experience with my setup of i7-8700k, 32GB and RTX 3080, installed on an NVMe SSD. Atomic Heart loads fast, and performs very smoothly even when the settings are maxed out. Even on the Steam Deck, it can perform at around 60fps when using the default setting. Honestly, after all the recent release disappointments regarding poor PC optimization, seeing a game that looks and performs great as this at launch, is truly a sight to behold.

Conclusion:

I am thoroughly impressed with Atomic Heart. The beautiful graphics, immersive world, engaging story, and finely tuned combat make for a fantastic gaming experience. This game is a testament to what even a new developer can accomplish with the right amount of talent, passion, and time.

It tried to do everything on its first try, and it got the majority of it right, delivering an impressive game on all fronts: technical, storytelling, and gameplay. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good FPS game.

Mentioned games