We were immediately drawn to Atomic Heart's unique visual flair and intriguing context when it was first introduced at the E3 2018. Since 2017, more than five years have been spent developing Atomic Heart, and finally, the first Mundfish game is out. Few individuals throughout social media have tried to unfairly boycott the Cyprus-based company in response to the Russian-Ukraine war, but that didn't stop Mundfish team from working on the project. Although there was still some uncertainty about it, while many had also dubbed it a clone of the BioShock series, let me be clear: it is not.

Some parts of the game signify smallish details from BioShock, but most design decisions are introduced innovatively. This first-person shooter looks great, as promised, but the question is whether or not it will be as good as it promises to be as a whole. Although the game doesn't bring anything groundbreaking in terms of its design decisions, it still offers some delight and sighting. It has a rather thought-provoking narrative, gameplay, and perks, but it seems as though the developers have tried to do a lot of different things at once, which causes the game to almost always be in conflict with itself.

In Atomic Heart, you take the role of Major Sergey Nechayev, aka codenamed Agent P-3, a resident of a Soviet Empire where polymer technology developed by Doctor Sechenov has led to significant scientific breakthroughs. It's set in a parallel universe where the Soviet Union developed cutting-edge technology decades before its actual time. After WWI, the USSR gathered its brightest minds in science and made a groundbreaking discovery: neuro-polymers.

Technology in the areas of transportation, farming, weaponry, and manufacturing has progressed at a rate that is hard to fathom. In 1955, you make an appearance to aid Sechenov with one of his biomechanical experiments, but all the robots quickly become violent toward the humans, and all hell breaks loose. You must find a solution before the release of the upcoming Collective 2.0, a human-controlled robot operating system. You explore the massive facility 3826 grounds, shooting and hitting with an experimental AI glove called Charles in hand.

Even though Atomic Heart's story is intriguing and full of clever ideas, the pacing may cause some events to drag on for far too long. You face off against merciless robots and the results of failed experiments while also grappling with Sergey's rapidly deteriorating mental health. Charles has a pivotal role in the story, and this polymer glove is a major plot point with interesting twists.

With the help of Charles, you have access to a wide range of superhuman abilities, including electricity, the ability to move objects, reduce gravity, freeze, etc., although in their most basic forms, they all serve to slow or stop enemies. The polymer glove not only helps in combat; but is also used to complete minigames, scan the area, and loot items. Outside the game's mechanics, the glove never stops talking to the protagonist and is compelled to pull him out of his isolation.

The story's twists and turns are still engaging, but the writing could have been improved with some concision. Atomic Heart encourages players to become wholly engrossed in the world of the game by constructing a believable and appealing perspective on the world, and the effort seems favorable overall. A neural network called Collective 2.0 is about to be released, and the streets and alleys of the floating city of Chelomei have been decked out in festive decorations to celebrate. The initial experience may seem familiar to you because of some similarities with the Bioshock game, but it fades away soon after the gameplay begins. There's something compelling about the utopia that makes you want to explore further. As you take in the breathtaking views, you'll definitely find yourself feeling a tinge of excitement.

Atomic Heart is a first-person action game with deep stories and, at the same time, an open-world RPG. There is a lot of restriction on movement and exploration at the beginning of the game, but it's a good thing that the game follows a pattern that most of us are already familiar with. Though the initial reaction to the game's mechanics doesn't feel too desirable. It's a little off-putting to move around more to perform the first few attacks, and it's only going to get stranger from here onward. It also takes you some time to reach the game's free exploration area, but once it does, you'll be able to break the gameplay into exploration and narrative.

The game's dedicated dodge mechanic will aid you in this endeavor, allowing you to successfully avoid most attacks if you time them correctly. There are also visual cues to help you time your dodging and counterattacks perfectly. Even though you're going to dismantle tons of malfunctioned robots, the gameplay doesn't emphasize killing enemies but gathering materials, discovering new areas of the map, and creating new items. It's a rather challenging adventure; the enemies are resilient to bullets, they tend to attack in packs, and ammunition is limited.

You can create new weapons or upgrade existing ones whenever you come across one of the many crafting machines. In order to level up Sergey, you need to scavenge for materials in storage lockers, chests, and on fallen robots, and then use Nora's vending machines to make and upgrade weapons, produce ammunition, learn new abilities, and acquire polymers. These dispensers are plentiful, but the items and resources needed to upgrade Sergey are limited. You need to look for endless supplies of items that can be stashed away in any given wardrobe or chest of drawers.

You'll also need to do a lot of exploring throughout all the facilities to find these items, and this will become crucial as we progress because our enemies are getting tougher, and there are more of them. Sadly, the movement speed, including jumping and climbing is disappointingly sluggish despite all skill unlocks. They're not as nimble or quick as the character. Hand-to-hand combat presents its own set of issues, most notably an extremely high barrier to success when trying to strike an opponent due to the absence of a lock onto enemies feature.

Thus, unlike what may have been expected based on the game's genre, Atomic Heart's primary focus is not on combat but rather on exploring the research facility, as mentioned earlier. You will be able to sneak up on the weaker enemies and disable them immediately without having to engage in combat. Though effective against weaker foes, this strategy rarely succeeds because the enemies quickly catch on to your presence. In the event of a physical confrontation, your options will be restricted at first.

To begin, the first weapon you have access to that can be used to defeat the robots is an axe, a soon, a shotgun, albeit one with very few rounds. As the game progresses, you'll be able to upgrade various close- and long-range weapons, as well as craft new shotguns out of scratch using salvaged parts. This is inspiring because each enemy kind has its own weakness and strengths; you are quickly presented with a conundrum of how to best put our arsenal to use to defeat them.

The fight sequences are fun, with Sergey using a variety of weapons against their enemies, including Polymer abilities. The Shok ability is the first one you can use, and additional abilities that can be unlocked include a frost beam, shield, flammable polymer, and more. Two more available slots for new abilities can be activated with LB and toggled on and off according to your preference. Shok is useful not only for stunning and shocking enemies but also for several other purposes. In addition to providing energy for machines, it can be used to reverse the magnetic polarity of objects. These features are primarily employed for solving puzzles, though they come into play in combat on rare occasions, particularly during boss battles.

In the side quests, you'll have to rely on interesting and challenging puzzles. The abundance of puzzles was an unexpected and welcome invention. It's not just the sheer number of locks we have to pick; the sheer number of doors we have to unlock using only our ingenuity is equally mind-boggling. While some are as easy as matching colors to unlock a door, more complex ones can span an entire hangar, necessitating a thorough investigation of the area to determine the triggers for each switch. In their own ways, each of these keeps a unique visual style and set of features worth exploring.

The weapons you build from scratch are the game's strongest suit and most exciting feature. Depending on the wide variety of difficult situations, each allows being strengthened by upgrading it with materials you find. In addition to your weapons, you also have access to different abilities. Ability components can include a wide range of effects, from enhanced stamina and speed to the power to levitate objects, shields, polymer jets, the ability to freeze enemies, and even electric shock. The game's depth is greatly enhanced by the variety of choices available.

Even though you begin the game with nothing more than an axe, you will eventually find plans that will allow you to craft more powerful clubs and long-range weapons. In this context, you'll also notice the skill tree-like upgrade system for Charles. Powers like telekinesis and the frost ray are just some of the abilities you'll pick up. In place of gaining experience points, however, the game uses a collectible currency earned from the tidy looting of defeated enemies. There is a lot of depth to the tech and skill trees, along with the weapon upgrades, but the most significant part is that the game doesn't penalize you for respeccing or switching modifications.

Between fighting and solving puzzles, you'll need to roam over the captured territories, scavenging for supplies and making your way to the next objective. Even though Atomic Heart appears to be an open-world game with plenty of options to explore and complete side quests, this segment is a significant letdown. To make matters worse, robots seem everywhere, making it all too easy to get into ammo-draining fights or be spotted by the countless cameras installed around the open exploration zone. Given the incredible effort put into world-building, it's a shame that conserving ammo and resources by simply racing to the next objective and ignoring exploration is the best course of action.

Due to this, the gameplay itself has an odd, moderate impression that detracts from the overall experience. Sergey as a protagonist, isn't very likable; he is impatient, scolds easily, and has a short fuse. Even though this behavior is clarified in a pretty undeniable way at the end of the game, it remains somewhat strange at first but starts to cause a stir eventually.

Also, the game's difficulty could be more suitable for newcomers to this genre. You'll be frequently pinned down by the robots and get punched to death, even when the difficulty is set to its lowest. Obviously, the bosses are incredibly difficult to defeat, and they often appear out of nowhere, and you should expect multiple deaths here. For seasoned players, the game should last between 20 and 25 hours which could've easily been 40+ hours if you were to explore the world without much trouble.

Atomic Heart's artistic orientation isn't groundbreaking, but the game's visuals are striking and effective. Whether you're exploring a new area or fighting off a new enemy, everything looks and feels outstanding, and the world has its own distinctiveness that makes it all the more appealing to observe. All of the enemies, starting with the most basic to the bosses, have been designed with proper attention.

Sadly, compared to the gorgeous setting and expertly crafted robots, the cutscenes and character faces are the only visual letdown. The same cannot be said for the audio, especially the dialogue. Although the game has its share of dark and bizarre moments, you may be impressed by how much humor is actually present. You might encounter a few glitches here and there during the gameplay, but nothing major to hinder your overall experience with the game.

While not flawless, Mundfish has succeeded mainly in their debut game. Gorgeous settings with a distinct sense of style and surroundings set Atomic Heart apart, especially its unforgettable robot twins. Despite its interesting concepts and combat mechanism, however, it suffers from technical and pacing issues that lessen its overall quality. Whether or not you want the game will ultimately depend on your expectations and how you adjust to its gameplay features. If you leave the open-world exploration apart, Atomic Heart is a fun game with captivating gameplay that has stunning visuals.
 

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Editor, NoobFeed