Which is even more of a shame, given some of the marvellously designed arenas. Your primary method of interacting with the world of Atomic Heart is to blast holes in it, which again, can be mightily enjoyable one minute only to become a slog of attrition the next. Stealth is technically an option, but enemies are usually too eagle-eyed and sound-sensitive to fall victim to it, and it’s not really a style you can spec for with upgrades. There’s almost no interesting way in which these powers interplay with the environment or each other: they’re mechanics without systems, if you’ll forgive the immersive sim lingo. While the cryo freeze effect looks nice, it’s ultimately an inferior crowd control tool to Mass Telekinesis, and not one but two of the others are only good for boosting the elemental damage of Shok and certain upgraded weapons. The always-equipped Shok, a jolt of electricity, never stops being useful but the only ability I really cared to upgrade was the telekinesis lift. The selection of glove powers is disappointing too. Not to mention a drain on already limited ammo and health supplies, necessitating yet more drawer-rummaging. Fail to prioritise these irritants over the ones that are actively firing rockets at your feet, and a previously exhilarating dust-up can become a chore. Worse, both robotic and organic enemies can replenish their ranks mid-battle, either through repair drones or flying parasites creating more flower monsters out of the facility’s dead. The high durability of most enemies – even cannon fodder humanoids take several headshots – can make for a fun challenge when it’s, say, 1v3, but you’re often facing twice that many or more, and there’s only so much meat you can grind before excitement turns to frustration. The first is that Atomic Heart stretches out certain encounters far too long for its own good. I ended up as a highly mobile skirmisher, using extra dodge charges to zip in and out of buckshot range and deploying the glove’s Mass Telekinesis power to drag foes aloft for breathing room.Īll the components for a great shooter are here, then, but there are problems. The upgrade system, fuelled by tat scavenged from the facility’s many drawers, also successfully nudges you into adopting a personal playstyle without the sense that you’re being forced. Watching for attack telegraphs is crucial, and getting in some return hits after a perfectly timed dodge never fails to satisfy. Much of this is technically sound: ballistic weapons have a delightful kick to them, with shotgun blasts sending rogue bots tumbling backwards or scything them clean in half, and once you get a feel for dodging, even one-on-one duels can thrill. When it doesn’t, though, the gap between what Atomic Heart gets right and what it gets wrong looks wider than Russia itself. Like I say, it’s ambitious, and a lot of the time it all works quite well. Horror turns to open-ended action, which turns to puzzling, which turns to corridor shooting, which turns to psychological drama, and so on. But there’s more than a hint of Half-Life 2 here as well, in the way that Atomic Heart gives each chapter a certain flavour before dropping it and moving on to the next. The stonking spectacle of Facility 3826, as the mountainous base is known, is a match for some of the best views throughout Rapture and Columbia, and the first few hours in particular lean into a similar survival horror feel to the original BioShock’s early stages. This one’s suffering from a combined robot uprising/zombifying plantlife outbreak that the brass would rather keep quiet, and they’ve deemed one bloke with some guns, improvised melee weapons and Plasmid-like glove powers enough to quell it. After a gorgeous intro aboard a flying city, the first of many BioShock series influences, irritable special agent P-3 (that’s you) and his snarking AI-powered glove (that’s your hand) are deposited into one of the massive science complexes that made this USSR even more of powerhouse than it was in reality. It’s the debut game of just one, Mundfish, and as a first attempt it’s impressively ambitious. Of course, Atomic Heart was not made by several teams. For a shooter set within an alternate history Soviet Union, it could perhaps have used some more central planning. It’s a fascinatingly chaotic medley of ideas, and a rare FPS that lacks even the slightest whiff of battle pass-peddling live serfdom, but those ideas so often fail to gel that it can feel like a game made by several different dev teams. I’ve played a lot of strange games, but never one that lurches between greatness and bafflement as hard or as fast as Atomic Heart. A Soviet sci-fi adventure with arresting visuals and occasionally excellent shooting, marred by uneven balancing, undercooked ideas, and an unlikeable protagonist.
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