• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Atomic Heart is the biggest disappointment of the year and I just can't understand why it was so well received...

Drizzlehell

Banned
First I've played dev build of the game, which you can't finish without dev tools and cheats. It was a mess, obviously. Now I'm playing finished and patched version. The thing is, I can't say anything at all about what's in the game after the first science complex, cuz I finished it in dev build and decided to buy and play finished version at some point to play more of the game, which I did. So, what I saw and experienced in the game so far is great, there is a few visual bugs here and there still, even after dozen patches, but other than that I've no complaints and it's a blast to play. I can't say anything about the rest of the game yet, but if there'll be a lot more to say about it which'll be worthy of it's own thread, then I'll do it.

Also, to understand dialogues and everything around them you just need to know Russian and Russian culture in general, otherwise you just won't get even 1% of what was said, referenced etc., cuz it's simply impossibe. And I don't mean Putin's fascist russian culture of 100K insane fucks at best in the whole country, I mean normal, civilazed, compasionate and adequate people Russian culture. You also just can't translate russian curse words and meanings to other langueages at all, so it's impossible to even understand why there's so much of it and the impact of it in dialogues.

There's something like that in the Metro and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series as well, but far more of it in Atomic Heart just cuz it's a much less depressing game overall and writers done way more with dialogues, funny lines etc. to make some of them feel dumb and stupid intentionally - cuz the main character is stupid af idiot - again, intentionally, but you can't understand it without knowing how Russian millitary works and why it's so stupid and dumb but funny af at the same time.

I'm from Russia, as some of you know already (or known years ago), but don't think that cuz if I'm from Russsia and this is a game made by Russian devs, I'll have biased oppinion about it, no, if I don't like something about the game, if it'll disappoint me in the end and all that, I'm gonna say it how it is cuz that's what I always do... for better or worse. Language and culture barrier will still be a thing with this game for all none Russian speaking people though, there's nothing I can do about that.

But that's all I'm gonna say for now.
I played the game in Polish since that's where I'm from and it fit the aesthetic better than English. While it was definitely better than the English dub, it still had a problem with overlapping voice clips but other than that the dialogue seemed pretty straightforward and my main problem is that there was just too much of it. Thanks for sharing that perspective, though, that would explain a lot about that character at least, lol.
 

StueyDuck

Member
The game was in development hell for a long time. The initial reveal wasn't even a game originally. They had to actually start making a game when the hype and money came in.

It was always going to be a flop. Looks nice though
 
Last edited:

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism

Atomic Heart is the biggest disappointment of the year​

yoda-there-is.gif
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Yeah I think it was trash. I could barely last 4 hours.
It's like they agreed to put in any idea they have on the daily meetings.
There is 0 curation here. It's a mashup of gameplay ideas that do not fit together.
On top of that, the constant alerts, spawning enemies, poor combat. I really don't understand the high scores. It's like if people only played the intro or watched the trailer.
You go underground for 2-3 hours and then when you emerge, it gets even more annoying. It's a really bad time for me.
On the contrary - Forspoken would be a big surprise for me this year. Fantastic gameplay, combat and best open world traversal in a long time. It is like if reviewers scored the game based on tweets and memes alone.

Cool catchy art + butt naked balerinas = high score
Game you actually have to play, to see if it's good = low scores

edit: The biggest surprise this year for me might be Hogwarts. I never expected to enjoy it as much as I did. Forspoken I kinda had some hopes for.
 
Last edited:

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
I played the game in Polish since that's where I'm from and it fit the aesthetic better than English. While it was definitely better than the English dub, it still had a problem with overlapping voice clips but other than that the dialogue seemed pretty straightforward and my main problem is that there was just too much of it. Thanks for sharing that perspective, though, that would explain a lot about that character at least, lol.
I didn't had a problem with audio in general, well, at least big problems like completely muted audio, no VO etc. Overlapping do exist in some scenes and I think it could've been done better, as well as poorly placed tutorial messages that pop up during conversations - Who does that? So bizzar to see such stupid design mistakes which 1) no one is making anymore (tbh I don't remember seeing this even back in 2000s), 2) could be easily fixed... but still isn't after dozen patches? WTF Mundfish?!

As for the main character. He was written intentionally like a stupid military idiot and bootlicker, who's smart enough for just one thing - follow orders of his superiors. Maybe there's something more to him later personality-wise (he lost his memory at the beginning of the game and don't remember much), idk, I'm not that far into the game yet, so it remains to be seen. I actually enjoy banter between him and the glove, let alone with the vending machine, Eleonora. It's so stupid but amusing at the same time, cuz you can't tell whether he just don't understand the sex humor or just neven been with the woman before and don't know how to react to Eleonora's flirts and sex references.

I mean, yeah, it's super weird to hear such things from a vending machine with a woman's voice no less, but the fact that he just not even trying to play along and always plays deffensive is funny af, while Eleonora is not giving up and trying to sort of "break the wall":messenger_tears_of_joy:

I honestly don't understand why some people think it's disgusting or something along those lines, while at the same time they liked Duke jokes about balls, dicks and boobs etc. back in the 90s.
 
Last edited:

Drizzlehell

Banned
Yeah I think it was trash. I could barely last 4 hours.
It's like they agreed to put in any idea they have on the daily meetings.
There is 0 curation here. It's a mashup of gameplayh ideas that do not fit together.
On top of that, the constant alerts, spawning enemies, poor combat. I really don't undersand the high scores. It's like if people only played the intro or watched the trailer.
You go underground for 2-3 hours and then when you emerge, it gets even mroe annoying. It's a really bad time for me.
On the contrary - Forspoken would be a big surprise for me this year. Fantastic gameplay, combat and best open world traversal in a long time. It is like if reviewers scored the game based on tweets and memes alone.

Cool catchy art + butt naked balerinas = high score
Game you actually have to play, to see if it's good = low scores

edit: The biggest surprise this year for me might be Hogwarts. I never expected to enjoy it as much as I did. Forspoken I kinda had some hopes for.
I'm gonna try out Forspoken when it goes on deeper sale. I'm willing to give it a chance because at least combat and traversal were pretty fun when I played the demo. Bad dialogue I can stomach but bad gameplay is unforgivable.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
I'm gonna try out Forspoken when it goes on deeper sale. I'm willing to give it a chance because at least combat and traversal were pretty fun when I played the demo. Bad dialogue I can stomach but bad gameplay is unforgivable.
They never fucking shut up in atomic heart. Constant, terrible dialogue... like... Cannot stand it, so bad. It's nonsense all the time you play. It's grinding my ears actually. I was playing the first 4 hours with my father (he comes to visit for new games) and he couldn't stand atomic hear too.
And people gave forspoken shit ?! Fospoken has like 5% of dialogue compared to this piece of shit.

Seriously. Gaming journalism is terrible. Forpsoken gets blasted for dialogue while atomic heart is fine. This is nuts. Atomic heart got worse everything. Dialogue and gameplay especilly.
Forspoken story is pretty interesting and characters grow and are kinda endearing. I don't see the cringe everyone is talking about. You know why? Because whole game is not this one twitter video "i has magic lulz".
Forspoken just feels like a Japanese endearing characters from ff 15 put in an action game. But there really is not too much of them talking and you can even turn off the chit chat in the game.
It got some problems, don't get me wrong but combat and traversal are great once you get over slow tutorializing.
 
Last edited:

Drizzlehell

Banned
I didn't had a problem with audio in general, well, at least big problems like completely muted audio, no VO etc. Overlapping do exist in some scenes and I think it could've been done better, as well as poorly placed tutorial messages that pop up during conversations - Who does that? So bizzar to see such stupid design mistakes which 1) no one is making anymore (tbh I don't remember seeing this even back in 2000s), 2) could be easily fixed... but still isn't after dozen patches? WTF Mundfish?!

As for the main character. He was written intentionally like a stupid military idiot and bootlicker, who's smart enough for just one thing - follow orders of his superiors. Maybe there's something more to him later personality-wise (he lost his memory at the beginning of the game and don't remember much), idk, I'm not that far into the game yet, so it remains to be seen. I actually enjoy banter between him and the glove, let alone with the vending machine, Eleonora. It's so stupid but amusing at the same time, cuz you can't tell whether he just don't understand the sex humor or just neven been with the woman before and don't know how to react to Eleonora's flirts and sex references.

I mean, yeah, it's super weird to hear such things from a vending machine with a woman's voice no less, but the fact that he just not even trying to play along and always plays deffensive is funny af, while Eleonora is not giving up and trying to sort of "break the wall":messenger_tears_of_joy:

I honestly don't understand why some people think it's disgusting or something along those lines, while at the same time they liked Duke jokes about balls, dicks and boobs etc. back in the 90s.
Yeah, the vending machine stuff is at least amusing, I liked that. Not sure why would anyone have a problem with it, sounds like something out of Twitter, lol.
 

Paperboy

Member
I found the setting fresh and interesting which probably helped a lot with my overall impression of the game. The amount of enemies can often feel overwhelming and it doesn't always encourage exploration, the risk is greater than the reward, at least at the end of the game when you're favourite weapons are fully upgraded. But the game is more pleasant when you don't try to kill every enemy but instead try to outrun them when you can.
 

Roberts

Member
When it comes to the story and humour, it helps to have a few childhood memories from living in Soviet Union. There is some stuff in it that just doesn't translate. But one thing I can say for sure is that it is fully self-aware of its own juvenilia and has fun with it. More Wolfenstein 2 than Bioshock in that regard.

Not sure it will find a way in my top10 or even top15 this year, but I enjoyed the game. It is one of the best looking games out there and the gunplay is pretty damn good too.
 

bbeach123

Member
The cutscene was weird , the animation look fine but the camera work and cuts look like it was made by year 1 intern .

I would rather have they just use the player perspective like fallout 4 if they dont know how to do it .
 
Last edited:

hinch7

Member
The premise was kind of interesting. Everything else was meh and a little cringe.

What stopped me playing was the insane amount of respawning mobs (once you go on the open map), which gets so tedious after a while. Dropped shortly after, several hours in.
 

YuLY

Gold Member
Sorry OP, but trash opinion. Its a good linear atmospheric FPS with immersive sim influences. Sovietshock would be a great term. We dont get alot of these single player focused FPS games these days, and when we get one, people expect goty contender. You are part of the problem. For the others, dont mind OP, its a pretty good game, give it a chance.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
I'm not a fan myself.. It's seemed like a promising effort but soon fell flat and turned into an amateurish experience with some positive highlights. Not what I normally would want to waste my time with.
 
Jizzlehell thread?

Ehhh it felt fresh enough and lifting some mechanics from Arkane games and bioshock.
The opening does drag on for quite a bit. I was almost thinking the entire game was taking place inside the facilities/bunker.
The respawning of certain robots/drones is definitely a downer. I played maybe 6-8 hours and I haven’t played it in a few months now.
 

Eiknarf

Banned
I couldn’t wait for this. Counted down the days for over a year-

But the melee combat didn’t land. I want to feel like I’m hitting something when I hit something

In any game, loving it comes down really enjoying the thing you do over and over. In this case, hitting and shooting robots.

The third-person games usually get the melee attacks right. First-person games tend to feel clunky

But the new Dead Island 2 gets it right!! That’s how you do first-person

Atomic Heart : 6 out of 10
Dead Island 2 : 9 out of 10
 
Last edited:
The only other game that has the potential to be an even bigger disappointment this year is Starfield, given the immense hype surrounding it. However, if that one turns out to be good, then Atomic Heart will likely end up being one of the most sour gaming experiences I've had this year. It may not be the worst game to come out, but I had exceptionally high expectations after watching the amazing trailers. Unfortunately, the flashy visuals are pretty much the only aspect I can compliment the developers for, and it's a bit baffling to me why so many people are being so positive about it...

The story simply falls flat, and I despise the dialogue and voice acting to the point where I constantly wanted to mute the audio to avoid enduring any more of that annoying drivel. All that exposition would have been better served as shorter text and audio logs. I mean, why not? The game already borrows every Shock-flavored trope under the sun anyway. If the developers truly wanted to innovate, they should have prioritized better writing instead of elongated and mostly aimless conversations between the most abrasive and annoying cunt on the planet and his pet glove.

The cutscene direction is also among the worst I've seen in recent years, as they are tonally inconsistent, poorly paced, and even the character dialogue feels rushed, often resulting in characters talking over each other—not in a natural way like people sometimes do in real life, but rather because the dialogue lines were too long, leading to the next one starting before the previous one ended. It was even more comical when the same character interrupted themselves.

Then there's the gameplay, which I just fucking hate with a passion. Every passing hour playing the game felt like running through a field full of rakes. Each step that I took off the beaten path was rewarded by getting slammed in the face with a stick. It's just impossible to focus on your objectives, which are already pretty obtuse, when you have to constantly look around for cameras and those annoying flying fuckers that resurrect everything that you kill. Plus the game is really stingy with resources so after a while, instead of trying to explore and engage in combat, I just started sprinting past everything just so that I could get this stupid shit over with. I don't know about you but that doesn't sound like fun at all. To top it all off, melee combat is awkward, and it takes an eternity to kill anything, making it a lousy fallback option.

The entire experience feels soulless too, by the way. It borrows the aesthetic of 60s Soviet retro-futurism and boasts impressive visual and animation work that's well-polished, making for a really impressive spectacle sometimes. However, the further I progressed into the game, the stronger my impression became that it was merely a hodge-podge of various ideas that were nicked from different video games and science fiction works. There is no consistent, overarching vision or message behind any of it. It feels more like a "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" kind of game. Let's just say that I couldn't feel invested in any of it, and none of the elements elicited any significant emotional reaction beyond the initial, "huh, that's neat... and also strange that it's here." Like those fungus zombies with their heads split-opened that look like The Last of Us rejects. I guess they look neat but what the hell does that have to do with the robot uprising?

Anyway, that's probably like 5/10 for me. Maybe it would change had I finished the game but it was so goddamned long and my patience can only last for so long...
Agreed, it’s awful. The controls are bad, its ugly, there’s nothing fun about it. It’s just bad. I played about 6 hours and not a moment of it was enjoyable. It’s mediocre
 
Last edited:
An hour isnt even...playing the game lol
I swear I live in the bizarro gaming age.

To me, TOTK looks like shallow, archaic, non storyhaving, run around aimlessly and build shit bullshit. Whereas atomic heart looks like it actually has ambition. Creative enemies and atmosphere. And looks like agame that came out in 2023. Unlike the games people are loving these days.

But hey I havent played it yet. I just think TOTK looks like a ps3 era aimless wondering game for casuals who think they are hardcore because they cant be bothered with a story and like doing the same repetitive shit over and over with simplistic mechanics. Like souls popularity.

Thats where were at with gaming I guess.
Wonder if atomic heart is like cyberpunk where its kinda better than alot of games, but held to a higher standard lol
TotK has a far better and more in depth story than this awful game. The story in TotK is incredible.
 

Spyxos

Member
It wasn't that bad. It helped a little that I played in Russian language. But the subtitles were so damn small that I had problems to follow. I played it for about 6-8 hours until something else came out, but I still plan to play through it.
 

ungalo

Member
I could write this thread but upside down.

You get a game that doesn't lie to you, that's exactly like in the trailers, that's not poorly optimized, by a new studio that, you can tell, tried its best.

And yet a lot of people shitted on it, some because it's russian, others for whatever reasons.

It's not a great game and honestly they showed pretty much everything in the trailers, but still a good effort. The writing is not as bad as people make it out to be in my opinion. Art direction is incredible, soundtrack is dope, the gameplay is pretty fun and the open section pretty original (makes me think about Far Cry 2). I think as a whole the proposition is flawed in its design, it's lost between the shooter part and the immersive sim part and it probably didn't reach its full potential because of that.

But still, shootouts to the devs for delivering such an ambitious result for their first try.
 
Last edited:

Kupfer

Member
TLDR;

but
I had exceptionally high expectations
seems to be the problem.

Everyone these days seems to expect banger after banger and is so influenced by the companies' marketing that the drop height sprouts up metre by metre. As if nothing had been learned from the last few years...

The game has become what one could expect from a differentiated and distanced point of view, considering how the development went and what was shown.
Don't let the companies drive you crazy with bloated hype, perceive 70s to 80s games as what they are, namely solid games that you can have fun with, and don't expect the next Half Life or Bioshock behind every marketing.
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
TLDR;

but

seems to be the problem.

Everyone these days seems to expect banger after banger and is so influenced by the companies' marketing that the drop height sprouts up metre by metre. As if nothing had been learned from the last few years...

The game has become what one could expect from a differentiated and distanced point of view, considering how the development went and what was shown.
Don't let the companies drive you crazy with bloated hype, perceive 70s to 80s games as what they are, namely solid games that you can have fun with, and don't expect the next Half Life or Bioshock behind every marketing.
Can you blame me, though? The trailers looked fucking amazing. And then there's also the fact that immersive sims are the greatest genre in the history of video games.
 
I thought it was pretty good. The outside areas were a miss and sucked because the robots just spawned way too much and you couldn't explore. Overall though I enjoyed the story and the art direction.
 

Kupfer

Member
Can you blame me, though? The trailers looked fucking amazing. And then there's also the fact that immersive sims are the greatest genre in the history of video games.
I don't know.
All I know is - for me it seemed too good to be true right from the beginning when it was shown as a tech demo or concept.
The impression was confirmed, which does not mean that it is a bad game. Just not what was tried to suggest.
 
Last edited:

Krathoon

Gold Member
Wow. I did not realize the game was such a turd. I take it that the storytelling is bad? Crappy story?
 

Madonis

Member
Watched people play it and...yes, it was disappointing. The setting had a lot of potential, but actually going through it felt like more of a chore than a novelty. The protagonist was annoying too.

I might pick it up when they put it on sale for a huge discount, many months down the line or something though. Just absolutely not at nearly full price.
 
Last edited:

Krathoon

Gold Member
Yeah. Sounds like one of those stories where you have an unlikeable protagonist.
So, it makes it hard to be interested.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
The first few hours of the game are really really bad. I suffered through it though and once you get more powers and guns it's not as bad. I did end up completing the whole game but I would never go back. Boss fights are like nothing I've ever seen though. Animations are very well done.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
The only other game that has the potential to be an even bigger disappointment this year is Starfield, given the immense hype surrounding it. However, if that one turns out to be good, then Atomic Heart will likely end up being one of the most sour gaming experiences I've had this year. It may not be the worst game to come out, but I had exceptionally high expectations after watching the amazing trailers. Unfortunately, the flashy visuals are pretty much the only aspect I can compliment the developers for, and it's a bit baffling to me why so many people are being so positive about it...

The story simply falls flat, and I despise the dialogue and voice acting to the point where I constantly wanted to mute the audio to avoid enduring any more of that annoying drivel. All that exposition would have been better served as shorter text and audio logs. I mean, why not? The game already borrows every Shock-flavored trope under the sun anyway. If the developers truly wanted to innovate, they should have prioritized better writing instead of elongated and mostly aimless conversations between the most abrasive and annoying cunt on the planet and his pet glove.

The cutscene direction is also among the worst I've seen in recent years, as they are tonally inconsistent, poorly paced, and even the character dialogue feels rushed, often resulting in characters talking over each other—not in a natural way like people sometimes do in real life, but rather because the dialogue lines were too long, leading to the next one starting before the previous one ended. It was even more comical when the same character interrupted themselves.

Then there's the gameplay, which I just fucking hate with a passion. Every passing hour playing the game felt like running through a field full of rakes. Each step that I took off the beaten path was rewarded by getting slammed in the face with a stick. It's just impossible to focus on your objectives, which are already pretty obtuse, when you have to constantly look around for cameras and those annoying flying fuckers that resurrect everything that you kill. Plus the game is really stingy with resources so after a while, instead of trying to explore and engage in combat, I just started sprinting past everything just so that I could get this stupid shit over with. I don't know about you but that doesn't sound like fun at all. To top it all off, melee combat is awkward, and it takes an eternity to kill anything, making it a lousy fallback option.

The entire experience feels soulless too, by the way. It borrows the aesthetic of 60s Soviet retro-futurism and boasts impressive visual and animation work that's well-polished, making for a really impressive spectacle sometimes. However, the further I progressed into the game, the stronger my impression became that it was merely a hodge-podge of various ideas that were nicked from different video games and science fiction works. There is no consistent, overarching vision or message behind any of it. It feels more like a "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" kind of game. Let's just say that I couldn't feel invested in any of it, and none of the elements elicited any significant emotional reaction beyond the initial, "huh, that's neat... and also strange that it's here." Like those fungus zombies with their heads split-opened that look like The Last of Us rejects. I guess they look neat but what the hell does that have to do with the robot uprising?

Anyway, that's probably like 5/10 for me. Maybe it would change had I finished the game but it was so goddamned long and my patience can only last for so long...
yep I agree only got 2 hours into it, it's awful.

I'll give it one thing.. it ran well without any issues on PC ......
 

Bridges

Gold Member
I loved it.

Is it perfect? No. The dialogue is really cringey and a bit too frequent, this is true. The checkpoint system is abysmal. Some of the gameplay elements are a little undercooked, like most of the open world, but I found the combat and abilities to be very fun and different from most of what releases these days. The setting/world was extremely unique and fun to be a part of.

The game balancing is weird and I know it's a turn off for a lot of people. The opening hours of the game are brutal because you have no abilities, limited weapons/ammo and the enemies they send at you hit like a truck. Every fight is a struggle, but there's something I kind of liked about this. By the end of the game, you are so overpowered with upgraded weapons and abilities you can mow all of the robots down with ease, but it feels like you earned it because of how difficult the beginning is.

It's a really solid foundation, and I think a sequel that polishes some of the rougher edges could turn into something really special. I really recommend people at least give it a shot before dismissing it based on the negativity of others.
 

yamaci17

Member
its an exceptional game for the caliber of that studio. if anything, it didn't get enough praise.

its nothing groundbreaking but its something unique and fun. simply fun. yes, its fun. sometimes a fun game is all you need. i adored gunplay and mechanics. to me it is just one tier below something like doom eternal. (i'd say two tier below but they balance out, since this one has overall better plot/story coherency than doom eternal)
 
Top Bottom