Support NeoGAF

[Hugare]

I rarely create threads on this forum, but i felt obliged to create this one

I've played Atomic Heart for the first time when it launched in 2023, expecting nothing more than a competent Bioshock clone in a soviet setting.

And boy, to me it has delivered that and way more. So I was baffled to see the game's reception being ok at best, sitting today at a 70 Metacritic score.

To be honest, what motivated me to create this thread is that I truly believe media has ruined this game's reception since it was developed by a russian game company during the invasion of Ukraine.

Many outlets like (Eurogamer and PCGamer) have published articles about Mundfish (developer) and the russian government ties, and the points they've raised are overreaching to say the least. With stuff like:

Back in November, an extravagant promotional event for the game was held for Russian press, with the venue dressed in Soviet finery and signage reading "Glory to Soviet engineers" and "Comrade, join the society of tomorrow". The timing of the event coincided with international backlash to the new anti-LGBT laws in Russia, and as Game World Observer reported, some attendees questioned whether the event was appropriate due to the war in Ukraine.

Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/questions-remain-over-atomic-heart-developers-russian-origins

Also these same outlets have condemned Atomic Heart of fetishising the USSR before the game's launch. And if you have played the game, well ... it couldnt be further from the truth.

So with that said, I believe critics have generated negative buzz before release and have boycotted the game reviews giving it a lower score than it actually deserved. Because of that, I dont think many people have tried the game, unfortunately.

In my opinion, if you love Bioshock, you should at least try Atomic Heart. It's the closest that we've got from a Bioshock game since Infinite, and it's a masterpiece in visual design, imo.


Graphics:


I'll let screens do the talking

Spoiler: Screenshots

The game looks absurd. The team has created tons of unique assets that brings the world to life. Each area is unique and feels lived in. Animations are superb, and the game has some of the best 1st person cutscenes along with Cyberpunk.


Not to mention that the game runs amazingly well on PC and PS5 (not so much on the Xbox), as you can see on DF's video





Gameplay:


It's Bioshock, but way better. You have the equivalent of telekinesis, frost, shock and etc., and they all feel better than any Bioshock game.


Not to mention melee and weapons feeling much better than the Bioshock games.


Enemies are varied enough, and they are all fun to fight. The game has the best (imo) damage model that I've seen in any game. All enemies show visible damage where you strike them, showing their interiors, and it looks glorious.


Bosses are a highlight. They look awesome, have some fun patterns and are all very unique from each other.

Oh and it also has the best looting mechanic. So satisfying.


Story:


It's been a while since I played it, and I cant remember much of it. But from what I remember, its pretty ok. All shit goes down and you have to find the responsible for it while discovering some plot twists along the way.


Dialogue is pretty cringe, probably lost in translation from russian to english like some of the Metro series dialogue, but voice acting is pretty good and characters grow on you.


I believe the game takes about 20-ish hours to complete. They've released 3 story DLCs for it that I havent experienced yet, but they take about 3h to complete each.


Conclusion:

Just give this game a chance, man. It's currently at a discount on Steam and imo it's totally worth it for a very unique game.

To think that this was an studio first effort is just nuts. The game was crazy ambitious, and succeeded in ways others much more successful games didnt.

I'm posting this 'cause I bought it on Steam to play the DLCs, and thought "maybe I was crazy back then", but nope, it's really that good.


Hopefuly someone will experience the game for the first time due to this thread and also love it. Cheers!

 

[Lionel Richie]

I really, really enjoyed this game. In an age of cuck 2 hour game design ANALYSIS on Youtube, this game felt like a fuck you to all of that. It reminds me of Deadly Premonition, the game is almost daring you to like it. It knows you can't resist it. It's flawed, it's kind of janky, but it's hilarious and uncompromising. Well worth a playthrough, just don't play it dubbed, go full Russian.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

LOL. For a second I though tit was Atomfall launching at 67% off.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

I rarely create threads on this forum, but i felt obliged to create this one

I've played Atomic Heart for the first time when it launched in 2023, expecting nothing more than a competent Bioshock clone in a soviet setting.

And boy, to me it has delivered that and way more. So I was baffled to see the game's reception being ok at best, sitting today at a 70 Metacritic score.

To be honest, what motivated me to create this thread is that I truly believe media has ruined this game's reception since it was developed by a russian game company during the invasion of Ukraine.

Many outlets like (Eurogamer and PCGamer) have published articles about Mundfish (developer) and the russian government ties, and the points they've raised are overreaching to say the least. With stuff like:


Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/questions-remain-over-atomic-heart-developers-russian-origins

Also these same outlets have condemned Atomic Heart of fetishising the USSR before the game's launch. And if you have played the game, well ... it couldnt be further from the truth.

So with that said, I believe critics have generated negative buzz before release and have boycotted the game reviews giving it a lower score than it actually deserved. Because of that, I dont think many people have tried the game, unfortunately.

In my opinion, if you love Bioshock, you should at least try Atomic Heart. It's the closest that we've got from a Bioshock game since Infinite, and it's a masterpiece in visual design, imo.


Graphics:


I'll let screens do the talking

Spoiler: Screenshots

The game looks absurd. The team has created tons of unique assets that brings the world to life. Each area is unique and feels lived in. Animations are superb, and the game has some of the best 1st person cutscenes along with Cyberpunk.


Not to mention that the game runs amazingly well on PC and PS5 (not so much on the Xbox), as you can see on DF's video





Gameplay:


It's Bioshock, but way better. You have the equivalent of telekinesis, frost, shock and etc., and they all feel better than any Bioshock game.


Not to mention melee and weapons feeling much better than the Bioshock games.


Enemies are varied enough, and they are all fun to fight. The game has the best (imo) damage model that I've seen in any game. All enemies show visible damage where you strike them, showing their interiors, and it looks glorious.


Bosses are a highlight. They look awesome, have some fun patterns and are all very unique from each other.

Oh and it also has the best looting mechanic. So satisfying.


Story:


It's been a while since I played it, and I cant remember much of it. But from what I remember, its pretty ok. All shit goes down and you have to find the responsible for it while discovering some plot twists along the way.


Dialogue is pretty cringe, probably lost in translation from russian to english like some of the Metro series dialogue, but voice acting is pretty good and characters grow on you.


I believe the game takes about 20-ish hours to complete. They've released 3 story DLCs for it that I havent experienced yet, but they take about 3h to complete each.


Conclusion:

Just give this game a chance, man. It's currently at a discount on Steam and imo it's totally worth it for a very unique game.

To think that this was an studio first effort is just nuts. The game was crazy ambitious, and succeeded in ways others much more successful games didnt.

I'm posting this 'cause I bought it on Steam to play the DLCs, and thought "maybe I was crazy back then", but nope, it's really that good.


Hopefuly someone will experience the game for the first time due to this thread and also love it. Cheers!

It's good, I enjoyed the game. Excited for what they make next.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I enjoyed my play through. Game has some big problems with its open world though. If they remove the open world and retool it to a linear world I think it would be better.
I managed to complete all the puzzle rooms. Some great puzzles and some really irritating platform like puzzles.

 

[Denton]

Agree OP, Atomic Heart is way underrated. The audiovisual design is fucking bonkers. Story is cool and non-cringe when played in Russian. I knew I was gonna love it when Royksopp started playing



..and I did.

Lot of whine was posted about respawning robots in the "open world", but:

1) respawn can be disabled via ingame mechanic
2) there is no reason to stay in the open world, it only serves as an immersive connective tissue between interior levels in lieu of loading screens

I intend to replay it once all the DLCs will be out.

It was an insane gamepass get for day one.

 

[fatmarco]

The open world sections killed the game sadly, everything else was pretty great. If they retooled the open world to be either linear or wide linear it'd be an easy 8.5-9. It's a shame how underrated the game was at the time, but I hope they learn some lessons for a sequel.

 

[Kilau]

I enjoyed my time with it, glad you did too comraid major.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

I bought it day 1, it's a very good game. My personal rating would be closer to an 8, hope the dev does a sequel and refines the formula, a lot of potential here for something truly special.

 

[violence]

I need to pick this back up. I put it down after I got stuck in geometry for the fourth time. I’m sure the bugs are ironed out by now.

 

[Plague Doctor]

I really, really enjoyed this game. In an age of cuck 2 hour game design ANALYSIS on Youtube, this game felt like a fuck you to all of that. It reminds me of Deadly Premonition, the game is almost daring you to like it. It knows you can't resist it. It's flawed, it's kind of janky, but it's hilarious and uncompromising. Well worth a playthrough, just don't play it dubbed, go full Russian.

But what if I like people waxing on for 20 minutes about the ludonarrative wankery and then go into autistic degree of detail about speculations of why crates are where they are? Every line of dialogue needs to be taken literally and dissected and cross referenced.

It's good ambien for when I need to sleep.

 

[Beechos]

Besides the graphics and atmosphere didn't really care for it. Felt like a slog to play and forced myself to beat it to see the story through. Kinda reminded me of playing metro but with powers.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Looks pretty awesome, at least visually. Will keep my eye on it. And you're probably right about this:

To be honest, what motivated me to create this thread is that I truly believe media has ruined this game's reception since it was developed by a russian game company during the invasion of Ukraine.

Wouldn't be surprised one bit.

I see it has a demo on Steam - downloading it now.

 

[Pimpbaa]

The lack of hdr ruined the graphics for me.

 

[ssringo]

It's been on my wishlist for a while. Just haven't had the time or money since so many other releases are taking up both.

 

[Hugare]

Agree OP, Atomic Heart is way underrated. The audiovisual design is fucking bonkers. Story is cool and non-cringe when played in Russian. I knew I was gonna love it when Royksopp started playing



..and I did.

Lot of whine was posted about respawning robots in the "open world", but:

1) respawn can be disabled via ingame mechanic
2) there is no reason to stay in the open world, it only serves as an immersive connective tissue between interior levels in lieu of loading screens

I intend to replay it once all the DLCs will be out.

It was an insane gamepass get for day one.

Exactly!

You can disable the respawn ingame and the open world is there for immersion, not for discovering things, finding secrets and etc.

Even then, it has the test chambers where you find upgrade for weapons and they are really fun. Some great puzzles in them with unique interiors.

It's been on my wishlist for a while. Just haven't had the time or money since so many other releases are taking up both.

Its on sale on Steam, and at that price its a great get.

The open world sections killed the game sadly, everything else was pretty great. If they retooled the open world to be either linear or wide linear it'd be an easy 8.5-9. It's a shame how underrated the game was at the time, but I hope they learn some lessons for a sequel.

The interiors are the highlight.

The first underground section, the museum and the ballerina theater are all very memorable. Straight out of a Bioshock game, sometimes even better in terms of atmosphere.

But still, Ive enjoyed the open world. Just for immersion sake.

 

[RafterXL]

It's a good game that was absolutely harmed by a concerted effort to shit on it, it's developers, and it's theme by using it as a political tool, tying it to modern day politics. It 100% deserved better and in ten years people will be looking at this as a hidden gem.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

It surely deserves to be recognized and played by more people, but I will argue that as a shooter and in terms of action gameplay loop, it's very undercooked and repetitive. You'll be fighting the same exact enemies for dozens of hours and it gets old very fast no matter what.

Openworld is also not the best, extremely pretty, but empty and there's no one around but robots you killed tousands of times before you even got out of the first underground location.

I haven't played any DLC yet (waiting for all of them to come out - 1 more left) so I can't say anything about them. There's a lot they can improve in the sequel so let's hope they will.

 

[fatmarco]

Exactly!

You can disable the respawn ingame and the open world is there for immersion, not for discovering things, finding secrets and etc.

You can temporarily stop respawns, not permanently. The lack of things to do explore for in the open world isn't well communicated by the game too.

The game trains the player to expect lot of hidden secrets, nooks and crannies etc. in every other section, so when you give them an open area to explore then people will waste time searching it in the same manner.

That's what leads to the issues with respawning enemies, and that leads to people spending far too much time in those spaces and getting burned out by the continuous combat (It was also a mistake to copy the promethean repair bots from Halo 4 on a continuous respawn. It was incredibly annoying in Halo 4 and it's still annoying here).

 

[The Chairman]

Bought the game at full price because of the sexy ballerina twins, deserves every penny

 

[TexMex]

Would never deny the game it's presentation. But the gameplay was dull as dirt. They failed to successfully imitate what they were blatantly ripping off. Which isn't the criticism it sounds like, but if you're gonna steal, you better come with your A game or you're just setting yourself up for very unfavorable comparisons.

 

[nkarafo]

What's wrong with the respawns? Isn't that a Bioshock/System Shock 2/Prey clone? All these games have enemies respawning.

 

[kiphalfton]

What's wrong with the respawns? Isn't that a Bioshock/System Shock 2/Prey clone? All these games have enemies respawning.

Upon rivisiting areas maybe. But with Atomic Heart, you kill them and like 30 seconds later they get revived.

 

[GHG]

Upon rivisiting areas maybe. But with Atomic Heart, you kill them and like 30 seconds later they get revived.

The game literally tells you how to appropriately deal with this and prevent it from happening.

What's going on? We've gone from paper tutorials to in-game/forced ones and people still can't grasp the basic mechanics that a game presents to them?

 

[nkarafo]

Upon rivisiting areas maybe. But with Atomic Heart, you kill them and like 30 seconds later they get revived.

I haven't played the game and reading this out of context sounds terrible.

But if it's something based on the lore and has a game mechanic attached in order to deal with it (like in the game Gauntlet where the enemies keep generating until you destroy their gate) then it sounds good to me.

 

[Ribi]

What if I told you the year that it came out ... It didn't even get nominated for best art direction at the VGAs. No one batted a fucking eye

 

[kiphalfton]

I haven't played the game and reading this out of context sounds terrible.

But if it's something based on the lore and has a game mechanic attached to it (like in Gauntlet Legends where the enemies keep generating until you destroy their gate) then it sounds good to me.

I played it at launch, and there's these annoying little repair bots that no matter how many times you kill them, they keep getting dispatched until you bring down this giant floating vessel (which requires you to jump through however many hoops to bring it down, all the while enemies keep respawning).

From what I've seen here and other forums most people hate that particular aspect of the game, but you still get people who put their blinders on, who don't want to admit the game has its faults, and if anything defend it.

It's not a bad game, and maybe patches have improved it since launch, but there's some stuff baked in that hurt the game (the above, as well as the crappy lock puzzles and awful dialog).

 

[adamsapple]

It was a fun game, never picked up the DLC tho.

 

[GHG]

I played it at launch, and there's these annoying little repair bots that no matter how many times you kill them, they keep getting dispatched until you bring down this giant floating vessel (which requires you to jump through however many hops to bring it down, all the while enemies keep respawning).

From what I've seen here and other forums most people hate it, but you still get people who put their blinders on, who don't want to admit the game has its faults.

It's not a bad game, and maybe patches have improved it since launch, but there's some stuff baked in that hurt the game (the above, as well as the crappy lock puzzles and awful dialog).

Just because other people chose to also ignore the mechanic and complain online about it, it doesn't make you correct.

If you make this the first thing you do when you reach a new area then you get 15-20 minutes to explore without any respawning enemies.

Which is more than enough time and you might well have to re-enable it in order to move on to the next area in some cases.

 

[The Wheel of Fortune]

Aye, I didn’t enjoy the open world and some of the filler/sidequests either, but in general it was a fantastic experience and it’s waaay underrated. Especially by PS fans, for some reason!

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Always thought this game looked amazing, mainly due to the animations. Setting looks really good as well.

I just never bought it, because I know I'll get bored with it due to it being a sp storydriven FPS.
Would've bought it if it was shared-world a la Destiny.

 

[Zuzu]

I played a fair bit of it and then quit. I thought it was average at best, if not mediocre. For me it’s nowhere near as good as similar games such as Bioshock 2 (which I consider to be the best Bioshock) or Prey. A metacritic score of 70 is too high imo.

 

[consoul]

I've been right on the brink of buying this for about 6 months. This thread has pushed my curiosity over the edge. Even if I don't finish it, I need to have a crack at this.

 

[rofif]

It’s overrated if anything.
Yes graphics and art are fantastic. Yea.
But the gameplay sucks ass. It’s a clunky melee game with respawning enemies.
And the hand never fucking shuts up. O don’t know how people were annoyed by forspoken while this game got the way more talking hand and terrible jokes from it and the player character constantly.
I could not handle more than 3 hours of this before uninstall.
Oh and too much of a resources gathering. The shop is taking a lot of time to go through each time. Felt needless.

 

[consoul]

And the hand never fucking shuts up.

Jesus. On second thought, maybe I won't buy it. If Forspoken's staunchest defender says this about the dialogue, it must be pretty fucking bad.

I suffered through Frey and the cuff's incessant banter. Not in a hurry to play a game with that dynamic again.

 

[EverythingsOverrated]

The first 2 hours or so were good, but the non stop MCU style quips and mediocre level design had me quitting after 5-6 hours. The modern gaming trope of having someone, whether it's a main character, side character, or both, constantly talking really annoys me.

 

[captainnapalm]

Definitely one of the more enjoyable and memorable games I've played in recent years.

 

[GymWolf]

Really liked the game.

 

[Black_Stride]

When a 70+ meta score is considered underrated for a good but not outstanding game we need to stop caring about meta.

Its a 70 - 80 game which is a good score in my opinion.
We are just spoiled with so many games people have started considering 70 not good.

Its rated pretty much where it should be.




What we should be hyping up and not to thread steal: Play Prey'17



[On Topiv]
Yes Atomic Heart is a good game, and i think its setting is interesting though the story and cutscenes are not particularly good which is what docks it points from being a truly great game.

 

[SimTourist]

 

[yamaci17]

its a great game and heavily underrated indeed
incredible gameplay with creativity. you can practically make it more fun if you actually explore the game mechanics further. there's something so satisfying about its gameplay

sure story is not something exceptional but it never bored me honestly. just enough to keep me interested. opera scene is one of the most memorable sequences

can't wait to play dlcs myself

 

[Team Andromeda]

The game is wonderful and the art direction and voice acting are inspired. It's just a little too hard for its own good IMO

 

[Xtib81]

It's actually good but too combat-heavy for my liking.

 

[GymWolf]

The game is wonderful and the art direction and voice acting are inspired. It's just a little too hard for its own good IMO

No it is not.

 

[Team Andromeda]

No it is not.

It is my view it's easy to run out of ammo and also get jumped by too many enemies.

 

[GymWolf]

It is my view it's easy to run out of ammo and also get jumped by too many enemies.

That's why you have telekinesis that is godly to control group of enemies, and i mostly used melee weapons, some of them have busted special moves, maybe you didn't explored\powered up enough.

 

[yamaci17]

That's why you have telekinesis that is godly to control group of enemies, and i mostly used melee weapons, some of them have busted special moves, maybe you didn't explored\powered up enough.

yes you become overpowered in this game real fast
just gotta use tools the game gives to you

 

[GymWolf]

yes you become overpowered in this game real fast
just gotta use tools the game gives to you

I would not say real fast, if you don't explore some optional areas you can't find the most busted weapons modifications and at least on hard you still die quite easily, but it's far from super hard.

 

[Kupfer]

I'm waiting for an ultimate edition with all of its DLC pressed on a disc.

 

[Paperboy]

The world building in Atomic Heart is up there with the greats.
The respawning enemies was annoying when I played through it, but you get used to it and in hindsight it helped convey the feeling of always being chased and under a threat.
If they had included a way to turn of the respawning robots and the talkative glove it would probably have faired better with many people.