So Atomic Heart still looks amazing

Is anyone really surprised?

So you might remember a number of months back I came across this strange looking Russian game out of this indie studio called Mundfish that I just absolutely raved about. It was gorgeous, imaginative, contained so much promise and positively sang for me to pay attention. And it was called Atomic Heart. Since then I've actually noticed the game was more widely known about then I originally thought, and it's been creeping back into the gaming conversation gradually until the team went ahead and uploaded a whole new trailer to show off their graphical prowess. Seriously, I always love to hear about the goings ons in the Indie scene, and celebrate with their victories, but what I'm seeing out of Atomic Heart stretches beyond that. Heck, this game is currently looking better than actual other AAA titles out there, and that does slightly worry given the history of 'Too good to be true' projects lately, but we are where we are.

For those who never looked it up, Atomic Heart is an alternate history science fiction story which looks to bring the wonder of that first playthrough of Bioshock back to life. Basically, this is a game that jumps upon fringe science, beautifully surreal imagery and exploration in order to make it's bread, and from what we've seen it has been doing wonders with that diet. I mean, when Bioshock was announced to have a revival I remember worrying about what that game represented and if another title in that world could possibly live up to that example or if it was doomed to fall victim to 'been there, done that', but along comes Mundfish to remind us that there is always room in the genre for more, you just need to get creative. I cannot do the visual style of this game any justice, you have to look it up yourself, it's sublime.

Recently we received a graphically mouth-watering trailer for the raytracing in the game, and obviously it all makes the game look more tangible than you'd ever thought possible. But then again, that's really just an example of how this game will look for the lucky few with the sort of capital to run that sort of setting on the prohibitively expensive hardware. (Heck, maybe that sorta tech will be more accessible y release, who knows?) I will say that I was decently impressed with how all that super cutting-edge stuff is panning out, but it's really the substance of the game which has my heart caught, and that is demonstrated much better in the extended gameplay footage they released 5 months ago. And yes, I know we're talking about 2020 footage in 2021, but can I help it if there's so much going on that I sometimes let things slip me by? I mean, what's really the harm in looking back a ways, right?

So for that footage we got to get all up-close and personal with the retro-futurist art-deco facility where the reveal gameplay left things, and once more I have to gush, the place is just fantastic. Building a world is as much about what you don't say as it is about what you do, laying out a scene that tells it's story without several text boxes is the cornerstone of the artform. But what the Atomic Heart team have created goes beyond that, and makes me rethink the very way I look at environmental storytelling. (Of course, that's also just a symptom of me getting older and changing my views, but I'd like to call this visual treat a catalyst anyway.) More than just lay out the building blocks of a story and rely on the player to put them together, Atomic Heart's world is borne in this delectable sense of tangibility, where this larger-than-life world looks and feels like somewhere you could be, somewhere you could touch. The story is written in the bricks themselves, not needing anything so arbitrary and contrived as a corpse next to a smoking gun. It feels so much more natural and dynamic, and by extension; so much more real. But this bizarre space is just so fantastical that it could not exist, and so that conflict between that which feels real but could not be just sets my heart aflame.

Now of course, Mundfish are by no means the first to ever reach such a level of world design, I'd argue that Bioshock got there, Monster Hunter always felt that way to me, Obsidian games often achieve that through sheer writing brilliance most times and even Cyberpunk 2077 cannot be robbed of it's artistic excellence. But the difference between those games and this one is that Atomic Heart is, again I remind you, an Indie product! All those games are heavily funded games, backed with storied creators with experience behind them, whereas Mundfish is this comparatively new studio with but one other, now cancelled, VR game to their name. (And honestly, that game sort of just looks like a prototype for this one.) I'm always thinking about the potential of indie storytellers and game makers but, call me cynic, I never in my most generous estimations predicted a title that seems this fresh, interesting and just spectacular looking. By design alone we're looking at real mastery of their craft.

And I said that all without mentioning the enemy design; oh the enemy design! This trailer bought us all up close and personal with these organic plant creatures that float and have these flowing leaves, it's so strange and unlike what I've seen out of gaming before. In fact, the closet thing I've seen design-wise is probably some of the animals in the 2D space exploration game, Starbound. But that's just the tip of it. I also loved this very traditional android-enemy who seemed reminiscent of the Androids out of Alien Isolation through it's very blank and robotic expressions and the 'relentless pursuit' angle of how they are animated. But of course the highlight was the tendril shadow miniboss, The Plyush, which honestly looks like one of the Phantoms out of Prey. I'm naming all of these influences here, but Atomic Heart, wherever in knowledge of the same monsters as me or not, takes every single one of them and breathes individuality into, they make the creatures their own. And cool monster design is so important in a game like this, nailing that is evidence that these people know exactly what they're making and how to pull it off.

But perhaps the biggest surprise in the footage for me was the soundtrack. Because these guys managed to book the one-and-only Mick Gordon as a composer, how freakin' cool is that? Mr Gordon, by the by, is the man responsible for Wolfenstien, DOOM and Prey; the man's a legend. I'm talking about the creative mind behind BFG Division track from 2016's DOOM. You know, the track that literally screams to you like the demonic cries from hell itself; he did that. Knowing that talent is aboard, and lending that irreplaceable charisma to the job, just excites me even more. There's another angle of this game covered by sheer excellence, how can you not get a least a little excited for Atomic Heart knowing that?

Now, of course, comes the cold water; the game looks too good. Yes, I know; who am I to say that a game which looks unendingly great can't be exactly what it looks like, but I'm just being cautious, I'm not boarding the hype train for this one. Even as I look on their official Youtube I can see comments of folk imploring the team to take their time and ensure it's ready, pretty much mirroring my sentiments for what I can only presume is the exact same reason. In my heart I want to support the underdog as much as humanely possible, but I'll retain my distance. Atomic Heart looks like it could be the new Bioshock, and that sort of potential is terrifying. (The fact that I'm not the only saying that, I'd imagine, weighs greatly on the staff over at Mundfish) So I'm going to wait on this one, but I'll absolutely have the candle in the window. Perhaps so that next time I actually see the footage on time instead of half a year later. (Stupid, stupid...)