Atomic Hearted

 Forget 2K, this is where the action's at!

This is not my first, nor my second time taking to Blog about the fascinating looking world of Atomic Heart, the soviet-themed alternate-history Bioshock-like which looks almost too good to be true. In fact, I like to attest that I was talking about this game long before it was cool, and everytime we see more of it I'm stuck between the duelling perceptions that this looks actually unbelievable and it doesn't even look like it's a game at all. As in, I'm almost feeling like this is just viral marketing for some sort of animated movie that's slipped so far out of hand and that now the indie filmmakers are having to scrabble and make a game to meet with demand. The animations are just too smooth, the designs too perfect, the textures too detailed; how does a studio come out of nowhere and make a game look so crisp? But then I must remind myself that I'm being just that little bit disrespectful to deny one's talent simply because I cannot understand it myself, thus I feel like I've been pushed past my excitement threshold for months too long waiting on this game. (Maybe a bit of that is the Cyberpunk effect, if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.)

This E3's weird Bethesda x Mircosoft event had the time to spare for Atomic Hearts latest Eurobeat trailer, and I have to say I feel a bit better with that sort of security behind it. And I say 'Security' because honestly, I've been on a fence about whether or not I believe this game is real. I mean sure, I've been singing it's praises for so long and even legendary Doom composer Mick Gordon is involved in the project, but some misgivings are hard to shake. Yet if Microsoft is confident enough to shove that game into their 'this is why you should buy a Series X' showreel, then that's a pretty solid endorsement, is it not? Then again, Sony did put their marketing weight behind vanilla No Mans Sky a few years back and ended up having to essentially throw Hello Games under the bus after launch.  And both of them did wantonly flaunt Cyberpunk before that disaster. But he's hoping past mistakes inform present decisions, eh?

As for the trailer itself, once more I'm astounded by the level of photorealistic surrealism that we're being treated to by these creatively blossoming developers. From the very opening shot of the trailer we see a shot that looks like it's from some sort of kids cartoon, a lazy faced robot on wheels with a toy-box face, being twisted in something disturbing as the face opens up to attack with apple bombs. There's this real sense of the playful and accessible becoming monstrous that really invokes Bioshock, but with an aesthetic that's a little closer to Fallout in some regards. In that same way that Vault Tec's friendly looking Vault Boy is a mascot behind a company that specialises in genetic rewiring, unsolicited social experimentation and torture-by-another-name; so too do a lot of the robots we see in this game feel like they've been designed with that every-man corporate-friendly purpose behind the pen, only for the product itself to be demented and violent.

It's a very simple idea to shoot for, but oh so difficult to execute with the degree of verisimilitude that we get from these Atomic Heart previews. (Which is part of what makes this game so special in my eyes) Another great paradigm I've noticed, and this is present in all their footage, is this very apparent contrast between the rough and grimy and the sleek and sterile. Usually the tools of the player are this brutal looking tools of death that look like they've been stuck together out of the junkyard without a second to clean them off, whilst some of these robots look fresh off the production line and pristine in that brand new way. It conjures up this sense of the manual (featuring the imperfections, dirt and scratches of flawed human hands) versus the automatic. (the laser-point precision impossible for human hands) If nothing else, these trailer have been a triumph of creative vision to a frame.

But there's one aspect of the game which I'm feeling a little left out on, something which has avoided elaboration for the entirety of the marketing run, and that's the variety of the gameplay. It's all well and good forging this lovingly beautiful fictional world with intention and heart behind every single design page, but unless we can interact with that world in an interesting and attention grabbing way, you've lost half of the fight. Bioshock isn't so fondly remembered purely because of the art deco underwater tomb you trapeze around in, but for the robustness of the combat and how that complimented level design to feel empowering when you wanted it to. It's already apparent that there will be powers in Atomic Heart to supplement the standard gunplay, and some of the weapons look like they might be pretty wild all in of themselves, but I wonder if we've yet to see some trailer all about the powers to really hammer home the diversity that'll be available to us.

I think that is an eminently important, and easily overlooked, side to the first person shooter genre, because without that special little something extra you're missing the very point of what's required from a game. It's so easy to spend effort nailing how well the game is supposed to look only to falter on the gameplay, because an absolutely insane amount of detailing goes into perfecting things like balancing, pacing and general playability. Those who master this equation get to elevate their experience from being just a game that's good into something epic and unforgettable for the player. I think it's strange this has yet to be really highlighted by team over at Mundfish because I feel like this game has almost everything it needs to be that Bioshock successor that we've been waiting for, they just need that final push.

Aside from those misgiving I'm totally swept in the allure of this game, same as I was all that time ago when I first stumbled upon them. Seeing an indie game putting out a project with this degree of polish and garnering enough attention that Microsoft scored them for a trailer, sparks hope for all those grinding on the daily right now. And perhaps that because it's a sign of the way that the technology required for making these brilliant spectacle games are becoming more and more accessible to those with the talent to wield them. With the recent reveal of Unreal Engine 5 and the plethora of animation and development headaches that are being handled in-engine completely hands-free for that platform, we might just start seeing other hugely imaginative and realistic-looking games without the standard producer logos slapped on the box, harbinging foretellings of corporate corners and expectant investors. 

All we need at this, and it's getting pretty dire now, is a release date. Has Mundfish realised that they've forgotten to provide that so far? I only ask because we're just over halfway through the year now, and they've maintained a prospective date of 2021 for a while now. The last thing anybody wants is another Cyberpunk situation so if there's a delay in the works I don't think anyone is going to begrudge the team, it would just help to be informed about it so that folk like me can plan what they're squirrelling away funds for. I just can't wait to finally get my hands on the game Bioshock seems to have passed it's legacy to, and don't want to risk having a single second of it spoiled to me before the fact. Hail to this new age of great Russian Gaming, it would seem; who'd have thought 2021 would belong to them?