Let me start this off by saying that I have not finished the game Atomic Heart, I've played about enough to get a full idea of what this game has to offer in it's various verticals- and in doing so have played past several 'breaking points' that, were I not invested enough to want to get to the bottom of what happened to the promise of this game, I would have taken as fuel enough to quit. Especially considering I haven't actually purchased the game but am merely playing through game pass, thus voiding typical 'buyers remorse' levels of needing to squeeze the most out of every odd purchase. And I want to dive into this topic because unlike with most games out there- I was into Atomic Heart for years now. I covered this game before it started doing the E3 replacement circuit, I was following the benchmarks downloaded from their websites- I was in the trenches! And then the game came out and I was warded away.
To be honest I had totally overlooked the reasons why I didn't pick this game up at launch. The surly and unimpressed opinions from contemporaries had all vanished to the back of my recollection when I saw this on Gamepass and merely went "Oh, I wanna play that!" But just as with that CGI moustache on Henry Cavil's face, the problems crept up naturally to scupper what would otherwise be a supremely worthwhile Bioshock-lite experience to the point where I'm collating my opinions now because honestly- I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to stick around long enough to actually finish this game. Which seems unthinkable for a shooter I waited so long to get my hands on! At the very least I can say there's more keeping me around than there was for Callisto Protocol. For what that's worth.
First off I need to extol the rare virtues of Atomic Heart- from a point of design and raw graphical fidelity Atomic Heart rivals most AAA games. It has a gleam that is undeniable, artistic consistency, a thematic spine- the world of a technology-powered sci-fantastical Soviet wonder-future is borne out through the world itself. Even the prettiest AAA games out there struggle to nail design philosophy nearly as well as Atomic Heart does- and if this game were little more than a 3D gallery through a dreamed alternative reality this game would hold a fond place in my heart for being a delightful exhibition worthy of the time to explore. I cannot understate how genuinely impressive the art for this game is.
Which is why I find it so wholly upsetting that nearly everything else the game has to offer lets it down aside from... the music- I guess. Mick Gordon's contributions are unmissable and stirring. From an actual systems standpoint Atomic Heart seems to lack any coherent direction whatsoever! You chucked into lazy amalgamations of enemy compositions shoved over too large play spaces way too often. The game smothers you in pick-ups yet inherits a Resident Evil 4 style attaché-suitcase inventory system to play at being a resource-stingy survival horror- which it isn't. All the special elemental powers are literally dropped into your possible arsenal the second you unlock upgrading without taking the time to introduce them and present their gameplay utility individually- borrowing a key gameplay system from Bioshock without really understanding how to implement it. It seems utterly insane to say this given the amount of visible polish you see from this game but it all just seems... rather amateurish under the hood.
And then we get to the dialogue. When I talked about the artistic consistency of the world I rather intentionally left out one core element of that 'art'- and that would be the story and the writing. Because whilst the world bends over backwards to present this tangibly intangible techno-utopia pulled apart at the seams; begging to be taken seriously- the script does everything in it's power to undermine that to nearly a hilarious degree. Every aspect of the world is explained ad nauseum by your glove companion as though the visual storytelling is totally incapable of silently conveying use of purpose. All the main characters way-too-often vocal contributions are badly conceived jerky quips spurred by some inner snarky hatred towards everything that makes him come across as a terminally petulant child who is unduly annoyed by literally everything. Tone is shattered by inappropriately timed marvel-punchlines with flat jokes. gravitas dies in the throats of even the most ostensibly distinguished characters before it reaches their lips. Every character seems to have been constructed around one core characteristic which informs everything they are and that characteristic is usually sarcasm. This game is written like a forgettable B-movie comedy- but it presents like a multimillion dollar blockbuster.
Which brings me onwards to the actual vocal performances. What is the one thing worse than having comically uncomedic dialogue? Giving it to a cast that seem incapable of performing it convincingly. Not a cast so terrible as to be entertaining, but just bad enough to be mediocre. The worst of all worlds. Or protagonist seems to struggle intoning his usually frustrated line reads- or even sounding like he is grounded in the life-or-death scenarios around him. Listening to him lightly grunt whilst being tossed around like a ragdoll by a giant death robot makes me wonder if this cast even had a vocal director present at all! And some of the less farcical but still not exactly gleaming line reads, such as those belonging to Sechenov, could have really been elevated to be something by an actor with some level of gravitas to them! You could argue it's a dub issue, which it is; but at that point the main dub should have just been the Russian dub then, shouldn't it? (And besides, changing the dub doesn't change the mediocre written dialogue, does it?)
The gunplay is serviceable. Sound design feels weak, weapon variety is a bit lacking in the early game (I suspect if I can stand to stick with it that criticism with peter out later.) Enemies just seem to all rush you- which makes group attacks an absolute cluster. (Which is great because that is what the entire open world consists of!) Melee combat lacks punch. Powers don't seem to interact with the environment or each other. It's just fine. Which as far as systems go in this game might as well be a glowing endorsement- but it certainly doesn't hold a candle to other dedicated shooters, not even old Bioshock titles and certainly not modern DOOM as I've seen some truly delusional defenders try to claim. (Making that comparison ought to qualify one for a free psychiatric evaluation.)
But where the game really starts to fall apart is when it comes to the open world. You've probably already heard it all but I need to get it out of my system- I have no idea if the game's director had a vision for this part of the game. Suburban hills built with prefabs lacking in meaningful reasons to explore drowning in thoughtlessly placed robots that summon entire armies if you are seen fighting with the several dozen cameras placed on every street corner. Cameras that get automatically repaired if you take the time to destroy one by the endlessly respawning sky drones. (I actually think there's a late-game way of disabling those drones but I haven't seen it yet.) Endless hoards of robots spawn as though this is DOOM, even though we're in a game where basic resources, such as ammunition, are trapped behind a pointless crafting system- meaning you rarely get to pick up bullets, instead you pick up resources that need to be converted into ammo at a crafting bench and then slotted into the limited inventory spaces in your RE4 style attaché case- it's just a mess of ill-fitting design concepts lifted from different games and genres and supplanted into an unfocused jumble. It is, once again, amateurish.
So much of how this game tries to present itself feels primed for comparison to Bioshock. From the alternative world view extolling a particular political extreme to exaggerated propositions to the elemental power suite designed to supplement gameplay, to the allusion to scarce resources- (that don't actually pan out to the gameplay) and even the very level layout that takes us to distinct environments inside a once-functional facility: like distinctly unique lungs in a bizarre amalgam of a body. But the disconsonant nature of the execution sorely fails to replicate what made that franchise special. It feels clumsy and unintentional, badly designed, badly directed and poorly written. But the art team pulled a miracle out their hats to make the outward face so darned pretty. If this game looked like the old STALKER Games, with the same mess of systems currently present, I genuinely think this game wouldn't have crossed a single radar. So I hope those designers got a raise for their efforts, because they were the only one's in this entire project holding Atomic Heart together.
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