Atomic Heart’s cool artwork and Soviet robots grace an old-school FPS

When Atomic Coronary heart first attracted consideration for its first official trailer again in 2018, it was all in regards to the paintings. The surreal, retro-futuristic designs of then-unknown developer Mundfish, set to a strutting Iron Curtain tango, prompted a sensation: featureless, furry humanoids blended with primitive robotics, Nineteen Fifties utopianism in smash, and a extra summary, gelatinous form of natural horror. It was a extra extravagant and colourful Soviet model of a Fallout or BioShock aesthetic, given a perversely cheerful spin. It was pure to wish to know extra.

Now, simply 5 weeks from launch, the sport stays staunchly art-led. I had an opportunity to play Atomic Coronary heart’s opening hours, plus a brief preview of a later part, lately; it opens with as grand a bit of desk setting as you’ll ever see, because the participant is rigorously shepherded by a spectacular tour of a flying metropolis. It should be 40 minutes earlier than you might be allowed to do something greater than gaze upon the works of the artwork workforce, and the utopian, technocratic, alternate-history Soviet Union they’ve imagined. Spiral-propellered drones whiz round, smiling automatons dispense exposition, streamlined plane fuselages hold in a preposterously huge workplace foyer, and monumental artwork deco edifices tower over navy parades.

However this isn’t the paradise we’ve come to play in. Voice-over — which eschews the doubtless othering impact of Russian accents in favor of the common language of macho American online game banter — establishes the participant as a particular forces operative codenamed P-3, who’s been known as into service by this society’s scientist-priest-king, Dmitry Sechenov. Sechenov hopes to usher in a brand new age along with his “neural polymer,” which permits data to be actually injected into the bloodstream and will doubtlessly hyperlink all human consciousnesses within the final Communist neural community. However there’s bother down on the floor to take care of: A robotic rebellion has plunged a splendid analysis facility into chaos.

Picture: Mundfish/Focus Leisure

Earlier than we go any additional, let’s take care of the elephant within the room: Mundfish was based in Moscow, however relocated its headquarters to Cyprus sooner or later final 12 months because the invasion of Ukraine threatened sanctions in opposition to Russian companies. The developer’s web site is eager to current it as a world operation, and it claims (plausibly sufficient, however unverifiably) to have Ukrainian workforce members. It has secured a French writer, Focus Leisure, for Atomic Coronary heart.

For a 12 months, Mundfish made no public assertion in regards to the battle, for or in opposition to. Shortly earlier than this text was printed, the developer provided this very non-specific remark on Twitter: “We wish to guarantee you that Mundfish is a developer and studio with a worldwide workforce targeted on an modern sport and is undeniably a pro-peace group in opposition to violence in opposition to individuals. We don’t touch upon politics or faith.” It’s unlikely to place the issues of some gamers to relaxation.

Regardless of the nationality or politics of the individuals who made it, there’s no denying that Atomic Coronary heart is a deeply culturally Russian sport, each in its setting and the best way it has internalized a sure taste of late-’90s/early-2000s hardcore PC sport: graphically superior, brutal, systemic, and cynical in its worldview. Its gleeful use of Soviet iconography, and all of the echoes of Russian exceptionalism and imperialism that go together with it, is hardly distinctive — many American and European studios have finished the identical, and with out the specificity or the creativeness that Mundfish brings to the fabric. Nevertheless it does hit totally different in 2023. For some, will probably be arduous to abdomen, or to assist.

Evaluation of the extent to which Atomic Coronary heart examines the political dimensions of its imagery should wait till evaluate. However the shadows of BioShock and BioShock Infinite, in addition to Half-Life 2, loom so giant over this sport that it appears unlikely it gained’t look at them in any respect. Secherov is a ready-made Andrew Ryan determine, whereas the analysis facility presents the sport’s quirkily upbeat Soviet dream as a horrific wreck, nearly fully abandoned by people.

Picture: Mundfish/Focus Leisure

As an alternative, throughout the early levels not less than, our commando hero faces down murderous robots and haywire machines whereas chatting with the disembodied voice of his neurally linked glove. The glove permits some telekinesis and environmental scans, in addition to interfacing with neural polymers that grant P-3 restricted superpowers, like an electrical shock blast. However you’ll must deal out bodily violence too, by way of craftable and modifiable weapons of a blunt, old-school selection: a heavy ax and a shotgun at first, an assault rifle and an electro-pistol later.

Atomic Coronary heart is unafraid to be punishingly tough. After the sport’s lengthy introduction, the brutal first fight encounter comes as a shock. Ammo is scarce, melee can’t actually be averted, and even the essential android enemies you face, which appear like jerky crash-test dummies delivered to life, current a mortal risk. There are some stealth alternatives, however this isn’t a refined, Arkane-style immersive sim; it’s extra about gritting your enamel, buckling down, and brute-forcing the sport’s techniques till you get a greater outcome. Sensibly, Mundfish doesn’t overwhelm the participant with enemies however consists of prolonged spells of exploration, puzzle-solving, and gathering of crafting assets. These could be spent at an improve station that could be a kind of sex-crazed sentient cabinet, and which speaks to P-3 in a deluge of crass, porny double entendre that’s the most conspicuously out-of-touch ingredient of the script.

Picture: Mundfish/Focus Leisure

Throughout the opening hours of the sport, you’ll spend lots of time confined to a claustrophobic underground warren of corridors, labs, and workplaces, often punctured by large robotic drilling worms on the rampage. In my preview I acquired to skip ahead to a restricted open-world part that may very well be explored by automotive, which largely consisted of wandering enemies and entrances to extra underground complexes. A sports activities area served because the stage for a boss battle with a whirling, spherical, tentacled robotic paying homage to the Omnidroid 1000 from The Incredibles, whose frenetic assault patterns had been punctuated by intervals when it simply uncovered its weak spots and sat nonetheless.

Atomic Coronary heart is a little bit of a throwback, and that’s not all a nasty factor; mean-spirited hall shooters with spectacular artwork route was ubiquitous, however they aren’t anymore, neither is their explicit model of masochistic enjoyable. It’s going to in all probability do properly on Recreation Go, the place it’s included from day one, if the viewers can get snug with its Russian roots — and if Mundfish can get it in form (the construct I performed on PC was notably buggy).

Atomic Coronary heart will launch on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X on Feb. 21.