Atomic Heart is a Smart Shooter Packed Full of Surprises
Atomic Heart wears its influences on its sleeve. It’s a graphic first-person shooter packed with superpower-like abilities and owes a lot to classics of the genre, Bioshock and Half-Life. However, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t got many of its own unique ideas and surprises also hidden up that same sleeve, and from playing a considerable amount of Mundfish’s debut, I’ve found there’s a lot to be excited about.
Atomic Heart lulls you into familiar territory straight off the bat, albeit in a very unfamiliar world. Its opening takes obvious cues from Bioshock Infinite’s masterful introduction to Columbia as you take a leisurely trip through a peaceful alternate-history Soviet city. Thanks to the big brains at the fictional Facility 3826, robots have been integrated into society and help relieve the public from everyday stresses and labour. The calm is short-lived, however, as – inevitably – the AI turns not so friendly and the game begins in earnest. From there I’ve jumped around to several different points in Atomic Heart to get a proper feel of what it has to offer, consistently being surprised by what came next. It’s not the straight-up corridor shooter some may envisage, nor a sprawling open-world full of nooks to explore, or a puzzle-filled brainteaser. It’s all of those things and more. The scope of Atomic Heart is impressive, and seemingly unfolds and builds as you make your way through its many distinct and large sci-fi complexes over the course of its 20-hour-plus campaign.
Atomic Heart’s closest analogue structurally would likely be Halo Infinite - an open world littered with mobs of enemies and linear story dungeons to dip in and out of. These dungeons are where the majority of main missions lie and comprise of
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