Atomic Heart

The main character is Major Sergey Nechaev, nicknamed P-3, a KGB special agent assigned a particularly dangerous mission. At the factory, the robot control system has malfunctioned, and instead of helping humans, the robots have started killing their masters. It is necessary to stop this madness, find and neutralize the instigators, while also delving into the intricate plans of the Soviet party nomenclature and the director of the Enterprise, the genius inventor Dmitry Sechenov.

The world of Atomic Heart is vastly different from our reality due to innovators who tackle problems that usually take entire institutes decades to solve. In the 1930s, the young Sechenov invented "polymer" — a liquid programmable compound of heavy water and silicon.

This discovery launched the Soviet robotics program, for which the government allocated a vast territory called Enterprise 3826. There, the best scientists and engineers founded science cities like "Vavilov," "Pavlov," "Theater," "Chelomey," and others, while Sechenov led them and continued to improve the "polymer."

World War II did happen in the world of Atomic Heart but, however, the USSR quickly defeated Germany, which towards the end of the war released the "brown plague" — a powerful genetically modified biological weapon.

Suffering more than others from it, the USSR transitioned labor-intensive agriculture, construction, and industry to robots, while creative and science-intensive fields were left for humans. As a result, by the end of the 1940s, the country emerged as a leader in development: cold fusion reactors, levitating trains, flying drones and cars, quantum computers, and Gagarin, who conquered space 10 years earlier.

By 1955, the time when the game's events begin, Sechenov had improved his invention to "neuro-polymer." This substance painlessly integrates human consciousness into a single network with other people, robots, and computers with an infinite amount of knowledge, allowing instant messaging, controlling technology, or learning something new. Ahead lies the mass polymerization of the USSR population and the conquest of Mars.

There is no seamless open world in Atomic Heart; you cannot wander wherever and whenever you want or go back. Alternating between each other, most locations consist of elongated "corridor" levels, while fewer are large open spaces. This combines approaches typical of corridor shooters and open-world games.

Enterprise 3826 is located in a meadow-forest biome with mountainous and lake landscapes, showcasing a model of peaceful, calm life. Fields and farms, settlements and villages, tourist cottages, infrastructure and economic facilities, all connected by a network of roads and various robots caring for the territory and performing designated operations. A true utopia.

Following the principles of object secrecy in the USSR, only by going underground do you understand its true colossal scale. Levels are fully-fledged factories, research centers, factories, laboratories, medical complexes, agro-industrial parks, etc. While the open spaces are designed in a unified style, the designers did not repeat themselves, and each level received its unique feature, a set of its own design styles, decorations, and individual items.

No foreign capitalist samples. Everything—from posters and animations, clothing and room designs, to car models, building architecture, and monuments in Atomic Heart—is done in a visual style of retro-Sovietism, synthwave, avant-garde, and empire.

The plot of Atomic Heart is original and well thought out, filled with details, and includes several unexpected twists and endings. Sergey’s antics with horny robots are just a facade for such complex themes as the dangers posed by progress, the influence and role of individuals in history, and the intervention of dictatorship in the life of the creator. The screenwriters managed to create a "gray morality" without clearly good or bad characters and events.

The narrative begins with a prologue where the devoted cyborg Nechayev receives an upgrade in the form of a polymer glove from Sechenov. This glove is also the companion of KRAZ, a key character in the plot, as in the recent past, the protagonist of Atomic Heart lost his memory. The relationships between him, Sechenov, and KRAZ form the main plot arc.

The artificial intelligence leads missions, suggests routes, clarifies complex moments, narrates about the game world, robots, and human inhabitants, and even reveals Nechayev's backstory. He appears as a stereotypical action hero: not particularly bright, a war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, cursing at every opportunity.

There are few other characters; their images do not go beyond familiar shooter archetypes, but they are revealed through well-defined personalities, sufficient to explain the backstory of the time and understandable motivations. The story is linear from start to finish, does not offer side quests, and picks up pace after the first third. The cutscenes are well staged and directed.

The combat system is based on intense forward movement, dismembering androids and other organic beings with makeshift weapons supported by the glove's abilities. Depending on the type, the weapons allow for slashing, chopping, or smashing enemies. All hits are reflected on their bodies.

Each weapon has several styles of strikes, as well as individual dependencies on quick-weak, slow-strong strikes, and an alternative mode. You can dodge enemy attacks by running, jumping, or dashing to the sides, but there is no block or roll available; however, you can push back the overwhelming enemies with a basic glove attack.

The glove's abilities —freezing, fireball, electric shock, polymer emission, and upward lift—open up new tactical schemes, but combos between them and other actions are not provided. The glove also justifies the upgrade of Nechaev's polymer organism and unlocks the hacking of robots and mechanisms.

Since the action takes place in the depths of the USSR, there isn't much weaponry — a couple of firearm options, several futuristic energy guns , and a kind of RPG equivalent. Each type has its own shooting physics, and shooting is generally enjoyable. The shooter aspect kicks in when the player accumulates enough ammunition or resources to craft them.

The single-player game features a standard set of activities: we move forward, explore the level, take down all encountered enemies, solve puzzles, find secrets, study lore through notes and messages, vacuum the locations, and enhance the character. Since there are few cutscenes, they are compensated by constant banter between companions.

Occasionally, unique bosses appear, and discovering their strengths and weaknesses requires adapting the play style. The upgrade allows changing the character build without penalties and is familiar for shooters. We drain polymer from defeated enemies, accumulate it, buy passive perks that affect basic character parameters (health, movement speed, inventory size, etc.). Or we spend it on active glove abilities, making them more powerful, versatile, or simply more useful.

The pace of gameplay increases in corridor levels when Atomic Heart actively spams mobs and tries to kill the player in various ways, and slows down in open spaces. However, enjoying the views while leisurely driving a "Moskvich" is not possible due to the quickly recovering worker robots pressuring the player like in some Dark Souls. The balance is set so that resource scarcity will always be present, but exploring the world can yield useful blueprints for weapons or upgrades, making the hero generally stronger.