Atomic Heart Review: From Russia with Love Bots!

One of the newest games out there is Atomic Heart and it’s currently sitting on Steam with a Very Positive review score for those who don’t want to spend that much money, it’s also in Game Pass!

The game has been in development since 2018 and only recently did it fly into everyone’s radar though, let’s face it, highly sexualized robots in the trailer. Since then it’s been one of the more hyped games out there and now that it’s released you might be wondering if it’s worth your time and money.

Let’s go see what Atomic Heart is all about and what you can expect if you play the game!

From Russia with Love Bots – Atomic Heart Review

Atomic Heart is a game published by Mundfish and is the very first game that they developed a lot of people think that it’s more of a Soviet-style Bioshock. The game caught everyone’s attention with sexy robots and nice-looking graphics but is it actually that good?

Let’s see what this game has to offer.

A Futuristic Past

Without spoiling too much, the game is set in an alternate universe where it’s the 1950’s you’re in the USSR and they’ve discovered Polymer, no not plastic, but some sort of wonder liquid that helps boost the USSR’s technology.

The USSR now has a bunch of robots from flying drones that deliver stuff to humanoid helper robots that do menial work and even specialized drones that harvest fields or cut trees. You’d think they’re getting close to Utopia but they still have some problems, like the good old Soviet power struggles and economic sanctions!

You play as P-3 a soldier under the command of Sechenov, the guy that discovered Polymer. He’s the big scientist that wants to make Kolektiv 2.0 happen, which is where every human being and robot are connected through their minds so that everyone can truly be equal. Before that could happen though a bunch of traitors to the Union made the robots go crazy and now Sechenov sends you to fix the problem.

The story itself isn’t something new but there are great twists here and there and there are a couple of characters that stay interesting throughout the story.

One character, Grandma Zina has a great intro in the story while some characters reveal themselves later on. P-3, the main character and the one you’re playing as can be as dense as a brick sometimes but he can have his moments. Especially when he says “Crispy Critters” all the time, which is a weird translation since in the Russian dub he just swears normally.

A Soviet Bioshock

When you play through the combat of the game you can tell that they’re really going for that Bioshock feel. You have weapons and you have abilities, and you combine them to make mayhem and destruction for robots.

The weapons you have aren’t a lot but they fill certain roles, from Energy guns with unlimited ammo to the humble Kalashnikov, because it’s set in Russia of course there’s a Kalashnikov!

The Melee weapons, even though they’re a lot, can feel a bit the samey so just pick what looks the coolest. I’ll give them extra points for adding the KS-23 to the game, that shotgun needs more representation in video games.

The abilities are the main meat of the combat and you have a lot to choose from but only 2 ability slots.

You have Shok which is an ability that you always have plus two more that can either be Mass Telekinesis where you can raise up the enemies and slam them to the ground, or Polymeric Jell which you can spray on the ground that’ll slow enemies.

The game does let you experiment though since you can refund your abilities that you unlock to try out another without any downside!

There are some things that the game handles poorly though, like movement. Sometimes movement can be smooth as pashtet, then when you dash while going up the stairs you clip through it and do a climbing animation. You can also get stuck in the weirdest places when dashing around in combat which can get annoying.

The game also doesn’t relay the information that you’re hit very well. I sometimes have to keep an eye on my HP because the enemy’s impact on you is barely noticeable. Sometimes a robot punches you and you could have sworn they threw a wet noodle at you but but then you notice your health is down.

Puzzles Everywhere!

What really gets grating though are the puzzles, why are there so many puzzles in the place?

You see a locked door, there’s a puzzle. You see a room there’s a puzzle. There are even puzzles with puzzles inside of them! Locked doors especially need extra focus since they need thinking to do them and there’s ALOT of them. There are so many of them that even the main character comments on how there’s so much!

They could have just gone with the Fallout approach and gone with one minigame that requires some skill but once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature.

In fact, they already have a minigame like in Fallout so just copy that to every other locked door! I don’t want doors with Sudoku puzzles in them!

Aesthetics is Everything!

From the start of the game, you can already see that this game is not only pretty, but the aesthetic choices are on point.

All of the futuristic advances and grandiose statues combined with Khrushchyovka-style buildings of that time. Imagine the future that Fallout had before the bombs dropped and apply a Soviet view on it and you’ll have the views of Atomic Heart.

They have advanced robots that can do all the menial work for you but you still drive your trusted red Lada to work. Everyone doesn’t need to do menial work anymore since bots do that these days and you’re still living in tenement buildings. Even when you go out of the sky cities you’ll still see old Russian buildings made out of wood scattered around, a perfect mix of old and new.

The intro of the game shows this perfectly, and even at the lowest settings, you’d be surprised at how great it looks. The game itself is well-optimized and even on a PC that’s showing its age it still runs smoothly.

There wasn’t a FOV slider at the start though but a recent patch already fixed that so for those with weird eyes like me, that can’t play well unless it’s in a FOV of 90 and above then you’re good. 

Final Thoughts

The story and the combat aren’t groundbreaking but it doesn’t need to be. The story has some great twists at the end and there are actually two endings that you can go for. I can’t really spoil much but the line from Bioshock really fits well in this story “A chooses, A Slave obeys”.

The combat can be a bit repetitive, especially since there’s a lot of combat you’ll need to do, and the constant getting stuck in places you dodge into or the lack of feedback when getting damaged really gets annoying.

Still, there are a lot of different abilities to mix and match so you can experiment but if you’re the type of guy that goes for one build and sticks with it the entire game then it might get boring for you real fast.

The game has some rough patches here and there but the story is entertaining and the aesthetics really elevate this game, but for the price it gives on Steam, some may say it’s not worth it.

Still, if weird robots and non-magic powers are your thing, then this is the game for you.

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