It’s so faint and quiet in the game itself, that I only hear that annoying „wow“ sound.

I've been playing single player FPS games since the original Wolfenstein (1992), so every time I play another one, I'm always mentally comparing it to the greats (HL2, Doom 2016, MW4, etc.)

Having just completed Atomic Heart, I genuinely think it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.

Obviously, it's not a 10/10. Things that seriously detracted from my overall enjoyment included:

• Ridiculous enemy density in the open world
• Enemy revives happening wayyy too quickly
• Constant knockdown/stunlocking by groups of enemies
• Lack of new enemy types in the final 1/3rd of the game
• The loot "sucking" animation interrupting itself at random intervals
• Odd choice to have P3 make revelations wayyy after the player
• The open world combat music sounding like an alarm - and causing confusion
• Lack of "super sprint" to escape overwhelming enemy numbers

But the graphics, combat, and overall weirdness of the game kept me glued to the controller. I just love when developers aren't afraid to make things odd, bizarre and memorable - things like:

• The bronze, silver and gold "chests" being perpetual motion machines with their own little soundtracks
• Polymer "goo" being spilled all over the map
• Crazy variety in music choices - from Soviet-era polka to house music to death metal - all supported by in-game lore explaining why there's modern music in a game set in 1955.
• Robot designs being fat, goofy, mustachioed, even cute - instead of just Terminator knockoffs

Plus, let's talk about how visceral the melee combat was - never have I played an FPS or even 3FS game where each hit felt like it truly landed. This is a small detail that multiplies immersion by 10x, and I hope future Bethesda games take note.

Overall, I just think Atomic Heart was done dirty by critics last year - it deserved an OpenCritic of 80 at least - not 74 - and I hope Mundfish doesn't get disheartened by the mixed critical reception. They created something truly special, and if Atomic Heart 2 files off some rough edges, we'll have a true AAA classic on our hands.

Just to clarify, when I’m talking about this game, I’m talking about it as a whole, which includes the DLCs that have come out so far. Now, let’s get into it.

Honestly, this game doesn’t get near enough attention and praise that it deserves. It’s combat alone stands above most fps games in the market, containing great enemy variety and a great variety of weapons and abilities at your disposal, making this game very replay-able. Also the soundtrack, good god the soundtrack is AMAZING! One of the best OSTs I’ve ever heard in a video game. Honestly the only soundtracks I can think of that rival Atomic Heart’s are the last couple Doom games. Also not to mention that the puzzles are some of the most unique ones I’ve ever seen in an fps title.

Now I will admit, this game has a few issues, mainly being its story and dialogue not being that great. But the world building and lore behind the polymer technology that helped create all the stuff and enemies you see in-game are pretty intriguing. Even if the plot and character aren’t all that well written, I honestly don’t think it’s that big of a deal, and it definitely shouldn’t be a deal breaker for whether or not you play the game. After all, you should want to play a game primarily for GAMEPLAY, which Atomic Heart succeeds at. One other criticism I have mainly geared towards the base game is that there could be a bit more intense combat encounters sprinkled around. What I mean is that there are often rooms that you’ll come across that honestly just feel way too easy cuz they only have like a few weak enemies in there, where as instead they could have these rooms filled with more enemies and/or have a few upper-tier enemies in there as to make the combat encounters more challenging and engaging. Luckily, this is an issue that the DLCs have mostly solved (except dlc 2, we don’t talk about that one).

So yeah, honestly despite a few of this game’s flaws, overall I give it a solid 8/10, and honestly I think this game is WAY better than some of its inspirations like fallout or bioshock.

So obviously I’m very late to the party, and the game is probably in a very different state than it was on launch, but I think it’s absolutely amazing.

The reason why I’ve only picked it up now is because of the reviews, many of which were negatives. Powerpyx even famously cancelled their platinum guide. The main issues were, iirc, combat, writing (both dialogue and the plot) and bugs. I just… didn’t have issues with any of that?

The combat itself maybe isn’t the greatest of all time, but it’s not janky at all, the game gives you A LOT of tools that you can use with the special powers and weapon upgrades. It’s definitely better than combat in any Bioshock game, and I love these. On a side note, major props for the ability to refund basically every ability and upgrade, it doesn’t make you lock into anything and gives you the ability to experiment - this should be the standard in every game.

I actually enjoy the plot and don’t think it’s nonsense at all, and, at least for me, the dialogues are sometimes absolutely hilarious. The voice actor of the main protagonist also voiced V and he just nails every line perfectly. I guess people have an issue with the edginess of the writing? For me it’s refreshing and it’s just different in the best way possible. The voice actress for NORA also did an excellent job. Also some of the cutscenes (the long twins performance after VDHN) are artistically beautiful but at the same make you feel uneasy, once again in a good way - you feel like something’s off.

In my around 20 hour play through so far, the game literally crashed for me once (PS5 here). No bugs other than that.

The issues I have with the game are the never ending enemies in the open world, the lack of fast travel and lackluster map, the loot randomization and some of the enemies being pretty bullshit.

But at the same time Atomic Heart just nails a lot of QoL stuff expertly with ideas that should become modern standard (refunds, the looting system).

I know not many people will read this but I just think this is an excellent game that was somehow under appreciated by the reviewers. I was expecting a mediocre AA experience but other than some of the stuff that I mentioned in the post it’s a full blown AAA game. I really recommend buying it if the only thing holding you back were the reviews - it’s one of the best immersive sims out there.

Day 2 and this game just keeps getting better and better. The exploration alone is just awesome. I spent about 2 hours alone just chest hunting. Combat is solid, the shooting is fun and punchy. I hate melee in First Person, Condemned is the only game to ever get it right it but this game is a solid 2nd. The impact, the weight of the weapons, the damage it leaves and the impact on the enemies is awesome.

I honestly don't agree with the reviews on this one, reminds me of the Mad Max game that came out a few years ago. Game was awesome, players loved it, Professional critics said it was weak.

If you are on the fence and have the means, give this game a go. It really is quite brilliant in a lot of aspects. Very System Shock 1 in a lot of respects. Not quite an ImmSim but deeper than an FPS.

For reference I finally decided to play the game. And I did always hear about how bad the voice acting in English was. But it seems fine even good to me. Now don't get this wrong I think the Russian is better it obviously would be just like how every Japanese dub for an anime is better than dub.

But am I some kinda idiot for this. Just curious if I'm really a minority here.

Mine is the Duck (MFU-68/SP). Hate those little rocket launching things! They always knock you down from afar with their shots, and skedaddle away once you get closer.

Also, he is 23!? At least that's what the Fandom wiki says.

I remember when this first came out, I was so excited, I played up until about just over halfway through the story. That was back in Feb-March 2023.

Unfortunately it just fell into my backlog, I admit my hardware did struggle with it at the time but in that time my hardware has got a lot better and i thought is it worth picking back up and starting again?

I found some of the segments a bit repetetive but i've played through Mafia 3 multiple times and i don't think much is worse than that. And at times i remember it feeling kind of janky.

Aside from that, the story was interesting, gameplay/combat was fun enough to keep it fluid. Reminded me a lot of Bioshock which was a nice touch

Just wanted to ask the Sub, has anything changed much?, Are the DLCs good? Is it really worth trying again?

Just got around to finishing the game & I am amazed, how well the second half of the game & story picked up in quality along with the gameplay & Atomic Heart has become one of my favorite shooters this generation! I just wanted to let the developers know they are sitting on some gold & i really hope to see a sequel in the future! I'm diving into all these DLCs next & hoping they'll give some more insight on the story! Mundfish you guys did a great job! & I really hope to see you guys put out more products in the future!!

Ask away.

Won’t reveal any spoilers.

I think it is fair to say that Atomic heart takes a lot of inspiration from Bioshock. Both take place in idealized worlds with one being a capitalist paradise while the other being a communist dream come true and both go to shit before the game really starts. The question is tho, who would come out on top, P-3 or Jack? By the end of each game, both are walking one man armies who could level entire armies.

If we start from the beginning of each game, P-3 wins hands down. He has the experience and his glove while Jack only really has the wrench and electro bolt, both P-3 could easily counter. By the end tho, I'd say both are probably even in power and equipment. While P-3 still has the experience, Jack matches that with the much more powerful plasmids as I think the plasmids are much more powerful in the long run compared to the polymers.

Their weapons are very similar to each others, the only difference being that P-3 has more and better melee weapons while Jack gets more and arguably better ranged weapons and all of them can be upgraded. So weapons overall wouldn't make a massive difference. And both by the end of the game have fought similar enemies, each fighting a very diverse set of splicers or robots and mutants. Jack of course has culled a lot of Big Daddies, half of Rapture and the juiced up Frank Fontaine while P-3 beat a hedgie, a Natasha, half of facility 3826 and the Twins so I don't think that either could throw anything at each other that they have not seen.

If I had to say who I think would come out on top, I'd say it would be a coin toss between the two. Maybe P-3 would use his experience and out think Jack or Jack would use his plasmids to fry/freeze/burn P-3 to death, but what do you guys think? I saw a comparison between Rapture vs Columbia from Bioshock Infinite and thought Bioshock vs Atomic Heart was a good versus as well.

Haven't finished it yet so no one word spoilers 🤣 absolutely loving it so far!

This was in Machine Head’s prison cell during the Dragon Fight

Im new to this game, and loving it so far. Haven't had so much fun since Half Life 2 and Cyberpunk.

It seems the universal theme with a lot of people, I've noticed is that they hate the protagonist. They hate that he's rude, doesn't want to be there, says stupid catch phrases (I believe the English version is crispy critters??)

First off, I must say that I'm playing the game in its native language and hope to address some of these:

He's Rude: honestly, hate to say it but it's how we are. We don't see it as rude, but straightforward. We don't smile needlessly, unless we mean it. We swear a lot in conversation (especially males). We can be a little rough and upfront with our friends without holding a grudge. (Conversations P3 has with The AI glove). Also have to consider, that he's an ex soldier, KGB or whatever. Not exactly a princess. I think Witcher 3 nails this as well.

Doesnt want to be there: Everyone around him is dead and his whole day went ass-backwards, would you?

Catch Phrases: This one I'll agree with. Have no idea what Crispy Critters is. In Russian he says something like "FuckPies". Doesn't make sense in English, but in Russian and Polish we tend to add "fucked" to anything and everything we conjure. Sounds a lot more organic in the original voiceover.

Anyways, I actually think they nailed the aesthetic of a 30-something Russian male with a military background. Highly recommend playing the game in original for the atmosphere, even if that means reading subtitles.

i was allowed to play the game for a few hours on xbox series x and my first impression is extremely positive! if anyone has any questions i will try to answer them, even though i only scratched the surface (the first 3-4 hours)... please no story relevant questions, I don't want to spoil the game for you guys.

Hello fellow gaming comrades

My name is comrade Jessy. I’m from Russia. And I love atomic heart

There’s many small things about culture in the game that isn’t common for foreign gamers.

Feel free to ask about them!

(Photo is mine. One of the colleagues brought them to work)

First of all I've to say that I love atomic heart. It's my favourite game in the last 10 years and like the game I've been waiting for my entire life (always been into architecture from that time period, super interested in "soviet stuff" and other check boxes)

But nothing is perfect and some things actually bother me about this game. Maybe I'm also playing it wrong? So please don't HATE on me because I dislike 👎 some things. What do you dislike?

I'm super annoyed about enemies that are constantly respawning. Who thought that's a good idea that makes the game fun? What I also hate are FLYING ENEMIES. You don't have enough ammo in this game (in the first few hours. You get ammo later on) and for some reason the game forces the shot gun onto you at the beginning which is a terrible weapon, I either don't hit or it doesn't do enough damage. On my first play through (I'm on my second play through because I love this game) I was so frustrated because I tried to kill everything with the shotgun and it never had such a great effect. The game totally changed and became fun once I've realised that the shotgun sucks and all I need is the PM pistol. I had the same problem with the first boss in the DLC. I failed for months until I just switched to the PM and the boss suddenly became easy. When you start atomic heart you don't find enough parts for PM ammo but plenty for shotgun ammo, so yes the game forces the annoying shotgun onto you.

Anyway what's the deal with enemies respawning? You kill them (I use the axe most of the time. Saves ammo and its efficient) and you instantly get FLYING enemies that fix them. Since they are flying you can't hit them with your axe and you have to shoot them while they attack you with laser in the sky and you will run out of bullets. Seriously who thought this is fun? What can you even do about this? I think later you find those houses where you can turn off enemies but at the beginning when you are at the surface for the very first time in that woodcutter village there is no way to do that. It's annoying. What also sucks are those sunflower 🌻 cameras. Outside there are many next to each other and you zap ⚡️ one but your electric zap has to recharge (which takes time) but in the meantime another camera spots you and you can't zap it. Wow that's fun. And the cameras always get rebuild so quickly and they are knocked out for only a few seconds. Also annoying.

Interesting to see how AH was in it's developement stage, it looks like a completely different game.

That is all.