For many years I followed the development videos for Atomic Heart, which always had a very "weird" aesthetic, but in a good way. It looked like a very bold game in that sense, with a visible inspiration in Bioshock, but with its own personality, and that kept my expectations high.
However, I've had the chance to try the game out for myself and it's not exactly what I expected, but that doesn't mean it's bad either. That feeling that the game had a "daring" or experimental look went down the drain and I got a much more commercial game than I expected.
The graphics are well below what they had already shown in the development videos, but perhaps this is due to the need to adapt to the weaker consoles (aka Series S), or just for budgetary reasons. As I said, the game has become much more commercial, but this isn't a studio with an unlimited budget, so perhaps cuts have been made.
Apesar disso, como comentarei com mais detalhes mais para frente, não foi uma experiencia decepcionante, mas diferente daquilo que eu realmente achei que teria. Mas vamos por partes! Primeiro, vamos comentar um pouco sobre todo o contexto narrativo que o jogo se passa…
Russia in a futuristic past
I said that visually the game no longer seemed as innovative and strange as it did in the development updates, but the game is far from unoriginal. The game is set in a post-World War II past that is technologically advanced to the point of being far ahead of our reality.
In this utopian universe, after the war Russia evolved scientifically in a way far superior to all the other nations in this universe. And this scientific evolution is seen both technologically and architecturally. We see entire flying cities, full of life and advances that, at the moment, we can only dream of.
And like a good story involving the USSR, the political scene is totally dominated by communism, and we see a Russia that exudes joy, even more so with no need to work. This is because one of the most important inventions in this reality are robots, which are diverse and varied.
A global hegemony
There are robots for many of the most mundane tasks and they make people's lives much more comfortable, which means they are always partying. This hegemony in robotics makes Russia a world power, exporting its technology even to powerful nations like the United States.
But Russia's great asset becomes a problem when a scientist hacks the robots at a certain base, causing them to attack civilians, something that in theory they wouldn't be programmed to do. And that's when we take control of the Major, with the mission of finding this scientist and controlling the hacked robots before the worldwide launch of Kollective: a technology that would allow people to control robots with their minds.
In this context, the game begins, and this is where, for me, the criticism I mentioned of the game becoming much more commercial than I imagined comes in. The issue of communism may be a criticism (or not), but apart from that, the story isn't that impactful, or perhaps it's too predictable.
Apesar de diversas reviravoltas, o jogo se provou ser menos ousado que imaginei que seria nesse sentido. Sabe aquela vontade de querer ser algo grande? O jogo tem muito disso, mas parece que não teve o orçamento necessário para concretizar este desejo. Mas apesar disso, é uma experiência satisfatória com uma história legal, mas ainda assim, aquém daquilo que eu esperava. Mas vamos entrar um pouco na questão do gameplay…
A Russian Bioshock
Well, in terms of gameplay, it's a first-person action game with some RPG elements. It's a real action game because you have battles from start to finish, with both melee and ranged combat. You have a varied arsenal of weapons in both types of confrontation, and each of the weapons can be upgraded in several different ways.
As well as being able to evolve weapons, the character can also evolve in some aspects, such as increasing the life bar, energy bar, inventory capacity, among other things. The energy bar is important in the game, as some weapons use it as ammunition and it is recharged when you deliver melee blows.
The game initially has three levels of difficulty, which doubles if you take "new game+" into account. And it's a game that's very challenging even at the medium level, but which, for me, becomes physically tiring. I say this because some enemies can only be defeated with melee attacks, and in order to do this you have to pull the trigger repeatedly for a long time because as long as you don't evolve your weapon enough, the enemies' health drops very slowly.
Frenzied combat, but little variety
Speaking of the enemies, we have a certain variety of enemies, but even so, as time goes by, the experience starts to become a bit repetitive. There are some very annoying enemies to defeat, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when they appear several times, it becomes tiresome.
The game has some boss battles, and as I said, there are very repetitive combats. In many of these boss battles, you face exactly the same enemies, just by changing the scenery. However, there are also some unique battles, in the sense that they are enemies you only face once, because in terms of gameplay, they are all very "generic".
On the other hand, the most common enemies are more varied and you have to use different strategies to defeat each one. Although in the end it also becomes repetitive, as I said, the different strategies make the game very dynamic, requiring quick thinking to overcome situations.
The game is heavily inspired by Bioshock, not that that's unusual, but in this case it's quite obvious. The enemies are basically a reproduction of those present in the Take Two franchise, with a different skin. That's not a bad thing, after all, Bioshock is still an incredible game, and in Atomic Heart, it goes beyond just an inspiration.
We have a map to explore
The game has an open world map that you can explore, but this is completely optional. That's because in terms of the main story, the open world map is only there to be traversed to get to the missions, which take place in more linear environments.
For most of the game, you'll be walking through closed environments, looking for ways to get through them, solving puzzles and, of course, facing lots of enemies. But the open world isn't totally useless and can be explored, and this adds to the gameplay in a reasonable way.
As I said earlier, the weapons we have in the game can be upgraded, and to do so, we need some resources that can be acquired through loots in the scenarios and those acquired by defeating enemies. But some of the weapon upgrades can only be unlocked by using specific resources.
And these resources can only be acquired at certain locations on the map, and to do so we need to get there. To do this, as well as being able to run across the map, we can also try out some very basic parkour maneuvers, and we can also use some cars and swim.
But traversing the map is not a simple task, as it is completely overcrowded with enemies. In general, when traversing, the scenery seems to be very repetitive, always with grassy places, but the game has some specific points that are different, usually areas where we have missions nearby, whether they are main or secondary.
What about the audiovisual part?
Without comparing it to the development videos we've seen over the years, the graphics are much lower, but it still looks good. This is one of the aspects in which we see the game's aforementioned lack of budget, but taking this into account, the game is doing very well.
The scenery is beautiful, with lots of different elements, and the way the scenery reacts to loot is very well done. But although it's well done, there's nothing very special about it. The same can be said for the soundtrack, which is very simple and in some ways even seems disjointed.
And is it worth it, anyway?
Well, despite the slight disappointment I had with the game, there's no denying that it's a lot of fun. And very well done, even though it was produced by a fairly small team. The story is one point that could be improved, but it's still very complete, with more than one ending.
It's a game that's definitely worth playing, as it will give you dozens of hours of fun. It's even on Game Pass, which makes it even more accessible. I had a few bugs during the campaign, some of which even hindered my progression through the game. But they were very specific things that, in general, shouldn't be too common.
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