Atomic Heart Review: Predictable but Playable (Xbox Series X)

Atomic Heart tells a decent story, carried by its impressive art style and more than enjoyable mechanics. There are plenty of character upgrades to satisfy any play style you favor and well-designed enemies, even if they lack design variety. Based on another reality where the Soviet Union won World War 2 as the result of scientific advancements, Atomic Heart is the epitome of dystopian.

Atomic Heart is available on Steam for $59.99. Also available on PlayStation and Xbox consoles for $69.99. While it is an enjoyable game, this price is a bit steep for what game developer, Mundfish, delivered. Those who are looking to play Atomic Heart on Xbox consoles can access it using Xbox Game Pass at no extra cost.

Story – Half Baked

While cinematic and mechanics may be unique in Atomic Heart, the story feels generic at times. Without revealing any spoilers, story twists are predictable and sometimes feel like a rushed project. 

Dr Sechenov is the Minister of Industry and head of the Atomic Heart Project.

The Atomic Heart Project is a project started before World War II to turn once helpful civilian robots into weapons of war. Robots that once assisted with tasks such as manufacturing and helping you source a train ticket, are now capable of killing you.

The player is tasked with the restoration of the once helpful robots and uncovering what caused their hostility. Known as P3, the player is a dedicated and loyal soldier to the Minister of Industry. 

Dr. Sechenov is the Minister of Industry and head of the Kolectiv neural network. When robots within the Soviet Union began killing people, his work became compromised. Sechenov demands that you restore their manufacturing plant before the government discovers the truth behind the Atomic Heart Project.

While playing Atomic Heart, you pay as a loyal soldier to Sechenov known as P3.

With plans of expanding their neural network to the Western nations, Sechenov cannot afford any bad press. Due to potential security threat, the Politburo has decided to visit Sechenov’s plant to review his work. You must remove the hostiles and restore the plant before this happens.

Atomic Heart Gameplay – A Dystopian Experience 

Atomic Hearts gameplay is enjoyable due to the slew of character upgrades, boss fights, and weaponry. With abilities that make P3 capable of telekinesis and much more, the game world truly feels dystopian.

Despite having few variations, enemies feel well-designed. Each enemy has different strengths and weaknesses, encouraging players to try different play-styles. P3 is capable of uncovering these weaknesses and much more using his scanner.

Character Upgrades

There are many paths you can take in Atomic Heart when it comes to character upgrades. Due to your Neuropolymer implant, you’re able to enhance P3’s character statistics and unlock new abilities. This is made accessible through NORA, a robot that has quite the personality.

After spending Neuropolymer collected from defeated enemies, players are also capable of returning the upgrades with no downside. This makes it far easier to try different play styles. Additionally, it forgives those who don’t know which upgrades to purchase initially.

• Shok – The Shok ability can be upgraded to produce a powerful shock effect that chains to nearby enemies.
• Character – Character upgrades increase backpack size, health, and agility.
• Frostbite – Acquire the Frostbite ability to spray a cone of cryogenics at your enemies that damages and freezes them.
• Mass Telekinesis – By upgrading mass telekinesis, players can make enemies levitate before smashing them down for massive damage. Additionally, players can even purchase an upgrade allowing them to lift bosses. 
• Polymeric Jet – Polymeric Jet is an upgradable ability that releases a combat polymer on the enemy. Combat polymer can be electrified, frozen, or lit afire using cartridge weapons.
• Polymeric Shield – Shield yourself from damage while reflecting enemy ranged attacks. Further upgrades even return shield damage to the player’s health.
• Energy Management – Upgrades give you a larger energy capacity for weapons and abilities to recharge your energy.

Boss Fights

Atomic Heart requires P3 to defeat 6 total bosses to complete the game. There is an additional boss fight for those who choose the ‘battle ending’, which I highly recommend. Completing the game without facing the final boss(s) leaves the story feeling incomplete and without satisfaction.

Bosses vary in strengths and weaknesses, forcing players to adapt using new abilities and weapons at times. For example, when battling Dewdrop you will surely want to consider Cryo-based upgrades and weaponry such as Frostbite and Ice Cartridges. Below are the seven boss fights that can be found within the Atomic Heart story.

1. Large Mutant 
2. Hedgie – The first difficult boss in Atomic Heart, Hedgie rolls around the arena and slams. Every time Hedge slams down it produces a shock of damage you must jump over.
3. Plyusch – Plyusch can be encountered multiple times within the story but you are only required to kill one. They appear as a collection of blood and tissue in a human-like shape and are incredibly weak against fire.
4. Belyash – Belyash is a robot that resembles a child with a mighty temper. His fire attacks can be especially brutal.
5. Natasha – A large round robot featuring rockets and the ability to fly above the battlefield. 
6. Dewdrop – A large water-based robot that crawls on spider-like legs.
7. Twins – A robot duo that exhibits beauty and art in every action, even if malicious.

Weaponry

Featuring only 12 weapons, Atomic Heart lacks in weapon variety. In addition to this, some weapons feel far too similar. While there may be a small selection, you can at least upgrade your weapons in different ways.

Weapons and upgrades for them can be crafted after acquiring a blueprint for them. Blueprints are found throughout the game and their general locations are listed when viewing them in the weapon upgrade menu.

Weapons can be upgraded with larger magazines, new blades, and even special abilities. When upgrading melee weapons and standard firearms, you can make them cartridge weapons.

Cartridge Weapons are weapons you can slot elemental cartridges into. The consumable cartridges can be crafted after discovery and depleted with use. Players can upgrade cartridges to last longer in both the Weapon Upgrades menu and the Energy Management menu.

Bugs and Glitches

While playing Atomic Heart I did run into a few bugs and glitches, but nothing like the bugs reported directly upon release. While minor and only a few, they are worth noting in the case that you experience them. I have also listed the quick fixes I discovered for these bugs.

1. Doors sometimes don’t operate properly, not allowing you to progress in your mission. This only happened to me twice and was easily fixed by restarting the game.
2. Upon reloading the game, it loads a previous save. Do not panic! I was able to easily fix this by entering the pause menu and loading the most recent saved data.
3. While fighting the Belyash boss, it got stuck in the wall during one of my fights. While this didn’t hinder me, it made for a rather boring boss fight.
4. Loading the game using Quick-Resume causes a drop in frame rate and game instability for a short period. Opening the Xbox menu and returning to the game seems to fix this.

The few bugs/glitches I experienced while playing Atomic Heart were minor and easily fixed.

Graphics and Audio – Atomic Heart’s Saving Grace

While Atomic Heart may feature cheesy graphics and a lack of variety in weapons, its graphics and audio are exceptional. The cutscenes are high quality and incredibly pleasing. Specifically, the twins and their artistic ways of performing mundane tasks.

The music in this game is amazing. Fitting the scenes and rising to the mood, the soundtrack is full of original Russian tracks. Consisting of many genres, the music found in Atomic Heart is its saving grace when it comes to immersion. Who would know boss fights get rather intense with the addition of Russian metal?

Atomic Heart was reviewed on Xbox Series X using Xbox Game Pass.