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| Atomic Heart | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Mundfish |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Director(s) | Robert Bagratuni |
| Producer(s) | Oleg Gorodishenin |
| Designer(s) | Maxim Kolesnikov |
| Programmer(s) | Andrey Dyakov |
| Artist(s) | Artem Galeev |
| Writer(s) |
|
| Composer(s) |
|
| Engine | Unreal Engine 4 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | February 21, 2023 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Atomic Heart is a 2023first-person shooter video game developed by Mundfish Studio. It was published byVK Play,Focus Entertainment, and 4Divinity.
The game is set in analternate history version of theSoviet Union, during the 1950s. Initially depicted as aretrofuturisticutopia, the game follows the collapse of the Soviet Union, after arobot uprising.
Atomic Heart was released forPlayStation 4,PlayStation 5,Windows,Xbox One, andXbox Series X/S on February 21, 2023. The game received mixed reviews from critics, and received controversy over its reported links to Russia. It gained several awards.[1][2][3]
Atomic Heart is afirst-person shooter video game withrole-playing elements.[4][5][6] The combat consists of shooting and slashing with improvised weapons and using telekinetic skills. A wide variety of enemies are featured, among which are robots, interconnected into a single network, and even mutants.[7] A crafting system allows the player to piece weapons together from metal parts that can be detached from robots or taken from household appliances. Ammo in the game is scarce, so the player also has the option to use rechargeable energy guns.[8]Quick-time events are featured in the game.[9]
The player wears a special glove, the Polymer Glove, which grants powers such astelekinesis, freezing, shield, electricity and others to defeat foes. Its powers can be combined with both melee and ranged weapons.[10]
Weapons can be upgraded and embedded with various elemental effects using cartridges. These cartridges can be looted, crafted and equipped by the player on both melee and ranged weapons.[11]
To cover distances faster in certain large open spaces, players can use cars left in these areas.[12] Players also have to solve various puzzles that are encountered throughout the main campaign and side Polygons (Testing Grounds).[13] After one of the released patches in June 2024, the game also offers accessibility settings, which include not only puzzles auto-solve, but also colorblind mode, auto QTE, auto-heal, and some others.[14]
Atomic Heart takes place on the grounds of Facility 3826, theSoviet Union's foremost scientific research hub in analternate history 1955, located in theKazakh SSR. In 1936, scientist Dmitry Sechenov developed a liquidized programmable module called the Polymer, sparking massive technological breakthroughs in the fields of energy and robotics in the USSR and freeing much of the populace from manual labor. WhenWorld War II broke out, the Soviets quickly gained the upper hand, but just beforeNazi Germany was defeated in 1942, the Nazi Germany secretly unleashed the Brown Plague virus, leaving millions dead and creating an international demand for Soviet robots to compensate for the resulting worker shortage. As part of the Soviet Union's post-war reconstruction program, Dr. Sechenov created a wireless, networkedartificial intelligence called "Kollektiv 1.0" that linked his robots together for greater efficiency.
Most recently, Sechenov developed the THOUGHT neuroconnector, a device that integrates Polymer into the human body and allows humans to remotely interface with robots. THOUGHT is to be released alongside Kollektiv 2.0, and Sechenov boasts that it will usher in a truepost-labor era for the entire world.[15] However, Kollektiv 2.0's official launch on 13 June 1955 goes awry, plunging Facility 3826 into chaos.
Major Sergey "P-3" Nechayev is a World War II veteran with memory problems, who was saved from a life-threatening injury in the past by Dmitry Sechenov. As Sechenov's agent, P-3 is invited to assist in the rollout of Kollektiv 2.0 at Facility 3826, but he finds that the robots of the facility have gone rogue and massacred most human personnel. Sechenov explains that robotics designer Viktor Petrov sabotaged the Kollektiv 1.0 node and asks P-3 to apprehend Petrov. With his AI partner CHAR-les attached to his glove, P-3 is tasked with confronting homicidal robots and failed biomechanical experiments of Facility 3826.
P-3 tracks down Petrov and finds out that he is working with neurosurgeon Larisa Filatova. Petrov flees and is apparently killed by a robot. Meanwhile, the Politburo grows suspicious about what is happening. Yegor Molotov, a member of the Politburo threatens to shut down Sechenov's "Atomic Heart" project. CHAR-les explains to P-3 that Sechenov and the Politburo are in a struggle over who will control Kollektiv. Sechenov orders P-3 to intercept Molotov, but once P-3 makes contact, he blacks out and wakes up to find Molotov murdered. Sechenov later informs P-3 that Petrov is still alive, placing his THOUGHT tracker on a dead corpse with the assistance of Filatova.
P-3 finds Petrov at Maya Plisetskaya Theater, who rants about how Sechenov plans to enslave the world. He tells P-3 that the rogue robots had a combat mode installed beforehand, which was part of their initial design. Petrov then gives P-3 a pair of rings and commits suicide. When Sechenov asks about the rings, P-3 lies, and concludes that Sechenov and the Politburo's "Atomic Heart" project involves distributing combat robots disguised as civilian robots to seize nuclear power plants. P-3 takes Petrov's head to Michael Stockhausen's lab to extract his memories, but Filatova destroys the machine, kills Stockhausen and knocks P-3 out.
When P-3 wakes up, Filatova contacts him and meets him in secret at a secluded area in Facility 3826. She reveals to him that Kollektiv is a means to mind-control people, and Filatova was in charge of the facility that houses numerous volunteers of the project. P-3 also discovers that CHAR-les isn't an AI, but rather the preserved consciousness of Chariton Zakharov, Sechenov's colleague and a fellow researcher presumably murdered by Sechenov. Using Zakharov's security clearance, they uncover more of P-3's past: he was previously critically injured in a mission inBulgaria alongside his wife and fellow agent, Ekaterina "Blesna" Nechayeva. While Blesna did not survive, Sechenov managed to fix P-3's brain injury by installing a Polymer implant, erasing memories of Blesna while also implanting her memories into robotic ballerina bodyguards called the Twins. In doing so, Sechenov gains control over P-3. Furious, P-3 decides to confront Sechenov. However, he blacks out again and wakes up in the care of his mother-in-law, Zinaida Muravyova, who has been anonymously assisting him throughout his mission in Facility 3826. She reveals that P-3 had killed Filatova while blacked out. At this point, P-3 can either choose to leave Facility 3826 or confront Sechenov, resulting in different endings.
If P-3 refuses to confront Sechenov, he destroys Zakharov and slips out of Facility 3826 and disappears, allowing Sechenov to continue with his plans to activate Kollektiv 2.0. Zakharov is shown to still be alive as a small mass of living Polymer and he manages to escape as well.
If P-3 chooses to confront Sechenov, he goes to Sechenov’s office. P-3 and Zakharov argue with Sechenov briefly before the latter orders the Twins to kill P-3. After P-3 defeats Sechenov’s guards, Sechenov draws a pistol but P-3 uses his glove to snatch it from him and shoots Sechenov in the gut instead. While lying bleeding on the floor, Sechenov reveals that Zakharov used P-3’s Polymer implants to cause his blackouts, killing Molotov and Filatova. P-3, now furious at Zakharov, attempts to rip him from his glove, but Zakharov electrocutes and incapacitates him before he escapes the glove in a form of gray goo. Zakharov reveals his manifesto as he jumps into a vat of red Polymer, transforming it into a massive, black humanoid body that houses him, planning to exterminate the human race with Polymerize Beings. Zakharov picks up the wounded Sechenov and breaks his neck, killing him. It was later reported that Zakharov consumed Sechenov's body, then fled and disappeared from the scene. P-3 later reawakens and finds himself in an illusion before one of the Twins descends upon him with an outstretched hand, as the voice of Blesna speaks to him.
Taking place three days after the ending where P-3 refuses to confront Sechenov, Kollektiv 2.0 is fully operational. However, Zakharov, now merged within the network, has brainwashed people and leaked information, sparking acivil war. P-3 wakes in the Mendeleev Complex, now controlled by NORA, the rogue AI, who has fallen in love with him and synced to his implant. She orders him to eliminate Zinaida, who's now leading an anti-Kollektiv faction. Heading to the surface, P-3 encounters NORA's inventor, Lebedev. He repairs P-3's glove and explains that Zinaida seeks to control NORA for her weapon-making capabilities. To stop her, P-3 must collect BEA-D robots containing NORA's code to reset her.
NORA tempts P-3 with secrets about Blesna, but Lebedev connects him to Sechenov, who reveals that he preserved Blesna's brain in neuropolymer to revive her. He offers P-3 full access to his past and a leave of absence. P-3 agrees, resets NORA with the Twins' help, and restores order. As promised, Sechenov grants him leave, but as P-3 departs, Zinaida follows.
Taking place after the ending in which P-3 confronts Sechenov and is betrayed by Zakharov, P-3 awakens in Limbo, a virtual dimension designed by Sechenov to house the minds of those using the Kollektiv in order to mind-control people. Blesna, now in the form of a Polymer teardrop, guides P-3 through this dimension as they recover the latter's memory. Blesna also briefs P-3 on the events in the real world, informing the latter that while Sechenov's body has disappeared, the Kollektiv has yet to launch, and P-3's own unconscious body is taken to a lab alongside the Twins. P-3 eventually escapes Limbo and awakens, and sets out to find the rings he threw in the lake in order to restore Blesna.
Taking place afterTrapped in Limbo, P-3 interacts with one of the Twins' bodies, which allows Blesna to take over his glove and function similarly to CHAR-les. The two of them escape Facility 3826, though P-3's arm is injured in the process. They reunite with Zinaida, who learns of her daughter's survival. She then sends them to Triton, an underwater facility where they can acquire tools to retrieve the rings.
At Triton, P-3 and Blesna become acquainted with new allies: technician Nikolai, cetologist Nastya, and security officer "Hunter". P-3 helps the three of them with migrating a school of dolphins within Triton to safety; in return, one of the dolphins is assigned to retrieve the rings. Zinaida later sends one of the Twins' bodies to Triton, much to Blesna's dismay. Nikolai later reveals that he was sent to Triton to deliver Samodelkin, a highly advanced repair system created by Dr. Lebedev. He also recognizes Blesna as the one with the protocol to activate Samodelkin. Using Samodelkin, P-3 is able to fix his arm, as well as establish a connection between Blesna and Samodelkin.
As the group prepares to escape Triton, P-3 and Blesna are intercepted by MOR-4Y, a gigantic eel robot roaming the facility. Blesna, through Samodelkin's connection, transfers her consciousness to the Twin robot body, and assists P-3 in destroying MOR-4Y. The dolphin later returns and gives P-3 the rings, which he then puts on Blesna's hand. After taking a moment of respite on the surface, P-3 decides they are ready to pursue Zakharov.
Mundfish Studio was founded in 2017. Its key figures are the company's president Robert Bagratuni,[16] CFO Evgenia Sedova, art director Artyom Galeev, and producer Oleg Gorodishenin.[17][18]
Bagratuni and Galeev have known each other since the early 2000s, having worked at advertising companies. Bagratuni focused on marketing, while Galeev specialized incomputer graphics. After the economic downturn in 2008, when the advertising market collapsed, the share of video games increased. Sedova and Bagratuni met at the company Newmedia Stars. Before merging with Galeev and founding the game studio Mundfish, they had completed several joint projects.[19] The key figures at Mundfish do not have direct ties to Russia or its president,Vladimir Putin.[20][21][verification needed]
Mundfish has the main office in Cyprus and development offices inAbu Dhabi andYerevan.[17][22] At the age of 19, a producer Oleg Gorodishenin joined the studio (listed inForbes 30 Under 30 in 2023).[23] The development ofAtomic Heart was initially funded by Bagratuni, Sedova, and non-public shareholders. According toCrunchbase, Mundfish raised $16 million in two investment rounds in 2019 and 2021. According to Forbes, the amount from the Chinese investment holdingTencent, the international investment company GEM Capital, and the founder of the game studioGaijin Entertainment, Anton Yudintsev, could be around $20 million.[17][24][25]
In the summer of 2018,Nvidia offered Mundfish Studio to release the game on theRTX platform, which supportsray tracing andDLSS technology forGeForce RTX graphics cards.[26] They provided their equipment, access to a special version of theUnreal Engine 4, and tools for the game's implementation. Nvidia partially took on the marketing promotion, showcasing RTX capabilities at maximum settings in anAtomic Heart trailer at theGamescom gaming convention in Cologne.[19][17] However, ray tracing was not implemented at the time of release.[27] It was added in a beta version after an update on June 11, 2024.[28]
The game's soundtrack was written by three composers:Mick Gordon, famous for his work for video-game titles such asDoom,Prey andWolfenstein (The New Order, The Old Blood, The New Colossus), Andrey "Boogrov" Bugrov,[29][30][31][32] and Geoffrey Day.[30][31][32]
Along with the original tracks created solely for the game,Atomic Heart also features popular Soviet songs and their remixes, including "Arlekino" and "Zvyozdnoye leto" byAlla Pugacheva, "Trava u doma" byZemlyane, "Kosil Yas' Konyushinu" byPesniary and more.[33]
The game's music composerMick Gordon released a statement condemning the war and donating his fee from the project to theRed Cross Ukraine Crisis appeal.[34][35]
In February 2022 a story trailer showed thatAtomic Heart will launch in "#######BER", suggesting the game's release some time in Q4 2022.[36] However, later in November, it was announced that the game will be released on February 21, 2023,[37] published byVK Play in theCIS, co-published by 4Divinity from Singapore-based entertainment marketing group GCL in Asia,[38] and published by French-based companyFocus Entertainment elsewhere.
The game's firstDLC expansion, titledAnnihilation Instinct, was released on all platforms on August 2, 2023.[39] The second DLC,Trapped in Limbo, was released on February 6, 2024. The third DLC,Enchantment Under the Sea, was released on January 28, 2025.[40] It introduced new weapons, abilities, and allowed players to explore the underwater Triton complex.[40] In November 2024, a collaboration with artist Taras Yoom was announced to coincide with the DLC release. Yoom unveiled limited-edition sculptures, "Comrade and Union," which were integrated into the expansion.[41]
Atomic Heart sold above expectations, raising Mundfish's revenue to an all-time high. Three weeks after the game's launch, Mundfish announced that the game had been played by five million players. However, the game was also available upon launch onXbox Game Pass, which accounted for an unknown percentage of players. It was removed from Game Pass on August 31, 2024.[42]
The company has faced significant criticism for the Russian origins of its founders.[43][20] Since February 2024, Mundfish has removed mentions of its Russian office from the official website and positions itself as international company with "an incredible team… from 10 countries including Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Georgia, Israel, Armenia, UAE, Serbia, and Cyprus."[44][21][45] In 2018, the studio employed just over 20 people, while by early 2023, that number had grown to around 130.[46]
The studio is carefully distancing from Russian political statements. Many game developers and publishers have spoken out against the war, stopped selling games in Russia and Belarus, and donated to humanitarian causes.[47][48] TheUkrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation critiqued Mundfish, noting that "the developers of the game did not come out with a public statement condemning the Putin regime" and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also pointing out that the game has "Russian roots and romanticizes communist ideology and the Soviet Union."[49] The February 21 release date drew criticism because it nearly coinciding with the first year anniversary of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine andDefender of the Fatherland Day, on February 24 and 23 respectively. Developer Mundfish stated that the company is neutral in world affairs and "do not comment on politics or religion". Mundfish also added that the studio "is undeniably a pro-peace organization against violence against people".[50][51][20]
Mundfish has been accused of collecting data of users based in Russia and providing it to the Federal Security Service.[47] The developer denied these allegations, stating: "Our game and website DO NOT collect any information or data. The website’s privacy statement is outdated and wrong, and should have been removed years ago." In January 2023, the studio replaced the Russian-language Privacy Policy on the website with an English-language version, removing all mentions of Russia.[44][51][20]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | (PC) 76/100[52] (PS5) 70/100[53] (XSXS) 73/100[54] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Destructoid | 6/10[55] |
| Game Informer | 7.75/10[56] |
| GameSpot | 6/10[57] |
| GamesRadar+ |    [58] |
| Hardcore Gamer | 4.5/5[59] |
| IGN | 8/10[5] |
| NME | [60] |
| PC Gamer (US) | 78/100[61] |
| PCGamesN | 8/10[6] |
| Push Square |  [62] |
| Shacknews | 9/10[63] |
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Atomic Heart received "mixed or average" reviews from critics for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions, while the PC version received "generally favorable" reviews, according toreview aggregator websiteMetacritic.[52][53][54]
IGN praisedAtomic Heart for being "deeply ambitious, highly imaginative, and consistently impressive", though criticized its writing and "tedious" elements of gameplay, such as fetch quests.[5]PC Gamer called it "one of the oddest"AAA games. They felt it took primary influence fromBioShock, but criticized its combat and progression system as inferior, while being conflicted towards the story and characters.[61] Similarly,Polygon felt thatAtomic Heart failed to eclipseBioShock through its gameplay and attempts to tackle multiple themes at once.[64]
Atomic Heart was interpreted by many game critics and journalists as a political satire ofauthoritarianism,[65]artificial intelligence, andcommunism.[66] Ed Power ofThe Daily Telegraph wrote that:
"Playing the game, the player will be left with no doubt as to the dark side of Sovietmanifest destiny. The central conflict is between thePolitburo and Sechenov. The implication is that the latter is a power-hungry madman who has poisoned the Communist dream. Whatever Atomic Heart is, it isn't a love letter to the Soviet Union. This is a paradise lost, fatally undone by itsPrometheus complex."[67]
Journalist Kevin Purdy ofArs Technica wrote that within the game:
TheUSSR makes the world's best robots, its citizens live in a utopia where those robots do their menial tasks and labor, and even greater things are just about to happen...a world full of astounding promises, yet take apart that optimism by showing the hypocrisy, the false promises, the ego-driven leaders and actors causing so much pain, and the impact on real people's lives when it all comes apart...The Soviet State in Atomic Heart, and its maniacal leaders, are responsible for the death of untold thousands or millions of citizens at the hands of their own robots. There are plans to foist this death on the rest of the world, rather than win them over with the benefits of collectivist effort. TheKGB, for which your protagonist formerly worked, are not the good guys.[66]
Jason Faulkner ofGameRevolution felt that while the game is frequently critical of theSoviet Union, it stops short of ever outright condemning it.[68] Renata Price ofVice News also wrote that the game "depicts a scenario where the Soviet Union's quest for technology and expansion—there are numerous sarcastic references to conquering the stars—has gone horribly, murderously wrong...To callAtomic Heart a straight-up celebration of the Soviet Union would be a misrepresentation."[69]
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | LUDI Awards | Most anticipated game | Nominated | [70][71] |
| 2023 | Top-100 Xbox Gameplay Chart | Spot overall | Top 18 | [72] |
| Single-player titles | Top 3 | |||
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | Original Score – Video Game | Nominated | [73] | |
| SteamAwards | Outstanding Visual Style | Won | [74][75] | |
| LonglistedBAFTA | Debut Game | Nominated | [76] | |
| 2024 | NAVGTR | Best Original Action Game | Won | [77] |
| Annie Awards | Best Character Animation (Video Game) | Nominated | [78] | |
| National Internet Content Award | Constructing a new reality | Won | [79][80] |
In November 2023, Atomic Heart joined the “Hall of Fame”[81] of the Russian gaming industry, winning in the “Legendary Video Games” categories.[82]
In 2021, two years prior to release of theAtomic Heart, the developers stated that they already had plans for a sequel.[83] In June 2023, Mundfish's studio head officially confirmed the development of a sequel.[84][85]