Atomic Heart is ALMOST great 

some additional unscripted thoughts on the game. ALSO - spoiler free me lads. thanks for stopping by.

I think it’s enough for a sequel and I think a sequel could be way more

So far, I think the game is great considering that this is the first major game of this studio. Sure it has flaws and there is stuff that can be improved, but that hopefully comes with experience in future titles.

I've honestly really enjoyed my time with Atomic Heart so far. About 6 hrs in & Its been a blast. The story is interesting & kinda insane. Combat is solid & gets way better once you unlock a few more upgrades. A very ambitious fun but flawed game that is more then the some of it's part imo. 🔥

This game feels like a really fun B movie. Goofy writing, over the the top set pieces and lack of polish actually add to the charm for me! Have not been able to put this down, love the creativity and atmosphere

You said you were having difficulty describing the creepiness about what is going on. The horror in the game comes from preying on these three concepts primarily 1) Uncanny valley - human like, but not human so it creeps you out (the dolls/featureless robots and most of them in general) (2) liminal space - the enormous spaces that were clearly filled with life etc but now are void and eerily quiet. (3) AI is a concept that is the forefront of CS right now and it’s frightening to think of the negative implications it could have.

Atomic Heart has been one of the few games that has kept me interested for more then 5 hrs. I’m absolutely loving it! Also the soundtrack fucks

I'm 34, and I think we're pretty close in age. A lot of the things you talk about for the most part I resonate with. I've always appreciated your opinions, and you're one of the select few people on RU-vid that I trust. Stay nerdy, my friends

Hearing all the negatives prior to playing has left me more satisfied with it. I was expecting major flaws but tbh I don't see a lot of them, probably I just care less about them since I'm just happy to be playing something that feels unique. The protagonist's voice is deff weird at first but has grown on me, and the rest of the English voice acting TBH is pretty decent. I've had one crash tho, and got stuck on the environment in a fight which lead to my death, but as far as bugs go, that's all I've experienced in roughly 8 hours. And the fact that it runs like a DREAM on PC is a breath of fresh air in an age where every AAA release has shoddy PC performance!!!

You didn't mention that a lot of licensed music is just classic Soviet songs by famous artists of that generation. Some taken from cartoons, even. And about cartoons, Nu, Pogodi! clips are playing on a lot of in-game TVs. What's also great is that the more down to earth overworld areas like the villages are surprisingly very realistic to how they are in real life Russia, and especially how they were back in USSR. The game with all this robot stuff doubles as a virtual Soviet countryside tour, which should be an amazing experience if you pay attention and care about immersion, which I feel a lot of streamers didn't do and just rushed through the game.

I am nearly done Atomic Heart and while I don't love the game I kind of feel the same way I did when I first played The Order: 1886. I feel like I can't wait to see what can be done with a sequel.

Love hearing your unfiltered takes on this channel. Keep up the great work!!

Nora is a character i'll remember for years. Hilariously great.

Playing for like 4 hours to then realize I haven’t even been to a fraction of the map is sick, the level of detail in that first facility had me thinking I was going to be there the whole game

Great game with a lot of minor issues that can be fixed with some updates to make it awesome.

This has a more of a touch of Singularity, with a touch of We Happy Few in places.

As a Fallout Fan I am loving Atomic Heart. Really scratches that itch. Glad you mentioned it too - I have maybe 10 hours in it, and Im surprised how many people compare it to Bioshock. Its basically Prey meets Fallout with a bit of Far Cry. Just a great game to explore in and uncover all the secrets / expirmeents. Amazing world building.

I like it.. Bioshock Infinite, Fallout 4 and Halflife had a redheaded stepchild..

It's so funny that people accuse this game of " soviet propaganda" simply because there's no snow on the streets, the sky is not gray, people are not distressed, soldiers are not patrolling every street. Technically, people accuse this game of "soviet propaganda" because it doesn't look like typical propagandistic cliche from American movies. Sure, people in USSR never smiled, never spent their leisure time in central parks and never ate icecream.

Finally finished Atomic Heart last night and I just have conflicting feelings across the board. Like as a first try for this studio, there is a ton to be impressed by. But because it's their first game, it feels like they missed on a lot of obvious "game design 101" stuff like their approach to the open world, pacing, and general encounter design. Still, I'm super excited to see what they do next. I'd be totally ok if they found a way to do a direct sequel.

I’m about 6 hours into the game and I’m having so much fun with it. The combat I am absolutely in love with and I’m enjoying the story bits while just having silly fun with the game.

I’m having fun at certain times, but honestly I’m pretty underwhelmed. The longer I’m playing it the more time I’m starting to appreciate it.

I found an experiment in a tube fused with a doll and thought, "that's odd, what happened there?" Then a few hours later, I find an email mentioning a missing dog, and it's favorite toy being that same kind of doll. I've got gripes with the game like most others, but my sense of discovery was satisfied and then some! Also...Gamepass is great, because I definitely would've waited for a generous sale on this game otherwise.

Gamepass is king. I'd of never tried this if I had to make a purchase. Looking forward to trying this one

I'm glad you did a deep dive on this game it's something I've been wanting to play, and honestly you're the one person on this platform who's opinions pretty much run parallel with, especially with us in our 30s it's hard to find time and know which game you want to dive 20 hours into

seems to be another case of audience loves but critics dislike, currently 89 with 4,000 reviews on steam, its like wolfentsein, fallout and bioshock had a three some

I think Atomic Heart nails what it tries to do : to be a 2A bioshock-like. And for a smaller studio, this game is a total banger. Also, this game runs and plays flawlessly. Great gunplay, great powers and melee weapons that have some proper weight to them. It also seem to be a divisive game among the critics, but beloved by the gamers in general (as seen on steam).

I've said this before but it's not a Gotham knights, forspoken or the callisto protocol, with poor optimisation or boring world. For everything it does right it does something wrong. Still for a first time developer, they've done a decent job. One of the founders was even a model who use to own an agency (scatterbrained studio). As for the Russian stuff, there is no propaganda in the game and it openly criticises the Soviet union in serious ways and humorous ones. I don't think people should target the developers because of Putin but if you don't want to buy it that's complete fine. Curious as to what they do next, they have a foundation and could go on to do greater things. Appreciate your thoughts Jake, always love these discussions.

I feel like as if by todays standards we’ve had flop after flop after flop when it comes to gaming. So it’s nice to have something that’s just solid. It’s polished, engaging and above all else playable.

I wish it had an option to use Russian voice with English subtitles. Switching to Russian currently also changes all text (menu, ui, etc) to Russian along with dialog. I've played 11+ hours on my laptop and performance is nearly flawless

Crispy critters makes me cringe every time tho

What the game needs most... A freaking Flashlight!!

I've been having a great time with it and don't have any of the issues you don't like about it, and I like the dialog and banter.

I really recommend to everyone to switch the audio to Russian. Not only is it great for emersion, but it really helps with the cringe factor. You may miss a few details because you're fighting and not reading subtitles but it's more than worth it.

we can argue about anything but can agree that this is one beautiful looking game! props to the devs for making an optimized game with spectacular graphics.

Instead of the hawks deploying repair and attack drones immediately, maybe a 5 minute timer give or take after destroying a camera? You can loot stress free and then move on. Something along those lines would be a good quality of life update imo.

Just finished it for the first time , started it at launch but decided to come back and with all the updates in the last year it felt great , I thought overall it was a really fun and unique experience and I’m excited to see what the studio could do in the future. Reading all the terminals and finding the talkative dead bodies offered a lot of extra lore and made the story much much better for me

Atomic heart has what I dub: the dead island magic. Dead Island at release was a buggy mess but the build craft and rpg aspects of it plus the dismemberment of zombies and the overall package is what made DEAD ISLAND so much fun Atomic Heart is the same thing: Some things are great and others hold it back from being that IT game for most. it’s fun but don’t expect it to be incredible and if u go with that lens then u will have a good time

Since I didn't notice anyone saying this, but for a first game ever released from Mundfish studio, this is very impressive. I'm blown away. Somewhat I agree with your points except one, and that's enemy variety. AH has plenty of different enemies to fight. I mean God of War 2018 had 4-5 enemie types in whole game and it won game of the year. And AH definitely has more enemie variety than GoW18.

I don't understand how the Protagonist is bad he's basically the new Duke Nukem and I haven't even encountered any of these issues besides cutscene low FPS drops and while riding the loaders. The game is really great, I'm digging the story.

As someone who has an intermediate level knowledge of the Russian language, I can tell the Russian version of the protagonist has heaps and heaps more nuance that simply doesn't translate well to English. He definitely comes off in a very different way in English whereas the Russian version is way cooler and comes off a bit more multi dimensional

i just started playing this game last night and FFFFFFFFFFFFFF is this game boring. i mean REALLY!!! a 15 min ride to the top of the office to pick up a key THEN LEAVE??? then a 1 hr car ride?? YEAH NO!!!

What I want is atomic heart lore videos like oxhorn’s while we wait for the sequel

I'm at about 7 or 8 hours and I feel like its a solid day 1 pick up. I don't understand any of the criticisms, even those from Jake, who is much more warm than others. It feels like revisiting Columbia/Rapture over again, rediscovering a simple campaign with a great setting, and fun gameplay/gunplay. This game is Prey+Bioshock imo, and its great.

I dont get why the hate on this game. Played it. Its really good

The best thing about this game is that it isn't a AAA pile of trash, it runs like a sprinter too, no stutters, no frame drops.

Playing it now, and really enjoying it. I feel like games dont have to be absolutely perfect to be good and memorable. Plus being on game pass its a really big win imo

It's too bad that many studios now get so much of a game right but consistently miss the mark on the writing. More than anything these days, writing makes or breaks a game. And when you've got such a rich world to start with, it's even more disappointing. Still having fun with AH, but it could have been great...

Honestly jake your 2 reviews I think gives people mixed signals. It’s a really good game. I think it’s ambitious and fun and would love to see a follow up game or something similar. Very interesting narrative and totally worth playing

A really good first installment from mundfish. Interested in seeing what they make next. Safe to say i will be playing this game a few times. Also probably gonna play through it with the russian voice lines

I've played about 5 hours so far and man it's such a damn fun and different world. Yes the story is kinda whatever and the dialogue can be a bit much but the world and enemies are keeping going. Also when our character said, "what fucking ticket booth you stupid shit" that killed me and I kinda stopped caring about the semi cringe dialogue. Could it get worse later on, yeah sure but so far I'm having the most fun I've had since beating Elden Ring

Thanks for the candid review. Game sites are really destroying the way we think about a game before it even comes out. I might have to start avoiding reviews. I was so looking forward to playing this on game pass then I saw the reviews 😩😩

I donno, I feel like the more we treat videogames as art the more lenient we should be on defining "good" and directly attributing that "good" to cost. Yes there's something to be said for standing against blatant cash grabs, micro transactions in 70 dollar titles, etc. but I don't think that just because a game tries a bunch of new things it doesn't get all right, that it should be mandatory that it be demoted financially.

compared to what other AAA developers deliver at the moment, this is just awesome.

Honestly I’m beyond impressed. This is the studios first major game. The scale is massive, so many unique models and animations. Great soundtrack. Yeah the dub isn’t amazing but it’s important to realize this is coming from a non English speaking company. I honestly like the dub though, it’s witty and gives you a reason to listen in on all the little conversations. When Skyrim and Fallout came out they both had a ton of bugs, and their scale was similar, so I can’t be angry about that.

I love this game and it's good to see someone acknowledge that beyond its flaws lies one of the most fascinating and immersive shooters released in years.

The game has a 90/100 on steam and a 70 on Ps5, even some media gave it a 40. Can't stand people review bombing games because of political issues. Even worse when its a new studio of people trying to make something new. No surprise all we get is remakes and remasters, if the game was from bethesda or any other big company it would have been a 10/10 from most media. Thats why i like channels like yours, most of the thought is compelling and understandable, some reviews even said this was an open world as a matter of fact

I’m surprised that many reviewers (Including my man here) haven’t mention the graphics, holy!! It looks pristine, great art design, slick UI, and most of it seems to be during daytime, great combat and themes and yet, something feels Off for most reviewers. I think this game took a lot of inspiration from Duke Nukem more than all the games mentioned. Haven’t played yet, but for my first playthrough it will definitely be in Russian, the English voice killed the first good impression, and once you play it as such, the whole game might feel off.

Really enjoyed your honest take on Atomic Heart. How would you improve the game? I get Wolfenstein and Alien: Isolation vibes from this game.

They need to add fix jumping so many times so I get cornered while reloading and end up dieing because I can't jump over small / kinda small enemies

The world building you get from reading all the terminals is pretty excellent

Gamepass truly is the most consumer friendly thing out there. It’s a no brainer.

Considering what some AAA studios have put out, Atomic heart is AAAA. Admittedly I played on game pass. This game is really a lot better with a paddle shift controller changing effortlessly between weapons while also utilising abilities at the same time. There is a countless amount of ways to use the combat system.

Nice review with gameplay. The looting mechanic in this game is by far my favorite over any game I've played, not only is it aesthetically satisfying but it's also not tedious. Looking through every nooks and cranny is my favorite pass time. The interesting part is that you can tell the main character is being control by something implanted in his head that altered his personality. You'll able sense it at the beginning when a vendor asked you to try one of his free head band, and he later say "there is something in your head". I've also notice when they're riding the flying car, Charles was surprised P-3 never ride one before. At granny Xena hut, he mentioned about his head injury and losing some of his memory. Anyway I'm interested to find out why Viktor Petrov sabotaged the robots to make them killed his own people? P-3 and Petrov could be good friends if they had a chance to talk because now I realize Petrov wanted the US to know that the Russian are creating sophisticated killer robots that disguised as janitors and chubby bartenders. When Petrov fake his own death to stop you from going after him, this prove he's really smart. The most intriguing and underrated feature is the talking glove call Charles. A true genius! I wonder why only the main character has it. Update. As I'm getting deeper into the game, I've learned that the glove is the bad guy and it was giving to P-3 by his boss (Dmitry Sechenov). I haven't beaten the game yet. I'm still at the quest call Made in USSR, but found a spoiler that answered some of my questions regarding the P-3 memory lost. It turn out the robot twins, one of them is P-3 wife. They're being used as sex slaves for his boss and other Fembots for the Russian Elite. Knowing one of the robot twins is P-3 wife, I always hoping to see one of them slowing turn their head to look at you lol. As for the horny fridge, it was Charles the glove who able to tamed/hacked her, why was she attracted to P-3? Was this part of Charles plan as well? Note 2 self. The red blob scene is a tribute to Breaking Bad when Jesse fills the bathtub with acids to dissolved a dead body. Sechenov calling it "Data Storage" could also mean Unit 731 where scientists tag their victims as logs. Unit 731: The Forgotten Asian Auschwitz Under the leadership of Dr. Shiro Isshi, Unit 731 subjected 3,000-250,000 innocent men, women, and children to cruel experiments and medical procedures that were carried out by the brightest medical students and staff that Imperial Japan had to offer. A little about my playstyle and build. I'm old fashion and invested all the points into health and elemental/physical resist. For damage I maxed my electro pistol and swirling axe. I like to imagine I'm playing the Barbarian from Diablo 2, using whirlwind to vanquished my foes. Quick draw against flying units with my Electro. This game is part RPG, part shooting and part puzzle. For RPG I always looks for large horde of robots to farm. The only thing I don't like is lack of robot to kill. Atomic heart is my Half Life 3. Currently playing the dev build without any navigation marker.

Just wanted to say holy shit the first 15 minutes of this game are so gorgeous and full of life it’s crazy. They did a great job with the art style

This game is visually incredible. Super interesting constantly. My problem is its super smooth yet janky and the story is interesting yet doesn't grab you. I want more of this style and humor. Thank you for the great work! :D

Bro I'm playing on easy and is hard af, this game is really fun and Im really into it

I'm really enjoying Atomic Heart through PC gamepass ☺️☺️☺️ I'm at the start after the machine tries to romance you lol. Game so far is very atmospheric, fun, challenging, addictive and just an overall excellent experience. I'd give it 90 out of 100. Thanks Jake ☺️

Definitely feels like a game that could become a cult classic. Pretty ambitious with all the different gameplay mechanics.

Playing it on Game Pass & loving it so far. Yes, there are some bugs, mainly looting & UI bugs, but combat is fun. Not very far into it yet, though. Some jank involving walls for sure, enemies hitting through them to getting stuck, but overall an enjoyable experience.

You were spot on with the Fallout influences, I feel like this is what a Fallout set in the soviet union would feel like.

Man this game is a Russian studio who hasn't denounced the invasion of Ukraine, just like tarkov. I know it's video games, and we want people to have fun but not when the money goes to Putin to legit help fund the war. Ukraine has officially ask playstation to stop the sale of the game on the platform.

It’s my childhood in Belarus. Only no flying robots. There were robots giving out drinks tho. Phenomenal art, red colour, giant beautiful with real painting stationery, amazing statues glorifying women, men, family, society and future. Communism was beautiful ❤ There’s a lot of similar architecture still left in Belarus, and Mother Russia.

I was looking forward to this game most this year, and it is such a disappointment. Cool atmosphere, no doubt, and cool ideas, but my God.... it's so annoying and boring. So many times I literally won't hear an enemy... then I get attacked, or some random object in the environment just wacks you out of nowhere, or you get backed into a corner just flailing all you have to just escape before you die. I'd recommend Hi-Fi Rush 10 fold before I suggest anyone even try this game. Mouse and Keyboard just feels awful and this games control scheme is worse than anything Bioshock offered. This game doesn't look or even play like the game being presented in trailers. I have so many negative things to say about this game and everything I've listed is seriously 1/3 of what gets to me about this game..... I was telling everyone about this game before it came out, now I wouldn't even suggest anyone to waste their time on this... such a bummer imo.

I always thought The voice acting in metro for the English dub was a little cheesy, but putting it in Russian really help with my immersion and I was actually getting invested with the characters. I think when I do play this game, I’ll do that too

i just started playing and i could see why this game makes people grumpy...it reminds me of silent hill homecoming where you have to try. you can't be lazy or casual about it or you'll just die.

I got it on gamepass so I didn’t waste nothing on game BUT I’m enjoying it nonetheless

When you're as old as you and I Jake, I easily understand how you can equate this to half-life. I honestly thought the exact same thing through out my playthrough, as well as the obvious bioshock influences

I couldn't help but get "Serious Sam vibes" as my nephew put it...

The thing that really hooks me is the game world is just so unique and if they continue the series could branch out in so many different ways, its got the same thing that hooked me with dark souls worlds their all this chaotic jumble of beauty and horror that just feels so special to explore because you never know what your gonna find next.

I'm one of the few people who actually genuinely enjoys the writing 😅 Maybe I forgive it not being English natively more than some. But I really enjoy the uniqueness.

It felt like every boss battle was the boss just hard flanking you to be out of your field of view. And forcing you to constantly swing your camera around and locate and then dodge and attack. For a game with no FoV slider it was a deal breaker for men I believe there’s a FoV mod for PC and I may have to look into that.

i was really looking forward to this game for many years. but i'm trying hard to love it. i sometimes have the feeling the game doesn't know what it wants to be.

Ten hours in and I Iove it. I really think people need to play it for themselves and make their own decision. I dont mind the protagonist but if you do, change voice to russian and put subtitles on, fixed. I fricken love the classical music and opera sounding stuff.

Im actually am having so much fun playing this the looting system love the glove and its interesting good job for a first game i think

Only a little in and the beginning seems a little slow but the world is well constructed

They really should've spent some more money on the writing. It's so bad it really brings down the game

Silent protagonist would’ve made it feel closer to bioshock. but annoying.

A sequel called Atomic World with a robot apocalypse would be cool. We get to the more dangerous, combat robots Charles talked about as we try to shut everything down

The voice wasn't so obnoxious for me, I'm playing in Brazilian Portuguese, and I really enjoy the voice actor they've picked. He mostly dubs Chris Pratt, it fits the cheesy character. The english voice acting didn't hit the same.

Honestly the way I think about the voice acting and the portrayal of the characters is the same way I think about anime. I sincerely believe the people hating on the voice acting are the same people who hate anime voice acting. The anime style is to be SUPER over dramatic and that’s just something you either love or hate. And I have a strong feeling we are witnessing the same thing here where this could just be a Russian style of making characters and you’re either gonna love it or hate it. I mean how many of y’all have ever seen a Russian product like this in your life…? This could very well just be how Russian entertainment is. If I’m wrong please someone let me know but that’s the impression I got from the characters was that it was probably just a Russian thing just like anime characters have their own thing

I just don’t see why it might be wrong to portray Soviet Union in media. And that also counts to showing the upsides of this society which it certainly had. “Soviet Union killed a lot of people” - so as every other major country, so what’s the difference? It’s just that US won the Cold War and had the opportunity to write history as they saw fit and portray USSR as the absolute most evil country in the whole of humanity

Wish they would have gotten Jensen Ackles to voice P3 as well as the trailer.

It got some things right The looting is great The art design is INCREDIBLE But the biggest positive......you don't click the stick to run. You just press the stick forward all the way. So slight analog travel = walk, pressed all the way = run. GENIUS. THANK YOU. Also the dodge + sekiro "better get out of the way enemy attacks are great. And the dialog is actually all time bad, but as a resident evil enjoyer, its hilarious and somewhat enjoyable at some level.

Thanks Jake! You saved me at least $60 (it’s $94 plus tax here in Canada for the regular edition). I’ll wait until it’s on sale for at least half off before I pick it up. Appreciate it. I find I usually agree with your opinions on most games. I suppose that’s why I’m subscribed after all 😂

The more I play it, the more I like it. I really like the world and story so far.

They originally wanted to make a game that played like bioshock on a far cry open world map. But they realized about 60% of the way through that they weren’t up to it and scaled the world back and made the missions more linear. All those awesome things and mechanics and great ideas that only happened 1-2 times? Those were supposed to happen far more often.

Been loving this game so far. It is a beautiful looking game and plays great as well. I dont mind the obnoxious voiced stuff. Its no worse than Duke Nukem. The opening is awesome and the music is stellar. I was looking forward to this for years. I am happy with the game so far. Game on gamers. Be good to each other out there.

I think people are forgetting that this was Mundfish's first big game so I personally feel that I can over look some of the jank more easily but the areas of that game that hit for me hit really hard.

Game looks interesting, but can't even buy it in my country because all retailers took the game off shelves