Atomic Heart

Although Atomic Heart is fun to play for its combat encounters, it’s packed to the brim with frustrating platforming and horrendous writing, making it tough to recommend. Ultimately, Atomic Heart feels like a Ubisoft game made by edgelords who love BioShock and Russia in equal measure. It’s a jack of all trades and master of none, which lands it somewhere near “decent.” The end result is an uneven gaming experience that has fun moments sprinkled throughout a marathon of cringe.

On the one hand, Atomic Heart is a good game on its own merits. The fun and frantic gunplay, outstanding visual design, and intricate level of detail in its world amount to an experience worth your time. On the other hand, it could have been so much more. The story and characters simply don’t do justice to the game’s thought-provoking premise, and some better writing would have done wonders. Despite that, Atomic Heart is still an exciting and memorable first outing from Mundfish.

Atomic Heart is a deeply ambitious, highly imaginative, and consistently impressive atompunk-inspired attempt at picking up where the likes of BioShock left off – something it’s done with a lot of success. It certainly makes missteps, chiefly with an irritating leading man and a self-indulgent habit of using the same tired tropes it tries to make fun of, but this stern, superpowered, and stringently solo shooter has worked its way under my skin despite these flaws.

That disparity is most evident in how the history of the world in Atomic Heart is interesting and sets up an intriguing conversation about the nature of free will and collectivism, but then the unlikable protagonist repeatedly prevents that topic from being explored. Atomic Heart is certainly going to appeal to some people, especially those looking to relive BioShock Infinite, but it's not an easy recommendation.

Atomic Heart aims high and, even if it doesn't quite pull it off, is a decent shooter in an exceptionally realised setting.