- Publisher: Mundfish , Focus Entertainment
- Release Date: Feb 21, 2023
- Also On: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Feb 26, 2023Atomic Heart is a love letter to BioShock, but the setting is unique enough and the world crazy enough to stand on its own two feet. Great action, world building and storytelling are unfortunately interspersed with mechanics that take the flow out of the game or are completely unnecessary. Not to mention some nasty, edgy comments and the oversexed robots. Developer Mundfish could have limited the size better, because behind the multitude of disappointing elements lies a fantastic game.
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Feb 21, 2023Atomic Heart is a game with many lights, but also some shadows. It feels like the developers bit more than they could chew, but the foundations are solid and there is a lot of potential for future entries.
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Mar 19, 2023For a first try from a studio without any previous games, Atomic Heart is certainly an achievement albeit rough around (some) edges. Its aesthetic and mixture of well crafted action, puzzles and exploration is dragged down a bit by an abysmal open-world design (which thankfully doesn’t last long) and a rather predictable story. Nevertheless, the overall experience created the feeling that Mundfish is a studio that we should keep our eyes on in the future.
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Feb 21, 2023Frankly stunningly beautiful, Atomic Heart opens with stunning architecture and a catchy pitch before unfolding a story that struggles a little to convince and lets out dozens of dialogues that can make you wince. Remains a rather decent gameplay divided between classic and robust combat, hyper clever puzzles and barely decent platforming.
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Feb 20, 2023A Bioshock-clone with a confusing, often unsatisfying story and many elements that seem unfinished. Beautiful visuals and good combat are captivating enough for one playthrough, though.
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Feb 20, 2023There really is a lot to love about this game. The graphics are about as "next-gen" as you can get, the world is marvellous, the audio and soundtrack is top quality, and the narrative is thoroughly interesting and engaging. If it wasn't for its clunky and overcomplicated nature, Atomic Heart would probably be one of the year's best games.
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Feb 20, 2023Atomic Heart embraces lunacy, overblown sexuality, and violence at every turn, and feels simultaneously polished and yet painfully unrefined.
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Mar 13, 2023If you can poke past the horribly-paced and presented story, tedious and sometimes painful character dialogue, and bad design ideas for the open-world aspect, I can sincerely say that there is some legitimate Shock-like qualities in the better parts of the gameplay and in the awe-striking art style, to say nothing of the incredible music. If you enjoyed any of Bioshock‘s selections, or Arkane’s 2016 Prey, consider giving this communist dystopia a chance to show how close it got to nailing that Shock-like formula, even if you wind up coming out hating the phrase “Crispy Critters” as much as I did.
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Mar 1, 2023Atomic Heart’s captivating Soviet robo-topia crumbles under the weight of a poorly delivered story, clunky action, unnecessary open-world traversal, and a glut of technical issues.
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Feb 20, 2023Atomic Heart is a solid yet over-indulgent first entry from a developer that maybe had more ideas than it could manage at once. The individual atoms and particles have wonderful potential, but their quantum connection to each other feels wholly missing thanks to their competing directions. I have hope a sequel could deliver on the fantastic premise and stellar world-building, but just like nuclear fusion, it’s an optimistic dream rather than an exciting current reality.
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Feb 20, 2023The biggest disappointment - outside of the narrative, uneven combat, and characters - comes from the expectation and promise found in the art direction, combat, and Soviet-era Russian sci-fi style. There’s a school of thought that when it comes to a review, you should discuss the content of a game versus what it doesn’t have. The logic is sound, if all criticism comes from a place of unmet expectation, that would be unfair. But when something looks this good, you can’t help but wonder what’s missing. At least in those rare moments when the game shuts up long enough for you to think.
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Feb 25, 2023Mundfish bit off more than it could chew, leading to a lot of half-baked ideas that should have been scrapped and reigned in. It makes the game's greatest moments ultimately bittersweet, as deep down there is potential for something excellent.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Feb 20, 2023After a half-dozen hours with Atomic Heart, I’m eager to see where it takes me. I’m currently exploring the college town around a mag-lev train station, looking for a dead comrade with a ticket on them. The game’s promotional screenshots suggest far more varied environments than the underground tunnels I’ve been through and a wider mix of malfunctioning worker bots...Atomic Heart is loaded with little loving details, and its combat is notably more fluid and involved than the somewhat plain shooting typically associated with its sub-genre. I suspect the answer to what went wrong with the grand robo-workers’ utopia is going to involve some well-worn sci-fi tropes, but I’m fine with it. It’s a fun, ambitious shooter with a distinct style and worth the occasional kick in the head. [Impressions]
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Mar 6, 2023The problem lies in its mediocre story and downright bad writing. I already grew weary of its big-mouthed protagonist just a few hours into Atomic Heart. [Review in Progress]
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Feb 20, 2023Atomic Heart’s lack of satirical bite might just be one of the most consistent things about it. For every miserable onslaught of respawning bots, there’s an intoxicatingly tense run-and-gun battle. For every work of artistry in the sound design and environments, there’s a scene of utterly sub-par scripting. It’s glorious and tedious, polished and patchwork all the same time, and while there’s an anarchic part of my brain that wants more ambitious-yet-wonky games like it, stronger is my hope that Mundfish’s second game has a tighter grasp on its own strengths and weaknesses.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 1,695 out of 2387
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Mixed: 185 out of 2387
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Negative: 507 out of 2387
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Feb 22, 2023
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Feb 23, 2023
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Feb 23, 2023