Atomic Heart Review – Crispy Critters

atomic heart don’t hide it bioshock infinite Inspiration. The game begins in a city in the clouds, complete with reality-bending and basic powers that can be used in battle against advanced robots. We see an amnesiac protagonist grappling with the nuances of the protagonist as he scrounges for resources in a crumbling idyllic city. free will. By the time you reach the climax of the story and are asked to visit the lighthouse, you know what’s going on. Where Atomic Heart differs most from its inspiration is in the lens that focuses the story, exploring the concept of free will through Soviet-Russian collectivism rather than American individualism. But that appealing premise is let down by a highly unlikable protagonist and a predictable storyline that doesn’t do anything interesting with its cool ideas.

In another Atomic Heart history, a scientist named Dmitry Sechenov set off a robotics boom in Russia in the 1930s. By the 1950s, the working class had been abolished in the Soviet Union and completely replaced by robots controlled via a hive mind network called Kollectiv 1.0. The game begins a few years later, just before Kollectiv 2.0 is released. This would allow all humans equal access to the collective consciousness to remotely control robots via thought devices wired directly into their brains. Connect with each other and share information over long distances. Basically, it’s the internet that’s connected to your brain and available 24/7.

Thanks to 21st-century hindsight, even if the main character, Major Sergey Nechaev, an agent in the service of Sechenov, fully believes in the dream of a world in which everyone has equality, the Internet does not end up being a 100% good idea. We know there is no wealth of information to be accessed and shared reliably with each other. Assigned to investigate the mayhem at Facility 3826, a major scientific research hub in the Soviet Union, Sergei endowed agents with a host of polymer-delivery techniques, such as telekinesis and cryokinesis, and provided Sergei’s senses with a sounding board. Joined by Charles, the Grove. It’s a collection of often annoying and borderline abusive quips and unfunny comebacks.

Amidst the now bloody corridors and flickering lights of a partially destroyed underground facility, Sergey discovers a mutation experiment gone awry and his once-peaceful robot assistant is bloodthirsty. But the real horror doesn’t come until later, when Charles tells Sergei about how Kollectiv 2.0 (which is already installed on Sergei) may not be entirely beneficial. Didn’t Sergey realize that all the audio logs he found and the computer he was logged into only provided information relevant to advancing his assigned mission? , it’s as if the algorithm is giving him information about what he thinks he should see and hear more, camouflaging him from finding manipulation. Charles hints that if humans all logged into the same information hive consciousness, they could be just as easily commanded as robots, especially if they had a way to control that information. .

It’s an interesting concept, driven by the idea that Atomic Heart is a video game and that we, the players, have been directing Sergey’s actions all along. So it’s not just Sergei who’s fictional internet is manipulated to see the game world a certain way based on his algorithms, so are we. Interestingly, though, exploring free will through the scope of video game stories has been done before, and Atomic Heart isn’t doing anything particularly new with the concept. In fact, its protagonist actively sabotages the exploration of this concept, infuriating Charles for not having time to poetically talk about the hypothesis. Because there are robots that need to be stopped and bad guys that need to be killed. Time and time again, Charles brings up the morality of their mission and the greater meaning of what is happening, and repeatedly Sergey simply doesn’t care. I’m hoping you’re setting some form of . After 10 hours, when Sergey is still spinning in the same pattern and showing no signs of growing as a person, I can’t help but wonder how anyone could be so stubborn, laborious, and annoyingly naive. I can’t stay.

I also dislike Sergey very much as a person. He’s hostile to everyone around him, including Charles, who regularly helps him out, for unexplained reasons, slowly coming to the painful truth that you’re just playing as a shitty human being. Whenever Sergei opens his mouth to talk to someone, you don’t feel good.

Familiar, but still fun.

Despite being a geek, he knows how to fight. Using his polymer abilities with his left hand and wielding a variety of firearms and weapons with his right hand, Sergei is a heavy-hitting fighter. The robots and mutants he confronts are much faster than him, but he can easily escape the hordes by using Sergei’s dash to reposition and curate a frenetic hit-and-run combat experience. You can. While relatively simple at first, combat evolves into a more engaging experience as more enemy types are introduced, each with their own attack patterns and weaknesses.

Atomic Heart has a wide variety of enemy types. However, you won’t face variations you’ve probably never fought before in any other game – from dog-like enemies that try to circle you before pouncing in your direction, to gun turrets that shoot you from a distance. They range from enemies like to bulky enemies that telegraph their attacks strongly, but can still hit. The same goes for the weapons and powers you use to fight them. For example, a pump action shotgun hits like you’d expect from a shotgun, and cold polymer power freezes enemies in their tracks as expected. Nothing revolutionary in how the battle unfolds, but it all works fine. Familiar, but still fun.

Looting is surprisingly the most fun aspect of Atomic Heart, as Charles can use telekinesis to pull loot into Sergey’s pocket with the click of a button. In reality, this causes drawers to pop out, cabinet doors to almost unhinge, and enemy bodies to erupt as Charles’ magnetic force rips the room’s resources toward Sergei. It never gets old to wipe out a group of Of course, you can use these resources to craft new firearms, ammo, weapon attachments, and items, but the sheer joy of the deed is almost a reward enough in itself.

After completing the first mission, Sergey takes the monorail to the main area of ​​the game. There, Atomic Heart is expanded into an open-world format. At this point, the game’s narrative slows to a nasty crawl as Sergei travels to one of several facilities to complete the mission, returns to the surface of the open world, travels to the next facility, and repeats the process. Become. Even without taking the time to freely explore the map, complete optional challenges, and scavenge for materials to unlock special attachments for your firearms, the journey between waypoints still boggles the narrative. Nothing narratively significant happens outside of the housed linear levels of the various facilities, and combat benefits from the carefully structured layout of the housed levels. Even enemy placement and types are curated to fit specific areas of the linear level, and that careful curation is lost within the breadth of the open world. I often hopped in the car and went straight to the next story his beat. Adds content at the expense of fun and makes the open world feel superfluous.

Luckily, some of the main levels have a distinct flavor and engaging theme that sets them apart from the mostly forgettable open world. My favorite of these levels takes place in a theater known for being the first to feature a cast made entirely of robots. I can see the bioshockAn engineer reveals a strange parasocial relationship he’s developing with one of his robot dancers, a clever puzzle incorporating ballet poses and blood splatters, and an incredible moment of where you are. , there are diary breadcrumbs you can discover.Fend off waves of enemies during a ballet to get a hip hop remix

That’s a great level, and it’s a shame we didn’t get more, or at least no example of using music to transform a familiar battle scenario into something more memorable. Heart has a great soundtrack filled with intense, energetic music by Doom composer Mick Gordon that will make even the most intense battles head-turning. But those strong rhythms are usually reserved for boss encounters. I mean, a lot of the best music in games is fleeting, only popping up for one encounter before it’s never heard again. Only then is Atomic Heart not built to create moments like that. Why play hard rock during a stressful battle in the dimly lit space of a morgue?

Atomic Heart has quite a few things that don’t quite fit together. These discrepancies often create an experience that feels at odds with itself. That disparity is most evident in how Atomic Heart’s history of the world is interesting and sets up intriguing conversations about the nature of free will and collectivism, but the disgusting protagonist is the one who’s the topic of it. While Atomic Heart will certainly appeal to some people, especially those looking to relive BioShock Infinite, it’s not something that’s easily recommended.