Atomic Heart Reviews
Atomic Heart may be summarised in a single statement as a game with amazing ideas but lousy execution. I cannot say that Atomic Heart is a bad game, it's just that I expected a lot more from it, and as a result, I got disappointed.
Atomic Heart has some fun combat and a soundtrack that absolutely slaps. Unfortunately, it's glitchy, has a terrible open world, becomes a slog in the late game, and has the most aggressively awful writing I've ever seen.
Atomic Heart is, most surprisingly, exactly what I expected. Its biggest strengths are the ones that treat the eyes, but great writing and exploration are welcome in an otherwise overstretched experience.
Despite the questionably tasteless tone its narrative takes at times, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Atomic Heart.
Atomic Heart is an excellent game, and it’s an incredible debut title from Mundfish. Clever storytelling, massive set pieces, fun combat, and more make this one easy to recommend. Hell, it’s on Game Pass Day One, so go pre-install it already and enjoy this ridiculous ride.
Atomic Heart looks great and the overall design is amazing. From the extensive environments over some small ideas, every works really well. Also the gameplay elements shines with a lots of variety in combinations that don't need to hide behind the games that inspired them. Some tedious collecting, unbalanced swarms of enemies and the only "ok" story scratch the paint of this well thought out art piece.
Review in German | Read full review
Atomic Heart is a mixed bag of weird design choices and gameplay mechanics, and while the combat loop is satisfying when everything comes together, there’s also a lot of jank that comes along with it. Several parts of Atomic Heart feel like they’ve been made to be unnecessarily complicated, adding layers of interaction that do not feel fun. The game does look very pretty, and the world and its inhabitants are interestingly unique, but the payoff at the end is predictable and ultimately disappointing. Given a chance, Atomic Heart is a frenetic first-person shooter with a great visual style and some set pieces that pack a punch. Yet just like its overwrought themes and its poor attempt at profound existential exploration, they feel ultimately superficial and shaky.
While the narrative leaves a lot to be desired, Atomic Heart is nonetheless a great FPS set in a beautifully realized Soviet setting.
Atomic Heart is a title that seems to have been made with care, with its shortcomings only focusing on the parkour which is not often required, the character movement and with a bigger problem the English voice acting
Review in Greek | Read full review
Atomic Heart lacks follow-through on its most interesting narrative concepts and plays it safe with its first-person shooter gameplay.
Atomic Heart throws up some interesting ideas and visually is a very impressive game. Otherwise, it's a jack of all trades and master of none that entertains with its brazenly silly throwback madness.
Atomic Heart is a shooter with some fantastic ideas, excellent presentation, and a fair bit of variety. Although it doesn't excel at any one thing and flatters to deceive at times, it still has enough to offer a compelling adventure.
Despite what is a promising combat formula as well as the supporting systems behind it when it comes to skills, crafting, and upgrades, there are also several equally frustrating aspects of it that hold the game back.
So what does Atomic Heart truly offer other than an occasionally fun, not at all original, game with too many ideas that aren’t fully fleshed out? Unfortunately, not much. It’s worth a rent or definitely checking out on a subscription service but it needs some more polish and refinement before the good things can surface the way they should.
Mundfish has managed to capture the thrill of over-the-top action taking full advantage of Atomic Heart’s 1950s setting and insane narrative. Every moment of gameplay is packed with tense combat against haywire animatronics. Still, all the heavy metal shredding in the world isn’t enough to save the experience from its extremely poor user interface design and lack of basic accessibility features.
A story-led shooter that's heaving with ideas and boasts a distinct sci-fi setting in its doomed USSR. There are cringeworthy moments and occasional design missteps, but the way your abilities and the enemy ecosystem combine is a constant thrill.
Atomic Heart is undoubtedly one of the best first-person shooter campaigns I’ve played in years.
For everything that Atomic Heart does well, there’s a caveat in the controls, stability, or simple game UI. At some points, you can even step between sections of loading in the game to abuse AI or see scenery pop in out of nowhere. It’s a beautiful tapestry with a rich story to tell worthy of the games that inspired it, not least the BioShock franchise.
Atomic Heart is a compelling and exciting sci-fi action RPG, with a unique and well-developed setting. Although it has its imperfections, from its slow pace to occasionally annoying combat, the exciting mysteries at the heart of, well, Atomic Heart, made it worth powering through. For action-RPG fans with a taste for alternate history settings, Atomic Heart is definitely worth diving into, and I am excited to see what developer Mundfish has to offer in the future.