Alternate History is fun. The last few decades have seen a surge in the “what ifs” and “what could’ve been” in the forms of movies, TV shows, books and of course – video games. Games such as Wolfenstein, Fallout, Resistance and Red Alert have used alternative history as a backdrop to create a world that never was, and in the process has created some very interesting and elaborate results of what the world could’ve been. While the medium is usually about a world where the Nazis win WW2 and expand their ideology and culture around the world, I’ve always wondered why the Soviets rarely got the same attention. The Soviets during the Cold War were really something else. Their science, culture, art, music, ideology, architecture and so on, is so fascinating to me as it really was in a world of its own. The Western World had their own thing going on sure, but it was a larger range of different countries, and the difference between that and the Soviet Union is night and day. Atomic Heart explores a world where that Soviet culture and aesthetic peaked, creating the Soviet utopia that they were no doubt hoping to build after WW2. The initial trailer many years ago had me, and others thinking “Wow this is just Soviet Bioshock” and I couldn’t have been more right – well sort of. After many years of waiting I jumped into the Soviet Utopia and after blasting through the game over the last few days I have conflicting thoughts, but let’s get into it.
Atomic Heart takes place in 1955, in an area simply know as ‘Facility 3826’, a Soviet research centre doing tests concerning robotics, healthcare, weapons, biology, physics and so on. The Soviets have achieved great strides in these scientific fields due to the creation of a substance known as ‘polymer’ a goo like substance that can be programmed. This led to the creation of advanced robotics that have slowly taken over the work force, however unlike the capitalist dogs across the Iron Curtain, robots taking over the work force has freed up the Soviet peoples lives, giving them more time to work on science and the arts, and everyone has a high standard of living due to this new work force. I really enjoyed the setup, like other games of the type the game starts out with you exploring the Soviet wonderland before it all goes to hell. Talking to the citizens, admiring the statues, and marvelling at the weird and wonderful robots is all part of setting up the Soviet world. It’s extremely reminiscent of Bioshock Infinites intro in Columbia, exploring the sky city and the American Exceptionalism Columbia promotes. Although in Columbia it’s American Conservatism & Exceptionalism, while in Facility 3286, it’s Soviet Communism.
The protagonist is Sergey Nachayev, who has been invited to facility by his old friend Dr. Sechenov to help launch Kollektiv 2.0, a form of mind-to-system program that will allow everyone to communicate with each other and robots, allowing for faster exchange of ideas, and therefore a more culturally and intellectually enriched society. However soon after Sergey arrives the robots go rogue, and he is tasked with finding the saboteur and setting things straight. I don’t want to go too much into the story for spoiler reasons, but I can at least talk about the overall presentation of it. Much like Bioshock – which this game CLEARLY takes a lot of inspiration from – the game tries to present topics about economic ideals, politics, philosophy, morals etc, as would be the case in a game about a superior Soviet world. It’s just that it falls a bit flat, it’s not a total failure by any means, but it all feels a bit overly safe at times. For a game so heavily imbedded in Soviet – and therefore Communist aesthetics, it doesn’t do much to really push any talking points about them, just very base “Capitalists want money, we are for the people” sorta vibes. I definitely enjoy their attempts at it, and honestly it might not be the fault of the content, more how it’s delivered. This game is sort of weird at times. It’s presentation is lacking in many areas and we’ll juts start with one that many people are talking about – The voice acting. I have no idea why this was the case, but for whatever reason all the main characters talk in a variety of Westernised accents, Sergey himself being American, and as stated earlier – for a game so heavily imbedded in Soviet aesthetics WHY do they have American accents? It was so strange to hear and really took me out the game early on. Now you can switch to Russian voice acting with subtitles, but the subtitles are tiny. This also applies to many of the games menu options, so when I was upgrading my weapons I had to lean forward a lot of the time to see what I was actually doing. What’s more you don’t really have the time to read what’s going on when there’s a lot of action going on. There also seems to be a trend of dialogue just been cut off completely if you get knocked down or something. Many times when Sergey was talking, I would get knocked down and the audio would be replaced by one of his zingers, and he wouldn’t continue what he was saying, so I missed out. This also goes for progressing too quickly through areas, as dialogue will cut out in favour of the next line if you enter a new area. The voice acting itself is ok. It’s not the worst I’ve heard but Sergey speaks a little bit edgy at times, constantly berating people, making stupid jokes with an overuse of swearing or just being angry. The time when he actually spoke with a more intrigued tone I enjoyed a lot more, it was interesting to hear the dialogue and him questioning what was going on – that was until I’d accidently walk into a new area and it would cut out. Presentation also falters with how rapidly incidents develop, before just ending within 40 seconds. It’s sorta bizarre that several times throughout the game things would get heated with a cutscene, and then just be over, it felt like the game just wanted to show off a set piece then move you onto the next area. There’s just this general unpolished feel to the entire game, sound effects lack a punch, there are notable animation drops in some of the enemies and some mechanics just don’t seem thought out. As for the overall story itself – it’s passable. It’s nothing that’s going to blow you away but it’s generally pretty enjoyable even if a decent chunk of the characters are absolutely forgettable. It’s not going to be Soviet Shock levels, but it’s still going to be a fun time if you’re looking for that Bioshock wacky turn of events, and as time went on I did enjoy the conversation Sergey was having with his friends in the field.
The artistic style of the game is something to be applauded. Soviet design and architecture was one of the Reds key areas in trying to show the world they were down for modern progressive artistic movements, which also have the effect of looking massively dated by todays standards, but still futuristic in other ways. The world of Facility 3286 is filled to the brim with that futuristic but retro feel (Similar to Alien Isolation in a way). You’ll find large computer monitors playing tapes, clunky looking robots with moustaches and strange houses that are straight from the atomic era. Then on the contrary you’ll find tiny mind devices, huge monorail trains, energy weapons and of course – the ballerina twins. On top of that you’ll find Soviet imagery everywhere, with statues of Marx and Lenin, varieties of the Hammer & Sickle, huge statues commemorating the achievements of the proletariat, and an abundance of the yellow/red colour scheme. It was truly interesting to explore and see what wacky new designs were around the corner and how much research went into Soviet artwork to refine and make the best Soviet world they could. If Bioshock Infinite was American Exceptionalism, then Atomic Heart does what it can to show off Soviet Exceptionalism,
But enough about the world and its Soviet art and presentation – How does the game play? Well did you enjoy Bioshock, Doom and Wolfenstein? Because it’s that, but arguably worse. It has this way of trying to combine many different types of gameplay into one but doesn’t master any of them. For most part Atomic Heart is a semi open world that will have you exploring large areas of the map with a direct goal to go to. Whilst exploring these areas you can find smaller underground research bunkers to find new items to craft and improve your arsenal and abilities. Like Bioshock one hand is for your weapons, whilst the other is for your abilities – thanks to your robo glove Charles. Charles is a living sentient system created from polymer and functions as the sidekick to Sergey throughout the game, with the two characters often discussing the characters and the story at hand. Charles also functions as your abilities, so you can attack enemies by freezing, shocking or throwing them amongst other abilities. All these abilities can be upgraded – The guns however is a different story. The test chambers you’ll find around the game give you blueprints to upgrade and create new weapons, but if you leave the area without said blueprint, well… too bad. In my playthrough I missed the blueprint for the Kalash (The AK47/ standard Assault Rifle) earlier in the game, so I was stuck with hundreds of rounds of assault rifle ammo that was totally useless to me. You can dismantle for parts, but I didn’t find out until right at the end that I just wasn’t going to get the Kalash. This was a really bad way of giving weapons to the players as I was essentially locked out of getting said weapon. Weapon upgrades can also be missed but I don’t think this is as bad, as you still these are all add-ons, compared to missing out on a major weapon within the game. There also seems to be a weird ammount of melee weapons, to my count there are 4 different axe type weapons, and I could never tell what was the better one. How does this entire arsenal fair against the Soviet robot uprising? Well it’s a mixed bag. The bullet impact at times can be very satisfying, especially against the regular android, but on some enemies, mainly bosses it can feel very grindy and not fun at all. Some bosses are absolute bullet sponges and you’ll be pumping them full of lead for some time before they fall and it gets extremely tedious. You can scan enemies to get an idea of weaknesses, but a certain boss was so fast I couldn’t scan it in time, leaving me just to wail on it with an axe for 10 minutes. There also becomes a point towards the end where you realise you can just ignore a decent ammount of the enemies in the area. Some could argue that misses the point – but because I had missed out on some of the weapons, what weapons I did have were fully maxed out and I had an abundance of crafting items, so there was little point to kill enemies for more. Despite all this the weapon work can be satisfying. Smashing a robot to pieces by slamming it to the ground, shooting a robot point blank with a shotgun and watching it fly all over the place or freezing one to crush it with an axe could all be very satisfying. The weapon wheel is also customisable and allows you to quick swap (much like DOOM), with a dodge button (again, DOOM) making the combat quick paced and full of action. This action topped off with a remix of the song “Starry Summer” creates some very fun filled high octane gun fights with the Soviet uprising.
Atomic Heart was a difficult game to judge because at times the game started to grate on me. Bosses just weren’t dying, larger areas to explore took time to get around and I was missing a chunk of upgrades because of how the game is structured – but was I having fun? Well, yeah, I was. Atomic Heart absolutely has its problems, but most of them aren’t game breaking. There’s things I’d absolutely do different like creating a fully explorative world instead of a cordoned off one so exploring previous areas is possible to get all the gear you need. The voice acting could do some work and would’ve helped the stories Soviet aesthetic if it went all in with the Russian voices. I am happy we got some form of a new Bioshock in some sense, especially one set in a Soviet Utopia, it’s just a shame it falters in many areas, but none of these faults are going to absolutely ruin the game for you, and if you can shrug these off, there’s an amazing Soviet world to explore.