Atomic Heart by Mundfish Games is a single player first person RPG (with third person cut scenes), set in a fictional future filled with advanced scientific discoveries. You play as an agent assigned to the rollout of a new facility, but you soon find that things have gone very wrong when the robots assigned to serve begin brutally attacking and killing all they encounter. As you might imagine, it’s a splatterfest.
General gameplay is typical of games like these, with the player traveling deep into an underground facility to find weapons and materials which they can craft into more powerful weapons as they take on an increasingly difficult series of enemies and puzzles. Using a special glove that can heal and move objects, players sometimes must perform a series of timed jumps to navigate the damaged facility and complete necessary tasks.
While all of this sounds good, the game at times throws too many puzzles at you too frequently. Having to decipher locks repeatedly breaks the pacing of the action, and dealing with the over-amorous upgrade machines goes from being amusing to tedious quickly.
Another issue I had was that a recent patch actually broke the game for me. I was unable to start the game from the main screen and had to delete and install the game again to resume my play. There is also the matter of why the agent sounds like he should be in an office in California as his tone and mannerisms don’t seem to match well with character. 1
Atomic Heart does provide entertainment I found the combat and graphics to be dated and that aspects of the game grew old very quickly. The best strategy for me was to play the game in segments and take a break of a few days between sessions which gave me a fresh perspective versus trying to do things in a series of extended sessions.
In the end, the game is enjoyable for those willing to be patient and accept the game for what it is and hopefully, with a few more updates the full potential of the game will be achieved. The game is available on the Microsoft Game Pass and is worth a look.
Atomic Heart is available for PS5, PS4, XBox Series X S, XBox One, and PC.
3 stars out of 5
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1 This is likely a result of the voice casting used in the internationalization of the game, which was produced in the Republic of Cyprus, an island country in the Mediterranean. – ed.
Gareth is the mastermind behind the popular pop media site Skewed and Reviewed. He lives in Arizona with his wife Em McBride.
