Developer Mundfish is an international studio, but is headquartered out of Cyprus, a playground for Russian oligarchs. Divining what the game intends to say (or doesn’t) about society or culture is particularly challenging, considering its creation. And the crumbling Soviet setting, while glorified in the context of the story, seems to have been built spectacularly for an equally spectacular collapse.Īt least, that’s where things appear to be heading in the opening 10 hours of the game. (Stalin died in 1953, two years before this game takes place). Stalin is mentioned as a mere leader, recently dead, instead of a ruthless, murderous dictator - which makes sense, I suppose, from the perspective of P3, who is a worker of the state. Like those utopias, Atomic Heart’s Soviet nation is failing, under leaders plagued by the Icarus complex in which grand ideas come to naught. The Soviet aesthetic is central to Atomic Heart in the way the original BioShock’s art deco was inseparable from (and underpinned) its critique of Randian philosophy P3, as Sechenov’s personal agent, must investigate and figure out just why the robots are turning on their human overlords. It is Sechenov’s robots and systems at these various facilities that begin… well, failing. P3’s main job is overseeing security for various facilities run by Sechenov and the government.
Semi-sentient robots, advanced botanical research, devices that grant you instant knowledge, and so on are par for the course. Set in 1955 in the USSR, Atomic Heart sees players step into the large shoes of Major Nechaev, also known as “P3.” Nechaev is in the employ of a scientist, Professor Sechenov, a member of a group of Soviet scientific geniuses whose technological marvels propelled the USSR to be the leading scientific nation in the world.
But as I barrel into the core of Atomic Heart, I wonder whether this game is what it appears to be - or if it’s something much more interesting. It’s violent and familiar, like so many other first-person shooters. The game feels like it has only just finished its initial throat-clearing, now throwing open the door and hinting at some weird, sci-fi Soviet mysteries.
I’m 10 hours into Atomic Heart and the end is nowhere in sight.
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