Atomic Heart does not hide its Biosurprise Infinite inspirations. The game starts in a city in the clouds, offers elemental powers that change reality and that you can use to action advanced robots, sees you in search of resources in an idyllic city that is collapsing and plays an amnesiac protagonist struggling with the nuances of free will. When you reach the top of history and you are asked to visit a lighthouse, you know what happens. Where Atomic Heart differs most from its Inspiration is in the lens through which it focuses its narrative and explores the concepts of free will on Soviet-Russian collectivism instead of American individualism. However, its intriguing premise is let down by a deeply unlikely protagonist and a predictable plot that doesn’t do anything interesting with its cool ideas.
In The alternate history Of Atomic Heart, a scientist named Dmitry Sechenov launches a robotics boom in Russia in the 1930s. In the 1950s, the working class was abolished in the Soviet Union and completely replaced by robots controlled via a network of hives called Kollektiv 1.0. The game begins a few years after, just before the public unveiling of Kollectiv 2.0, which allows all humans to have equal access to the hive to remotely control the robots via a mental device directly wired to their brain, connecting and sharing information over long distances. Basically, it is the Internet that is plugged into your brain and available 24/24 and 7/7.
Looking back on the XXI century, we know that the Internet will not be a 100% good idea, even if the main character, Major Sergei Nechaev, an Agent in Sechenov’s service, fully believes in the dream of a world in which everyone will also have access to each other and the abundance of information that will certainly be shared. Sergei is assigned to investigate a disorder in Facility 3826, the main scientific research center of the Soviet Union, and is joined by Charles, a sensitive glove who gives the Agent a variety of Techno powers powered by polymers such as telekinesis and Cryokinesis, and provides a sounding board for the often annoying and borderline collection
In the now blood-soaked corridors and the flickering lights of the partially damaged underground facility, Sergei discovers that the mutation experiments have gone wrong and that the once peaceful robotic assistants have become bloodthirsty. However, the real horror does not come until after, when Charles talks to Sergei about how collective 2.0 (which is already installed in Sergei) might not be entirely useful. Didn’t Sergei notice that all these audio logs that he found and the computers to which he is connected only give him information relevant to the promotion of the Mission assigned to him? Wow, it’s almost as if an algorithm is giving him information about what he thinks he should see and hear more, camouflaging it in such a way that he cannot detect the Manipulation. It is not as open a form of control as a spoken command, but Charles points out that humans can be controlled as easily as robots once they have all connected to the same treasure trove of information, especially if there is a way to control this information.
This is a fascinating concept promoted by the idea That Atomic Heart is a video game and that we, the player, guided Sergei’s actions all the time. So it’s not only Sergei who is being manipulated to see the game world in a certain way based on a fictitious Internet algorithm, but so are we. But as interesting as it is, the exploration of free will within the framework of the story of a video game has already been carried out, and Atomic Heart does nothing particularly new with the concept. In fact, his protagonist actively interferes with the exploration of this concept and rages at Charles that he does not have time to become poetic about hypotheticals. He can’t be bothered to offer any kind of introspection, because there are robots that need to be stopped and a villain who needs to be blamed who needs to be finish ed. Again and again, Charles brings up the morality of their Mission and the broader implications of what is happening, and again and again, Sergei simply does not care, citing that he will leave the thought to Sechenov. The first and second time this happens, they hope that this mistake will trigger some form of character development for Sergei. If you have 10 o’clock and Sergei is still spinning according to the same pattern and shows no signs of growing as a person, you can’t help but wonder how someone can be so stubborn and naive.
Sergei is also deeply unlikely as a person. He is hostile to everyone around him, including Charles, who is helpful, and we never explain why, which leads to the slow realization of the painful truth that you only play like a silly person. You don’t feel good playing the role of Sergei when he opens his mouth to talk to anyone – I can sympathize more with people who have to endure his barrage of not funny insults than I do.him.
It’s familiar, but still fun.
Although he is an silly, he knows how to fight. Possessing polymer ability with his left hand and a selection of firearms and weapons with his right hand, Sergei is a hard-hitting fighter. While the robots and mutants he faces are much faster than he is, they can easily escape the sheats by using Sergei’s strike to reposition themselves and organize a frantic action experience. Although action is relatively simple at first, it becomes a more engaging experience as more and more types of enemies are introduced, each with their own action patterns and weaknesses.
