Atomic Heart

For other uses, see Atomic Heart (disambiguation).

Atomic Heart is a 2023 first-person shooter video game developed by Mundfish Studio. It was published by VK Play, Focus Entertainment, and 4Divinity.

Atomic Heart
Developer(s)	Mundfish
Publisher(s)	WW: Focus Entertainment CIS: VK Play AS: 4Divinity
Director(s)	Robert Bagratuni
Producer(s)	Oleg Gorodishenin
Designer(s)	Maxim Kolesnikov
Programmer(s)	Andrey Dyakov
Artist(s)	Artem Galeev
Writer(s)	Alexander Romashkov Robert Bagratuni Artem Galeev
Composer(s)	Andrey Bugrov Mick Gordon Geoffrey Day Christian Ugenti
Engine	Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox One Xbox Series X/S
Release	February 21, 2023
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

The game is set in an alternate history version of the Soviet Union, during the 1950s. Initially depicted as a retrofuturistic utopia, the game follows the collapse of the Soviet Union after a robot uprising.

Atomic Heart was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 21, 2023. The game received mixed reviews from critics and received controversy over its reported links to Russia. It gained several awards.^[1][2][3]

Gameplay

Atomic Heart is a first-person shooter video game with role-playing elements.^[4][5][6] Weapons include conventional firearms, energy-based weapons, and melee weapons. A wide variety of enemies are featured, most of which are robots; mutants are another type of enemy consisting of human corpses animated by genetically-engineered plant-like organisms called sprouts.^[7] A crafting system allows the player to piece weapons together from metal parts that can be detached from robots or taken from household appliances. Ammo in the game is scarce, so the player also has the option to use rechargeable energy guns.^[8] Quick-time events are featured in the game.^[9]

The player wears a special glove, the Polymer Glove, which grants powers such as telekinesis, freezing, shield, electricity and others to defeat foes. Its powers can be combined with both melee and ranged weapons.^[10]

Weapons can be upgraded and embedded with various elemental effects using cartridges. These cartridges can be looted, crafted and equipped by the player on both melee and ranged weapons.^[11]

To cover distances faster in certain large open spaces, players can use cars left in these areas.^[12] Players also have to solve various puzzles that are encountered throughout the main campaign and side Polygons (Testing Grounds).^[13] After one of the released patches in June 2024, the game also offers accessibility settings, which include not only puzzles auto-solve, but also colorblind mode, auto QTE, auto-heal, and some others.^[14]

Plot

Setting

Atomic Heart takes place on the grounds of Facility 3826, the Soviet Union's foremost scientific research hub in an alternate history 1955, located in the Kazakh SSR. In 1936, scientist Dmitry Sechenov developed a liquidized programmable module called the Polymer, sparking massive technological breakthroughs in the fields of energy and robotics in the USSR and freeing much of the populace from manual labor. When World War II broke out, the Soviets quickly gained the upper hand, but just before Nazi Germany was defeated in 1942, the Nazis secretly unleashed the Brown Plague virus, leaving millions dead and creating an international demand for Soviet robots to compensate for the resulting worker shortage. As part of the Soviet Union's post-war reconstruction program, Dr. Sechenov created a wireless, networked artificial intelligence called "Kollektiv 1.0" that linked his robots together for greater efficiency.

Sechenov later developed the THOUGHT, a neuroconnector that integrates Polymer into the human body, enabling direct interaction with robots. Designed to launch alongside Kollektiv 2.0, it was intended to usher in a true post-labor era.^[15] However, the launch resulted in a catastrophic failure, plunging Facility 3826 into chaos.

Synopsis

Major Sergey "P-3" Nechayev is a special agent with memory loss, saved from a life-threatening injury by Dmitry Sechenov. As Sechenov's agent, P-3 is sent to assist with the Kollektiv 2.0 rollout at Facility 3826, only to discover that the facility's robots have gone rogue, killing most of the human staff. Sechenov informs him that Viktor Petrov, a robotics designer, sabotages the Kollektiv node and orders P-3 to capture him. Accompanied by his AI partner CHAR-les, integrated into his glove, P-3 must confront the facility’s rogue robots and failed biomechanical experiments.

P-3 finds Viktor Petrov working with neurosurgeon Larisa Filatova, but Petrov seemingly dies while fleeing. Suspicious of Facility 3826, the Politburo sends Yegor Molotov, who threatens to halt the launch of Kollektiv 2.0.

CHAR-les reveals a power struggle over Kollektiv between Sechenov and the Politburo. Sechenov orders P-3 to accompany Molotov, but P-3 blacks out and later finds Molotov murdered. Sechenov then reveals that Petrov is alive, having faked his death with Filatova’s help.

P-3 finds Viktor Petrov at the Theater, where Petrov reveals that civilian robots always had combat mode and accuses Sechenov of planning global enslavement. He gives P-3 a pair of rings before committing suicide. Suspecting the "Atomic Heart" project involves deploying combat robots to seize nuclear plants, P-3 takes Petrov's head to Michael Stockhausen, Sechenov's deputy, for memory extraction. However, Filatova intervenes and throws a grenade, resulting in Stockhausen’s death and knocking P-3 unconscious. CHAR-les reveals that the rings are top-secret devices which allow the wearer to join Kollektiv 2.0 while remaining "invisible" to the network, thus gaining unrestricted authority and control within the Kollektiv.

When P-3 wakes up, Filatova contacts him and meets him in secret at a secluded area in Facility 3826. She reveals to him that Kollektiv is a means to mind-control people, and Filatova was in charge of the facility that houses numerous volunteers of the project. P-3 also discovers that CHAR-les isn't an AI, but rather the preserved consciousness of Chariton Zakharov, Sechenov's colleague and a fellow researcher presumably murdered by Sechenov. Using Zakharov's security clearance, they uncover more of P-3's past: he was previously critically injured in a mission in Bulgaria alongside his wife and fellow agent, Ekaterina "Blesna" Nechayeva. While Blesna did not survive, Sechenov managed to fix P-3's brain injury by installing a Polymer implant, erasing memories of Blesna while also implanting her memories into robotic ballerina bodyguards called the Twins. In doing so, Sechenov gains control over P-3. Furious, P-3 decides to confront Sechenov. However, he blacks out again and wakes up in the care of his mother-in-law, Zinaida Muravyova, who has been anonymously assisting him throughout his mission in Facility 3826. She reveals that P-3 had killed Filatova while blacked out. At this point, P-3 can either choose to leave Facility 3826 or confront Sechenov, resulting in different endings.

If P-3 refuses to confront Sechenov, he destroys Zakharov and slips out of Facility 3826 and disappears, allowing Sechenov to continue with his plans to activate Kollektiv 2.0. Zakharov is shown to still be alive as a small mass of living Polymer and he manages to escape as well.

If P-3 chooses to confront Sechenov, he enters his office, where they argue before Sechenov orders the Twins to attack. After P-3 defeats them, Sechenov draws a pistol, but P-3 uses his glove to disarm him and shoots him in the gut. Wounded, Sechenov reveals that Zakharov manipulated P-3’s blackouts, making him unknowingly kill Molotov and Filatova. Enraged, P-3 tries to remove Zakharov from his glove, but Zakharov electrocutes him and escapes as a gray mass. Declaring his intent to exterminate humanity, Zakharov jumps into a vat of red Polymer, transforming into a massive black humanoid. He then picks up Sechenov, breaks his neck, and later consumes his body before vanishing. P-3 later awakens in an illusion, where one of the Twins reaches out to him as Ekaterina’s voice speaks.

Annihilation Instinct

Taking place three days after the ending where P-3 refuses to confront Sechenov, Kollektiv 2.0 is fully operational, but Zakharov, merged within the network, has brainwashed people and leaked information, sparking a civil war. P-3 wakes in the Mendeleev Complex, now controlled by the rogue AI NORA, who has fallen in love with him and synced to his implant. She orders him to eliminate Zinaida, now leading an anti-Kollektiv faction. Heading to the surface, P-3 encounters NORA's inventor, Lebedev. He repairs P-3’s glove and explains that Zinaida seeks to control NORA for her weapon-making capabilities. To stop her, P-3 must collect BEA-D robots containing NORA’s code to reset her.

NORA tempts P-3 with secrets about Blesna, but Lebedev connects him to Sechenov, who reveals that he preserved Blesna's brain in neuropolymer to revive her. He offers P-3 full access to his past and a leave of absence. P-3 agrees, resets NORA with the Twins' help, and restores order. As promised, Sechenov grants him leave, but as P-3 departs, Zinaida follows.

Trapped in Limbo

Taking place after the ending in which P-3 confronts Sechenov and is betrayed by Zakharov, P-3 awakens in Limbo, the same surreal dimension he encountered during his blackouts in the main game. Blesna, now in the form of a Polymer teardrop (which was also encountered briefly in the Annihilation Instinct DLC), guides P-3 through this dimension as they recover the latter's memory. She reveals that her consciousness has also been trapped in Limbo, which was designed by Sechenov to house the minds of those using the Kollektiv in order to mind-control people. Blesna also briefs P-3 on the events in the real world, informing the latter that while Sechenov's body has disappeared, Kollektiv 2.0 has yet to launch, and P-3's own unconscious body has been taken to a lab alongside the bodies of the Twins. By completing puzzles and traversing a surreal, platforming-based landscape, P-3 eventually escapes Limbo and awakens, and sets out to find the rings he threw in the lake in order to restore Blesna.

Enchantment Under the Sea

Taking place after Trapped in Limbo, P-3 interacts with one of the Twins' bodies, which allows Blesna to take over his glove and function similarly to CHAR-les. The two of them escape Facility 3826, though P-3's arm is injured in the process. They reunite with Zinaida, who learns of her daughter's survival. She then sends them to Triton, an underwater facility where they can acquire tools to retrieve the rings.

At Triton, P-3 and Blesna become acquainted with new allies: technician Nikolai, cetologist Nastya, and security officer "Hunter". P-3 helps the three of them with migrating a school of dolphins within Triton to safety; in return, one of the dolphins is assigned to retrieve the rings. Zinaida later sends one of the Twins' bodies to Triton, much to Blesna's dismay. Nikolai later reveals that he was sent to Triton to deliver Samodelkin, a highly advanced repair system created by Dr. Lebedev. He also recognizes Blesna as the one with the protocol to activate Samodelkin. Using Samodelkin, P-3 is able to fix his arm, as well as establish a connection between Blesna and Samodelkin.

As the group prepares to escape Triton, P-3 and Blesna are intercepted by MOR-4Y, a gigantic eel robot roaming the facility. Blesna, through Samodelkin's connection, transfers her consciousness to the Twin robot body, and assists P-3 in destroying MOR-4Y. The dolphin later returns and gives P-3 the rings, which he then puts on Blesna's hand. After taking a moment of respite on the surface, P-3 decides they are ready to pursue Zakharov.

Development

Mundfish Studio was founded in 2017. Its key figures are the company's president Robert Bagratuni,^[16] CFO Evgenia Sedova, art director Artyom Galeev, and producer Oleg Gorodishenin.^[17][18]

Bagratuni and Galeev have known each other since the early 2000s, having worked at advertising companies. Bagratuni focused on marketing, while Galeev specialized in computer graphics. After the economic downturn in 2008, when the advertising market collapsed, the share of video games increased. Sedova and Bagratuni met at the company Newmedia Stars. Before merging with Galeev and founding the game studio Mundfish, they had completed several joint projects.^[19] The key figures at Mundfish do not have direct ties to Russia or its president, Vladimir Putin.^{[20][21][verification needed]}

Mundfish has the main office in Cyprus and development offices in Abu Dhabi and Yerevan.^[17][22] At the age of 19, a producer Oleg Gorodishenin joined the studio (listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2023).^[23] The development of Atomic Heart was initially funded by Bagratuni, Sedova, and non-public shareholders. According to Crunchbase, Mundfish raised $16 million in two investment rounds in 2019 and 2021. According to Forbes, the amount from the Chinese investment holding Tencent, the international investment company GEM Capital, and the founder of the game studio Gaijin Entertainment, Anton Yudintsev, could be around $20 million.^[17][24][25]

In the summer of 2018, Nvidia offered Mundfish Studio to release the game on the RTX platform, which supports ray tracing and DLSS technology for GeForce RTX graphics cards.^[26] They provided their equipment, access to a special version of the Unreal Engine 4, and tools for the game's implementation. Nvidia partially took on the marketing promotion, showcasing RTX capabilities at maximum settings in an Atomic Heart trailer at the Gamescom gaming convention in Cologne.^[19][17] However, ray tracing was not implemented at the time of release.^[27] It was added in a beta version after an update on June 11, 2024.^[28]

Soundtrack

The game's soundtrack was written by three composers: Mick Gordon, famous for his work for video-game titles such as Doom, Prey and Wolfenstein (The New Order, The Old Blood, The New Colossus), Andrey "Boogrov" Bugrov,^{[29][30][31][32]} and Geoffrey Day.^[30][31][32]

Along with the original tracks created solely for the game, Atomic Heart also features popular Soviet songs and their remixes, including "Arlekino" and "Zvyozdnoye leto" by Alla Pugacheva, "Trava u doma" by Zemlyane, "Kosil Yas' Konyushinu" by Pesniary and more.^[33]

The game's music composer Mick Gordon released a statement condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and donating his fee from the project to the Red Cross Ukraine Crisis appeal.^[34][35]

Release

In February 2022 a story trailer showed that Atomic Heart will launch in "#######BER", suggesting the game's release some time in Q4 2022.^[36] However, later in November, it was announced that the game will be released on February 21, 2023,^[37] published by VK Play in the CIS, co-published by 4Divinity from Singapore-based entertainment marketing group GCL in Asia,^[38] and published by French-based company Focus Entertainment elsewhere.

The game's first DLC expansion, titled Annihilation Instinct, was released on all platforms on August 2, 2023.^[39] The second DLC, Trapped in Limbo, was released on February 6, 2024. The third DLC, Enchantment Under the Sea, was released on January 28, 2025.^[40] It introduced new weapons, abilities, and allowed players to explore the underwater Triton complex.^[40] In November 2024, a collaboration with artist Taras Yoom was announced to coincide with the DLC release. Yoom unveiled limited-edition sculptures, "Comrade and Union," which were integrated into the expansion.^[41]

Sales

Atomic Heart sold above expectations, raising Mundfish's revenue to an all-time high. Three weeks after the game's launch, Mundfish announced that the game had been played by five million players. However, the game was also available upon launch on Xbox Game Pass, which accounted for an unknown percentage of players. It was removed from Game Pass on August 31, 2024. ^[42]

Criticisms

The company has faced significant criticism for the Russian origins of its founders.^[43][20] Since February 2024, Mundfish has removed mentions of its Russian office from the official website and positions itself as international company with "an incredible team… from 10 countries including Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Georgia, Israel, Armenia, UAE, Serbia, and Cyprus."^[44][21][45] In 2018, the studio employed just over 20 people, while by early 2023, that number had grown to around 130.^[46]

The studio is carefully distancing from Russian political statements. Many game developers and publishers have spoken out against the war, stopped selling games in Russia and Belarus, and donated to humanitarian causes.^[47][48] The Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation critiqued Mundfish, noting that "the developers of the game did not come out with a public statement condemning the Putin regime" and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also pointing out that the game has "Russian roots and romanticizes communist ideology and the Soviet Union."^[49] The February 21 release date drew criticism because it nearly coinciding with the first year anniversary of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and Defender of the Fatherland Day, on February 24 and 23 respectively. Developer Mundfish stated that the company is neutral in world affairs and "do not comment on politics or religion". Mundfish also added that the studio "is undeniably a pro-peace organization against violence against people".^[50][51][20]

Mundfish has been accused of collecting data of users based in Russia and providing it to the Federal Security Service.^[47] The developer denied these allegations, stating: "Our game and website DO NOT collect any information or data. The website’s privacy statement is outdated and wrong, and should have been removed years ago." In January 2023, the studio replaced the Russian-language Privacy Policy on the website with an English-language version, removing all mentions of Russia.^[44][51][20]

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	(PC) 76/100[52] (PS5) 70/100[53] (XSXS) 73/100[54]

Review scores

Publication	Score
Destructoid	6/10[55]
Game Informer	7.75/10[56]
GameSpot	6/10[57]
GamesRadar+	[58]
Hardcore Gamer	4.5/5[59]
IGN	8/10[5]
NME	[60]
PC Gamer (US)	78/100[61]
PCGamesN	8/10[6]
Push Square	[62]
Shacknews	9/10[63]

Reception

Atomic Heart received "mixed or average" reviews from critics for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions, while the PC version received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.^[52][53][54]

IGN praised Atomic Heart for being "deeply ambitious, highly imaginative, and consistently impressive", though criticized its writing and "tedious" elements of gameplay, such as fetch quests.^[5] PC Gamer called it "one of the oddest" AAA games. They felt it took primary influence from BioShock, but criticized its combat and progression system as inferior, while being conflicted towards the story and characters.^[61] Similarly, Polygon felt that Atomic Heart failed to eclipse BioShock through its gameplay and attempts to tackle multiple themes at once.^[64]

Themes and analysis

Atomic Heart was interpreted by many game critics and journalists as a political satire of authoritarianism,^[65] artificial intelligence, and communism.^[66] Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph wrote that:

"Playing the game, the player will be left with no doubt as to the dark side of Soviet manifest destiny. The central conflict is between the Politburo and Sechenov. The implication is that the latter is a power-hungry madman who has poisoned the Communist dream. Whatever Atomic Heart is, it isn't a love letter to the Soviet Union. This is a paradise lost, fatally undone by its Prometheus complex."^[67]

Journalist Kevin Purdy of Ars Technica wrote that within the game:

The USSR makes the world's best robots, its citizens live in a utopia where those robots do their menial tasks and labor, and even greater things are just about to happen...a world full of astounding promises, yet take apart that optimism by showing the hypocrisy, the false promises, the ego-driven leaders and actors causing so much pain, and the impact on real people's lives when it all comes apart...The Soviet State in Atomic Heart, and its maniacal leaders, are responsible for the death of untold thousands or millions of citizens at the hands of their own robots. There are plans to foist this death on the rest of the world, rather than win them over with the benefits of collectivist effort. The KGB, for which your protagonist formerly worked, are not the good guys.^[66]

Jason Faulkner of GameRevolution felt that while the game is frequently critical of the Soviet Union, it stops short of ever outright condemning it.^[68] Renata Price of Vice News also wrote that the game "depicts a scenario where the Soviet Union's quest for technology and expansion—there are numerous sarcastic references to conquering the stars—has gone horribly, murderously wrong...To call Atomic Heart a straight-up celebration of the Soviet Union would be a misrepresentation."^[69]

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2022	LUDI Awards	Most anticipated game	Nominated	[70][71]
2023	Top-100 Xbox Gameplay Chart	Spot overall	Top 18	[72]
		Single-player titles	Top 3
	Hollywood Music in Media Awards	Original Score – Video Game	Nominated	[73]
	Steam Awards	Outstanding Visual Style	Won	[74][75]
	Longlisted BAFTA	Debut Game	Nominated	[76]
2024	NAVGTR	Best Original Action Game	Won	[77]
	Annie Awards	Best Character Animation (Video Game)	Nominated	[78]
	National Internet Content Award	Constructing a new reality	Won	[79][80]

In November 2023, Atomic Heart joined the “Hall of Fame”^[81] of the Russian gaming industry, winning in the “Legendary Video Games” categories.^[82]

Sequel

In 2021, two years prior to release of the Atomic Heart, the developers stated that they already had plans for a sequel.^[83] In June 2023, Mundfish's studio head officially confirmed the development of a sequel.^[84][85]