Atomic Heart
Review

Atomic Heart (2023) is a shooting adventure game set in an alternative history where the Soviet Union wins World War 2 and you are a special agent fighting back against rogue robots. Play involves traversing the utopian world and using the environment and upgrades to take on explosive encounters. It's a bold and bizarre combination of themes that holds together surprisingly well with strong combat and a world that invites investigation.

Like the Bioshock games, Atomic Heart is set in a utopian world of wonders and perfection where people live in harmony with their servant robots. However, a new technology designed to enable people to control robots with their minds is sabotaged making the robots turn on the humans. This, along with other secret experiments create an unstable mix of mutant creatures and terrifying superpowered robots with ideas of rebellion against their creators. You must work to deal with the chaos and find out what lies behind the idealized world.

You take on the robots with abilities granted by your experimental power glove and other cutting-edge weaponry. This enables you to fight for your life in explosive and frenetic encounters. Adapt your fighting style to each unique opponent. Combine your skills and resources, use the environment and upgrade your equipment to overcome challenges and fight for good.

The result is a high-impact adventure set in a compelling world. It's dark and bizarre with plenty of narrative and mystery to discover. This is matched by the unforgiving combat with giant machines and mutants dealt with through your evolving abilities and arsenal.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Atomic Heart 9 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 7 months ago.