Atomic Heart - open world first-person shooter set in an alternate universe Soviet Union

[Tweed]

The bugman only pays attention to what its zionist masters tell it to.

 

[Terenty]

lol
https://www.pcgamer.com/atomic-hear...caricature-in-one-of-its-soviet-era-cartoons/

Atomic Heart criticised for racist caricature in one of its Soviet-era cartoons​

Now I understand why I have this deep rooted hatred for black people, i watched this cartoon countless times when I was a kid.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Ukraine is Asking for an Atomic Heart Ban From Sony, Microsoft, and Valve:​

https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2023/02/21/ukraine-atomic-heart-ban-sony-microsoft-valve/

You know what, I'm gonna buy 5 copies of this game (along with Hogwarts Legacy) just to spite them haha

 

[Dadd]

haha
that'll show them

 

[randir14]

Glad I only paid $1 to play this on Game Pass. Nauseating FoV and the worst writing/voice acting I've heard since House of the Dead.

 

[fantadomat]

Maybe i should buy that game....

 

[Harthwain]

Bioshit is bad even as a casual console shooter.

I didn't like Bioshock as a game (I tried it when I got it for free), but it had some interesting points. The idea of an advanced underwater city and the general atmosphere (the ads!) is very retro. It strangely fits together by evoking the zeitgeist of these times and the game contains a lot of cultural references. It doesn't help it as a game, but I have to say I do respect it for having certain depth to it.

The protagonist being a no-nonsense serious straight man who gets into the wild shit and has to keep it cool is an underrated trope, would be nice to have one for a change.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat has the player as major Degtyarev who is SBU agent. It is a nice start (being on the side of the government, for once. And as a secret agent no less) as you start decently equipped. It also makes bumping into government forces in the Zone more interesting than the usual "kill them all before they kill you" scenario. So it was alright, all things considered, mostly because the execution was OK.

That said, I do get why people like playing as assholes and antiheroes. They can do things normal characters can't, which is compelling in its own way (think: playing as good character versus playing as bad character). There is a reason why Duke Nukem is so iconic figure in FPS genre. Kain from Legacy of Kain is another antihero I can think of. I also liked Locke D'Averam from Revenant (1999) - the game wouldn't be nearly as bearable with some bland character as the protagonist you're stuck with for the entire game.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

I didn't like Bioshock as a game (I tried it when I got it for free), but it had some interesting points. The idea of an advanced underwater city and the general atmosphere (the ads!) is very retro. It strangely fits together by evoking the zeitgeist of these times and the game contains a lot of cultural references. It doesn't help it as a game, but I have to say I do respect it for having certain depth to it.

When I first played it, buying it merely from reputation, I got a refund within an hour because I immediately hated it. Later, I kept hearing about how good it's supposed to be, and figured I was just being unfair, so I pirated it and tried it some more. Still sucked shit. Frankly, I can't stand any game where you've always got someone nagging at you in your ear to do your objective (like Doom 3 or tons of other first-person shooters of the 2000s). It removes your feeling of agency. System Shock 2 did this, but it was a part of a plot twist and was handled well (you can just mute that bitch if it bothers you on account of SS2's vastly superior PC-centric interface). Bioshock's plot twist is just SS2's again except way more retarded. And in SS2, when you figure out that the bitch in your ear is actually SHODAN, you regain the feeling of isolation, because your only contact and ally is an evil computer (and also a cool character with good voiceacting, so you don't mind SHODAN continuing to badger you with emails). But in Bioshock, you just get another stupid bitch nagging in your ear after you figure out Atlas was a bad guy. So Ken Levine copy and pasted System Shock 2's plot, except the protagonist's agency is even more compromised because "muh metanarrative bro DO YOUR CHOICES REALLY MATTER IN THIS LINEAR FIRST PERSON SHOOTER BRO???" Also "libertarianism bad because I am a Jew". Very cool.

 

[Harthwain]

Also "libertarianism bad because I am a Jew". Very cool.

That's too simplistic take.

It's not libertarianism that destroys the city, it's the power struggle. When you're greeted with the sign "No God or Kings. Only Man" it is more a critique [in the context of the failing city] of the lack of restraints of any kind more than anything else. You can be libertarian AND maintain a set of values that help maintain the welfare of society. Otherwise (and I would argue that's the message the game tries to convey, among others) you can end up hurting or destroying it. Because when you have no brakes of any kind and you are free to do ANYTHING, you're entering a very dangerous territory. This is why "my liberty ends where yours begins" is important foundation of defining the boundaries of personal freedom.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

That's too simplistic take.

It's not libertarianism that destroys the city, it's the power struggle. When you're greeted with the sign "No God or Kings. Only Man" it is more a critique [in the context of the failing city] of the lack of restraints of any kind more than anything else. You can be libertarian AND maintain a set of values that help maintain the welfare of society. Otherwise (and I would argue that's the message the game tries to convey, among others) you can end up hurting or destroying it. Because when you have no brakes of any kind and you are free to do ANYTHING, you're entering a very dangerous territory. This is why "my liberty ends where yours begins" is important foundation of defining the boundaries of personal freedom.

I'm not a libertarian or a Randian but Bioshock's political commentary seemed pretty inane to me. I haven't played it in awhile so I can't really point to any concrete examples but that's the vibe I got from it. Objectivism itself seems pretty vacuous to me so Bioshock's critique of it probably came off as vacuous by association. I don't really care what one secular Jew has to say about the ideology of another secular Jew. It's all just noise to me.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I was impressed with how polished the game was. Ran at a consistent framerate with no dips, no bugs. Animations and areas in general are well done. Combat feels like it has a decent amount of weight to it. I set the VA language to Rus to make it more immersive, but P3 and Charles speak non stop and the subtitle font (and other fonts in general) are kinda small which made it a bit hard to follow what they were saying unless I focused on the reading part. I didn't get very far yet, I just wanted to do a test run to see if it was running on cursed programming like other Rusware games. So far, at least, that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[Rieser]

After finishing it, I'd say it's a very solid game but the experience marred by bugs. Had to replay 2+ hours at one point due to a mission checkpoint refusing to fire. After those issues are sorted, I'd easily recommend this. The open world sections are the worst part of the game. Like luj1 is saying they should've stuck to a more linear structure throughout. Pacing and atmosphere gets largely fucked in the open world.

How the fuck are you already finished?

I reviewed it.

 

[JDR13]

After finishing it, I'd say it's a very solid game but the experience marred by bugs. Had to replay 2+ hours at one point due to a mission checkpoint refusing to fire. After those issues are sorted, I'd easily recommend this. The open world sections are the worst part of the game. Like luj1 is saying they should've stuck to a more linear structure throughout. Pacing and atmosphere gets largely fucked in the open world.

How the fuck are you already finished?

I reviewed it.

What were your thoughts on the difficulty? I've only played a couple of hours, but it seemed like enemies have way too much health. I'm pretty good at shooters, and I was struggling with the first boss on normal difficulty. I've seen people say that even the easiest difficulty level is still harder than most shooters.

Disclaimer: I tried the Dev build, so I'm not sure if the release version is significantly different.

 

[BrotherFrank]

Didn’t know a thing about this game untill i was informed it was the new bad man bad vidya that only evil people who do not support the current thing (tm) would play.
Naturally like hogwarts this got me semi curious about a game i otherwise wouldn't have noticed because i'm too busy catching up on my backlog to care about new titles.

So it's bioshock but not meh like infinite, with added racism, sexism and some killer robot waifus? Sounds good, let's check the death animations.

...My interest is piqued.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Ukraine is Asking for an Atomic Heart Ban From Sony, Microsoft, and Valve:​

https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2023/02/21/ukraine-atomic-heart-ban-sony-microsoft-valve/

You know what, I'm gonna buy 5 copies of this game (along with Hogwarts Legacy) just to spite them haha

If I download 7 million repacks, will it ruin russia and denuvo?

Reminder: Denuvo stands with Putin

(The game is decent so far, may buy if they drop denushit

 

[Tyranicon]

Didn’t know a thing about this game untill i was informed it was the new bad man bad vidya that only evil people who do not support the current thing (tm) would play.
Naturally like hogwarts this got me semi curious about a game i otherwise wouldn't have noticed because i'm too busy catching up on my backlog to care about new titles.

So it's bioshock but not meh like infinite, with added racism, sexism and some killer robot waifus? Sounds good, let's check the death animations.

...My interest is piqued.

-looks at video thumbnail-

Is this combat, or that much talked about 6-hour robot sex scene?

 

[Zlaja]

Didn’t know a thing about this game untill i was informed it was the new bad man bad vidya that only evil people who do not support the current thing (tm) would play.
Naturally like hogwarts this got me semi curious about a game i otherwise wouldn't have noticed because i'm too busy catching up on my backlog to care about new titles.

So it's bioshock but not meh like infinite, with added racism, sexism and some killer robot waifus? Sounds good, let's check the death animations.

...My interest is piqued.

I have to admit, those cartoon animations on the death screen are creative as fuck.

 

[Silverfish]

it breaks one's immersion.

Atomic Heart is already steampunk nonsense. How immersed were you to begin with?

 

[luj1]

lol
https://www.pcgamer.com/atomic-hear...caricature-in-one-of-its-soviet-era-cartoons/

Atomic Heart criticised for racist caricature in one of its Soviet-era cartoons​

Good job. I'm starting to like this game...

Based Russians

 

[Wunderbar]

 

[Clockwork Knight]

^Hidden weapons compartment

 

[Humanophage]

post-factum explanation. Devs wanted newer music they used to listen to instead of the retro stuff for the boomers, so they licensed the newer music and then came up with some half-assed technobabble excuse.

I think the whole schtick of the game is that it is not supposed to be about popadantsy-style historical travel and historical authenticity, but rather an edgy comment on Soviet cultural heritage in modern times and about an alternative successful USSR. So it is supposed to be futuristic and modern rather than strictly retro.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Looks like a couple of contenders for the Russian military here

 

[Yosharian]

post-factum explanation. Devs wanted newer music they used to listen to instead of the retro stuff for the boomers, so they licensed the newer music and then came up with some half-assed technobabble excuse.

I think the whole schtick of the game is that it is not supposed to be about popadantsy-style historical travel and historical authenticity, but rather an edgy comment on Soviet cultural heritage in modern times and about an alternative successful USSR. So it is supposed to be futuristic and modern rather than strictly retro.

No shit, it's fascinating that this even needs to be pointed out

 

[V17]

It's also probably another way it steals from Bioshock Infinite and its anachronistic Barbershop cover of God Only Knows by The Beach Boys: