Granted, they’re as plainly signposted as the story’s many “twists” by obvious arenas, but they’re a thrilling showcase of what the game does best and that’s its combat. The game’s most dazzling minutes, the ones that truly sell to me that fragments of the Atomic Heart game I wanted does exist, belong to the magnificent boss fights. I’m a sucker for a shotgun and seeing the shells in Atomic Heart tear shreds off of the several automatons lining the halls-and even shearing them in half-never gets old.

I might have only secured blueprints for no more than a handful of the weapons on offer, but they all felt powerful in their own right. The two prongs of attack both feel great and feel like the only area where Atomic Heart might even edge out its precursor. It’s a shame because I feel as though all of the game’s action, if it were condensed down into a more linear experience, could make for a much better game. Atomic Heart’s biggest sin, in the end, is that it forces us to reminisce about what is ultimately a better game. Hilariously, it all feels like another self-sabotage gunning for an impossible gold standard. There’s a particular character whose mad turn feels so unearned that it’s almost insulting. Its cast of characters, from top to bottom, is thoroughly repugnant and the “hero” has levels of vulgarity that should have died when Duke did forever ago. That said, mince and mash is perfectly serviceable in a pinch and Atomic Heart gets the job done, it just never rises to the lofty heights of those it imitates. Sadly, those that expect caviar and get served mince and mash are bound to be disappointed. To put it the only way I feel I can, Atomic Heart is unadulterated, pulp schlock.īased on my preview of the game, I’d expected Atomic Heart’s story to do its best to emulate BioShock’s musings on determinism and free will. It’s got a self-referential, almost self-deprecating sense of humour that surprised me to no end and its nods to the games it so badly wanted to be-see any BioShock game-were so on the nose. Atomic Heart is all at once the strangest, most off-the-wall, most bombastic game I think I’ll play this year.

Atomic heart ps4 performance