On display during The Game Awards 2022 was a new gameplay trailer for developer Mundfish's upcoming atmospheric sci-fi game Atomic Heart. The trailer doesn't hesitate to explode with erratic gameplay right out of the gate. The protagonist is shown immediately defending themselves using retro-futuristic weaponry in diverse environments against a wide variety of enemies, ranging from a giant fleshy blood monster to killer AI robots to a seemingly insane group of soldiers, all propelled by composer Mick Gordon's energetic riff-fueled soundtrack.
It's certainly a lot to take in, but the new trailer is just a glimpse into what seems to make Atomic Heart a truly unique experience that combines inspirational cues from games that have come before like BioShock while introducing wholly new and original ideas. It has the potential to change what players can expect from the first-person shooter genre.
Atomic Heart Tells an Alternate History Story
Atomic Heart is set in an alternate universe where the USSR thrived and was able to create a futuristic, utopian society with technological breakthroughs in abundance. Among these breakthroughs is a unified system of advanced artificial intelligence created to serve humanity. All was well until the AI in question decided to stop serving and start stalking, hunting, and killing. It's up to the player to dive into this former world of tomorrow and find out why it evolved into something else completely. Its setting and tragic narrative can instantly be compared to BioShock and its underwater city, Rapture.
Described as an action-RPG, Atomic Heart allows players to progress by wielding a diverse set of craftable, upgradeable, and interchangeable weapons, abilities, and kits. From ordinary hatchets to automatic rifles to electromagnetic rail guns, there's no shortage of weapons to dispatch enemies in wildly interesting ways.
Atomic Heart's melee system seems to take cues from the smooth, responsive, and transitional mechanics of Techland's Dying Light along with the heavy, intimidating, and powerful gunplay mechanics from Bethesda's Fallout series. As for core abilities, there's a special glove that gives the player telekinetic and elemental powers, which harkens back to BioShock's primary skill set and Half-Life's gravity gun. The game's huge set-piece boss fights and smaller sections full of hordes of murderous, unforgivable robots combined with dynamic combat gives the player myriad ways to attack, counter, and defend from the game's many enemy sets.
Atomic Heart's world structure is just as diverse and multi-faceted as its combat. Its world is vast, to say the least, with huge, sprawling, explorable landscapes for players to walk, run, swim, and even drive in. Players are encouraged to navigate the game's story-driven open world with a curiosity about the narrative unfolding and what led to it, and they are rewarded for their efforts. Traversing Atomic Heart's once-lived-in world with hints of history behind it remarks on how it felt after first opening the vault door to a wasteland of possibilities in Fallout.
How Atomic Heart Stands Out & Moves the FPS Genre Forward
On the flip side are dank, claustrophobic underground facilities which branch out all around Atomic Heart's world, littered with mystery, danger, and clues that expand the narrative if the player is brave enough to investigate. This switch-up from a bright, open environment to a dark, close-quartered corridor space with unexpected twists and turns can drastically change the tone of Atomic Heart from action to horror. It can also test the player's patience and ability to solve intricate platform puzzles that allow progression deeper into its rabbit hole-like mazes. These optional sections seem to take heavy inspiration from Valve's Portal series, letting the player utilize their abilities and weapons to transform structures, move platforms and unlock passageways to get from point A to point B.
Atomic Heart seems to take inspiration from some of the best games in their respective genres, combining these elements with tested mechanics and a familiar aesthetic. It has the potential to pave its own way by organically combining the best of its influences while introducing its own distinguishable components. While honoring established foundations, Mundfish's explosive science fiction FPS is setting itself up to refresh the genre with unorthodox ideas in a brave new world when it releases Feb. 21, 2023.