2.5/5 ★ – frannybeltoni's review of Atomic Heart.

I do enjoy parts of this; the setting is unique, the weapons can be meaty, the enemy design is unique, the story has decent ideas and the overall production design is stunning. The issues were that the story is badly told and mainly, the game design was very obviously taken from other games, but done so much worse here. The game starts with a bioshock infinite style narrative opening, which does a good job setting up the story and world. Though the main writing problem (the awful dialogue and one note characters) rears its ugly head almost immediately, I've heard the nonsense phrase "crispy critters" far too much for one lifetime. But the beginning does an overall decent job setting up a lot of elements, then the game drops you into a "dungeon" area, showing off 50% of the game's approach to level design. These contained underground bases are usually very well designed, with interesting interiors and unlockable doors for backtracking and puzzle solving. The issue is once this first "dungeon" is complete you enter the open world, and that is the real downfall of this game. The open world is generically green and hilly, making differentiating where you are difficult. This is made even worse by the fact there is no minimap and the map you can bring up is generally pretty useless with no way of making waypoints or seeing most points of interest. My main interaction with the open world was sprinting full speed through it, as actually trying to engage with it becomes difficult with the bullet spongy enemies, limited stealth options and repair drones that make it impossible to clear certain areas. It would be unfair not to mention the controversies surrounding this game, and though I am not getting into detail, the sheer amount of them is enough I feel like there is some merit to the russian connection at the heart of the development. What I will say however, is the game is definitely not propaganda, at least in a generic sense. The game's story feels less worried about politics, sometimes it does go into lengthy discussions, but ultimately those discussions are meager as the game has very little to really say. There are twists in the story, which some have read as critiques of Soviet style communism, but the game undermines any critiques because of its many twists. The game has no political leaning above a generic "it's a bit grey, I see both sides" kind of deal, as it acknowledges the horrors of both sides, but never really dives into the dies of necessary evil. Maybe if the script had even the slightest hint of Nuance it could, but at this moment there is just no real subtext politically. I think the game says something about propaganda, especially in the way it tackles its endings, but I think that theme could have been brought more to the forefront, especially through game systems rather than making a generic feeling game that might have an interesting message that was sadly done better in a game from like 15 years ago. That's the big issue here, for as much as some of this works, or is at least conceptually interesting, a lot of the games best elements are based on classics of the genre, and the constant references to games like Bioshock or Thief make the whole experience feel cheap. It's fun enough, even if a little frustrating and janky in parts, but ultimately it's a decent game that's best moments only reminded me of better games.