Atomic Heart

It just gets better and better
Disclaimer: I play with all assist on and on easy mode, life is stressful enough already. Don't be ashamed wanting to actually enjoy a game without it getting annoying.

This game won't be for everyone.... but it sure as hell is for me.
I just came back to to replay it from scratch after playing through it shortly after the original release, and man, I forgot how much fun it can be. Don't get me wrong, theres a bunch about it that isn't great, but a ton more that IS. Did I get stuck between a door and an object twice? Yes. lol. Did I ever fall through the world? No. Will I? I would not be surprised.... The story is a little convoluted, and theres some logical inconsistencies, (but if I let that sort of thing scare me off, I never would have watched all of Buffy. And that woulda been a shame.) So yeah its a bit of a mixed bag, but the further you get into the game, the more fun it becomes. You get stronger, and you become fearless. And then something will show up that brings some of that fear back to you. Then you KNOW NO FEAR.... and then it happens again...
The thing that will put most people off early is reaching the surface for the first time and realizing its Robogeddon up there. You're scanning and trying to get around safely, but you're going to get into trouble. Then you're going to run for it, and you're going to make it worse lol. You're trying to suss out what each robot does and how to fight it but you can't stand around when you're outside, even after you flattened a bunch because a swarm of flying bastards are trying to rebuild them. But it doesn't take long to get a couple of abilities, and realize how easy it can actually be to control group fights. Before you know it, you're getting in to trouble on purpose. Your laughing your ass off as the mechanical fools run to their DOOM! You're lifting group in the air and smashing them to death, you got a melee weapon that flings a spinning blade easily knocking things out of the sky and taking the face off some mutant. You're freezing things solid and jamming the barrel of your shotgun into the weak spots and boring a hole in em. Meanwhile theirs Russian heavy metal blaring and corpses are being brought back from the dead while you reload all your guns, only to erupt into another room of pure violence!
And I love the Testing Grounds! It's like a janky cold war version of PORTAL. Each one a bizarre mix of logic puzzles and magnetic labyrinth's, utilising a decent (not perfect) platforming system. The jump combined with the dash makes most leaps pretty simple, similar to DOOM ETERNAL. The puzzles aren't too complicated, and some have more than one way to get past them. In return you get new additions to your weapons in the form of parts and upgrades, letting you rework a weapon into a completely new role. Decide you wish you'd tried another upgrade? Switch it, and it returns all your used materials. You are never punished with material loss for experimenting. Same with upgrading your own character. All the poly you spend is yours forever.
But mostly I think i just loved the look and feel of it all. I love the designs and the art. Some of the level design, specifically all the industrial facilities are awesome. The boss fights are put together well I think, they're always quite cinematic, and they do something that not alot of game devs do. They take a big giant metal monster, and they make them FAST AS HELL. The encounters really aren't very difficult, but when you first face the Hedgie and most others, they're ALL OVER YOU, they move SO FAST and are SO BIG that you find yourself constantly feeling like you need to be running as fast as you can in the other direction, and you're sure they’re going to get you any second. They do NOT lumber around with big elaborate swings to emphasize their size. They are spinning ♥♥♥♥♥♥ MURDER tops and it spikes your adrenaline the first go round. Then the next playthrough i killed the Hedgie so easily I wondered why past me was so worried about it lol. Still he's cool to watch, and it’s a fun fight in my opinion.
All in all its more than worth grabbing, Its on sale quite a bit these days, ($26 CAN as I'm writing this) and for that price, I think people need to take a chance on this and make up their own minds whether its fun for them.
(My second playthrough has completely reignited my need to drop robots on their big metal skulls. And as an FPS campaign oriented game, I would absolutely put it up on a list with favorites of mine. (some examples would be - DOOM - WOLFENSTEIN NEW ORDER - BIOSHOCK(s) - METRO(s) - HALF LIFE - PORTAL - PREY – RAGE – SHADOW WARRIOR - DISHONORED – SYSTEM SHOCK)

Atomic Heart plays something like a mix between BioShock and Half-Life. While some aspects of the game are genius, others feel bafflingly amateurish.
On one hand you have the presentation. Mundfish takes some big swings and most of them connect. The visuals impress, both on a technical and design level. Environments and set pieces are detailed and often impressively creative. The sound also deserves mention. Music is eclectic, but the quality undeniable. You won't like every piece, but you're sure to love some of them.
On the other hand, you have the gameplay. Endlessly spawning, self-repairing enemies. Dull, tedious fetch quests and puzzles. Repeatedly entering/exiting different menus and rewatching long-winded animations. Several times I asked myself: "Am I doing this right? Is this really how I'm supposed to play?"
Despite introducing a lot of cool high-level sf concepts, the story somehow manages to feel quite uninteresting. It's also laughably contrived. Throughout the story, basically every named character is revealed to be working for the opposite side. I also found the tone a little strange, it definitely feels like something was lost in translation (and the English dub doesn't help).
A severely flawed but commendably bold and ambitious game. A unique experience. Weakest of recommends.
Good to know:
Quite difficult
Fully playable on the Steam Deck
100ish GB install

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☑ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Yes, after playing 310 hours, I finally decided to write something; not a traditional review, but something.
Though it has nothing to do with the time I spent playing, but the fact that Atomic Heart II was announced yesterday.

Honestly, the deserved success of this game - which was the first game Mundfish has made - allowing the developers to create a sequel is pretty touching, knowing the difficulties they had to go through along the way.

The misinformation, blind hate, xenophobia and entire smear campaigns aimed at the game and the developer team simply due to their ethnicity was very sad, even infuriating, personally.

Despite all the hardships they were faced with, Atomic Heart rightfully took its place as a great game, and perhaps the best one I've played in years.
It's not for everyone, I'll freely admit that. But damn was it exactly for me; not only thanks to the insanely fun and versatile gameplay mechanics, but due to the story, characters and world building containing certain aspects and cultural details which an Eastern European appreciates more. :)))

All in all, I'm extremely grateful for the game and its continued support, - DLC 4 will certainly be a blast - and wish the best to the Mundfish devs in the next few years while they're making Atomic Heart II!
Good luck guys!

Is it the best game ever? No.
Should you still play it? Yes.

Good:
+Solid shooter.
+Puzzles are good, some just way too easy.
+DLC 1: Alternative ending.
+DLC 2: Fun gameplay: Surfing, Subway Surfer and platforming while main plot continues.
+DLC 3: Main story continues in traditional gameplay but it's better than main game.
+Ballerinas

Neutral:
-DLC 4: Still in production so I have to wait for it.
-Door mini puzzles become boring after while (accessibility has option for auto solve).

Bad:
-Open world enemies get repaired (infinite respawn, you can just avoid them or blast them with end game weapons easily).

Other:
-Atomic Heart 2 and The CUBE has been announced, can't wait to play them.

I would probably give this a mixed/neutral rating if I could.
All you need to know is this was the devs first time working on a game ever. And it shows in the jank and design choices.
There will be some frustration, but the world and lore is pretty interesting.
Tip: In accessibility settings turn on auto puzzle solving. It just solves the stupid time waster lockpick door puzzles automatically. They appear too often and add literally nothing.