Atomic Heart is a 2023 first-person shooter video game developed by Mundfish Studio. It was published by VK Play, Focus Entertainment, and 4Divinity.
The game is set in an alternate history version of the Soviet Union, during the 1950s. Initially depicted as a retrofuturistic utopia, the game follows the collapse of an advanced Soviet research city after a robot uprising.
Atomic Heart was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 21, 2023. It gained several awards.
A sequel, titled Atomic Heart 2, is in development.
Gameplay Atomic Heart is a first-person shooter video game with role-playing elements. Weapons include conventional firearms, energy-based weapons, and melee weapons. A wide variety of enemies are featured, most of which are robots; mutants are another type of enemy consisting of human corpses animated by genetically-engineered plant-like organisms called sprouts. A crafting system allows the player to piece weapons together from metal parts that can be detached from robots or taken from household appliances. Ammo in the game is scarce, so the player also has the option to use rechargeable energy guns. Quick-time events are featured in the game.
The player wears a special glove, the Polymer Glove, which grants powers such as telekinesis, freezing, shield, electricity and others to defeat foes. Its powers can be combined with both melee and ranged weapons.
Weapons can be upgraded and embedded with various elemental effects using cartridges. These cartridges can be looted, crafted and equipped by the player on both melee and ranged weapons.
To cover distances faster in certain large open spaces, players can use cars left in these areas. Players also have to solve various puzzles that are encountered throughout the main campaign and side Polygons (Testing Grounds). After one of the released patches in June 2024, the game also offers accessibility settings, which include not only puzzles auto-solve, but also colorblind mode, auto QTE, auto-heal, and some others.
Plot
Setting Atomic Heart takes place on the grounds of Facility 3826, the Soviet Union's foremost scientific research hub in an alternate history 1955, located in the Kazakh SSR. In 1936, scientist Dmitry Sechenov developed a liquidized programmable module called the Polymer, sparking massive technological breakthroughs in the fields of cold fusion and robotics in the USSR, freeing much of the populace from manual labor. When World War II broke out, the Soviets quickly gained the upper hand, but just before Nazi Germany was defeated in 1942, the Nazis secretly unleashed the Brown Plague virus, leaving millions dead and creating an international demand for Soviet robots to compensate for the resulting worker shortage. As part of the Soviet Union's post-war reconstruction program, Dr. Sechenov created a wireless, networked artificial intelligence called "Kollektiv 1.0" that linked his robots together for greater efficiency.
Sechenov later developed the THOUGHT, a neuroconnector that integrates Polymer into the human body, enabling direct interaction with robots. Designed to launch alongside Kollektiv 2.0, it was intended to usher in a true post-labor era. However, the launch resulted in a catastrophic failure, plunging Facility 3826 into chaos.
Synopsis Major Sergey "P-3" Nechayev is a special agent with memory loss, saved from a life-threatening injury by Dmitry Sechenov. As Sechenov's agent, Sergey is sent to assist with the Kollektiv 2.0 rollout at Facility 3826, only to discover that the facility's robots have gone rogue, killing most of the human staff. Sechenov informs him that Viktor Petrov, a robotics designer, sabotaged the Kollektiv node and orders Sergey to capture him. Accompanied by his AI partner CHAR-les, integrated into his glove, Sergey must confront the facility’s rogue robots and failed biomechanical experiments.
Sergey finds Petrov working with neurosurgeon Larisa Filatova, but Petrov seemingly dies while fleeing. Suspicious of Facility 3826, the Politburo sends Yegor Molotov, who threatens to halt the launch of Kollektiv 2.0. CHAR-les reveals a power struggle over Kollektiv between Sechenov and the Politburo. Sechenov orders Sergey to accompany Molotov, but Sergey blacks out and later finds Molotov murdered. Sechenov then reveals that Petrov is alive, having faked his death with Filatova’s help.
Sergey finds Petrov at the Theater, where Petrov reveals that civilian robots always had a combat mode secretly installed and accuses Sechenov of planning to use them for global domination. He gives Sergey a pair of rings before committing suicide. Suspecting the "Atomic Heart" project involves deploying combat robots to seize nuclear plants, Sergey takes Petrov's head to Michael Stockhausen, Sechenov's deputy, for memory extraction. However, Filatova intervenes and throws a grenade, resulting in Stockhausen’s death and knocking Sergey unconscious. CHAR-les reveals that the rings are top-secret devices which allow the wearer to join Kollektiv 2.0 while remaining "invisible" to the network, thus gaining unrestricted authority and control within the Kollektiv.
When Sergey wakes up, Filatova contacts him and meets him in secret at a secluded area in Facility 3826. She reveals to him that Kollektiv is a means to mind-control people, and Filatova was in charge of the facility that houses numerous volunteers of the project. Sergey also discovers that CHAR-les isn't an AI, but rather the preserved consciousness of Chariton Zakharov, Sechenov's colleague and a fellow researcher presumably murdered by Sechenov. Using Chariton's security clearance, they uncover more of Sergey's past: he was previously critically injured in a mission in Bulgaria alongside his wife and fellow agent, Ekaterina "Katya" Nechayeva. While Katya did not survive, Sechenov managed to fix Sergey's brain injury by installing a Polymer implant, erasing memories of Katya while also implanting her memories into robotic ballerina bodyguards called the Twins. In doing so, Sechenov gains control over Sergey. Furious, Sergey decides to confront Sechenov. However, he blacks out again and wakes up in the care of his mother-in-law, Zinaida Muravyova, who has been anonymously assisting him throughout his mission in Facility 3826. She reveals that Sergey had killed Filatova while blacked out. At this point, Sergey can either choose to leave Facility 3826 or confront Sechenov, resulting in different endings.
If Sergey refuses to confront Sechenov, he destroys Chariton and slips out of Facility 3826 and disappears, allowing Sechenov to continue with his plans to activate Kollektiv 2.0. Chariton is shown to still be alive as a small mass of living Polymer and he manages to escape as well.
If Sergey chooses to confront Sechenov, he enters his office, where they argue before Sechenov orders the Twins to attack. After Sergey defeats them, Sechenov draws a pistol, but Sergey uses his glove to disarm him and shoots him in the gut. Wounded, Sechenov reveals that Chariton manipulated Sergey’s blackouts, making him unknowingly kill Molotov and Filatova. Enraged, Sergey tries to remove Chariton from his glove, but Chariton electrocutes him and escapes as a gray mass. Declaring his intent to exterminate humanity, Chariton jumps into a vat of red Polymer, transforming into a massive black humanoid. He then picks up Sechenov, breaks his neck, and later consumes his body before vanishing. Sergey later awakens in an illusion, where one of the Twins reaches out to him as Katya’s voice speaks.
Annihilation Instinct Taking place three days after the ending where Sergey refuses to confront Sechenov, Kollektiv 2.0 is fully operational, but Chariton, merged within the network, has brainwashed people and leaked information, sparking a civil war. Sergey wakes in the Mendeleev Complex, now controlled by the rogue AI NORA, who has fallen in love with him and synced to his implant. She orders him to eliminate Zinaida, now leading an anti-Kollektiv faction. Heading to the surface, Sergey encounters NORA's inventor, Alexey Lebedev. He repairs Sergey’s glove and explains that Zinaida seeks to control NORA for her weapon-making capabilities. To stop her, Sergey must collect BEA-D robots containing NORA’s code to reset her.
NORA tempts Sergey with secrets about Katya, but Lebedev connects him to Sechenov, who reveals that he preserved Katya's brain in neuropolymer to revive her. He offers Sergey full access to his past and a leave of absence. Sergey agrees, resets NORA with the Twins' help, and restores order. As promised, Sechenov grants him leave, but as Sergey departs, Zinaida follows.
Trapped in Limbo Taking place after the ending in which Sergey confronts Sechenov and is betrayed by Chariton, Sergey awakens in Limbo, the same surreal dimension he encountered during his blackouts in the main game. Katya, now in the form of a Polymer teardrop, guides Sergey through this dimension as they recover the latter's memory. She reveals that her consciousness has also been trapped in Limbo, which was designed by Sechenov to house the minds of those using the Kollektiv in order to mind-control people. Katya also briefs Sergey on the events in the real world, informing the latter that while Sechenov's body has disappeared, Kollektiv 2.0 has yet to launch, and Sergey's own unconscious body has been taken to a lab alongside the bodies of the Twins. By completing puzzles and traversing a surreal, platforming-based landscape, Sergey eventually escapes Limbo and awakens, and sets out to find the rings he threw in the lake in order to restore Katya.
Enchantment Under the Sea Taking place after Trapped in Limbo, Sergey interacts with one of the Twins' bodies, which allows Katya to take over his glove and function similarly to Chariton. The two of them escape Facility 3826, though Sergey's arm is injured in the process. They reunite with Zinaida, who learns of her daughter's survival. She then sends them to Triton, an underwater facility where they can acquire tools to retrieve the rings.
At Triton, Sergey and Katya meet new allies: technician Nikolai, cetologist Nastya, and security officer Hunter. After helping them relocate a school of dolphins, one is assigned to retrieve the rings. Zinaida later sends one of the Twins’ bodies to Triton, upsetting Katya. Nikolai reveals he was sent to deliver Samodelkin, a high-tech repair system created by Dr. Lebedev, and identifies Katya as its key activator. With Samodelkin, Sergey repairs his arm and links it to Katya.
As the group prepares to escape Triton, Sergey and Katya are intercepted by MOR-4Y, a gigantic eel robot roaming the facility. Katya, through Samodelkin's connection, transfers her consciousness to the Twin robot body, and assists Sergey in destroying MOR-4Y. The dolphin later returns and gives Sergey the rings, which he then puts on Katya's hand. After taking a moment of respite on the surface, Sergey decides they are ready to pursue Chariton.
Blood on Crystal