Well, cast your doubts aside. Atomic Heart really is coming, and this sci-fi, gore-filled RPG has dialled the dystopian Soviet aesthetic up to the max.
During the Microsoft and Bethesda showcase at E3 2021 a new trailer for Atomic Heart launched. Unfortunately, the developers at Mundfish have continued to be mysterious with this trailer. There isn’t a lot to learn from the gameplay shown that we hadn’t already seen.
Previously we’ve seen gameplay features and trailers that confirm some locations within the game and some of the combat mechanics and enemies. Atomic Heart is set in a dysfunctional Soviet Union in 1955, where haywire robotics cause mayhem.
In the E3 Atomic Heart trailer we didn’t learn much. We did see that an old woman will threaten you with a ladle at some point, which could get interesting.
In the past Mundfish were developing a game called Soviet Lunapark which was set to be exclusively available in VR. Comparing the concept art of Soviet Lunapark to Atomic Heart, it’s clear that the general idea and tone has simply been moved over.
The trailer and the announcement revealed at E3 gave no hints at a release date or even a release year, so it seems this game is still deep in the development process. The Mundfish and Atomic Heart social media pages have eagerly shared what seems to be gameplay snippets or concept footage in the years since its first announcement, but specific release dates or story details have always been missing.
If we piece together the information given by the official pages and the team working on the long-awaited game, we can see Atomic Heart being a fast-paced RPG shooter in an open-world setting. The player navigates this semi-apocalyptic area as a KGB agent investigating the wild robotics at a large science base.
The trailer announced during E3 gives us a little more to work with. Most important to note are the new characters. In the trailer we see a female character using the same tech as the player’s main character. We also see a suspiciously normal-looking old woman brandishing a ladle as she leans over the player. Could these shots be hints at a world inhabited by more NPC’s than previously divulged?
The rest of the trailer is engaging and thrilling, with plenty of robotic nightmare fuel and a peek at some of the potential weapons available and how they’re used. The only thing we know for sure from this trailer, though, is that Atomic Heart is truly on its way and is being taken seriously by the likes of Bethesda and Microsoft.
Release date or not, Atomic Heart is set to release (eventually) on Game Pass on Xbox, PC, and the cloud on its launch day.
