'Atomic Heart' Reviews Are Here, And They Are Just Okay

Atomic Heart

Today marks the embargo date for Atomic Heart, the bizarre new sci-fi game from Mundfish, which has attracted some manner of controversy given its connections to Russia. But in terms of how the actual game performs and whether it’s worth playing, reviews are now in and the result is something perhaps…okay. A bit average, but certainly not bad.

At the time of this writing, reviews split across PS5, Xbox Series X and PC (surprisingly evenly) are a 75, 74 and 78 on Metacritic respectively. In the broader context of the video game landscape where GOTY contenders hit above 90, studios get bonuses at 85+ and anything under a 60 is an utter disaster, I would declare these scores “fine.”

The game has attracted attention for its shapely faceless Soviet robots used in all the promotional materials, and in practice, the game is something that tries to be a spiritual successor to Bioshock, but no surprise, is not actually as good.

Reviews are really split on this one. It’s not like everyone just gave it a 7.5 and called it a day. There are highs:

Gaming Trend (9.5/10): “2023 has already been strong with Game of the Year contenders, and Atomic Heart is another one of them. It lives up to all of the hype and all of its promises; an amazing debut game for Mundfish. Nailing down a few things Atomic Heart is phenomenal at is nearly impossible because it’s extraordinary in all of them. This isn’t just my favorite game of this year, it might be one of my favorites of the decade.”

And there are lows:

GamesRadar (5/10): “Atomic Heart has a lot of big ideas, but it doesn't do a good enough job with the basics. With an incomprehensible storyline, weightless combat, and frustrating first-person platforming, Atomic Heart is left to stand in the shadow of the video games that so clearly inspired it.”

Twinfinite (4/10): “Despite what is a promising combat formula as well as the supporting systems behind it when it comes to skills, crafting, and upgrades, there are also several equally frustrating aspects of it that hold the game back. The hope is that Mundfish is able to fix some of the more glaring issues post-launch, but right now, it feels less like a welcomed revolution and more like a nuclear disaster.”

So, it’s divisive, so pick whoever you trust and make the judgement based on that. I’m probably going to skip it, as the game and its sexy robots never really held all that much appeal to me in the marketing, and it doesn’t quite sound like a must-play, given everything else on my plate. And my friend Skillup gives it a big old “Do Not Recommend.”

We’ll see what fans think once the game is in the wild. Stay tuned for that.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.