YMMV / Atomic Heart

• Anvilicious: Atomic Heart, just like BioShock or Fallout, doesn’t shy away from its morals. The narrative goes to great lengths showcasing the evils of the Soviet Union and how worse they could've become if they ever obtained more power than they did in real life, which runs parallel to the classical motif of how absolute power corrupts absolutely. The game also pushes the idea about how we should cherish our free will and commit to doing the right thing with our choices. But due to how messy the narrative tends to handle its themes, the game can also be interpreted rather cynically about how utopias are simply something unobtainable as a concept due to human nature, regardless of how advanced we get as a species.
• Awesome Art: The art and graphic design the game has is outstanding, so good that Atomic Heart won the Steam Awards of 2023 for the best Visual Style of the year.
• Awesome Music: Oh yeah. Geoffrey Day has produced banging remixes and covers of classic 70s and 80s Soviet-era songs that fit well with the combat, as well as original tracks. Special mentions are: PT-1X12, MA-9 Belyash and Plyushch.
• Base-Breaking Character: Sergey has caused a massive division between the players of this game, some saying that his constant talking and swearing, especially his catchphrase “crispy critters” is the most annoying thing they heard in a good while, to the point that some even abandoned the game due to Sergey’s “colorful” vocabulary. Others however find his lines as a Narm Charm in that he looks goofy but badass at the same time, with some people justifying his vocabulary due to Sergey’s operations when he was caught in a fire accident that nearly killed him but took his wife away from him, since him developing his catchphrase was due to one of his rescuers calling him a crispy critter and the brain operations made him into the sailor-mouthed major he is now.
• Best Known for the Fanservice:
  • Left and Right, the female robot twins who serve as Sechenov's bodyguards and hatchetmen, are what most people remember about the game, despite their limited screen time. This can be directly attributed to their very curvy chassis and both of them being dressed like sensual ballerinas in tight leotards who spend much of their time bending and contorting their bodies to perform tasks or attack you in combat.
  • NORA, the aggressively sexual female vending machine is also quite memorable.
• Broken Base: Even without going into the slew of controversies surrounding the data harvesting accusations against Mundfish, Atomic Heart was one of the more divisive video game releases of 2023 on its merits alone. There are those who hate the FPS for its jank combat systems, loathe traversing the open world segments and facing the infinitely respawning enemies that populate it, detests the main protagonist for his crass personality and lack of redeeming qualities, and feel that the exposition-heavy narrative fails to engage players with its themes, partly due to being so bleak that its impossible to care about anybody involved. Then there are the people who enjoyed the core gameplay loop in spite of its glitches, praised its stunning Sovietpunk aesthetic and hard-hitting soundtrack courtesy of Mick Gordon, and find that Sergey at the very least isn't insufferable enough to detract from their overall experience with the main campaign, especially with Russian voice acting enabled over the dodgy English dub.
• Common Knowledge: Many mainstream publications and bloggers accused the game of glorifying the USSR. However a playthrough of the game reveals anything but, as Soviet Superscience turned the USSR into a Crapsaccharine World filled with killer robots, class inequality, political prisoners, and an antagonist planning to assimilate the USSR populace into a hivemind.
• Designated Hero: Sergey may be the protagonist and the playable character, but he is a Jerkass who constantly mocks and insults everyone, fervently believes in the USSR despite the game shows how horrible they are and if we want to, leave Sechenov and let him take over the world and steal everyone from their free will.
• Fandom Rivalry: With S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro, though, more for outside reasons than anything else. The issue comes with the fact that while all of these game have certain Soviet themes to them, Atomic Heart was made by a Russian developer, while the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro series were made by Ukrainian ones, albeit based on works of Russian origin. While many international fans joked that they are going to get both Atomic Heart and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 when they are released in 2023, given the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian fans have turned this video game rivalry into a nationalist tilt with a ton of controversy surrounding Atomic Heart developer Mundfish (who have repeatedly stated that their company is non-partisan and has no connection to the Russian government or any involvement with its policy decisions), whereas the Ukrainian developers of the former games, as well as Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author of Metro intellectual properties, are outspoken opponents of the war. But it seems this rivalry has worned down and some fans of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. now plays Atomic Heart.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • It seems there is a friendship between Atomic Heart players and Murder Drones watchers, drawing crossovers between the robots. This is especially prominent due to the usage of Doll, a worker drone girl who only speaks in Russian in crossovers with Atomic Heart which it takes in a setting in Soviet Russia, with both fandoms joking that Doll is a soviet member and they also joke about wanting to have sex with the Fembots.
  • There are also a lot of BioShock and Fallout fans that play this game and are friends with the fandom, probably attracted by the utopia turned into a dystopia setting with a very similar gameplay.
  • There is a minor one with Haydee due to both having faceless, sexy robots/cyborgs and both are known for their Best Known for the Fanservice status.
• Game-Breaker: The melee weapon, Zvezdochka. Once you give it the Blade Dance upgrade, you'll have a reliable way to steadily chew up bosses and Elite Mooks. It does rapid damage to anything in its path, has decent range, and homes in on any enemy in front of you. The upgrade that increases attack speed after a kill means that it also becomes a temporary Lightning Bruiser that'll help restore energy after it runs out. Combine this with energy upgrades, the upgrade that prevents you from being knocked down while using Blade Dance, and some energy-restoring Electrodes for emergencies, and difficulty will become a thing of the past, even without elemental capsules.
• Goddamned Bats: The Pchela drones, a series of weak flying machines, equipped with either a very telegraphed laser or a slow melee weapon, both of which barely tickle, both of which go down in 2-3 shots from even the most basic of pistols. They, however, have two extremely annoying characteristics - first, they respawn infinitely, and very quickly in the open world. Second, they constantly resurrect already killed enemies, which happens rather quickly, with no limit on how many times they can do it. As a result, being in any overworld area with them present, will quickly become an exercise in futility, as swarms of them repeatedly resurrect every enemy (including other Pchela drones) the player just killed. To add insult to injury, one of its rarer variants carries a CCTV Camera, constantly alerting all nearby robots to the players' presence.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Atomic Heart was released during a time when Russia was in war with Ukraine, in a date that was very close to the 2022 February escalation of the war. This led a lot of people to accuse Mundfish of releasing Soviet and Russian propaganda as well as pointing some ties with the Russian government, specifically, their fundings as well as accusations of data harvest for the Russian government. Mundfish for their part as stated that they aren’t taking a side in the war and that they have no connections to the government and the data harvest was false.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Despite being a grade-A Jerkass, Sergey shows unconditional love for Katya during Trapped in Limbo, he even asks for her forgiveness for letting her get killed in Bulgaria.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: NORA is oftenly compared with Smidge from Hi-Fi RUSH, both are from games that came early in 2023 and both are fridge-like appliances with an A.I. installed, with problematic behaviour (NORA with her Yandere tendencies and Smidge with his Stalker without a Crush)
• Ho Yay:
  • Fans of the game have been shipping Sergey and Chariton, depicting them in a “enemies to lovers” type of ship.
  • There has also been ships of Sergey and Sechenov, with Sechenov as a dominant figure and Sergey as submissive in the ship
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Lord of War^ExplanationA very dark and morbid meme. The Fandom Rivalry mentioned above with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. did spawn jokes that players are going to buy both further to finance both sides of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to prolong the conflict, akin to that of Lord of War. Amusingly, there's an achievement called "Lord of War" for collecting all weapons.
  • Six hours of sex scenes.^ExplanationA developer jokingly stated before release that the game will feature six hours of sex scenes, leading to no small amount of playful disappointment when the scenes are nowhere to be found in the final release.
  • Crispy critters "Ебучие пироги" in the original Russian ("Fucking pastries").^ExplanationSergey has a strange habit of addressing things or people like this, and the frequency and awkwardness of it instantly became the butt of jokes. The phrase came from his memories of a horrific fire injury he once suffered, where he was referred as "crispy critters" by rescuers.
• Narm:
  • The English dialogue has received substantial scrutiny. It's hard to say to what extent this is a translation issue from Russian, but Sergey's dialogue features relentless use of "colorful" and vulgar phrases that almost nobody in English uses ("Crispy critters!" is the most meme-able, but there are many others). Sergey's attempts to presumably sound like a gruff badass instead come off as funny, ridiculous, cheesy or plain bizarre.
  • Sergey's use of "crispy critters" as a Catchphrase whenever things go wrong tends to just undermine the event that's caught him off guard.
  • The Russian version comes off as similarly oddly vulgar and confusing given the veneer of Soviet Superiority that Sechenov who P-3 looks up to, wears. However, a late game audio log reveals that it all stems from the combination of memory editing Nechayev received when he became P-3 and the trauma said editing necessitated. The fact that Char-LES is repeatedly confused by what P-3 says and regularly tells him off for his language should tell you that it was done on purpose.
  • The upgrade station talks almost exclusively in blatant sexual innuendo and constantly flirts with P-3 which increasingly comes across as its lines being written by a sexually frustrated and horny teenager.
  • A piece of incidental dialogue when discussing the incident that starts the robot uprising with Char-LES reveals that this is NORA's version of the robot insanity that made the VOVs and other robots start killing everybody. Given that she murders some surviving scientists for raw materials but leaves P-3 alone, we should be grateful for her affection.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Due to the controversy surrounding developer Mundfish's funding and calls for boycott of the game in context the ongoing Russian Invasion of Ukraine, the game shot up the Steam charts.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Those who don't remember Atomic Heart through the Twins and the 6 hour of sex scene joke tend to remember its release as having been mired in political controversies, namely with how Mundfish was accused of being a potential arm of Russian propaganda and conspiring in data harvesting for the Russian FSB^ExplanationIn addition to the studio having its origins in Russia, its domestic publisher and some of their investors have ties to the Russian government, with attention pointing towards VK Play (VK as a whole being state-owned) and GEM Capital (whose CEO, Anatoly Paliy, used to be a high ranking member of Gazprom, a Russian oil company that is currently an ally of the Russian Government in the war). The fact the game itself was released on the first-year anniversary of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine certainly did not help with optics, with a number of pro-Ukrainian outlets and/or personalities believing it to have been a political sleight, though this has also resulted in further backlash and counter-arguments claiming said allegations to be baseless — Mundfish, for their part, declared neutrality and denied any connections to the Russian government or any involvement with its policy decisions. The inconclusive nature of these allegations ultimately led to a huge chunk of said arguments swallow up the game's publicity, and there's still a very strong likelihood of remembering the title as "that (alleged) Russian propaganda game."
• Porting Disaster:
  • The PC port got a good deal of criticism for issues at launch, primarily the lack of adjustable field-of-view, and a bug that causes the option for vertical sync to be grayed out, making it impossible to enable it natively and forcing a player to do so with their GPU control panel.
  • The Xbox Game Pass version of the game launched with a severe glitch that causes the player to no-clip through the floor and fall into an infinite void, which primarily occurs immediately after completing the magnet puzzle level. This soft lock makes it impossible to progress the game unless you apparently jumped on a very specific spot in the elevator lift while a large pipe blocks your way.
  • Console players also suffered numerous glitches regardless of whether or not they were being played on current gen systems like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Such as not being able to pick up loot after killing a boss, the save room TV displaying a white screen instead of the in-universe cartoons, interrupted and overlapping dialogues, cutscenes not triggering, the attack and reload buttons being disabled after leaving certain areas, etc.
• The Scrappy: As aforementioned under Base-Breaking Character, Major Sergey "P-3" Nechayev is commonly decried by critics, content creators, and consumers alike as one of the most insufferable video game protagonists of The New '20s. A majority of the criticisms are laser focused on the character's abrasive behavior to basically everyone he meets over the course of the campaign, his non-stop cursing to the point of coming off as juvenile attempt at being seen as mature, and his utterly bizarre Character Catchphrase coming off as pure Narm rather than endearing. While this seems to have been an intentional reaction on Mundfish's part since several characters in-game call Sergey out on his behavior with there even being a late game audio log explaining the origins of his catchphrase, it still didn't make playing as him any less irritating for most people.
• Signature Scene: The boss fight with the ballerina robot twins is by far the most well known part of the game thanks to the fanservice.
• Spiritual Successor: Genetic experiments, alternate history, an FPS fusion of action and survival horror, melee swinging with improvised weapons, the ability to rely on stealth, a protagonist that arrives to the conflict-torn setting from above, a man who's gone mad with his vision for the world make this one to BioShock and to some extent Prey (2017).
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A common criticism among players is that every character of the game is a morally grey, unpleasant or evil person, for example: Sergey, the playable character is a jerk who swears a lot and treats everyone like dirt; Charles who is our companion is Deadpan Snarker who plots to Kill All Humans; Sechenov who presented himself as a affable and noble man who only wants to ascend humanity into the stars is revealed to be a Manipulative Bastard who plots to crush free will even if it was for the betterment of humanity.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
  • Due to the game's unfortunate timing in releasing during near the first year anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, a number of critics and activists have accused Mundfish of releasing propaganda that glorifies the Soviet Union and Russia. Mundfish for its part has responded by saying that they and the game are not taking sides in the conflict, and development of the game started well before the 2022 escalation of the conflict did.
  • On the other side of the coin, the game can be seen as a subtle Take That! towards Russia along with USSR nostalgia, as the setting features strict policing of Soviet citizens, inequality between communist party members and average citizens, harsh treatment of political dissidents, and secret projects intended to cripple the Western world and rob people of their free will beneath its utopian veneer. Suffice to say, the game can be considered anti-soviet in many respects.
• Woolseyism: The Brazilian dub's localization of the script has been well-received in its home country. Of particular note, the voice acting for the vending machine hilariously captures its extremely flirty personality and even quotes a local politician's infamous statement "Relaxa e goza" ("Relax and cum").