History VideoGame / AtomicHeart

* BodyHorror: One of the experiments is the Polymer's ability to support life in a body with most of its organs removed. The whale exhibit is terrifying but still graceful, but later applications are skinless monstrosities with fleshy tentacles. Oh, and they can be used as a WetwareCPU for bigger robots.

* PlantMooks: Some of the enemies the player will be facing are hostile mobile flora, having somehow hijacked and mutated humans into vessels to move around and attack others, and could even spit acid/poison. While Polymer-based genetic engineering is seemingly responsible, it's implied from some of the text that somehow the Lunar soil which they are growing and experimenting with the plants in (for space colonization purposes) may have something to do with their unusual and dangerous abilities and behavior.

* BagOfSpilling: P-3 starts the "Annihilation Instinct" DLC without any weapons or powers, only keeping the passive upgrades he acquired through the main game. His lack of powers is justified by the DLC taking place after [[spoiler:Sergey ripped Char-LES out of his gloves, damaging it and]] removing the source of his abilities, and the new one he is given later on is only a baseline model not outfitted for combat. Likewise, his lack of weapons at the start is because he was kidnapped by [=NORA=], who did not want him to escape her until she was forced to let him procure weapons.

** During the "Annihilation Instinct" DLC, when it comes to restoring NORA to factory settings, she protests that doing so and erasing her nascent cosncience is more or less akin to killing her for good, only for Serguey to angrily retort that not only was her conscience only the product of a saboteur, but she has only used it to be a [[AxCrazy psychopathically murderous]] {{Yandere}}.

The game's first DLC, Annihilation Instinct, will serve as a direct continuation of the main story, set within the Mendeleev Complex and its surrounding swamps. It is scheduled to release on August 2nd, 2023.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: The vendor bot is ''very'' forward with her flirtatious advances. Consequently, Sergey is very reluctant to interact with her despite her being his source for upgrades and equipment.

* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: Discussed. When debating Filatova over [[spoiler: Sechenov's]] plans potentially robbing all of humanity of their free will, Sergey will bitterly play DevilsAdvocate and point out that preserving free will doesn't guarantee that people ''won't'' be scumbags. When Filatova calls Sergey a [[YouMonster monster]] for ever thinking this way, he coldly [[IAmAMonster agrees with her assessment]].

* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Petrov gets decapitated by by a forklift bot in the Vavilov Complex early in the story. He survives since Filatova is able to reattach his head, but later he ''willingly'' decapitates himself to avoid capture after P-3 corners him in the Maya Plisetskaya theater.]]

* ButThouMust: While you are fighting the FinalBoss, both [[spoiler:Sechenov]] and Sergey will repeatedly offer to stop fighting so they can try and talk things out since neither of them are really willing to kill the other. Despite that at no point are you offered the option to drop your weapons, and attempting to do so (by ceasing to move or to shoot back) simply results in a normal GameOver as the boss continues to beat you to death. [[spoiler:Justified: during the fight, Sechenov clarifies that the twins aren't actually going after P-3, but after Chariton, and if Sergey manages to take off Char-LES they will stop attacking. Of course, the cutscene immediately after has Sechenov state that Chariton was controlling Sergey's body, so P-3 may not have been able to actually remove Char-LES for a SheatheYourSword solution...]].

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Well, it ''is'' a game made by a Russian studio taking place in an {{alternate|History}} 1955 [=USSR=]. Chief of all is that once P-3 discovers what the Atomic Heart project is, namely [[spoiler:the import of secretly combat-capable robots to the United States, where they will suddenly switch to their combat programming to cripple vital infrastructures, allowing for a swift and total defeat of the United States]], he's perfectly fine with it, since it would allow the USSR to defeat the capitalists while limiting civilian casualties. The only characters shown to have a problem with it are Char-LES [[spoiler:and even then, he's more likely trying to drive a wedge between Sergey and Sechenov than genuinely concerned about it]] and the saboteur Petrov [[spoiler:who isn't really concerned about it either, but is using what he can to prevent Sechenov's AssilimationPlot from occuring]].

* IOweYouMyLife: P-3 shows great loyalty and trust to his superior Dmitry Sechenov on account of him having personally saved his life on the operating table.

* MentalWorld: Limbo, a surreal world that P-3 enters during his periodic blackouts which manifests various memories from his past, including his war service and being taken under Sechenov's wing. [[spoiler:It's revealed at the end that Limbo is what he perceives whenever he's being manipulated through the Voshkod polymer in his brain into killing someone, and Char-LES, who's actually Voshkod inventor Chariton Zakharov, was doing all the manipulation.]]

* HelpfulHallucination: Tear, a floating blob of neuropolymer [[spoiler:implied to be a resurfacing memory of P-3's wife]], helps him resist [[spoiler:a trip to Limbo]].

** In the Limbo Sergey sees Typhoon-class submarine, first of which were laid down in 1976.

* CatchPhrase: P-3 has a habit of using the phrase "Crispy Critters" (In English it is the censored version. In Russian it is "ебучие пироги" ("fucking pastries" or "fucking pies")) as either an expletive or as a way to describe things or people. [[spoiler:There's a reason for this]].

* DiegeticSwitch: Background music played from the radios scattered around the Facility transitions into a heavy metal remix once fighting starts.
** For a double dose of diegenesis, a lot of the licensed music, including tracks without a "battle" version, were also used in the cartoons most of the TVs in the game world are showing. Out of the eight songs with "modernized" renditions, five showed up in various episodes of ''Animation/NuPogodi'', such as "Trava u Doma" in the episode with the killer robot hare.

** Baba Zina possesses a concerning amount of knowledge on both Facility 3826 and how its robotic servants operate but prefers to present herself as just a weird old lady. [[spoiler:Its later revealed that this is because Zina is actually a communications officer covertly embedded in Senchenov's chain of command so she can relay information directly to Nikita Khrushchev himself.]]

* GoshDangItToHeck: While Sergey is not adverse to normal swears, he's extremely fond of using "crispy critters" as a catch-all term for the messes he encounters. [[spoiler:A terminal near the end of the game reveals that he once suffered such horrific burns that the rescuers referred to him as "a crispy critter", and his damaged brain picked up the words while he was on the operating table]].

* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: According to developers, many of the robotic enemies the player faces weren’t originally intended to fulfill combat roles, and were instead (ironically for Soviet Russia) consumeristic civilian models intended for menial labor, utility, and even entertainment. Unfortunately, whatever has gone wrong has turned these mechanical helpers into hostile killers.
** However, as it turns out [[spoiler:the robots were meant to be {{Killer Robot}}s all along.]]

** Black VOV-A6's running posture once once it spots you greatly resembles the [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay T-1000]]'s relentless chase.
** Demolished monument above the Theater bears a great resemblance to the [[Franchise/StarWars Death Star]].

** In the Limbo Sergey see Typhoon-class submarine, first of which were laid down in 1976.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Well, it ''is'' Soviet punk. Even before things go downhill in a hurry, the cheerful facade is slightly punctured in a few places by this universe's introduction of the Chinese-style social credit system, for one, prisoners are routinely abused even if they're supposed to be rehabilitated, and of course, Cold War propaganda is absolutely everywhere. And then you see what's ''actually'' going on in the secret labs and what the Soviet Union is really planning to do with Sechenov's research...

* CatchPhrase: P-3 has a habit of using the phrase "Crispy Critters" (In English it is the censored version. In Russian it is "ебучие пироги" ("fucking pastries" or "fucking pies")) in as either an expletive or as a way to describe things or people. [[spoiler:There's a reason for this]].

* DanceBattler: The Ballerina Models, including the Twins, seem to be very graceful when fighting or killing their foes in that it looks like a form of dance.

** Char-les is confused why P-3 claims he's never heard the Facility's tour guide narration if he's been there so many times before, alluding to [[spoiler: the [[LaserGuidedAmnesia mind alteration]] Sechenov intentionally put him through.]]