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Atomic Heart |OT| From Russia With Love

GymWolf

Member
I'm late into the game (theater) and I've been looting pretty much every area no problem

My advice is: scan the area for cameras, and destroy them first. No cameras = no alarms.

Normal enemies dont raise your alarm meter, so deal with the cameras first and there will be no problem. Sure, they regen after a while, but by the time the regen bots arrive you are already out of view from the camera.

Also, teleknesis is way too oo for crowd control. And it regens so fast, so spam away.

I havent finished the theater yet, but the first big area and the museum are still better.

The worldbuilding in this are is amazing tho. Collecting voice diaries you see how the theater's downfall happened, eventualy becoming a brotel. It's at Bioshock's level, even better.

Oh, and the boss fight before entering this area was superb. All the bosses have been fun to fight and WAY better than other immersive sims/open world games.

They are fast, incredibly designed and very rewarding. Enemies in general are very diverse and well designed. They nailed this aspect of the game.
Yeah i did pretty much that for the past 3 hours, the open world ecosystem is really a non-problem unless this is your first stealth game\open world game, even when you get spotted you just have to run away a bit to calm the waters.
This show how fucking bad journalists are at playing videogames.

You can even disable all the robots in a zone to loot peacefully with the hack thing, it was failry easy to do but i prefer having the occasional enemy to fight.

The project for the weapons are all in random chest around the open world and they are super easy to miss, in the past 3 hours i found the bat with the saw blades, the rail gun and the big boy.

I'm using only the melee + full upgraded shock and telekinesis stomp and i'm swimming in ammo, melee+ powers is just more fun in this game.

And i love that you can experiment with the powers to find the best one for each playstyle because you can just get a resource refund if you wanna change power.
 
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GymWolf

Member
Something about the standard robots spooks me the hell out when one sneaks up on me. Smacked my mouse across the desk last night. I think it's part encounter design, but the character design plays a part too. Big uncanny valley, unsettling vibe.
It's the 80s porn stache, when they come from behind it just increase the ass-clench feeling.

Fun fact: simpatico is the italian word for funny.
 
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oji-san

Member
Damn just beat Hedgie and can't grab the neuromodule, on XSX latest patch, game is so good but this make me unhappy as the neuromodules are the most precious upgrade material that you can only get from bosses. It's seems they are aware of the issue and i hope it will be fixed soon.
 

yamaci17

Member
This was hilarious/awesome (probably only play after you have finished theater)


one of the peaks of the game definitely ! did not expect such a banger



just got zvezdochka blueprint finally. already had the special attack blueprint from one of the testing grounds. turns out special attack can be combined with fire cartridge! zip zap them with fire attachment lol

(by the way from the looks of it blueprints for these weapons are not in fixed locations. they will come across chests randomly as you progress in the story)
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
Yeah, it is, I know the basics, you need a camera to hack the door, I did the boss in that area and after that I overloaded that thing in the sky, and I think something went wrong after that, the robots didn't come to repair it.

So I decided to finish the next mission, maybe it would reset somehow the state, but no, the same, even weirder is that I one-shot some of the robots, but not all of them, so weird, think I just somehow confused the game :messenger_beaming:

Playing it on Gamepass, if that's got anything to do with it.
Sounds like it could be bugged! A friend of mine sent me a video last night of him doing some jump you have to and falling through the floor, so it dos seem buggy..

I've been playing about sixteen hours, cleared four trial rooms and beat that big ball boss, still havent found the AK47 :/
 

BootsLoader

Member
I'm having a blast with the game. I really like that it has a dodge. Loving the graphics. It looks and runs awesome on Series X.
why you always lying noragami aragoto GIF
 

Alex11

Member
Sounds like it could be bugged! A friend of mine sent me a video last night of him doing some jump you have to and falling through the floor, so it dos seem buggy..

I've been playing about sixteen hours, cleared four trial rooms and beat that big ball boss, still havent found the AK47 :/
Yeah, it is a buggy game, some big, some small, but it doesn't keep me away, as the combat with the mobs (not the bosses) are very fun and even though I have no clear idea what the purpose of the open world is for, I like that at least it isn't so condensed like in other open worlds, to me it offers a realistic and awesome sense of scale.
 

Arachnid

Member
Yeah i did pretty much that for the past 3 hours, the open world ecosystem is really a non-problem unless this is your first stealth game\open world game, even when you get spotted you just have to run away a bit to calm the waters.
This show how fucking bad journalists are at playing videogames.

You can even disable all the robots in a zone to loot peacefully with the hack thing, it was failry easy to do but i prefer having the occasional enemy to fight.

The project for the weapons are all in random chest around the open world and they are super easy to miss, in the past 3 hours i found the bat with the saw blades, the rail gun and the big boy.

I'm using only the melee + full upgraded shock and telekinesis stomp and i'm swimming in ammo, melee+ powers is just more fun in this game.

And i love that you can experiment with the powers to find the best one for each playstyle because you can just get a resource refund if you wanna change power.
So what's your general opinion on the game so far? Is it Bioshock/Deus Ex/Dishonored level at all?

I'm going to give it a go today
 
finished testing ground 1 and 6. Had to redo 6 because I missed a hallway due to a scripted sequence locking me out of a hallway I missed.
I assume the big kollektiv complex building is to show pics of the developers of the game?
I think I have a handle on the open work mechanics now.
They need to patch up the map so question marks disappear from completed areas.
 

SLoco

Neo Member
Ok, I expected a 6, 7 levels of good but until now I feel like I'm playing a 9 game?

So I've taken a look at SkillUp's review just to see some of the talking around the game because I didn't dig too much into reviews so I could see what were the shortcomings of the game considered and also it's a review I keep seeing people bringing up and... Dude, there's some bias towards this game?

Don't get me wrong he has some points like sometimes it gets annoying with all the robots they throw at you in the open or not having a strife option.
But then there's some real bullshit, like saying bosses are boring, empty open world, enemies are really spongey or that the story is just an excuse (this comes from a reviewer that literally praised Elden Ring for the same stuff last year) and he even criticizes that the game has a lot of environment and level design variety. Like what!?
He closes his review saying Atomic Heart doesn't have a distinct identity... Which is what this game particularly excels at, which is its distinctive artstyle and world just from the get go.
Who ever follow skillup frequently knows his opinion on current war in europe so him trashing on this game isnt surprising.He just trashed it cause they russians.
Example of good review
 

GymWolf

Member
So what's your general opinion on the game so far? Is it Bioshock/Deus Ex/Dishonored level at all?

I'm going to give it a go today
It's like open world bioshock with some fallout sprinkled in it more than deus ex and dishonored.

I'm having great fun with it, even a bit more than what i had with hogwarts tbh.
 
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.Pennywise

Member
Who ever follow skillup frequently knows his opinion on current war in europe so him trashing on this game isnt surprising.He just trashed it cause they russians.
Example of good review

No, I don't follow him. I just watched his review like any other, but the reasoning behind it was non-existent. Now I know why.
 

GymWolf

Member
one of the peaks of the game definitely ! did not expect such a banger



just got zvezdochka blueprint finally. already had the special attack blueprint from one of the testing grounds. turns out special attack can be combined with fire cartridge! zip zap them with fire attachment lol

(by the way from the looks of it blueprints for these weapons are not in fixed locations. they will come across chests randomly as you progress in the story)

Yeah, the moment i unlocked the testing ground and the map opened up i did the one to upgrade the bat first, the ranged attack is soo cool.
 
Played 2 hours of Bioslav Infinite after work today. Initial thoughts...

+ Fucking weird. This isn't gonna land with everyone but swearing granny? Horny vendor robot? Crispy critters? Down for it thus far
+ Gorgeous, really does look great and DLSS3 does a lot of heavy lifting. Playing at 4K with everything cranked up on a 4070ti and didn't check my frame count but it was definitely always over 60, maybe 90
+ Some real bops on the OST
+ Hold F to collect everything not nailed down is fantastic, more games need to start doing this
+ Plays fine for the most part, little jank here and there but often quite smooth
+ Door unlock minigame is nice, it's a tiny touch but it feels like I actually have to do something to complete the "puzzle", coming off the back of Hogwarts Legacy

- The absolute worst voice actor performance in recent memory. Put Harry Potter PS1 to shame. This is also a positive because it's just absurdly bad, and the script is about on par with a straight-to-DVD movie, which again, both great and awful
- Expected jank; is there a UI telling me the volt recharge time, am I just blind? Getting pinned to walls by enemies, getting physics yeeted etc.
- The dialogue constantly overlaps, was this game playtested once? Unless you stand perfectly still waiting for dialogue to finish lines are going to be interrupted by more lines most of the time

So yeah, mixed bag but the worst part of this game is also its most endearing. The script and VA are absolutely diabolical. But it's made me laugh out a loud a good three times so far which is way preferable to a completely uninteresting plot that doesn't even make me smile.

Dunno if I'll finish it because I really don't know if I need 20 hours of it, but I'm glad I at least tried it. Will play more in the week and see how it goes.
Feels neat to see "Bioslav Infinite". I made it up in the suggested OT titles thread for Atomic Heart for all I know, but maybe we independently came up with it or saw it somewhere else
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
It has an epic opening. It made me feel like I was really walking in that bizarre city. I carefully examined every detail(despite the restrictive and annoying camera). Graphics and art style are outstanding(except the prosthetic hairs). Robo-dude with a mustache playing Synthesizer was very cool. Every song that plays in the opening is great. The piano piece in the museum is already a well-known piece, but it fits the environment very well, as if giving a clue about the events to come. I can't wait to continue where I left off tomorrow. I can't remember the last time I played such a big-budget game that was obviously made with great love. I hope it can continue to surprise and impress me until the very end.
 

sainraja

Member
I am still early in the game and I am not finding the dialogue to be that "cringey" for what it is worth. I'm surprised or amazed that Xbox players get past the first 10-15 minutes of the game because it forces you to sit through some dialogue and slow/walking sequences.

The game was definitely giving me Bioshock Infinite vibes.
 
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simpatico

Member
Got my 4 canisters. This game is flying up the BioShock-like rankings. I can really only put Bioshock 1 and Dishonored 1 above it, and it could surpass those before I finish.
 

Killer8

Member
I am still early in the game and I am not finding the dialogue to be that "cringey" for what it is worth. I'm surprised or amazed that Xbox players get past the first 10-15 minutes of the game because it forces you to sit through some dialogue and slow/walking sequences.

The game was definitely giving me Bioshock Infinite vibes.

I do not understand the complaints about the VO, either. The robot voices in particular are a lot of fun. I don't mind the quantity of the banter with CHAR-LES either. Reminds me of Grimoire Weiss from Nier or Johnson from Shadows of the Damned.
 

sainraja

Member
I do not understand the complaints about the VO, either. The robot voices in particular are a lot of fun. I don't mind the quantity of the banter with CHAR-LES either. Reminds me of Grimoire Weiss from Nier or Johnson from Shadows of the Damned.
Yeah, so far, I am enjoying that too.
 

Filben

Member
I am still early in the game and I am not finding the dialogue to be that "cringey" for what it is worth
Same. I've been playing with my native language's dubs and the voice acting is superb. Tone and humour and emotions are perfectly conveyed. I understand that the humour isn't every one's cup of tea, but I really like the dialogues.
 

Denton

Member
Gotta say, as gorgeous as the game looks most of the time (especially in prebaked lighted interiors), the houses in the open world have dreadfully flat lighting, this is maxed out...and there are SSAO artifacts of course:

focushomeinteractivesinizd.png



The game could certainly use some nice infusion of RTGI, Metro Exodus-style...

metroexodusenhancededdffud.png


metroexodusenhancededdni4p.png
 

voidenberg

Member
This game needs checkpoints and manual saves anywhere. I'm tired of losing progress. I was in one of the testing grounds. Fell through a container. No way to get out. Had to reload the save. Now I have to do a combat/climbing sequence again.
 

Alex11

Member
Gotta say, as gorgeous as the game looks most of the time (especially in prebaked lighted interiors), the houses in the open world have dreadfully flat lighting, this is maxed out...and there are SSAO artifacts of course:

focushomeinteractivesinizd.png



The game could certainly use some nice infusion of RTGI, Metro Exodus-style...

metroexodusenhancededdffud.png


metroexodusenhancededdni4p.png
Wow, that looks so rough, I wonder why it looks so, considering there's a static time of day.
 
Alright, picked this up as I read the PS5 patches addressed the main technical issues reviewers had with the 1.0 version, 8 hours in and no issues so far, the game is fucking awesome.

While it's clear this game would never exist without Bioshock - from the Infinite opening to flying security droids dispatched when spotted by cams to combo of firearms/powers etc - it absolutely has it's own identity and sense of style. This is one of those games like Deus Ex where I find myself reading every single email, exploring every nook and cranny collecting loot/seeking blueprints and seeing what surprises I might find.

I've got to highlight the voice acting and push back on some of the silly criticism I've seen. The character is *meant to be* a Duke Nukem-esque dude bro and the VO absolutely nails it. Now, if you don't like this style of humor then it really doesn't matter who is doing the VO. I'm absolutely loving it, had multiple laugh out loud moments, the banter with CHARLES in particular is pure gold!

I'm liking the combat overall, there is a bit of stiffness to it but I dig the impactful feel and enemy hit reactions, cool stuff. Lots to upgrade too. Last thing I did was have a conversation with Granny (fantastic character) and got myself a Dominator, love this gun. She mentioned finding 2 gold rings in the facility, guess I missed these or is it just story exposition? God knows I explored down there like a madman.

Undoubtedly the game has some of that "euro-jank". Weird frame rate stuff with movement in the background, getting movement slowed by seemingly invisible rocks underfoot, weird things with lighting, at times bright and flat, at times too dark. I can forgive all that though, the game has so much *heart*, pun intended. There is a clear passion from the devs here to build a memorable story, world and characters, hope it hold up throughout my playthrough, I love most of what I've experienced thus far.

Special shoutout to that "fridge music", you know the track. 💯💯💯 Oh and this lovely aria is now stuck in my head, thanks Atomic Heart!

 
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Flabagast

Member
I’ve just reached the museum.

Just wow, it reminds me of Fort Frolic in a way. The art direction is truly insane and so off the book it’s above Bioshock Infinite, Prey and Wolfenstein imho, I am not sure I have been this struck visually by a game since Death Stranding three years ago. I see this game having a great posterity tbh.

Such a shame that some big sites such as Eurogamer did not even bother to review it. It really shows there is something very wrong with gaming press today.
 
I've been playing all Saturday. Total of 20 hours into Atomic Heart so far. Got one more achievement fully upgraded a weapon.
I'm past a weird trippy section and a long cut scene with those Tall Twins, and onto the next mission, bug in the system.


I’ve just reached the museum.

Just wow, it reminds me of Fort Frolic in a way.
I'm past the museum, and it did remind me of Fort Frolic, Reading the emails in the complex it seemed they were getting stressed with all the tourists. I'm just imagining all the kids eating melted ice-cream and getting it all over the exhibits. :)
 

Ogbert

Member
I do not understand the complaints about the VO, either. The robot voices in particular are a lot of fun. I don't mind the quantity of the banter with CHAR-LES either. Reminds me of Grimoire Weiss from Nier or Johnson from Shadows of the Damned.
For what it's worth, the VO is making me want to stop playing.

I cannot stand the inane banter. And your character is just a complete tool, for no reason. It should have been serious, and instead they made it dude bro.
 
29 hours in, on Armageddon and I'm destroying shit. Maxed out Energy Management, Telekinesis. Maxed out Fox Melee. Fucking butchering shit.
If you're melee orientated you will
WANT TO VISIT POLYGON 8.
 

Hugare

Member
I’ve just reached the museum.

Just wow, it reminds me of Fort Frolic in a way. The art direction is truly insane and so off the book it’s above Bioshock Infinite, Prey and Wolfenstein imho, I am not sure I have been this struck visually by a game since Death Stranding three years ago. I see this game having a great posterity tbh.

Such a shame that some big sites such as Eurogamer did not even bother to review it. It really shows there is something very wrong with gaming press today.
You cant wait to see the theater then

Its the most Bioshock-y area yet. And the worldbuilding is the best in the game so far.

I think I'm almost done with the story, and this is one of those games that I just dont want it to end.

If it was 50h of that quality of new areas, bosses and enemies, I would easily play it without feeling burned out.

I would put all the Bioshock games above it (tho the gameplay is SO much better here), but its certainly better than any other Bioshock clone, by far.
 

KungFucius

Member
So what's your general opinion on the game so far? Is it Bioshock/Deus Ex/Dishonored level at all?

I'm going to give it a go today
Sort of, but the quality is lower. It's probably worth it if you like those games because the world is visually appealing its fun to hack at shit. On Gamepass it is a no brainer to try. It is fun and quirky if you can get by the janky motion. I have a hard time with the motion because it feels like moving through molasses sometimes. The game also lacks the polish and quality of life elements in most games. For example you need to enter separate upgrade menus and cannot go between the 2 at the save points. It's not a big deal, just noticeable and inefficient. There is also no controller config screen so you can't even look at it to make sure you understand the mapping.
New update? Gamepass version is again downloading some 17GB.

FFS I think I downloaded 160GB so far. It is a fucking mess. 50 GB wasted preload, small update that did nothing then a full 70 GB redownload, then a 18GB one and now a 15GB one. Maybe it will fix some of the jank.
 

mrmustard

Member
Finished the game. Only had 1 annoying bug that cost me half an hours and a minor bug. But still this game is a 85 to me.
 
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yamaci17

Member
Finished the game. Only had 1 annoying bug that cost me half an hours and a minor bug. But still this game is a 85 to me.
same, just finished it. i'm too giving it a solid 85

media is too harsh on this game. its a legit game born out of passion and dedication

plot twists were amazing. reveals too. great fun!
 
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Philfrag

Banned
Just got a lot further into it. A lot of people reference Prey, Wolfenstein and Bioshock when talking about this game. For me the Half Life 2 vibes stand out way more. The pacing between puzzles and combat, walking through those facilities etc. It all makes me feel like I'm playing a Half Life game. I've never had that feeling recreated with any other game. I'm really loving this game so far. I really can't believe the tepid response it's got from games journalists....maybe I can believe it.

Also i'm surprised by the overuse of the term 'Euro jank' in the discourse. It feels dirty and in the context comes off a tad racist. It implies that there's something more inherently janky about games made by Eastern Europeans and Russians in an industry that constantly shits out broken crap here in the West. Atomic Heart has run and played better than 99% of games for me that have released in the past 10 years and does it with such spectacle that its like it's showing off. If Atomic Heart is euro jank what the fuck do we call games made by Bethesda? The term Euro jank just isn't needed, the jank spat out of any region on this planet is not inherently different than anywhere else, especially in an industry that continues to somehow skirt the fundamental basics of consumer rights. Mundfish has just embarrassed a lot of the legacy establishment in the games industry and they're the ones being called Euro jank. Its fucking disgraceful. I'm currently playing the Dead Space remake at the moment (which I'm enjoying) and the contrast between the two is crazy. One performs perfectly the other is Dead Space and continues to stutter between sections.

I really don't care about the East vs West discourse, I just want shit I pay for to work. I'm really tired of what this industry gets away with and to see people use derogatory terms when describing a company that has surpass the quality of what we're used to is just sad. It shows that this industry is very happy to stew in its defects instead of fulfilling the dream they seem to spout in all their garbage corporate marketing material we're forced to endure every year.
 
Don't know what todays 17GB update did, but the Series X safe room TV's still only a white screen.

Completed testing Ground 8. I've died more times here falling to my death with the jumping and climbing than anywhere else in the game. Good luck everyone.
I've been trying all morning to get into Testing Ground 10. I've ran all over this area and I've climbed the nearest tower to look through cameras that don't control anything.
Can't disarm the area or find an elevator. I wonder if the update broke this area or I'm just not seeing something obvious.
 

Bridges

Member
Completed testing Ground 8. I've died more times here falling to my death with the jumping and climbing than anywhere else in the game. Good luck everyone.
Just went through this last night and same. Glad it wasn't just me that struggled with that, the candle "puzzle" at the end probably doubled my overall deaths.
 
I think I might be done.

I've been getting stuck (as in unable to move) on terrain like every 5 minutes and I'm annoyed enough to stop playing entirely as while the storyline interests me and the art is up my alley the overall gameplay isn't grabbing me at all though not sure how much I have left.

The VDNH mission where you put the robot back together and see the cutscene where the ballerinas penetrate each other :messenger_smirking:
 

Denton

Member
I've been trying all morning to get into Testing Ground 10. I've ran all over this area and I've climbed the nearest tower to look through cameras that don't control anything.
The camera control thing that allows unlocking the elevator is on top of a cottage looking building, iirc.

I just entered Pavlov, having done all the testing polygons. I think I am getting close to the end but do not want it to end. Almost glad I have to go to the office tomorrow so it will take longer to finish :p
 
The camera control thing that allows unlocking the elevator is on top of a cottage looking building, iirc.
Thanks. Just finished Testing ground 10. I think that’s all of them unless more of the map gets revealed later On.
Next up is the Theater. Should go smooth with all these upgraded weapons I now have.
The devestator now has homing shots. 👍🏻
 
After the latest PS5 patch the cartoons now have sound and run on a loop, hooray!

On my 2nd testing grounds now, some clever puzzle solving elements, nice break from the robot genocide. Another thing I'd like to praise is pausing audio logs when interrupted by character dialogue, this should be standard.
 

oji-san

Member
Best thing about the game is the horror.
The horror of what next bug will i encounter.:giggle:
So far minor ones like no cartoons on TVs,
Big ones like can't get rarest crafting material from bosses, locking me out of some weapons upgrades.
After existing underground facilities no map available, so i saw a solution to that... enter the underground area again.. open map there, exit again and.. works! then i did another testing ground and again map bugged so did went to the underground again but now the elevator stuck and can't continue lol, i do have a save couple of minutes before so will see later tonight if it will solve it.

Also if someone have problems getting new weapons recipes then i finally got some new ones yesterday, when explored the open world i did get the Snowball and Kalash recipes, that was not so much understood since i'm about 20 hours in and keep getting "you already got this xxx recipe" from lot of chests. So i'm happy at least i'm not locked from getting new weapons.

BTW some of these bugs already fixed but only if you start a new save and i'm too far to start anew.

Some recommendations i have, didn't see it's mentioned.. you start with 20 slots in you inventory, and there's 2 upgrades for that in character tab.. each cost 75 Neuropolymers and gives you extra 10 slots, so 20 more for both of them. worth it later on.. with meds not stacking and so much ammo and such it's great.

The best skill i think i got is Sleazeball, which shields you from damage when dodging, couple that with the extra dodge skill and i'm dancing in combat. :)

One more skill i like is Cell Division, it's expensive, costing 242 NP, it's description is a bit confusing.. but i got it and what i does is to extra heal you, like the small meds give 50 hp, and then keep healing you for what it seems like another 50 hp or so. So another good skill for me.

Overall Atomic Heart is an amazing game, it's all we saw all the years and then some, the art is pure crazy, even those mustache bots are creepy as fuck.
Visuals on Series X is great, and for me it's very smooth.
Just finished the VDNH mission and sweet mama what a game, love everything about it, the combat, the story and characters, it's a definitely at least a 90 for me so far, with possibly a bit lower with the bugs.
Playing on Game Pass but for sure will later in couple of years will buy the gold version with all the DLCs on PS5 since it's seems the most stable version.
A great first game for Mundfish, congrats.🔥
 
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