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This game is rated PEGI 18
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Blood-splatter, Gore, Graphic Violence, Nudity, Sex and Stabbed.
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GAMES Atomic Heart
Atomic Heart Review
Posted: 5 weeks ago, last updated 3 weeks ago.
Author: @GeekDadGamer, Rich Adams and Jo Robertson.
Overview
Atomic Heart is a shooting adventure game set in an alternative history where the Soviet Union wins World War 2 and you are a special agent fighting back against rogue robots. Play involves traversing the utopian world and using the environment and upgrades to take on explosive encounters. It's a bold and bizarre combination of themes that holds together surprisingly well with strong combat and a world that invites investigation.
Like the Bioshock games, Atomic Heart is set in a utopian world of wonders and perfection where people live in harmony with their servant robots. However, a new technology designed to enable people to control robots with their minds is sabotaged making the robots turn on the humans. This, along with other secret experiments create an unstable mix of mutant creatures and terrifying superpowered robots with ideas of rebellion against their creators. You must work to deal with the chaos and find out what lies behind the idealized world.
You take on the robots with abilities granted by your experimental power glove and other cutting-edge weaponry. This enables you to fight for your life in explosive and frenetic encounters. Adapt your fighting style to each unique opponent. Combine your skills and resources, use the environment and upgrade your equipment to overcome challenges and fight for good.
The result is a high-impact adventure set in a compelling world. It's dark and bizarre with plenty of narrative and mystery to discover. This is matched by the unforgiving combat with giant machines and mutants dealt with through your evolving abilities and arsenal.
Like the Bioshock games, Atomic Heart is set in a utopian world of wonders and perfection where people live in harmony with their servant robots. However, a new technology designed to enable people to control robots with their minds is sabotaged making the robots turn on the humans. This, along with other secret experiments create an unstable mix of mutant creatures and terrifying superpowered robots with ideas of rebellion against their creators. You must work to deal with the chaos and find out what lies behind the idealized world.
You take on the robots with abilities granted by your experimental power glove and other cutting-edge weaponry. This enables you to fight for your life in explosive and frenetic encounters. Adapt your fighting style to each unique opponent. Combine your skills and resources, use the environment and upgrade your equipment to overcome challenges and fight for good.
The result is a high-impact adventure set in a compelling world. It's dark and bizarre with plenty of narrative and mystery to discover. This is matched by the unforgiving combat with giant machines and mutants dealt with through your evolving abilities and arsenal.
Game Details
Release Date: 20/02/2023
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Content Rating: PEGI 18
Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Narrative, Shooting (Action, Adventure, Fighting and Traversal)
Accessibility: 21 features
Components: 3D First-Person
Lists
View our choice of games like Atomic Heart. This game is good if you want to:
Duration
Play Time: This game will take between 15 hours and 19 hours to complete.
Play Style
This is a single-player game.
You can play this game in the following styles:
Age Ratings
Content Rating
Rated for younger players in Australia. Rated Mature Accompanied (MA 15+) for Strong Science Fiction Violence, Moderate Language and Sex and Mild Nudity.
Skill Rating
14+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Still, it's important for parents and guardians to consider the maturity required to process the game content.
Costs
Atomic Heart usually costs £54.99 to £94.99.
There are the following additional costs associated with this game:
You can purchase outfits, additional story content and weapon skins. There is also a
It's important to set up your accounts and devices appropriately. More information is on our Financial Resources page.
Atomic Heart
 | Xbox Series X|S | £59.99 | – | Free Xbox Game Pass |
| Xbox One | £59.99 | – | Free Xbox Game Pass |
 | PS5 | £59.99 | – | – |
| PS4 | £59.99 | – | – |
 | PC | £54.99 | – | – |
Atomic Heart - Gold Edition
| Xbox Series X|S | £84.99 | – | Free Xbox Game Pass |
| Xbox One | £84.99 | – | Free Xbox Game Pass |
| PS5 | £84.99 | – | – |
| PS4 | £84.99 | – | – |
Atomic Heart - Premium Edition
| Xbox Series X|S | £94.99 | – | Free Xbox Game Pass |
| Xbox One | £94.99 | – | Free Xbox Game Pass |
| PS5 | £94.99 | – | – |
| PS4 | £94.99 | – | – |
- In-Game Purchases: Additional in-game purchases are offered for items that enhance the experience.
- In-Game Pass: Purchase a season/battle pass to gain access to limited in-game purchases, reward items and other aspects of the game.
You can purchase outfits, additional story content and weapon skins. There is also a
- Atomic Heart - Atomic Season Pass: Provides all the game's additional and upcoming downloadable content.
- Atomic Heart - Golden Age Skin Pack
- Atomic Heart - Labor & Science Weapon Skin Pack
- Atomic Heart - Midas Glove Skin
It's important to set up your accounts and devices appropriately. More information is on our Financial Resources page.
Accessibility
Our Atomic Heart Accessibility Report documents 21 accessibility features:
There is no remapping and you can't check what your controls are while playing. You are introduced to keys as part of the tutorials but these are not listed anywhere else. When the game first starts it shows the menu to let you adjust language, sound levels, and turning on subtitles.
You can set the difficulty of the game and adjust it at any time. Easier levels reduce the damage done by enemies and provide more resources, on the harder difficulty the enemies are more realistic and intelligent. You can also enable Aim Assist to make it easier to target. You can also enable Auto Aim for a greater level of assistance.
To progress the game you need to complete lock-picking puzzles. As highlighted by David Lee Venters, these present substantial unintended barriers. Some of these require really fine motor control to manipulate the wires into the right place without any snap-to-grid style assistance. Others require very quick button press reactions and some rely on distinguishing between red-green which increases the barrier (perhaps makes it impossible) for colour-blind players. This isn't made easier by the difficulty settings.
There are quick-time events for actions like performing stealth kills or escaping attacks that require rapid pressing of buttons. Saving happens at checkpoints only. There can be a substantial time between checkpoints which means you can lose a lot of progress (20 minutes). You can reduce this by returning to safe rooms to save more frequently.
Subtitles are provided, but they are small and can't be resized to make them more visible. There is a language subtitle option that pops up a subtitle for text in the game world that is often in Russian.
Interactable items are highlighted with a white outline. You can scan a room for items and they are highlighted in blue. There are often a large number of items that appear and could present an overwhelming number of options.
There is no remapping and you can't check what your controls are while playing. You are introduced to keys as part of the tutorials but these are not listed anywhere else. When the game first starts it shows the menu to let you adjust language, sound levels, and turning on subtitles.
You can set the difficulty of the game and adjust it at any time. Easier levels reduce the damage done by enemies and provide more resources, on the harder difficulty the enemies are more realistic and intelligent. You can also enable Aim Assist to make it easier to target. You can also enable Auto Aim for a greater level of assistance.
To progress the game you need to complete lock-picking puzzles. As highlighted by David Lee Venters, these present substantial unintended barriers. Some of these require really fine motor control to manipulate the wires into the right place without any snap-to-grid style assistance. Others require very quick button press reactions and some rely on distinguishing between red-green which increases the barrier (perhaps makes it impossible) for colour-blind players. This isn't made easier by the difficulty settings.
There are quick-time events for actions like performing stealth kills or escaping attacks that require rapid pressing of buttons. Saving happens at checkpoints only. There can be a substantial time between checkpoints which means you can lose a lot of progress (20 minutes). You can reduce this by returning to safe rooms to save more frequently.
Subtitles are provided, but they are small and can't be resized to make them more visible. There is a language subtitle option that pops up a subtitle for text in the game world that is often in Russian.
Interactable items are highlighted with a white outline. You can scan a room for items and they are highlighted in blue. There are often a large number of items that appear and could present an overwhelming number of options.
Diversity and Inclusion
We haven't documented diversity and inclusion information for this game yet.
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