Atomic Heart Arrives at Gamescom 2022 With A Gameplay Trailer And Release Window

Atomic Heart was a game that took the gaming industry by storm with a reveal trailer back in 2018. But this wasn’t the first time, the developer revealed some footage for the game. The project has been in development for as long as 2008 with some concept footage being released from 2008 to 2015. Fast forward to now, and Atomic Heart has made its way to Gamescom 2022 with a gameplay trailer and a release window for the end of 2022.

Atomic Heart Gameplay Trailer

Atomic heart quickly became one of the most anticipated games that fans knew little to nothing about. The game featured a unique idea, with some interesting design choices. It takes inspiration from games like Stalker, Nier: Automata, Bioshock, and Metro if you take into account its art and gameplay choices.

The game appears to be set in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi Russian dystopia, which looks pretty appealing thanks to its creepy design choices. Members of the Mundfish dev team grew up in Russia but what happens when you mix those influences together? You get Atomic Heart.

Mundfish showcased their game at Gamescom 2022 and announced that the game will release later this year. Fans and the gaming community are expecting a December 2022 release for the title. The showcase featured a new trailer that presented the game’s combat, gunplay, enemies, abilities, powerups, and female androids ripping apart each other.

So far, it’s one of the most in-depth looks that we’ve gotten for the game and it’ll seem pretty nostalgic and familiar to those that have played Bioshock. Players can unleash their powers through their left hand and you can attack with a weapon wielded in their right hand unless you’re using dual-handed weapons like an assault rifle or a heavy melee weapon.

The combat seems to be pretty fast-paced than what we’ve seen in other dystopian games so far. The trailer featured the protagonist managing swarms of enemies with their powers and evading as the enemies charged at them.

Hopefully, we’ll be looking at a combat system that feels solid, powerful, and satisfying. It’s pretty hard to get a feel for the game just from viewing a showcase trailer. Players are satisfied so far by the game’s promising aesthetics and post-apocalyptic USSR universe. They’d be willing to trade in lackluster combat for a survival system, great aesthetics, and a good-enough story if it ever comes down to that.

A Closed World Ecosystem – A neural network named “Kollektiv” unifies ground-based and flying robots alike into a single hivemind. If you are noticed either above or under the ground, the reinforcements from the nearest factory will come to kill you. Use hacking to break in unnoticed.

Players can use multiple abilities such as telekinesis to launch enemies into the air, freeze them to bring them to a halt, or temporarily subdue them with electricity. We got to see some robust-looking and ridiculously large weapons and one that slightly resembled the Wunderwaffe DG-2 from Call of Duty: World at War’s zombies’ mode.

There are some enemy types showcased in the game and more that will come in the future. We got to see some corporate-looking androids, an entity formed out of wiring, cyborgs, and humanoid creatures with laser beams. The game doesn’t seem easy as you need to be quick, attentive, and decisive as enemy swarms charge at you like a pack of hounds.

Fierce Fighting – Study the behavior of your enemies and how they relate to each other. Use the varied arsenal of arms and special abilities of your polymer glove. Turn everything into a weapon: environment, objects, your own body, and even enemies themselves! Every fight will be different from the last. – Atomic Heart

Atomic Heart will also feature a crafting system that takes elements from the good old Stalker franchise. All the weapons in the game are makeshift and you’ll have to scavenge for resources across the game map. You’ll have to source internals and components from robots, loose pieces of metal, or household items.

We didn’t get a look at the game’s crafting system but it’s quite possible that you’ll have to mix and match to figure out the accuracy, range, and damage stats for your hand-made weapons. Players will have to use a device known as the Chaika 3.0 to create more than thirty different ranged and melee weapons.

Use pieces and components with the “Chaika 3.0” device to create more than 30 types of melee weapons and firearms. Cassette cartridges and various modifications will help you use the environment to your advantage and exploit enemy vulnerabilities.

The devs had a bit to share about the game’s story premise. It’s sort of like an episode of Black Mirror if the show was set in a distorted alternate reality set between the 1930s and 1960s in the USSR. The CEO of Mundfish, Robert Bagratuni informed IGN that the USSR still thrives in this alternate reality but the country has developed technologically far beyond what mind kind has achieved in our present reality. Robots, Holograms, and the Internet have been invented with a Communist twist.

 The USSR still exists in this reality, but a technical revolution has already taken place: robots, the Internet, holograms have already been invented … all these innovations are submerged in the atmosphere of communism, confrontation with the imperialism of the West and all the other inherent political and social aspects of the time. – Robert Bagratuni

Robots had been mass-produced by the USSR to aid in defense, timber production, routine chores, and agriculture. But now, they’ve started a Rebellion. You play the game as Major Nechaev, a mentally unstable KGB special agent who’s codenamed P-3. The government sends you out to explore and investigate a robot manufacturing facility that has gone dead silent.

Initially, Atomic Heart was intended to be an open-world game but the game soon took the direction of a linear story. There are also indications of a love story in the midst of all the gory, hack n slash, murdering madness, although we’re not sure or told how big of a part it’s intended to play.

The game will also feature two alternate endings depending on the player’s choices at some point in the game. Though, it’s obvious we might get a secret ending in the mix.

The Face of the Soviet Dream – Explore huge research facilities and test sites. Find out more about the employees and their ways of life and work. Uncover soviet secrets! But know that death hides in every corner. Can you survive? – Atomic Heart

Once you arrive, it’s pretty clear that you’re in for a bad time. The robots have gone out of control, creatures that were thought once-dead walk among the living, and traps have been set all throughout the facility.

Atomic Heart Additional Details

It was in 2021 that Nvidia shared an RTX trailer for Atomic Heart in order to show off Ray Traced lighting, shadows, and DLSS integration. A tech demo for the game was also made briefly available.

Everything about the game so far seems to hone key elements from franchises like Stalker, Prey 2017, and BioShock. That is indeed a potent mix of game titles but mixed in with some Soviet vibes and an Alla Pugacheva soundtrack, the game stands out from the rest of the aforementioned titles.

Atomic Heart won’t be done after release. The game is set to feature post-launch DLCs that will be revealed in the later months. They’ve cut out a bit of content from the game but the team stated it was for the good of the title. Maybe, they’ll serve as added content for the upcoming DLCs.

There’s a lot of information that’s still dry about the upcoming Atomic Heart title and fans are desperate to consume whatever Atomic Heart gameplay, leaks or news comes up in the following months, just before the game’s release.

Atomic Heart, indeed, looks quite promising but it all comes down to the fans, critics, and the overall gaming community to decide if it’s as good as it looks from the trailers. But we’ll only find that out when the game comes out. Till then, fans can expect the worst and hope for the best.

Atomic Heart is set to release for the Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass later this year. While the exact release window is not known except for later in 2022 and the Russia-Ukraine war is still ongoing, fans were worried the game might be delayed. But Mundfish stepped in to deny those rumors.

A bit of controversy also popped up back in 2019 when it was reported that mass layoffs happened over at Mundish studios due to concerns of incompetency. But Mundfish denied these allegations and stated that the game is properly polished in contrast to the claims made in the reports.

“[Our] experienced developers, who worked in large game companies like Ubisoft … are experts in making AAA games and complex subsystems such as online multiplayer, AI ecosystems, analytics and scoring systems and other complex and high-tech tasks,” – Mundfish

So, are you excited about Atomic Heart and all the exciting gameplay features that it brings into the mix? Hoping to play the game on day one or will you wait for a discount down the line? Let us know in the comments below. We upload daily on Appuals so stay tuned for more. Till then, see you later and goodbye.