A promising bit of alternate history sci-fi with a Russian twist, Atomic Heart has been one of my most anticipated releases for quite some time, as per the headline you can probably guess that the end result didn't come close to living up to that promise.

A snippet.

One of the more immediate issues with Atomic Heart as a game is the tonal dissonance between its setting, story, and pretty much everything else. The main protagonist is an angry and unlikable cartoon character that sees every obstacle or objective placed in front of them as an affront to their existence. This is amplified to near-unseen but definitely not unheard-of levels when the in-game chatter between Major P-3 and his AI-glove CHAR-les becomes tiring.

Setting aside the poor English dub where American accents betray the art direction or the dialogue, which is both aggressive and juvenile in its overt sexualisation of random elements, it’s relentless. So much so that you could be in a heated minutes-long combat encounter with various robots and mutated humanoids or in a creepy facility looking to solve an environmental puzzle - and throughout most of that time, a swear-filled or inane dialogue exchange is happening.

Our Full Atomic Heart Review

Mundfish's alt-history retro-future sci-fi shooter Atomic Heart is nearly upon us, and it's been a long time coming. We've had our eyes on this proejct since it was first announced and continue to be blown away at almost every facet of it. Including today's eight minute flurry of chaos and gunplay the studio and publisher, Focus Entertainment, have shared.

Today’s Gameplay Overview Trailer features juicy new footage, showcasing a cinematic shooter that shines not only for its combat but for its intrigue, setting, characters and deep mechanics.

Unforgiving combat and explosive encounters have you blast rogue robots, giant machines and even mutants. Make sure to adapt your fighting style to each opponent, stay wary of your environment and upgrade your equipment to make your way through artificial madness. With three difficulty levels to choose from, you can choose just how atomic you want the experience to be—whether you are a hardcore player looking for ever more challenging action, or an adventurer eager to explore eerie environments and get sucked into an engrossing narrative in a Story Mode-type experience.

Atomic Heart releases on February 21 for PC, PS4, PS5 and the Xbox family of devices.

Stay tuned for more on the game closer to release.