Hey guys, this video may contain MINOR visual spoilers. Nothing major, but keep that in mind!

So let me get this straight. I’m in 1950s Russia. I’m seeing robots. I’m talking to a freakin’ glove. And I can move stuff with my mind.

The game is riddled with easter eggs that only people knowing Soviet culture will understand. For example, devs put entire Soviet classic animated series of short comedy films called "Nu pogodi" ("Just you wait"). Fans of classic Tom and Jerry should really enjoy this. Hope Western audience will check this out via in game tv lol

Atomic Heart's scores may be mixed but considering this is Mundfish first marketable game, I’m really excited to see what they can do in the future.

I was playing this game in Russian but with English subtitles and I actually loved how they managed to deliver some cultural names and phrases translationwise. But still.. there are thousands of references only Russian speakers 30+ yo will understand.

The opening reminds me of Bioshock Infinite in terms of structure and artstyle which i really like. I love when games take the Half Life approach and take some time off to show you this gorgeous and well designed world the devs have so meticulously created instead of thrusting you into combat right off the bat.

“It would be difficult to concentrate on a game and read subtitles” Russian GTA players: “oh, seriously?”

Back in the day (2000-2012), we were grateful to get these quasi AA-AAA games that scored somewhere in the 6.5 to 7.5 range out of 10, because they often provided enough new experiences to overlook their obvious shortcomings.

the boss fight against the robot twins is the hardest one in the game, you can only play with one hand

That looting mechanic needs to be in more games

Bizarre and videogames are pretty much like peanut butter and jelly.

My experience playing this game really gives off late 2000s/ early 2010s vibes and it's really what I needed, feels weird to be forced into cut scenes and QTEs' again

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="967">16:07</a> There is an in-game explanation by the glove when Major asks about why he can't just zap the water wondering if all of the water in the area is distilled. If i remember correctly his explanation is that the electricity is sealed off in the polymer particles that are being shot from the glove so it doesn't react with the water. Something along those lines

If there's a pet peeve I have about modern first person games, it's protagonists constantly narrating my own feelings and intentions to me while I'm looking through their eyes and controlling them. I know I'm kicking robot butt, I'm the one doing it, you don't have to say "wew this is some robot butt kicking" over and over.

Im worried this never shutting up thing is going to be a long lasting trend its awful

If you read the tips on the loading menu they talk about a a physicist in hazard suit being very effective which I’m assuming they’re throwing a nod at Gordon freemen from half-life which is dope

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="446">7:26</a> you missed the part where the traitorous hacker used an override to give every bot a combat personality. There was no combat personality for Nora type of bots, so he altered a pleasurebot one and injected into her. Later in the story the change gets reversed. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="590">9:50</a> She literally tells you her name is "Zinaida", and tells you to call her "Grandma Zina" instead.

Damn, this is like Singularity meets Bulletstorm and Bioshock

It wins my heart just by its artistic craziness, as long as the game is decent to play, the visual shit alone makes it worth.

I think gameplay wise it's 8/10 but aesthetic wise it's 20/10. Such a unique game with such a unique artstyle and future techno Soviet union. I absolutely love all the details in the game like the communist decors, propaganda and all that. The developers really knew what they were doing and the aesthetic they were going for.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the most realistic arm hair ever in a videogame

"...it's not a bad game." That's all I was looking to hear. Thank you.

Never expected Gman to be a classic who fan

Being from post-soviet block I can tell you this game looks 100% how I would imagine Fallout 3 as created on the other side of the Iron Curtain by some Ivan Karmacki, Ivan Romerov or some such (music by Nikita Reznov, of course). None of the cars or locations in Fallout 3 look familiar to me, but these props and locations... are like items I remember from childhood. :)

I'd hazard a guess that the lack of enviromental interactivity is a result of developers running out of time and having to release the game. It sure smells like it. On the plus side I guess I'd be happy that they prioritized other aspects like getting the game to run stable while also making it look good. A lot of developers have rather crappy priorities by comparison.

happily surprised to see Mick Gordon's talents in another game.

Lol Gman, during that first boss you can use your abilities to raise obstacles out of the ground to make it stop and reveal it's weak spot.

The game definitely seems ambitious (maybe too ambitious), but considering the development hell and the fact this is apparently the studio's first ever game, this definitely seems better than what you'd expect. Definitely have seen more experienced studios with more manpower and money do way worse in recent years. Also, it being on game pass probably helps.

Pretty cool that they got "Nu, Pogodi!" footage to use on the television at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1178">19:38</a>. I saw a few of its episodes for the first time a couple of months ago in a barbershop, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was to watch for someone unfamiliar with both the language and show itself. Atomic Heart has one hell of a premise. If there's anything to be said about it, it's that it's nice to see such a strange, outlandish take on a traditional formula. Something familiar, but in a league all its own. Thanks for the great video on it!

Honestly, I liked the constant dialogue, really helped me get into the story. Loved the game

For the first game of mundfish, they may have a bright future

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="647">10:47</a> I like how when he's escaping a burning car that's about to explode, he takes extra time to close the door.

One of the rare cases where knowing russian language comes in handy. Dialogue makes more sense in russian since it was the original language, less weirdly structured sentences / weird phrasing, plus MC sounds like he's supposed to instead of the most american guy ever

Fun fact, in russian Charles is voiced by the same guy, who voiced Roy Batty in Blade Runner's russian dubbing.

Would love to see what modders can do to this game in the coming years.

I was super skeptical about this game because of the reviews but it’s so fun and I feel like if they made a second one where they fixed those flaws it has it would be an instant classic

Bizarre/weird games are better than repeating/common gameplay. Always makes it interesting 👍

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="130">2:10</a> Bruv that's a Fahrenheit 451 reference that every science fiction dystopia-based stealth sim has referenced. System Shock was just one of the earliest examples of doing that reference.

Gotta give em credit for letting me fight the omnidroids somewhere in the Soviet Union, without being Mr Incredible, and without being that unreasonably difficult Incredibles video game back in 2004

Regarding the Shield being useless: If you upgrade all the way to the right, it regens health. It will also regen energy. I beat most of the bosses after the one outside the theater with the Shield and my club and the EMP blast from the energy pistol. If you needed to heal you could always put polymer on the floor, electrify it and stand in it with the shield. I barely used ammo and had a lot of med kits left.

The boss fights were actually really thrilling, I loved them.

I remember seeing concept videos for this game at least five years ago and was immediately hooked. I hope that they still have kept the semblance of survival horror they had in those old videos, that kind of Bioshock-esqe tone would work wonders.

I've been dreaming of this game since it's reveal over 5 years ago just from the concept alone. Glad to see it's good and I'll be playing it tonight on gamepass.

What immediately struck me about this game was the graphics on Series X, and the damage effects. Every axe slice or gunshot leaves a realistic wound. And grabbing components from bodies shows the hole you ripped it from. Aside from the glaring lack of environmental destruction, it all seems a very high quality experience with decent attention to detail. And detail to me is a huge factor in my overall enjoyment of a game.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1390">23:10</a> and this is where the polymer ability comes in. If you hit the big enemies with that before freezing them, it actually works. Using that, you can win every boss fight by standing next to it (or running around it in a circle), pressing q and e and hitting it with your melee weapon. That is how I beat the natasha boss :D

That “I mean look!” Towards the end of the video, Gman hit a note I’ve never heard in any of his other vids.

Them robussys got me acting wrongheaded

Okay, 5 minutes in and I already know that I need to play this myself, for the gorgeous artstyle alone!

I love to see the Strugatsy Brothers being referenced in gaming. The Chirper: Monday Starts on Sunday is a reference the book with the same name. The whole game has taken much inspiration from some of the best authors eastern Europe has to offer.

Omg the whole Marvel esc Dialogue,Banter and writing in this game and forspoken really REALLY makes me appreciate games with a silent protagonist or protagonist and characters know when to fricking shut up for once. This just only makes me miss BT and Cooper from Titanfall 2 of all the underrated games,Their Dynamic is one of my favorite.

If the game had environmental fx they could have tied that into the boss fights. Like you zap some water as the rolling boss goes into it which stuns him, or throw explosive barrels at the weak to explosives boss for those that don't have the rocket launcher.

I have to disagree on the shield being useless. After some upgrades, it's really overpowered. It's basically rechargable temporary invulnerability that deflects attacks back to sender and also heals you.

I actually love the pacing, on hard it feels intense and dangerous in all the right ways to me. Plus there are spots where repair bots are seemingly infinite and they drop polymer to upgrade your character and abilites so sometimes when I really want an upgrade I just chill and murder repair bots for 20 minutes.

Wait... we didn't get cyberpunked? WE DIDN'T GET CYBERPUNKED!!! HOLY FUCK, WE MADE IT!

Hahaha I legit spat out my drink at the bit where he was casually talking politics while getting choked out.

Nice review! The looting mechanic in this game is by far my favorite over any game I've played, not only is it aesthetically satisfying but it's also not tedious. Looking through every nooks and cranny is my favorite pass time. The interesting part is that you can tell the main character is being control by something implanted in his head that altered his personality. You'll notice it at the beginning when a vendor asked you to try one of his free head band. I've also notice when they're riding the flying car, Charles was surprised P-3 never ride one before. At granny Xena hut, he mentioned about his head injury and losing some of his memory. Spoiler Speaking of Granny Xena, the reason why she keep asking for the gold ring earlier was because she want to free her daughter Katya (the robot twins) and she didn't trust P-3. I wish she did by telling the whole truth. This prevent Charles from convincing P-3 to throw away the rings into the ocean. *Update How did granny Xena knew P-3 location and how did she able to drag his body to her place after Sechenov took control of P-3 to killed Tarissa? Anyway I'm interested to find out why Viktor Petrov sabotaged the robots to make them killed his own people? P-3 and Petrov could be good friends if they had a chance to talk. The game simply won't allow it beside turning them into rivals. P-3 shouldn't raise his gun, but talk to Petrov like a regular person. Tarissa was only there to stop Petrov from killing P-3 as he's being strapped to a bed. She didn't even try to save P-3. Walking away won't bring back all the dead. What she should have done sit down with Petrov and explain everything to P-3, starting with the mind control, the rings and the magical glove name Chariton because now I realize Petrov wanted the US to know that the Russian are creating sophisticated killer robots that disguised as janitors and chubby bartenders. When Petrov fake his own death to stop P-3 from going after him, this prove he's really smart. The most intriguing and underrated feature is the talking glove call Charles. A true genius! I wonder why only the main character has it. Update. As I'm getting deeper into the game, I've learned that the glove is the bad guy and it was giving to P-3 by his boss (Dmitry Sechenov). I haven't beaten the game yet. I'm still at the quest call Made in USSR, but found a spoiler that answered some of my questions regarding the P-3 memory lost. It turn out the robot twins, one of them is P-3 wife. They're being used as sex slaves for his boss and other Fembots for the Russian Elite. Knowing one of the robot twins is P-3 wife, I always hoping to see one of them slowing turn their head to look at you lol. As for the horny fridge, it was Charles the glove who able to tamed/hacked her, why was she attracted to P-3? I like to see a Nora make over. When she open her truck. It should be slimy and pink. Note 2 self. The red blob scene is a tribute to Breaking Bad when Jesse fills the bathtub with acids to dissolved a dead body. Sechenov calling it "Data Storage" could also mean Unit 731 where scientists tag their victims as logs. Unit 731: The Forgotten Asian Auschwitz Under the leadership of Dr. Shiro Isshi, Unit 731 subjected 3,000-250,000 innocent men, women, and children to cruel experiments and medical procedures that were carried out by the brightest medical students and staff that Imperial Japan had to offer. A little about my playstyle and build. I'm old fashion and invested all the points into health and elemental/physical resist. For damage I maxed my electro pistol and swirling axe. I like to imagine I'm playing the Barbarian from Diablo 2, using whirlwind to vanquished my foes. Quick draw against flying units with my Electro. This game is part RPG, part shooting and part puzzle. For RPG I always looks for large horde of robots to farm. The only thing I don't like is lack of robot to kill. Atomic heart is my Half Life 3. Currently playing the dev build without any navigation marker. Future suggestions. - We should able to pick item to tame certain enemy, like a toy for the Plyusch. - Hack enemy to make them fight for you. Pet master - Have more choices for an alternative ending like making friend with Petrov.

The moment @<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="347">5:47</a> about the cookie is genuinely one of my favorite lines in the game. P3's randomness and Char-les lack of a reaction fits their characters very well.

"controversy surrounding this game" had to Google what it even was. Damn I feel like every game nowadays has some controversies I wish we all just could go back to the time where we could enjoy a game just for what it is instead of trying to push our ideologies into the games

Noticed "Ну, погоди" (Just Your Wait) animated series references. At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="615">10:15</a> you can see Robo-hare from episode 14. It was so fucking scaring in childhood and still is. At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1190">19:50</a> ep. 7 can be seen on TV. Bad writing is unfortunately not a reference, but a common problem with contemporary Russian cinematography, both for entertainers and dramas (historical etc.)

Between this and High on Life I think this might be your new favorite type of shooter, the ones where they never shut up

Just makes me think that games given time to be fully developed will actually look and sound amazing

Gman: Atomic Heart is the most BIZZARE game I've ever played. TOGETHER BnB: Finally! A worthy opponent!

At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1178">19:38</a> - there is a TV with 'nu pogodi!' playing in the background, I love that little detail, it takes me back when I used to watch them all the time as kid

Clipping your own voice in the same video the clip originated from. Ten seconds after. That's how you know you're still having fun after all these years. I always love a Gman review !!

So basically singularity + .75 bulletstorm? I'll get it for the summer sale. Looks like a solid 8/10

I never thought I'd say this but those female robots looks damn sexy...

I'd be interested in a follow-up video later in the year to see if the issues got fixed and what changes were made

There’s something about a game that can deliver a sense of “presence” within the world where it’s almost the game’s setting is a character in and of itself. This game looked so unique from the first trailer drop that I’ve been dying to finally experience for it myself.

Wait… Did I miss the part where he tells us if the story is any good?!?

"In Soviet Russia, Bio Shocks you!"

Great review but i have a couple corrections here and there. Like at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1591">26:31</a>. There are a couple upgrades in the character section that lets you run faster and do a double dash. Both of which makes parkour easier. And personally i never really had any problem with breezing through the door locks and the laser puzzles.

@GmanLives There is a way to shut down those robots and cameras in some zones. There is one tower that can control cameras on the specific zone. Scroll one of them until you find a control room using your X-Ray and open the door. When you get in there, the little spider thingy comes out from his arm that gives you two options and one of them can disable all machines in one area.

Great review Gman. Well, played AH for 4 hours so far. It's clear the developers put heart and soul into it. Yes, some minor issues exist but overall amazing experience for me. Certainly recommend it.

Can't wait to see what it's like. I haven't seen too much of the game.

For the hedge hog- you can electro/interact with the pillars all over the arena to raise a statue that you can lure the bit towards in order to have it deal damage to itself and show the weak spot faster

They got you Gman, there’s a dialogue between P3 and Charles going over why Shok doesn’t work on water

Now every f-ing game has a stupid controversy

I just got done playing this game yesterday and I’m really glad to see a lot of the gameplay issues presented here have been ironed out. The biggest thing I faced was skipped dialogue options from moving on with no way of getting them back.

not mentioned in the video ,some melee's have insanely strong special attacks , like the the buzz saw melee on the front of the box can do the upper cut OR fly around and rip enemies to shreds that arnt even on screen , its nuts. my combat loop was pretty much smacking things for energy and using it almost exclusively which goes back into Gmans statement about getting comfortable in your playstyle and not really needing to shift out.

Thanks for the really thorough review! Loved it. I’m gonna give this game a shot.

Honestly this looks fire I wanna play it

Hoo boy! I was really excited for this one. It clearly takes inspiration from the earlier side of the Strugatsky works like Monday Starts On Saturday and Noon: 22nd Century. As mentioned in the video, they're not exactly subtle about their references either. at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="340">5:40</a> you can see a reference where it references the book Monday starts on Saturday, but replacing saturday with sunday.

The polymer is best used on the ground in combination with shok, you can stunlock most enemies with electricity and then keep wailing on them. Lasts longer than the other ways you can lock enemies down, and you can even just spray it on the ground again as it starts wearing off to keep them stunlocked indefinitely.

For a studios first game, especially given the context around developing through the pandemic and having to shuffle things around completely to avoid fallout from the war in Ukraine, I’m not really surprised that this game has flaws and is lacking in certain areas. That being said, I think the scorn comparison is perfect with this one. Much like Scorn, I never expected this to be a 10/10 but AH is obviously a work of passion and I’m going to support it for its creativity and originality, and the fact that the game was released in a complete playable state at launch, since we need more of that in the gaming industry especially for higher profile releases.

Was literally in the process of reading a post about the game and I swear I just thought “I’ll wait for Gman’s review” then this notification popped up. You can’t beat that timing

The electro pistol is actually a good fall back weapon and you get an upgrade that gives an emp blast to stun robots. The last melee weapon has a cool flying saw blades ability which is pretty at damaging bosses. I also kind of compare atomic heart to doom 2016 where the gameplay and enemies gets pretty intense. I stream this game with often these using those weapon at tight situations.

I'm having a lot of fun with this and I think the comparisons to Bioshock just remind me how crazy good that game was for its time rather than how lackluster this one is. It's a really fun game and it runs well. There are also a ton of great customization options on the guns and powers.

To be fair, I see a lot of Arkane Studio's Prey influence the artstyle. Where Prey had a more of a cassette-futurism, this has a raygun gothic feel to it. But that is what I feel like.

People who understand Russian are probably having a better time than other people

Finished this a week ago and started the original bioshock after never playing it. What are the odds I watched your bioshock video yesterday and see this today!

Every time I see this games's review, players always use different combat style. While gman used ice, I used polymer+shock combination to stunlock and damage enemies. Shock will stay inside polymer if you add more of it while it lasts. I also upgraded telekinesis to raise heavy enemies which came in handy during the hedgehog fight as telekinesis stops her vacuum.

Thank you for doing your review but you seem to have missed one thing. What about the 6 hour long adult scene with the twin ballerina robots? 🤣 Seriousness I'm really happy that you replayed BioShock recently before playing AH. You're probably one of the few reviewers that can actually played through Bio Shock in the last 10 years so you could do a good side by side comparison :D

Come on, the whole Soviet art style, especially futuristic poster and stuff are so vibe

I love how all the bioshock/systemshock like games always gotta throw in that 0451 reference

i am so glad that youtube has subtitles for your voice

I'm glad you worded it the way you did because I still remember when it was a mystery horror game and was looking forward to that. But if you like the direction the game went then I guess it is good.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="601">10:01</a> it's actually really common to refer to old ladies as "babushka(s)" in eastern europe which translates to "grannies"

This game is just one of the most wild rides I've had in awhile.

Ok, the one handed pump at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1050">17:30</a> was amazing.

That thing you said about weird dialogue, and that scene about lasers, lemme explain real quick: we Slavs like to be ironic/cynic a lot. :D