I recently played Atomic Heart and i will now be writing a review and my thoughts on just the base game right now. This is the idea that if i played it say the first week of release and not knowing when the dlc would have came out.
Overall i give the game a like a solid B score or a 8.0 out of 10. I'll start with a summary, then what i enjoyed and what i didnt like then overall thoughts.
****Spoilers for Atomic Heart below*****
You are playing as Comrade Major Sergey Naechev aka as P-3 along with his little glove companion known as CHAR-LES (HRAZ in the Russian dub). You start off with the only thing you know about yourself is you are a soldier and we are in the USSR. I believe we are still in the 1950's but i dont remember being told any time stamp in the beginning. This is an alternative time line where the USSR became more advanced technologically in comparison to the West. They were able to fight off a deadly plague that destroyed a large chunk of the population in Europe through this thing known as like polymer. This polymer was then adapted for the everyday people to use. There are also robots that have been created to alleviate the work of the everyday man from nurses, to drillers, to receptionist.
In the beginning we start off in a floating city thats in celebration due to the launch of the Kollectiv2.0 from Dr. Sechenov. This is your boss and head scientist of this project. This launch needs to be successful and without any problems but I believe you are tasked with checking out what is going on at the surface due to a facility not answering. You go down and see that the robots are attacking people and are then tasked with finding the reason why they are attacking. Along the way we meet Granny Zina who we find out was a soldier at some point. We end up finding out that the robots were switched onto combat mode by some guy named Viktor Petrov and we are then tasked with bringing him in but we ruin his relationship with a neuroscientist named Larissa and he ends up bugging out and he kills himself. Along the way though HRAZ asks you questions particularly of your blind loyalty to the Dr. and Petrov asks you questions on what you do and dont know about the entire plan for the Kollectiv2.0 and Dr. Sechenov's involvement.
Petrov was at some point an engineer or programmer for the robots prior to switching the combat mode on. At some point Petrov asks "do you really think i can create a script for each of the robots in such a short amount of time and then implement it? Also why these robots who are tasked with alleviating the jobs of the mass be equipped with combat weapons and combat mode?". At the same time though through audiologs it is revealed that he is a narcissist so like is he truthful?
The man dies and then we are contacted by Larissa, the ex girlfriend, where she shows us what is likely going to happen when it comes to the implementation of the Kollectiv2.0. With it people end up losing their minds and remain in this state of "Limbo" as they are connected. You were at some point part of the experiment and experience episodes of falling into limbo and you find out you almost died in a terrorist attack in belarus, but was brought back but forced to lose your memories. You also had a wife, who is the Granny Zinna daughter, who was also involved in the attack and basically could not be saved but her skill set was used for some robots. You also find out the glove is also another Dr. who worked with Dr. Sechenov at some point but ended up as a glove. From there you can choose to fight the Dr. and question him or you can back out. I think we are meant to fight the Dr.
You fight the Dr's guards, and win and find out that the glove was also sort of lying to you and really wanted Dr. Sechenov gone so that he could begin his goal of "the next step of evolution"... honestly dont really know what that means but sure..
then the game ends there. I mean it gives a little cards explaining what happened right after but nothing conclusive other than Hraz escaped.
Overall the base game took about maybe like 25 hours if your good. its not a long game for sure. The games atmostphere, lore, art design/ direction, backgrounds, and setting looked and felt amazing. Each robot was unique with it own purpose in real life and its own style. Having the setting be in Russia was also unique and yet fun. Its futuristic but does not fall into that techno-orientalism that many futuristic games fall into. The posters and signs around looked very well done. The russian dub ( i dont understand the language) was also really good. The atmosphere was very not horror but more like suspenseful. I remember saying in the beginning when we are in the sky it felts like bioshock infinite and then again when we go into the first facility that it felt like bioshock. Speaking of, there are alot of references to bioshock within the game. the atmosphere, the under water city they built (2 by the way with one being off the coast of iceland) by an andrey ryanovsky, the gun on the right and glove power on the left, the way you reach the underground facility by a lighthouse. many references. The combat was fun and each weapon/glove load out had its pros and cons. Since you were limited on space or ammo you had to choose what to prioritize to use in battle but depending on where you saved you can try different combinations. The characters you meet are well done too, each with their different motivations and purposes to the story overall. You can read their day to day life in the chirpers (?)/ emails they send to one another and you get to put faces to a name since they give the employees names. The overarching story felt like there as thought and love put into making sure everything was communicated correctly without too much room for confusion. The use of the polymer was cute from both the thing that lets you upgrade your powers, to a kind of substance to put on enemies and a little way to jump from one floor to the next. The puzzles from the locks on the doors were in my opinion super fun along with the puzzles in some of the polygon/testing grounds. Really nice way to just slow down for a sec and not fight too much. Some songs from the soundtrack were also really good. I was like jumping around and i'd be like pause... this song kinda good. I dont know the names though. The levels/ locations were big facilities too but at no point were you like confused on the layout of the location. Like it could all be explored in this certain building/ polygon.
Now to my cons on the game. While the testing grounds were fun and you get upgrades for the weapons there after a certain point i found it kind of useless to continue with them since i had the upgrades i wanted/ my weapon was strong enough for me. Also i hated exploring the outside world. I had no incentive to explore anywhere cuz all i was getting was a bunch of robots coming after me and wasting my ammo, time and patience and there was not much of a reward. Maybe there was a terminal/ chirper in these places but it wasnt worth it imo to really search. Robot ass :\ idc if that was my wife. While i did not explore the outer world for long it felt small. The lack of living characters you can interact with was something that made it kind of lonely. I know stories dont have to have a ton of people to interact with but we got dr sechenov, larissa, viktor, the glove and the granny. I felt like at some point i should have been able to interact with another robot, another person who was hiding or something i dont know but it felt empty. Maybe more side missions would have helped. Kind of like how fallout 3 feels as you walk around the capital wasteland. i think there was like 1-2 side missions i encountered (outside of the polygons) and they were with a dead person with a thought machine. did not like how it feels like we are on a cliff hanger. I also disliked the english dub im sorry. i dont know what direction they gave them but why is hraz british?? make then have a russian accent at least. while it is a somewaht customizale character load out once i had my load out ready there was really no reason to change it up. Some of the powers felt useless like telekenesis, idk maybe some should have been given to you one or two for parts of the storyto interact with the environment like how we do with SHOK. Or maybe even limit the amount of them that we had. Some were useless to me and my game play. If we are taking inspiration from bioshock i would like to slide on a rail more often like in bioshock infinite. thats my opinion tho. Some battles they would add a song to background and that shit was so loud but thats an easy fix. The other thing was the small font when there was a voice over during an exhibit in the museum. it was so small even for the art book. I did not like P-3's hair... it really was not the best. The pchela's fixing the cameras.... so annoying. it makes sense lore wise i know but i hate them. i want to explore and not have to kill the same robot i just killed cuz they get respawned and my gun dont have alot of ammo.
Overall i think the game is pretty good. definetly pick it up when you get a chance (maybenot full price). I know there is DLC and a sequel coming out but who knows when. Based on some of the DLC i played they have improved on a lot of these aspects that i have been critical of so i know that the rest of the dlc will be good as well as the sequel. I have hope it will be great. I will continue at somepoint with the DLC review.
Oh my god I want to rant a bit on Castillo's character cuz some ppl's reviews of the game say his actions don’t make sense but the thing is they do for the most part?… am I saying he’s a perfectly written character no but I think they’re developers worked hard to make Castillo a fully fleshed out villain with motivations, history and a strong ideology. I will not accept slander on that part of the game. Its gonna be long and a mesh of thoughts so... sorry
Anyway my thoughts on Castilo
No cuz let me speak ( sorry for grammar and spelling mistakes)
We are in Yara, a Cuba inspired island in the Caribbean. In this island we have had Spanish colonization and so we have mixtures of Taino (actually mentioned), Spanish and black ancestry. Everyone speak Spanish. From what we know Gabriel Castillo ( Anton's father) came into power prior to 1967 and he was not a good leader. Communists came and kicked him out in 1967 and executed him in front of his son Anton at 13. Typically communists come in and kick out bad leaders why? because they are enslaving people, they're selling peoples land, and/ or they are exploiting a population. They are not killing good leaders for fun is my point. And maybe thats the fault of the game and not wanting to include the big C word because "oohh scary communist revolution".
It's implied through Antons dialogue with Diego that a lot of the things he tells Diego are things his mother told him after the father execution. Along with that he was imprisoned then worked on a tobacco farm for 15 years post fathers death. The seedlings of his ideology were planted and left to flourish during time. His mom told him "there are lambs and there are lions. Castillos are lions". Watching his fathers execution, the imprisonment, the decline of the economy during the terrible rule of Espinosa and how he basically sold out the country after US sanctions will further radicalize someone in their belief if they think they are right. Eventually he gets elected. I think in the beginning or in a note or the wiki page, Castillo won the election against Clara by 52% with Clara's supporters being killed.
this is my opinion but I personally think the island voted for it more as a reaction to Espinosa's 'communist' rule. Kinda like what we see in the US where people are "forgetful" every 4 years. The economy is trash, we have this candidate from a previous presidency where the economy wasn't so bad and he's promising to help us all get out this with some crazy drug. Yeah people will maybe vote for that and Espada said she voted for him because she thought he would fix things.
Like with the distinction between lambs and lions, the idea of a true yaran and a fake yaran is something that grew out of this radicalization. He wants to see yara flourish and become paradise but in his head he cannot do it with "fake" yarans running around. these are the revolutionaries from '67, the outcasts, the people who are outspoken and critical of his power. He knows these "fake" yarans will never abide by his regime so he cracks down on them and aims to get rid of them, and other them in society to make their killing more "palatable" to the public. He already has this distinction between true and fake, lamb and lion, so it would make sense that in his head these people are disposable. They can be used for labor, and used for human experiments. This ramped up likely when the drug starts becoming ineffective for his leukemia so he wants to find a cure to help him. So yes while wrong it is within character for anton to use people in human experimentation especially when the miracle drug isn't so miracle anymore.
Another comment was him k*lling Clara. that makes sense too. Clara thought he wanted a parley, he ends up capturing her and waiting for Dani. Dani comes, Juan gets trigger happy and tries to k*ll Diego. Dani like Diego and sees him as a victim in Castillo's regime so she saves him. At this point Castillo has lost all three of the regions, his doctor is gone, the vivro isn't working and the revolution is coming to his doorstep any day now. He is basically the cornered animal. What is the point of leverage when he knows he's dying, the country is collapsing around him. He knows Dani put in the work for this revolution, Clara is just politician basically. Thats why he proposes to Dani to take care of Diego and to be a general. But with the b*llet from Juan, it confirmed the suspicion that these people are not to be trusted and should be disposed of. These fake yarans, these revolutionaries. Its one less person to deal with. if g*nfire hadn't started he probably would've tried to kill Dani too with the soldado that came in. So his actions make sense story-wise.
(Started starring to prevent not posting)
In the end Castillo killing Diego while messed up is also within character to me. After his fathers execution, he endured imprisonment and hard labor for 15 years. he knows that there is a possibility of that happening to Diego. While initially not wanting a son , he grew to care about Diego and saw killing him as best option, he's dying anyway either by Dani's hands or the leukemia. If he had more time maybe he would have kept Diego alive, but i think in his mind Diego was a lamb.
He doesn't know Dani has good intentions. He knows that she saved Diego that one time and vice versa but he's wary of what happens after the revolution is done.
Castillo has a strong ideology behind him and Esposito really brings out the cruelty and emotions that come with that strong ideology. So to me Castillos actions make sense storywise given what we know about his life and motivations. While calculating i would say he is not as calculating as say like Odin from god of war or fontaine from bioshock. He has an army and that strong ideology that makes people come to him to get close to that power he holds over the country. Is he perfectly written no the overall gist is still there and I think if they go 'woker 'we will get something amazing. Again the regional villains of the story aren't the strongest and that might be to their detriment but it also shows that to Castillo these people are disposable, they mean nothing to him. It's more of an inconvenience that they die.
There are lambs and there are lions, Castillos are lions. Obviously we dont condone any of the actions. Enslavement? Human Experimentation? I will say him refusing the Americans was kinda nice
"Tears"
A bit symbolic Far Cry 6 fan art with Diego and a white lion, reflecting the bleeding Yara. I'm not sure if there is a heavy meaning here, but there is definitely symbolism. I think those who played FC6 or are at least familiar with the plot understand what I mean and feel ??
The idea of listening to no black music is bizarre to me. Even if it's not rap like no earth wind and fire? No reggae? No moonstomp? No ska? No classic jazz? No R and B? No disco??? No skindred? No jungle? No even like metal bands with a few black members? No gospel? Not even stuff like alors en dance? No blues music? No mo town? No jazz of any kind? No big band? No soul music? Not even a little James Brown?
SO much of modern popular music is based on the groundwork built by black culture but they’re too racist to admit that the music they love is not nearly as white as they want it to be
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