Atomic Heart, despite its divisive reviews, has the potential to be a great game. Though there are a few issues, like any game, it has redeeming qualities, from its detailed animations to its meaty combat. Still, every area of the game could see improvement.
While much of the gameplay is filled with visceral combat and creative puzzles, its inconsistencies and storytelling get rough.
By smoothing the edges of the gameplay and improving writing, Atomic Heart could see a significant all-around boost. While not everything can be fixed, a few stand-out issues being resolved would make the game go from good to great.
7 Less Talking, More Shooting
The writing in Atomic Heart is as painful as a robot's punch. Between problematic dialogue and immature quips, specifically P-3 repeatedly saying "crispy critters," Charles and P-3 become unbearable when on your adventure. Moments of silence from them are few as they tend to over-deliver exposition or unnecessarily comment on the situation.
While rewriting is one thing to do and hard to expect, putting in an update for less talking would benefit walking in P-3's shoes. It would make him less obnoxious, as his quips and incoherent swearing are headache-inducing. Cutting out dialogue would also let you focus better when solving puzzles or navigating the world, as sometimes it takes time to figure out how to get into a room.
6 Getting Out Of Being Boxed In
One of the qualities that make Atomic Heart a memorable experience is its combat. Between the meaty sound effects that give the weapon's weight to the variety of tools that slay robots, fighting feels wonderfully brutal. The enemies dampen this experience.
Robots and creatures give satisfactory enemy variety, but how they can swarm you makes it feel clunky when handling so many things trying to kill you. At some point, you may be cornered by a horde and unable to move. Without a way to get out of being boxed into a corner, especially early on when you are less powerful, it takes away the combat's positives, making it more frustrating than satisfying.
5 Pick Up The Pace
Atomic Heart's trailers showed a bombastic shooter, and in many ways, it has that personality. In many other spots though, the pacing is often sluggish. Whether having to run around for an extensive fetch quest or dealing with slow story beats that bombard you with exposition, you'll feel the pacing drop.
Getting knee-deep in oil and robotic parts takes a lot of time. While the pacing works to ease you into the world, it will soon get tedious. Even when the ball starts rolling, it often slows you down unnecessarily with objectives, like getting a key in the first minutes, only to run back to where you were when it could have cut out the fluff to obtain the key earlier.
4 Grabbing Item Inconsistencies
Charles, your robotic glove companion, has some useful qualities. His most crucial use is sucking up items from enemies and drawers to grab ammo and materials for crafting and upgrading quickly. When it works, it is fluid and joyous. When it doesn't, it is frustrating.
While it is not too common for the mechanic to not work, it has flaws. For one, it only sometimes grabs everything from boxes and drawers, occasionally requiring another go to ensure you got every scrap. It will not automatically pick up collectibles, like the audio logs known as Chirpers. Instead, when you want to pick these up, you must stop holding the pick-up button and press it for the desired item.
3 Scan Highlights That Fail
Scanning in games, particularly the sci-fi genre, is a common thing. Atomic Heart has various colors to signal things, such as enemies (red) and loot (blue). You can see through walls to find items or robots for valuable information. Although this has plenty of value, it has inconsistencies.
Through hours of playing, scanning for items does not always work. Some items cannot be picked up, although they are highlighted in blue when scanned. Lootable containers highlight blue, even though every scrap was taken already. A patch to ensure the information is accurate would go a long way when searching areas with the mechanic.
2 No Sprinting, Only Dashing
P-3 walks at a decent pace, but he could be faster, even if you include the upgrade to make him move quicker. A basic run button would smooth out long fetch quests or searching areas for materials. Instead, what should be a sprint is a dash.
The dash has good uses, like jumping and dashing to get across a gap or dodging incoming attacks. Still, it is not the best way to get around this dystopian city. At the beginning of the game, it is especially annoying as you stroll around tight corridors rather than being able to sprint through hallways and stairs.
1 Eliminate Climbing Restrictions
Climbing in Atomic Heart takes the Far Cry approach that many other games have adopted over the years. A colored piece of the environment (yellow in this case) signals what is climbable. Unfortunately, it does not work as well as others.
Often, climbing in Atomic Heart is more restrictive than necessary. You may grab onto something and see other yellow pieces of metal to grasp, but the game will only let you go down a path, despite it being within arm's reach. The freedom to move in ways that make sense rather than what is programmed would make the mechanic less annoying.