So you managed to get comrade Major to the end of Atomic Heart and escape the perils of mutant tech and literal mutants. As the polymer dust settles after a cerebral experience, you would not be alone in thinking that many questions begin to rise quicker than the angry robots that have spent roughly thirteen hours trying to kill you.

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First-time developers Mundfish set ambitions high with Atomic Heart, a love email to fantastical RPGs such as Bioshock and Fallout 3. The narrative and the enveloping world can be quite hard to grasp due to a lot of information thrown at the player at different times. When the ending does arrive, here are some lingering questions that will keep you pondering.

10 What Exactly Is Limbo?

Exploring limbo in Atomic Heart. Looking at a pyjama-wearing NPC. Explosion in the background

One of the most bizarre elements of Atomic Heart is when P-3 slips into a place called Limbo. It only happens a couple of times during the narrative, but when it does, you’ll have to navigate an overtly strange world devoid of interactions and sense.

The first time this happens, you have a chance to collect apples, which by itself is odd until you scan your surroundings and realize you’re in some kind of candy land, complete with NPCs dressed in pajamas. All frozen in time. Oh, and you’re now playing as a furry white creature. These sequences are totally left-field and will blindside the gameplay – leaving a huge question mark when the game ends.

9 How Did P-3 Come Into Possession Of Charles?

Charles (the glove) communicating with P-3 during the intro boat ride

You begin Atomic Heart in the shoes of a protagonist already acclimated to the world. You immediately strike up a conversation with your glove, named Char-LES (or Charles), which also serves as an extra means to fight your foes. But how exactly did P-3 get this glove?

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The game hints at how the Major acquired the glove, but a lot of the glove's history and tech is shrouded in mystery. After the double cross between P-3 and Charles, the polymer memory of Charles slides away from the glove, leaving a gap for another polymer-based memory to take its place.

8 Who Or What Is The Jellyman?

The Jellyman in Atomic Heart

Jovial name aside, the Jellyman is an allusive entity in Atomic Heart. Dangerous and mysterious in equal volumes, the first time you see it is in a lengthy cutscene where it emerges from a bathtub to dissolve the corpse of Yegor Molotov – causing the Jellyman to instantly become the spotlight of intrigue.

Why exactly does it emerge from the Twins and use a bathtub to dissolve organic life? Sprinkled dialogue mid-game reveres the Jellyman as a dangerous, insta-kill weapon, but its backstory remains largely shrouded in mystery. And Charles, essentially becoming the Jellyman at the end, leaves more questions than answers.

7 How Did Petrov Fake His Death?

Petrov looking worried during a cutscene in Atomic Heart

One of the game's objectives is to track down Viktor Petrov, the engineer who supposedly programmed the robots to attack people. This mission leads P-3 to discover the decapitated body of Petrov, but it turns out it was a fake-out. The question is: how?

The game spends an admirable amount of time explaining all its weird and surreal tech and lore. It's pretty quickly brushed over that Petrov is alive, but how did he do it exactly?

6 Why Is Nora A Sexualized Vending Machine?

Nora overlooking the land in Atomic Heart

You can’t mention Atomic Heart without addressing the red, metallic elephant in the room. In order to upgrade your gear, you have to talk to NORA. A vending machine that seems to illicit sexual gratification from you “using” it. It’s as crude as it sounds, but why exactly is this robot like this?

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Every other machine seems hellbent on ending P-3’s life, yet NORA, although initially hostile, has been programmed to be smut incarnate. Weirder still is the fact NORA isn’t always filthy, opting to speak quite normally the majority of the time you interact. An edgy design choice or a lustrous backstory that needs more explaining. You decide.

5 What’s The Deal With The Tendrils?

Metallic tendrils suspending corpses in the air

One of the most common images you’ll witness during your journey is the many bodies suspended in different positions by metallic, firm tendrils. Speculations across the web indicate that these belong to NORA, but it never overtly gets addressed.

In fact, the tendrils are never really critiqued by any character in the game. Certain areas will present more abundant grotesque imagery of hapless victims entwined in tendrils. They are everywhere, so their fruitful inclusion, coupled with an absence of a defining reason, is puzzling.

4 Did Larisa Really Die?

Larisa talking with P-3 in Atomic Heart

Larisa Filatova is one of only a couple of characters who help P-3 navigate the killer robot-infested world. During a dialogue exchange, it's discovered that the blackouts P-3 experiences (when you’re tossed into Limbo) disguise the fact he’s in a violent rage. Unfortunately, this happens when the pair are in an elevator, but what exactly transpired?

Next thing you know, you’re in the company of Granny Zina, who explains how you killed Larisa. Yet, it's never truly confirmed. When it happens the first time, we see the body of comrade Molotov, yet Larisa’s so-called death is just explained off-screen. Unless the body is seen, speculation can certainly run a muck.

3 Why Does Swimming In Polymer Cause You To Hear Voices?

About to swim through polymer in Atomic Heart

You can swim in Atomic Heart, not in the water, but in polymer, which is essentially liquid hard drive storage. When you do this to often reach higher areas, P-3 experiences a mismatch of voices out of nowhere, spouting a lot of random stuff. And no one in-game seems to bring it up.

Are you swimming through the residual energy of memories that have come in contact with the polymer? Or is this somehow tied to P-3's alterations? Either way, it's a jarring experience and definitely no less confusing.

2 What Were The True Ramifications Of Atomic Heart?

P-3 wounded on the ground in Atomic Heart

The narrative in Atomic Heart is far beyond cut and dry. The title is named after the scheme Sechenov wanted to enact, which was seemingly to destroy the West using robots with hidden combat modes. Despite which ending you choose, from a possible two, the Atomic Heart plan is left open-ended in its execution.

Bizarrely enough, Mundfish decided to make the quick, “jokey” ending seem morally righteous over the substantial ending where Charles double-crosses everyone. The faster ending leaves Sechenov’s handling ambiguous, and the longer, “true” ending is equally ambiguous to the malevolent plans of (Charles) Zakharov. Either way, it's clear these endings serve as sequel fodder rather than an explanation.

1 Where Did P-3 Get The Phrase “Crispy Critters” From?

P-3 looking confused in Atomic Heart

Most protagonists are defined by their memorable one-liners. Duke Nukem had a whole lexicon whilst TimeSplitters Future Perfect parodied the idea of one-liners with Cortez’s “it’s time to split.” So in Atomic Heart, P-3’s niche addition to the one-liner gang is “Crispy Critters.” Huh?

Theirs so much to unpack here. Firstly, it's not particularly easy to say, nor is it bright or witty in any sense of the imagination. Why does P-3 say this? What’s the backstory here? Why? How? Why? Crumbling Concrete!

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