Atomic Heart launched this week, a sci-fi shooter with a '50s Soviet aesthetic that includes a real Russian cartoon you can watch in the game's break rooms. These are where employees of Facility 3826 would rest during shifts, and also where you can save the game. You can also watch the cartoon, Nu, Pogodi!, a sort of Russian Tom and Jerry, in its entirety. Unfortunately, this includes a racist caricature.
As reported by PlayStation Lifestyle, in the cartoon viewable on the TVs in the break rooms, a wolf chases a hare around a museum in episode 12. Around the 5:50 mark, a statue is shown that heavily resembles a Golliwog, a racist caricature of a Black person with pitch-black skin and wide, red lips.
There are about three and a half hours worth of Nu, Pogodi! in Atomic Heart, and while the statue only appears for one scene, it either means the developer saw it and didn't think it was an issue, or didn't check all the footage before it was put into the game, neither of which is good.
We've included the racist cartoon for reference below
The cartoon's original influence, Tom and Jerry, also contains racist caricatures of Black people. Now, when the cartoons are aired on TV, Warner Bros. places a disclaimer ahead of the show informing viewers that the images have been left in to show that these cartoons are a product of their time. No such disclaimer exists within Atomic Heart, however.
Developer Mundfish is already being given ample suggestions for what needs to be fixed in upcoming patches, such as streamer mode not working as intended, no FOV slider, and no option to change the remarkably small subtitles, something TheGamer noted in its review of Atomic Heart. It may also edit this out - if it even realises it's included it in the first place.
If you've already finished Atomic Heart or don't care about spoilers, you'll be interested to learn the robot ballerinas' haircut reveals a big plot twist right from the start of the game,