Atomic Heart

Atomic Heart is a Russian AAA game from Mundfish (a studio with offices in Nicosia, Abu Dhabi and Yerevan), a shooter-RPG set in an alternative USSR of 1955. In this world, where the Soviet Union pulled ahead technologically thanks to the inventions of the designer Dmitry Sechenov, iron-shaped cleaning robots, robot ballerinas and android waitresses walk around the Chelomey facility near Moscow. In terms of gameplay, it is closest to Bioshock and Prey 2017, but with its own aesthetic.

When Facility 3826, a closed scientific complex in the Kazakh SSR, goes out of control, Major Sergei "P-3" Nechaev is sent to sort it out. His voice, the glitches from combat stimulants and the dialogues with Chelomey and Sechenov carry the narrative through the whole campaign. The single-player campaign takes 25-30 hours.

The gameplay loop is built around the KHRAZ polymer glove, which gives telekinesis, freezing, shock and a shield: combining these abilities forms the core of the combat system in the spirit of an immersive sim (a deep simulation of interaction with the world). Weapons, including the Zhokh-U4 axe, a shotgun, a railgun and others, are upgraded at workbenches, and progress is based on collecting Neuropolymer. Level structure: closed complexes (VDNKh, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Vavilov laboratory) alternate with an open world above the Facility.

Memorable scenes: waking up with the Twins (robot ballerinas whose consciousness is a copy of Sechenov's daughter) by a red polymer bath to a remix of "Zvezdnoye Leto"; a fight with the same Twins in the Bolshoi Theatre to Swan Lake; Granny Zina, a grandmother on the roof of the design bureau among beehives, a comic contrast with the dystopia around her. The soundtrack is by Mick Gordon (DOOM 2016, DOOM Eternal): the Soviet synthesizer Aelita plus Pugacheva, Zemlyane, Pesnyary. No other game has sound design like this.

By 2026 four DLCs have been released. The latest, Blood on Crystal (2026-04-16), closes the arc of Nechaev and CHAR-les, but critics (GamingBolt 5/10) note a weak ending: get it if the base game worked for you. Metacritic PC 76/100, Steam Very Positive with 10M+ players: an established classic. The Russian voice acting is not a dub but the original: it was recorded at the same time as the English one, and the lip-sync is matched to Russian. This is the only modern AAA shooter where playing in Russian is the right choice.

Atomic Heart is a Russian AAA game from Mundfish: an alternative USSR of 1955 and a shooter-RPG about a robot uprising at the secret Facility 3826. A polymer glove, the voice of Granny Zina, a soundtrack by Mick Gordon. Full Russian voice acting, native, not a dub.