Then before I knew it I was looking at my phone.Īt the time, I couldn’t put my finger on why. One minute I was enjoying the views, soaking in the atmosphere, looking for clues in this vast world, listening out for stray conversations and looking to the skies. I could tell something was wrong quite early when the game’s opening minutes lost my attention very suddenly.

The game even manages to boast both a stunning and washed out visual style. From the narrative to the mechanics, the musical score.

It’s a game that tries to do a bunch of different things but is almost always at odds with itself. That, unfortunately, is what we’re looking at here.Ītomic Heart is a mess. It’s a massive moment for Mundfish and Focus Home, especially since Xbox locked it into Game Pass and have been collaborating on the marketing.īut perhaps the only thing more sad than a game never releasing and being lost to time is one that releases after years in development and just falls flat. Now here it is, a game that has beaten the odds, survived and is releasing this week. A product that has been in and out of development hell, that has changed scope many times and at one point had plenty of question marks surrounding any sort of release date. It paints a small picture, but enough for me to wonder how anything ever gets made.Įspecially a game with the size and ambition as an Atomic Heart. I’ve had the briefest glimpses behind the curtain when I’ve talked in interviews or met friends or from what I’ve read online.

The process of putting things together, the collaborative effort across teams to make sure each respective part runs smoothly and then the nerve-wracking release window.

Wtf is atomic heart about