Atomic Heart Gameplay for 14 Minutes

[mshitchcock]

The video is unlisted, but the game seems nice.

This death animation is a horror.

 

[Shagger]

I actually forgot all bout this and was reintroduced to it today. Sadly, at least so far, I wish I hadn't been.


The main character is brutish douche that kind of reminds me of Duke Nukem, but in a bad way. He's without the humour and obvious over the top persona, so it feels like you meant to take him seriously and that just bleeds away all of the charm he would have had if the character had been more of a joke. And yes, that "GI Joe" American accent is a big part of the problem. Maybe there is reason for that the story just hasn't explained yet, like maybe it turns out he's a defector or something like that and whilst that would be a pretty cheap way of tying that together, I would take that, just anything to explain why I'm playing as Sgt Jack Texas-Semper-Fi-Mutha-Fucka (OK, that's not his name, but it may as well be) in an alternate version of the USSR in the 1950's.



That would be tolerable, if the game was fun to control, but it's not. I was using a keyboard and programmable mouse, so OK, it's not fair for me to blame the game entirely before I've tweaked my settings and button mapping, but the methods of selection for the weapons and items and actions withing combat do not feel intuitive at all. Same is true of that dodge function. Now, I'm not really a fan of dodge mechanics in a first person game anyway, it just feels disorientating and I find blocks and parry's way more satisfying in this perspective, but in this game it's made worse by the controls. If feels loose and vague and I have no confidence in it actually working whenever it's time to use it.


Then there's the stealth. Here's how it works, you hit the stealth kill control (which is mapped to the general action button, like for opening doors and talking to NPC's and even that seems weird to me) to then do to a quick time event whare you bash the stealth kill button as fast as possible to execute the stealth kill. Who thought that was a good idea? First, the game gives you just barley enough actually do this anyway, but more importantly it's frantic and blunt control input that doesn't fit the action of stealth at all. Something like the override mechanic from Horizon Zero Dawn whare you hold the button making the challenge about timing the attack right, that would be ok, but that button mashing bullshit should only apply to a "build up of strength" or a super attack whare you're trying to score as many hits as possible in a limited amount of time. The point is, it does not suit a subtle, silent action.



It is too early for me to judge the game yet, I'm only about an hour or two in, but it already feels like a poor man's BioShock infinite.