While Atomic Heart is often compared to Bioshock, as someone who's never played Bioshock, I will share my opinions solely from the perspective of Atomic Heart alone.

Atomic Heart overall is a really enjoyable game, with fluid combat, a fairly good variety of weapons and modifications, and an incredible art style and setting.

When it comes to its pros, the style and setting of the game shine first and foremost. Mundfish's imagining of Soviet science fiction is really well done. I'm really pleased to see more Eastern European developers exploring their own cultural themes through forms like video games, and hope it continues.

Furthermore, the games combat, while a bit difficult, feels overall pretty good. Lastly, there are 4 post-launch DLCs (one of which has since been released) so it comes with a good amount of post-campaign content for people who are wanting more.

When it comes to its drawbacks, first is the lack of exploration. While sections of the game are open world, the constant presence of enemies (that instantly respawn even after you kill them) makes exploration a chore, and I wasn't really able to enjoy exploring the full map until after I had unlocked New Game+

Finally the biggest drawback of all, is the English voice acting. It really is nowhere near where a AAA game title like Atomic Heart should be, but, if one can stomach reading subtitles, this drawback is easily fixed by enabling the native Russian voice acting in the games settings. As someone who often watches anime and foreign films, I don't find subtitles to be an issue, and I find the Russian voice acting is not only better, but also fits the game's setting, taking the immersion factor up a notch.

Overall, I think Atomic Heart is a solid FPS, with a great art style and concept. While there are some rough edges - bad English voice acting, constant enemy respawns, lack of explorability, I think this can be overlooked if one is willing to take a more story-centered approach - which is what I did, mostly sticking to the waypoints the whole playthrough.

While I can't say the game is deserving of it's whopping $133 CAD premium tier (which is what I sadly paid for it), let alone it's standard price of $80 CAD, I would say if one can get the base game for $60 CAD (~$40 USD) on a sale, it would be worth it.

Lastly, I should mention that at the time of this review, there are currently 3 more planned DLCs that developer Mundfish are currently working on, so I cannot speak for the qualities of those at the time.

While Atomic Heart is often compared to Bioshock, as someone who's never played Bioshock, I will share my opinions solely from the perspective of Atomic Heart alone. Atomic Heart overall is a really enjoyable game, with fluid combat, a fairly good variety of weapons and modifications, and an incredible art style and setting. When it comes to its pros, the style and setting of the game shine first and foremost. Mundfish's imagining of Soviet science fiction is really well done. I'm really pleased to see more Eastern European developers exploring their own cultural themes through forms like video games, and hope it continues. Furthermore, the games combat, while a bit difficult, feels overall pretty good. Lastly, there are 4 post-launch DLCs (one of which has since been released) so it comes with a good amount of post-campaign content for people who are wanting more. When it comes to its drawbacks, first is the lack of exploration. While sections of the game are open world, the constant presence of enemies (that instantly respawn even after you kill them) makes exploration a chore, and I wasn't really able to enjoy exploring the full map until after I had unlocked New Game+ Finally the biggest drawback of all, is the English voice acting. It really is nowhere near where a AAA game title like Atomic Heart should be, but, if one can stomach reading subtitles, this drawback is easily fixed by enabling the native Russian voice acting in the games settings. As someone who often watches anime and foreign films, I don't find subtitles to be an issue, and I find the Russian voice acting is not only better, but also fits the game's setting, taking the immersion factor up a notch. Overall, I think Atomic Heart is a solid FPS, with a great art style and concept. While there are some rough edges - bad English voice acting, constant enemy respawns, lack of explorability, I think this can be overlooked if one is willing to take a more story-centered approach - which is what I did, mostly sticking to the waypoints the whole playthrough. While I can't say the game is deserving of it's whopping $133 CAD premium tier (which is what I sadly paid for it), let alone it's standard price of $80 CAD, I would say if one can get the base game for $60 CAD (~$40 USD) on a sale, it would be worth it. Lastly, I should mention that at the time of this review, there are currently 3 more planned DLCs that developer Mundfish are currently working on, so I cannot speak for the qualities of those at the time.