I do not recommend: Atomic Heart (Review) [PC 4k]

[@SkillUp]

Sponsored by Ridge Wallet. Get the best offer by clicking ridge.com/SKILLUP and use code SKILLUP for 10% off your order.

[@jgg6932]

Dawg why you always hating 😂

[@ghuldorgrey]

Will buy it anyway. Other previewers had nothing to complain about. Your takes lile "wooden fence next to laser fence" are ridicilous. Its exactly how people imagine it to be

[@jgg6932]

@@ghuldorgrey yeah game looks sick imo either way I'm playing it on gamepass to decide for myself

[@stickman4087]

This is Heart breaking, I was really hyped for this game

[@jgg6932]

@@stickman4087 still give it a try on gamepass it's getting good reviews and you might love it even if someone else doesn't

[@petrlazar5240]

"There's wooden fences next to advanced laser fences." That's 100% how I imagine Soviet utopia would be.

[@lodickasvlajeckou]

Not everyone enjoys modern style and you seen it is a sci-fi game and also you seen that all other parts are really modern

[@NotShaikan]

I came down to the comments to write that it's how modern Russia is today. Well it's not lasers of course, but the "advanced technologically and luxurious surrounded by run down rotting wood, manure and hay huts and such" is a good example of how things went wrong in real world Russia today. I don't know if the game gets the critique across but yeah.

[@ghuldorgrey]

Yeah skill up did a huge L take on this one

[@PointlesslyNecessaryConvos]

How? He just didn’t like it all that much. You can still like it you know

[@kosmonument2682]

Yeah that was a misunderstanding on SUs part.

[@aledantih6524]

With the example you gave on the art direction, that setup of high tech/new mixed in with low tech/old is what a lot of Eastern Europe does look like. You'll see almost antique buildings right next to ultra modern ones, especially when it comes to areas like the one in the example.

[@acceptablecasualty5319]

Reminds me of Half-Life Alyx!

[@chillax319]

@@acceptablecasualty5319 Well the city in Half-Life Alyx and 2 was apparently set in the Eastern Europe so it's checks out anyway.

[@acceptablecasualty5319]

@@chillax319 Yeah, hence the comparison.

[@MFDOOOOM]

Shillup didn't get his shekels this time

[@teach9023]

I was going to comment something similar. The world they created looks like a Soviet-bloc country ripped apart by some automaton-tech. From the video footage SkillUp shot, I thought the devs did a good job capturing it. Was also a bit odd to see him complain about how different the laboratory/building sections were, but then say the open-world has the opposite effect? All subjective really, but the historian side of me doesn't have any problems with the Soviet-esque presentation of the country

[@jasonmendoza9541]

More than a decade ago, Totalbiscuit championed F.O.V sliders in games and always discussed it on his review of ports. That's when I first realised that my motioned sickness in fps came from a narrow f.o.v. It's inconceivable to me that a modern PC game doesn't even had minor options in regards to this. What a shame.

[@sexyfishproductions]

Agreed. I started playing Resi Village on PC and the lack of FOV made me sick. No idea how this isn't an industry standard... even on consoles.

[@NicholasBrakespear]

I mean, the gaming industry as a whole still hasn't actually taken responsibility for this issue or even acknowledged it - a few more games started including FOV sliders, but for years we had people telling us that it had nothing to do with the FOV, or the low FOV was an "artistic choice", like that somehow justified giving people nausea and eye strain. Personally, it always hit me as a form of eye strain more than sickness - I'd start to feel dizzy and tired, like my head was really heavy, and once this feeling kicked in, I'd have to rest my eyes for a couple of hours.

[@666slateran666]

RIP total biscuit. Had no clue I was watching one of the best reviewers to ever do it at the time. Really miss his presence even of he would have hated the state of triple A gaming. He was one of the first guys to push for dark souls on PC as well. No eldenring pc port without TB

[@JosieJOK]

Yeah, no FOV slider, I pass. I’m getting slightly dizzy just watching the review!

[@Aliens4ever117]

games don't need a fov slider. You don't have 1 in person or in a vehicle. You don't need 1 in a game. Clearly u need a better hobby

[@Sengial]

For the first game of a new studio basically formed of enthusiasts... they did awesome job with art style, technical graphics and a decent job with gameplay. If they hire new writers and learn from the shortcomings of this one they can make a great sequel

[@dajair01]

yeah, 15519 years of development too?

[@neighborofthedevil]

I agree, this looks to be a cool first outing for a new studio that could really grow into making some remarkable games in the future if they make some key new hires.

[@2n974]

Funded by the local government (like Activision and Blizzard) with 2 million years of development

[@pajeetsingh]

True. Should have made an animated movie because games need proper gameplay to be fun. Ain't gonna make it first time in Unreal Engine.

[@mr.lonewolf8199]

Exactly, this is their first game, give them some slack

[@pearl6198]

There were people who said that such inconsistency of designs are often met in eastern europe and i agree completely. When he talked about how often bioms change i thought of how many time as saw rundown village homes near modern apartment blocks, how often i came in some old soviet building, for some documents or installations just to see an old building, with old wallpaper and red leather soviet couches outside, while having a perfectly modern whitish space in one of the rooms. So yeah i guess this stuff looks not out of place for me

[@benten42069]

As an eastern european I agree

[@garrick3727]

I had the same thought.

[@lovelesswing458]

Yes also agree glad someone else thought this. It reminded me very much of Eastern Europe

[@lodickasvlajeckou]

@@cowmath77 Instantly Soviet propaganda man not everyone enjoys moder style someone just wants to stay in old wooden houses. And it is a sci-fi game and you are saying that it is propaganda. You just think that where the USSR is there is an infinite amount of propaganda

[@MrMozkoZrout]

Might be true but it is never this abrupt and i mean the problem isn't even just the location diversity. Look at one location as itself and idk it doesn't feel like a real place i can't help but feel like its fake. The whole game has this feeling of being a tech demo with random assets being thrown in, like it was a fan mod instead of creation of art designers.

[@dyakonov]

I can confirm: futuristic buildings next to ancient wooden fences is exactly how everything is in Russia.

[@Vladislaus77]

да да. и еще медведи в ушанках и с балалайками на улицах. это как сказать что все американцы жирные

[@7777777fresh]

sure, sure, maybe in Ukraine but not Russia.

[@Elphirein]

@@Vladislaus77 Живу в России, в Москве - не вижу в чем этот чел не прав, все по факту.

[@chillsy_pluto]

​​@@Vladislaus77есть одна примечательная литературная тропа которая называется "преувеличение" оригинальный коммент и есть пример данного преувеличения

[@JustK0SH]

@@7777777fresh Here's your 15 rubles, good boy, but don't spend it all at once. Keep it up and mb one day you will be able to afford this game out of torrent.

[@melonbread4269]

I'm surprised it runs that well while maintaining that sort of graphical fidelity. I always thought it looked too good to be real

[@Astralmess]

What fidelity? Any scene where the camera isn't making 180 turns constantly looks extremely average.

[@lordhandsomeswag1854]

@@Astralmess straight up talking shit there chief - we get it: you're going for the jaded gamer archetype. The graphics of this game look pretty cutting-edge to me

[@guyfieri791]

@@AstralmessI think it looks super good

[@nolanlehman6392]

Uhhh no

[@fenexus404]

I mean, skill up said that elden ring was really well optimised, and look how that turned out. Just be cautious

[@salmonlegs]

Just finished the game and I mostly agree with this review, especially the comments on the open world. It's boring, frustrating and only serves as a time sink while you go from mission to mission (or testing ground), I would love to have seen this game as a more focused, linear experience. I loved the combat as well but think they could have gone all out Doom, ditched the stealth mechanics, given more ammo and more enemies. The theater Cod Zombies section was a big highlight for me, but I never really got that experience again.

[@GURken]

Developers said that it's not an open world game in its traditional form because they simply made a believable place in terms of scale. Like how different buildings of this secret town would've been connected in real life. It isn't some kind of Zelda where you can find a shrine in every corner. You can just walk pass wherever you go. And I liked it. It felt real to me. And I destroyed windmill towers so no robot distracted me in my path. I much prefer this to a far cry style open world.

[@Nico78Not]

Making a world realistic doesn't make it less shit.@@GURken

[@xiphosmaniac]

illl be honest, i expected a Doom x Bioshock hybrid. All the innovative combat mechanics and immersion of Bioshock with the balls to the wall combat and soundtrack every level. ALso, i expected levels. Maybe im just too old at this point, thinking levels aint a bad thing in a game...

[@CosmicD]

the open world allows you to do the side mission centres at your own will (except for polygon 8 and 12 which are story and area gated respectively; It's fun that you can gather all the polymer and loot needed to make your character powerful enough for playing the main mission centers like the VDNH and the opera with a better equipped skill build and weapons. And it's not that big of an open world so it won't to take you that long. Playing polygons 1,2,9, and 6 before you do the hedgie boss fight , allows for a better build, where you can skill up your "character" and quick tool progression. like having double dashes without taking damage. and find & update the kalash. if you're not lucky enough to find it in the first vavilov center. the puzzles in these centres remind me of portal and are a great intermezzo to the real mission. It's one of my favorite games of 2023!

[@Olsens13]

You didn’t like it but you finished it 😂

[@lignenox]

Interesting point about the melee combat - Gameranx say it's the weakest part of the system but here it's praised quite highly. I guess you're right when you say the review scores are going to be all over the place!

[@llawlied6902]

Try Sekiro has really fun melee too

[@elbiggus]

The melee combat would be substantially better with an increased FOV - with the current narrow view it's very easy to lose sight of enemies when you're within striking range.

[@zugzwang8761]

@@llawlied6902 who hasn't tried sekiro lol

[@llawlied6902]

@@zugzwang8761ppl that believe into this ,, souls are only for hardcore gamers " bs that the media spams since DS1

[@lucariette]

I honestly do not understand him praising the melee combat. you only have 2 moves and no block so its basically R1 > Dodge > Repeat. This review feels like he played a really early build and forgot to mention it

[@dr.k8610]

Considering this game is essentially a passion project coming from a studio that’s never published before, and it’s EXTREMELY ambitious, I think it’s actually somewhat miraculous the final product turned out as good as it did. Between the awesome designs and Mick Gordon soundtrack, I think I’m not going to regret getting it, despite the flaws. The developers have said that between expansions and potential sequels they want to keep making content in the same universe. This is their first game, it is definitely possible they will learn from the shortcomings of atomic heart to make superior games moving forward

[@verlorenish]

Agree. Lots of bethesda games had a LOT of the same problems at launch, especially the unbalanced combat and bullet sponge enemies. Other than the quirky dialogue this can all be patched eventually.

[@jurtheorc8117]

I've got a similar feeling with Soulstice and No Straight Roads. Different genres of games, but both are the first REALLY big, or just first, game of their respective dev studios. Both have rough parts to them, but the love and passion clearly shines through and there is potential for more.

[@punchykarma6685]

Yea like for their first game it's pretty impressive. Hopefully they learn from it and continue improving. Overall tho, it's pretty impressive for a first game

[@kylenewcomer9697]

Well said!

[@skontejonte]

I hope people consider the state owned russian companies that have invested and somewhat hijacked the project.

[@Isaac-hm5ef]

Everything I've seen of the art direction of this game has really captured my attention. Major props to them for doing something so unique and interesting.

[@Gutlard]

Yeah, I attribute the random set pieces to being built by a crazy AI within the game or something with purposeful art design. It seems to fit with what we see AI create in art IRL as well.

[@crooster1]

Yeah but the game is Russian (hate them as much as next guy) and got to much diversity in locations 1/10. Wonder if this compromised "reviewer" got the guts to review the new Harry potter game what with all the "transphobia". Im done with this guy. He is a coward afraid to be cancelled, this was the last drop.

[@cagneybillingsley2165]

this game is better than system shock and bioshock combined. truly original art direction and settings. i buy it just to trigger the anti russia npcs

[@kannanshrinivasan6984]

@@cagneybillingsley2165 this is some copium

[@TheMusic4Soul]

@@cagneybillingsley2165 How is the art direction original, if its a shameless copy of Bioshock? The setting being in russia doesnt make it original, Einstein.

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Atomic Heart's scores may be mixed but considering this is Mundfish first marketable game, I’m really excited to see what they can do in the future.

[@TheMusic4Soul]

A game without fundings by war criminals would be nice.

[@bruhyldrm5191]

@@TheMusic4Soul reviews without politics would be nice.

[@gibocvh392]

@@bruhyldrm5191 no politics in MY vydia game

[@abc98114]

I wouldn’t say they’re mixed. Majority of the reviews are positive.

[@gibocvh392]

@@vapor-cake Its prob botted LMAO

[@gavinderulo12]

I'm hoping that this is a similar situation as with Control. Where skillup didn't enjoy it that much and gave it a mixed review, but when I played it it turned into one of my favourite games of all time.

[@bloodczar9353]

I've found that other then obviously beloved games like RDR2 or something, anything he recommends is boring and anything he doesn't I adore so I'm excited personally

[@jamaineelmore5722]

He didn't like control??? Man he's great at laying out all the information you need about a game to make as good a choice as you can without actually buying the game yourself but the conclusions he comes to are astounding sometimes

[@CensorTube84]

Yeah I love Control

[@cactuss33ds]

@@bloodczar9353 he's a Marvel fan, so I guess that's not the most surprising thing.

[@OfficialChronicle]

@@jamaineelmore5722 Control ran terribly at launch on all platforms. SkillUps review conclusions aren't just based on the gameplay and story etc. He takes into account whether the actual polish of the game is worth your money, which Control was not at release. Don't get me wrong I loved the shit out of that game, but I went in with the knowledge of it being a little janky.

[@semiramisubw4864]

Kinda weird to see Atomic Heart, coming from a small studio kinda with beeing the first game for them released beeing literally WAY better optimized than alot of games that comes from modern AAA studios, really sad actually.

[@vincentthendean7713]

Many such cases from indie devs.

[@xelldincht4251]

that Ukraine war must have really motivated them to polish that game as much as possible

[@Shubham-hk6yf]

​@@xelldincht4251 "polish"

[@Masochistickoala]

so well optimized they couldnt include an fov slider

[@nicknamenick9448]

yep. that's some strange phenomina i've also started to see

[@ericharbour9254]

When this was originally announced it seemed like a much shorter indie project. I feel like they recieved more funding and made the game bigger to the detriment of the experience.

[@hibanamain5709]

When it was first announced, it was a scam with no release date asking 90 bucks for a preorder

[@Kazuhira2249]

they are funded by the russian government all of their investors are high profile pro russian military people

[@bikechan9903]

@@hibanamain5709 so like 90% of AAA games

[@Konycraft]

Thats what GazProm money gets you.....

[@vincentthendean7713]

So like Hello Neighbor?

[@joshwhite557]

You can tell the devs had fun making the game that's why I like it. Its also like playing a corny B movie action game set in russia with weirdness around every corner.

[@generaljim9857]

Everything about this game was fun. I haven’t been this into a setting and game world in a long time

[@boneless_Jungle_Ham]

Fo sho…. Just to see what it was like I switch solve a dialogue to Russian completely change the tone of the story and game…… stuff that he was saying in American English was nowhere to be found in subtitles…..

[@R3TR0JVN]

lol well said, its as b-rated as an aa title and a eurojank.

[@MoonManPictures]

10:08 I actually hard disagree in the example given, this looks fantastic and intended, especially in regards to the setting. Top notch art design imho

[@vrubay_nasos]

it looked like "a shack on chicken legs" from Russian folklore. The house of Baba Yaga, the evil old witch living in the forest. As a Russian, I instantly got that

[@qmarkp98]

100% agree

[@krisavedisian]

I’ve played for 2 hours. This games art direction is awesome. The interior spaces are looking incredible. Tons of detail

[@ChernobylGuy]

yeah, we have a lot of that in Russia today. New beautiful building standing near dilapidated wooden houses. I'm pretty sure this thing was intentional.

[@Kangorrilla]

Shill up has embarrassed himself with this review In my opinion. It’s fine if he doesn’t like it, but the utter drivel in this review is ridiculous. And yeah, the art style is amazing. I guess the people that follow what he says like sheep deserve to miss out on a really good (with some things that could be better) game.

[@ryanvandoren1519]

Technically speaking, this game is pretty incredible for a first release from a studio. If they just nail the story, visual, and word gameplay elements, their next game should be a banger.

[@daitedve1984]

Первый блин - комом! И игра это только подтверждает.

[@Marko25Polo]

If my granny had balls shed be my grandad.

[@marcosramirez2278]

@Daite Dve I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who said "the first draft of anything is always shit"

[@skontejonte]

Hopefully people consider the russian state owned companies that has partly funded it.

[@LiberatedMind1]

Gameplay elements, the most important part.... what a fail of a game.

[@ethan2670]

Okay, but as Mundfish's first AAA outing, I am impressed. Like, a lot of the complaints here aside from maybe the writing can be improved with more experience. There is a very solid foundation, and I think if they can learn to trim the fat, they might have a bright future ahead of them. Just hire some more writers.

[@rafabuda0]

Yeah, for the first thing that Mundfish put out this is damn impressive. They got some real talent in there.

[@arthurdent9281]

@@rafabuda0 Development and art talent, sure! I don't even really agree with all of the art direction issues that Skillup had. But man, the writing is just sooooo bad. They really need to bring on some new talent to fix that.

[@heretic124]

Not more writers. More writers won't make a game better, it's usually the exact opposite. They need one person who knows what he's doing and has a vision. And maybe two other co-writers to craft the main story.

[@CrystallineLore]

The problem is their director, even the developers say so, he kept changing his mind every time a new game came out that did something he liked and so feature creep turned the game into... this. But this is the same problem a lot of doomed studios have. Easy to grow but not when there's a tumor right on the heart also growing.

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

And stop treating your devs like shit xD

[@duckmidley503]

Gotta say I don’t agree with you on a lot of your negatives about this game, obviously the lack of an fov slider is pretty bad but the environment and combat and are stellar for a first showing from a studio. The story might be a little predictable but this alternate history setting is keeping me engrossed. Plus the fact that this game runs so well at launch is so refreshing.( also when the music hits it really hits )

[@generaljim9857]

Yeah there was something so off about this review in my opinion. He really misses the mark but I guess reviewing a review is ridiculous lol

[@ralphwarom2514]

Its just reality of being a reviewer. For the average vidego game enjoyer who plays 1 or 2 games a month, the game is great. If your entire life is game reviews, your standards go way up high. I will totally buy atomic heart, but will wait for a few months for some more polish and letting the games bugs get ironed out. Otherwise, its seems great, looks different, cant wait.

[@Teuwufel]

@@generaljim9857 He probably has no idea about soviet russia, how it looked, what architecture of soviet era was like and overall his takes about artistic choices are bad.

[@HappyLarry.]

The fact that Singularity had a better version of this story 13 bloody years ago, despite it not even focusing that much on it's story, says a lot

[@richbunnell7426]

Playing it right now on the Series X. About two hours in. I can tell a lot of time and effort was put into the game. Not sure if I love it, but I like it so far. Major Bioshock vibes.

[@positronikiss]

Yes but they fucked up the exploration badly i hear. Enemies are at an infinite and constant respawn rate. Thats so incredibly stupid....

[@weegi7227]

@@positronikiss you havent played it, until you play it, respectfully, pipe down.

[@scalf_]

I agree.

[@positronikiss]

@@weegi7227 Just knowing that completely erases it from my wishlist. Imagine if elden ring or any souls game was like this... STUPID decision is the term.

[@weegi7227]

@@positronikiss god you’re stupid

[@Xonthos]

Of all of the things, the fact that it runs, and it runs decently well, is both impressive and a sad example of how little a game developer has to do nowadays. So many titles I have played recently just don't even work or run correctly, so at least Atomic Heart actually runs.

[@ActNasty5]

Where do you see it running well, these frames look rough

[@maximusmirov6478]

@@ActNasty5 Because video itself is 30 fps not 60

[@ActNasty5]

@@maximusmirov6478 i saw him talk about performance now. Kinda lame to not recommend a game then to make it look even shittier by posting the video at 30 fps lol

[@matttheradartechnician]

Yea Dead Space Remake still stutters every time I enter and new little area and its so annoying 99% of aaa game devs these days lack the ability to release a game not broken.

[@art7104]

@@ActNasty5agreed, skill up a little off on this review. I think he let the “Russian dev” hype get to him. His reason for not liking outside of story is basically “everything good but something missing, 2/10” 😂

[@gregowen2022]

I absolutely love these reviews. It's never just "it's garbage". Always a detailed, nuanced assessment so you can accurately judge whether you want to give it a try. Outstanding reviewsmanship. That's a word now

[@shuyaku99]

To accurately judge you must try it for yourself not listen to ramblings from some rando on the internet.

[@fredricmourath4907]

Yeah, Skill Up is basically the only reviewer I take fully seriously. Not because I always end up agreeing with him, but because he evaluates all the parts of a game thoroughly and from a more advanced and educated perspective compared to most reviewers. I'm so sick of reviewers saying things like "Oh the art is good", and I wish more reviewers went into the nitty gritty of art design. Even if Ralph isn't an expert it's clear that he has some understanding of subjects like art, narrative and game design, and he doesn't pretend to know more than he does.

[@acceptablecasualty5319]

@@shuyaku99 I'm not looking for Judgement, i'm looking for impressions from people i know the personal tastes of so i can see if certain aspects appeal to me and if there are any glaring issues that might be deal-breakers. In this sense, SkillUp is way less random than most IGN reviews where can click the Review Author and find out their only gaming experience is Cookie Clicker and Eels and Escalators, but they have a degree in 12th Century Art or some shit.

[@danceyrselfkleen]

@@fredricmourath4907 the ball gargling is crazy

[@SAVANTI711]

@@fredricmourath4907 Skill Up is the biggest Twitter simp on this platform. Literally every-other trusted person like Gman or ACG think the game is good and very unique. If anyone sucks on a rod harder it's Skill-Up.

[@eddythefool]

I tried playing this on the harder difficulty and i went back to normal after the first few melee fights. I like the small details like how you can have a bullet in the chamber so you can get an extra round loaded though.

[@TheDeconstructivist]

It really sounds like if they added and FOV slider, let you turn off mouse acceleration, reduced enemy health by 25%-33%, and increased the time it would take before overworld enemies were repaired (or make it easier/permanent to turn the repairs of), it would go from "flaws overwhelm the potential" to "mostly lives up to the potential despite some significant flaws." In other words, despite its remaining flaws, they could make this game recommendable with less than a week of work. Game design is a funny thing.

[@chiffmonkey]

Meanwhile Stalker took 10 years for modders to fix.

[@10secondsrule]

I’m sure someone will edit the cfg file to fix it.

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

Dunno what you'd have to do to make the story not a complete bomb, though. That'd be more than a simple patch.

[@TheDeconstructivist]

@@ArcaneAzmadi Agreed. But I think you can have a good game with a bad story and/or bad writing.

[@TheDeconstructivist]

@@chiffmonkey Is Atomic Heart mod-friendly? I sure hope so!

[@ThePsychoRenegade]

Coming from a studio that's never made a game before, and making a game this ambitious, a 6/10 is actually pretty good.

[@anaruenoha9920]

Atomic Heart is going to be huge especially because it's also on game pass

[@Jasna88]

this is atleat 7.5/10 game. from new dev. cant imagine what they will make in future

[@nicknelson1975]

@@anaruenoha9920 The horrible writing and voice acting is probably gunna close the doors for a lot of players.

[@PeixeDeEstoque]

​@@nicknelson1975 i legit saw some of the scenes and it felt so goofy💀

[@Sengg0]

@@nicknelson1975 I mean who would play this with English voiceover

[@TheMusic4Soul]

"No run button, you can only walk." Ah, the good old technique to stretch your game. There are not many things I hate more than slowly crawling through the levels.

[@eloisecole3579]

Escort Mission?

[@DoesNotInhale]

SkillUp is lying dude. Theres tons of gameplay vids of the character being able to spring lol wtf

[@mariobadia4553]

Don't believe this guy you could actually Sprint in the game. He's just too stupid to figure out how to do it

[@jay-5061]

​@The Infidel destiny 2 has > 20 million players so

[@mariobadia4553]

@@jay-5061 its still bad. You can't play 99% of the story because they took it out of the game. Plus its art style is way worse than the first game.

[@hta3139]

Played this game on Gamepass, love it so far. Combat and gun play is fine and I can even call it insane for the first time release from a small studio.

[@Road_to_Dawn]

Good to know it’s on Game Pass! That’s how I’ll probably play it

[@Mr_CopaceticGamer]

Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with these reviews man they have to be being paid for slander or something. The game is phenomenal, especially the combat..!

[@Кеша-б5б]

@@Mr_CopaceticGamer politica

[@Volyren]

If anyone's wondering how political a game this is (you know, like... "capitalism bad! Communism good!") outside of dialogue from characters who are soviet, ya know..., theres no political messaging. You see the *dream* of communism, with all the warts and bs intact. It really *is* the yin to bioshock's yang. Like how you totally agree with "is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?" but then see the depressing reality of the concept. Atomic heart nails that. But with communism. Equality. Power to the *people.* But the reality is all lies and political power-struggles, leaving the *actual* people as replacable cogs. I'm playing on gamepass, xb1. Theres a bug that can wreck you near the start. The first time you meet the vending machine, before you jam your meat in her and spew your goo into her dirty socket.... you'll have to upgrade a weapon. But it glitches. Theres no upgrade to select and you can't back out of the menu. If you reload, not only will that not fix it, you'll need to listen to the 5-minute verbal foreplay again, just to be stuck on that same bug again. The solution for me was rage. Slapping the controller. The slap that fixed it and made the upgrades appear was the abxy buttons in some combination. Thats all I got for ya.

[@Mr_CopaceticGamer]

@@Кеша-б5б understandable…! 🤝

[@neighborofthedevil]

This seems like one of those games where a silent protagonist might have helped, or maybe some more dialogue choices so you don't end up hating the character you're playing as. I also get the impression that it's one of those games with pretty huge scope creep, plus maybe a bit of lockdown development preventing things coming together fully. That said, it seems like the team had a very clear vision for what they wanted the game to be, and it seems like they delivered on that. Apart from the writing, I think a couple of patches could turn this into a really good game. Question on the bullet sponge enemies/spawn rate, what difficulty did you play on? I am not afraid of playing on easy mode if it makes it a more pleasant experience.

[@flowname]

It's pretty much how Serious Sam's ramblings felt like, isn't it? (no pun intended) (maybe)

[@BigHalfSteps]

Lockdown? Game is made by a studio that originally said was a moscow studio, but then retracted and said it's a global with many people from different countries... lockdown does neither affect russia nor home office workers to that extent, unless you have little children, but even then it's not Lockdown issue.

[@Idolhands360]

Shill up didn't mention the game is supposed to be played in Russian, with English subtitles. Just like anime is cringe dubbed, so is this.

[@pickledparsleyparty]

I'm wondering if the dialogue is better in Russian. There's definitely some stuff that can be cool in one culture and lame in another. And trying to translate a script to your second language does risk losing all of the original script's quality.

[@neighborofthedevil]

@@flowname that was exactly the impression I got!

[@Aisaaax]

That was actually one of my favorite reviews by you. You don't recommend the game and explain why. But also give enough praise to many elements that I could see somebody buying the game based on the review even despite the bottomline score. It feels like a very well-balanced take.

[@MrKrabs.00.]

@DarylDixonNewelaborate please

[@Aisaaax]

@DarylDixonNew I don't know. Maybe. At least he did'n have a 5-minute-long "This was made by russians, so it's bad" bit.

[@XiLock_Alotx]

@Daryl Dixon 2023 how so? Or is this going to be one of those “ because other reviewers said so” type of situations?

[@fortresstraining]

I actually feel like this is one of his worst reviews. Most of his complaints arent exactly justified. Edit: i see you guys want an elaboration? Okay... he says the "boss design is bad becauae all you do is avoud enemy attacks while attacking them" thats literally all you ever do. "The art design is bad" people with more knowledge of the setting in the comment section think otherwise" "the open world is bad because the best way to get threw the objectives is speed running" 😀. And a whole lot of "this just doesnt really work" entirely opinion based.

[@Duby-rv7bx]

@@MrKrabs.00. I think one of the arguments he had was with the aesthetic of there being wood fences next to futuristic things which is actually very realistic to how the Russia is

[@mrworldwide5811]

Most art styles in games also have through-lines that keep locations feeling like they're within the same game world, even if the different places have different styles to them

[@austinwaymire1152]

@@Mrpersonman0 the word potential is doing a lot of heavy lifting for you.

[@DajuOnYoutube]

Well i think the game has a very clear and obvious style throughout. It's pretty hard to describe but I'd say retro futuristic soviet brutalism but also art deco. The mix of advanced technology and the atomic eras vision of the future is still pretty unique to this game even though there's other well known examples of this such as Fallout and Bioshock, I don't think I would have trouble identifying which is which if I were presented to a mix of unlabeled screenshots.

[@RevRyukin7]

This game clearly has that, idk wtf he's talking about lol

[@brilobox2]

@@Mrpersonman0 Even if the game sells millions of copies which is very optimistic, the money going to the russian government will be miniscule. We're talking about a government. Governments deal in billions a week. Its not exactly good pro-soviet propo either considering it becomes a shitshow dystopia in about 15 minutes because of some social control fuckery.

[@dontshootmex5588]

​@@Mrpersonman0 Would you say the same about Fallout's style and how it ties to the U.S.?

[@dylhas1]

I thought the many different areas greatly helped with not becoming bored. There were so many different areas and always something new to see and the aesthetic is by far the best part of the game. The game constantly introduced new enemies and right when I’d get bored they would hit me with a boss fight. Compared to most FPS games released in the last few years, Atomic Heart is one of the better ones. Hopefully the next game the studios makes has a bigger budget and refines many of the things that were only “okay.” I think whatever they make next will be a classic. At least they have the potential to, if they focus more on improving the systems they put in this game

[@OscarRobbing]

Honestly I'm impressed that this game actually lived up to the visuals and general gameplay it always claimed it would. Seems like maybe with some mods it could be really good, if not exceptional.

[@yeahboyz9314]

Absolutely explosive action rpg of the year

[@AlternaHunter]

It does sound like the gameplay side of things is extremely fixable with some numbers tweaks - drop enemy hp, extend the reinforcement timer, add a cap to the number of repair drones that can spawn within a given time frame. That could easily make this a game worth playing even if the story is a forgettable mess.

[@ShoorfLonelyLokly]

@@AlternaHunter That is what I thought while watching this. Yeah the story is shit, sure. Long puzzles - bleh. Let me skip puzzles, fix the combat and I'm in.

[@danb4900]

D E N U V O

[@molo1848]

@@AlternaHunter cope commie shill

[@hitlord]

Seriously, from this video my main problem with the game is exactly the combat. Not because of the enemies being bullet sponges, but because of how often you seem to lose control of the character (drop kicks that reposition you and your view point, punches that turn you side ways, your own attacks making you rotate around), all that coupled with the FOV that looks like things are right next to your temporal lobe. Just watching you makes me "dizzy". (Not actually dizzy, but I feel like in a prolonged fight I'd definitely get there.) Seriously, it's like my monitor is 1 inch away from my face. You can barely see what's going in your peripheral view.

[@schweizer3301]

The axe rotation attack was an instant deal breaker, dont take control away from me game devs ffs

[@LiberatedMind1]

@@schweizer3301 Good to know, not buying this game.

[@Sorain1]

@@schweizer3301 No kidding. Adjust the animation, remove the spin of the PoV, how did this make release in this state!?

[@flosthebos]

Just get flawless widescreen. Completely fixes the FOV and makes the game so much more playable. I was getting motion sick before I patched it. Highly recommend.

[@skeletor8951]

Yeah, watching gameplay of this felt so disorienting. The camera jerks around so much between the dashes, taking hits, swinging weapons, and rebound from melee hits, and so many of the guns look like they have lots of recoil.

[@goldforpewter]

The bullet-sponge enemies/bosses and open world mechanics are very solid critiques. Thanks for the review.

[@ShhhHhhhz]

yea well, 10 minutes later, he said enemies are diverse and fun to fight against..

[@pixelcount350]

Well no to the open world mechanics cause that's subjective but i can understand the bullet sponge.

[@MajkaSrajka]

Cyberpunk had both of these tbh

[@Camad]

@@ShhhHhhhzYeah? The enemy’s are diverse and fun to fight, but still sponges, therefore, it’s bad. Use a little critical thinking.

[@brilobox2]

@@Camad these people aren't interested in nuance. they want 10/10 for game that look cool and 5/10 for game that look cringe and thats it.

[@Mohgenstein]

They added an FOV slider and fixed mouse acceleration.

[@sup3rAVATARtlafAN]

I'm glad we get different opinions, IGN gave it an 8/10 and ACG says he enjoyed it, but Skillup doesn't recommend it. Nice to get varied opinions

[@johnbishop2536]

As much as I like Skill up he's had some odd takes also his review of launch day Cyberpunk was a bit sus.

[@tylerdyrdan3005]

Yeah, many people praise and enjoy the game.

[@Mantrahiroshima]

@@johnbishop2536 almost 6 minutes of this review is whinging about the visual consistency of areas in the game lol. He’s so up his own asshole these days it’s brutal

[@-BarathKumarS]

@@johnbishop2536 wasn't everyone's review deceiving? I can't find one reviewer during launch day who said they don't like it/ that it had a mountain of issues.

[@sadmarinersfan8935]

Always good to get many ideas I’m still excited to play it I figured it would not live up to the hype very few do but I just hope the parts that looked great end up being great

[@harambe4267]

The fact that the port actually runs well is worth a point or two in itself considering how rare it is nowadays.

[@hollywooda111]

This comment Is a sad reflection on PC gaming now days

[@captanki5961]

No it isint. This should be the standard.

[@harambe4267]

​@@captanki5961 No duh, but it isn't. Praise good behaviour, scold bad behaviour, you know, basic incentives.

[@sirzebra]

how low do you want your standards ? Are you for real dude ? Are we supposed to be amazed by what always had always been the basic minimum expected in any industry ? Are you happy because your film had it's sound working fine when going to the cinema, that the picture was not turning black every 10 seconds ? That your oven can actually turn on when you just bought it ? Your way of thinking is what levels from the bottom.

[@thanos2715]

No its not worth a point. Just dock points off the bad performing games

[@diogo763]

I will always enjoy how people come to a review to hear someone's opinion and then get mad at it because it's different from their own

[@mitchellgoldstein1573]

your profile pic is anime, your comment is invalid please delete it

[@711ramen]

@@mitchellgoldstein1573 but its true. Gamers are such a pissy lot.

[@SuperZura91]

They want to fap to reviews who praise the game they play. Atomic Heart seems like it's gonna be remembered for the android porn.

[@jerrodshack7610]

@@mitchellgoldstein1573 do you ever get tired of making the same 10 year old joke over and over and over and over

[@mehemynxm6974]

I will always enjoy people going into a game review and complaining that people use the comment section for discussion

[@garfunkle5447]

Playing it I'm am really enjoying it. Not a perfect game but it's art direction is the one thing that keeps you motivated. There was a patch the 1st day of 67gb. Maybe a lot of bugs were worked out. Can't tell just started on the second day out.

[@kamilkowalczyk7195]

Every time I was watching any gameplay trailer of Atomic Heart I had the uncanny feeling of enemies being horribly tedious to kill, just very bullet spongy, I am surprised how correct that intuition was. Even looking at the gameplay in this review makes me feel tired, it's such a laborous task of killing all those swarms of robots constantly flooding the screen. Especially bad when combined with small, flying, annoying enemies...

[@90lancaster]

Same deal with Hogwarts Legacy you use the wrong techniques, You can expect to be there a while.

[@theboy1625]

@@90lancaster ehh not really, enemies in Hogwarts legacy are far from bullet sponges

[@saifali9853]

@@theboy1625 after the midway point in the game they definitely could be, those trolls would take me FOREVER (but i was also severely underleveled and beelined the main story)

[@CREESTAFAH]

@@90lancaster I'll agree with you, but only when it comes to the early stage of the game. As a low level, I found enemies to be somewhat bullet-spongy--especially those weird swamp frog things. However, once you're able to apply perks to your character (as long as you select offensive spell buffs) enemies are killed very quickly.

[@jamesc178]

Winge winge winge nobody asked for ur smelly opinion. Its a game u fool

[@strymoon]

10:13 lol that's actually a part of the slavic folklore, the russian version of it is called "isbushka na kuriih noshkah". the art direction seemed thematically cohesive to me and pretty fun but that might be because I'm russian. either way your criticism is still valid, thematic cohesion should not be hindered by cultural barriers, if you didn't understand something that's partially the writer's fault

[@onlyZieltar]

Yea I too see this house as new version of domek na kurzej łapce (I'm polish), and I agree they should better explain those things only slavic people understand.

[@Jasonwolf1495]

To be fair many people will see this in japanese games and go "oh japan you wacky people" and praise it being weird. But have something slavic and they're like "what's going on?" If its not baba yaga they have no clue, edit: and by that i mean literal name drop and house walking on giant cartoon chicken legs, levels of on the nose.

[@AmericanHairlines69]

Wrong. Not everything needs to be explained and be understood by everyone, especially if it manages to look good in of itself without that context.

[@meow2175]

@@Jasonwolf1495 I think the problem comes in it being a bit too grounded. If you introduce flying penis worms people just laugh it off as ridiculous because it has to be based on somethin else. A rocket powered house just makes me think of terran buildings in starcraft. Its a bit too believable in setting for there to be rocket houses so the assumption is that its based on the setting and not a reference to something weird.

[@wserthmar8908]

@@AmericanHairlines69, it's just the superiority complex + ressentiment. they always get hurt by "unjust representation" in popular media or something.

[@MajkaSrajka]

So thats what happens when a team works on a single title for *5+ years and is competent? Great graphics, great combat, great technical aspects, great art design, but lack of experience in tying things together (combined with just the sheer length of development time). I'm interested in their trajectory as a studio, potential sequels etc. and whenever they are able to address these issues. *Originally I had "15+ years" written as I swear I've seen 2008 floating somewhere... the points still stands, as the team had only one VR game on their resume before.

[@afaxmachine5045]

@Free R Kelly piss off rusbot

[@VitorHugoOliveiraSousa]

Wait this game has been in development for 15 year's?

[@DatAsianGuy]

was the game really 15 years in dev time? Does this include the time period where the dude with the original idea wanted this to be a movie?

[@ivanleon6164]

this means, great technical talent, bad directing or lack of a strong vision.

[@ΛΞΟ]

@@VitorHugoOliveiraSousa 5+ years! I am not sure where people get this crazy numbers.

[@ChicoAzevedo]

I love your reviews but man... this game scratch the half-life 3 itch so hard. Amazing art, solid combat, perfect ragdoll, enemies that show how much you are damaging them in form of detailed visuals on their body. A good sense of humor. I am in love with this game that put many AAA games to run scared.

[@rpglover101]

The part about the art design is interesting. I'm not from Eastern Europe, in fact, I barely know anything about the place. I DO know that Eastern European games have a certain "janky flair" to them that I love, and that comes from a deeply personal, cultural place. The dissonance between old/new kinda feels like the point though? The excess of design feels very Soviet to me, especially since they're the parts that are "not meant to be shown" to the world. I'll probably still play it, but I have a feeling that intense dissonance between art styles might represent the reckless abandon the USSR pushed towards fostering this technology in any way they could.

[@RawbLV]

His complaint wasn't that the environments themselves were noisy or something, but that the game made you jump from one environment to the next one all the time.

[@Aj-om9nm]

@@RawbLV his actual complaint was that there were modern street lights on a wooden pole. Which is not only normal for eastern Europe, that's normal for most of north America as well. From the shots that he showed the game perfectly matches up with real world eastern European architecture.

[@DMBisAwesome]

>mouse acceleration >no FOV slider >in 2023 That's just incredible to me. These things were standard in the late 90s.

[@flowname]

these look like a patch material, doesn't seem to be hardcoded into the game engine and mechanics to be difficult to modify after release.

[@MrDelord39]

The pc community will fix it with mods.

[@LargeInCharge77]

They werent standard then hahaha

[@randomguy6679]

FOV was?

[@emulation2369]

So, Dead Space remake, that everyone loved

[@ninjakiwi2476]

Dam not a title I wanted to see for this game. It looks really interesting and right up my alley

[@0uttaS1TE]

@@sound4117 There's no demo, is there?

[@valletas]

Well he did do that for sonic frontiers and that game is really good I like his reviews a lot and he is one of the few reviewers i trust but man if you like the game dont let a negative review prevent you from playing You never know what you will or will not like

[@ninjakiwi2476]

​​@@sound4117 yeah I was still going to play it when I had the time. Negative reviews don't really stop me unless it's overwhelmingly negative but it sucks to see nonetheless.

[@Destiano.Y]

@@0uttaS1TE cmiiw, but pretty sure it's free on gameplay

[@doxxi5319]

@@0uttaS1TE no but it’s on gamepass

[@TafTabTah]

I usually agree with you most of the time This game does have some rough edges but damn...this game is a very unique experience. I'm enjoying it very much

[@onisnazir1317]

Crispy critters me too

[@acegh0st]

Yeah, me too. The first hour or so had my head spinning a bit, but once I got my footing I started having a blast. It’s a great game. Can’t help but feel Ralph has missed the point here, to some extent.

[@estyhugo]

I find skill up's taste in games is hit or miss.

[@acegh0st]

@@estyhugo agreed to some extent. He eats up a weeb RPG or a PlayStation exclusive, but he waves off other games that are solid. He didn’t even review Hogwarts Legacy, which a lot of people have called a GotY candidate. Like, I understand that they didn’t send you a review copy, mate, but you don’t just skip one of the biggest releases of the year, over something like that, and expect no one will care.

[@HappyLarry.]

"Singularity but robots" is your bar for uniqueness

[@wz9573]

Ah yes, no FOV slider in 2023, the hallmark of greatness. Hopefully they get rid of mouse sensitivity options & run toggle too.

[@diogo763]

They would first need to implement a run option

[@sealgaming4563]

​@@diogo763 the ultimate hallmark of greatness

[@adron7748]

Edit: okay okay. I get it 3rd person vs first person. Halo 3 didn’t have FOV slider in the 360 and it’s still a 9+ masterpiece lol To be fair, Elden Ring not only doesn’t have an FOV slider, but it’s also completely locked at 60fps. With that, it’s still a 9+ masterpiece imo.

[@AintPopular]

@@adron7748 fps vs tps

[@Kazuhira2249]

@@adron7748 yeah but elden ring is not first person therefore fov barely matters

[@CradtheLad]

well this is not the title i wanted to see :( always love the reviews regardless

[@Gollvieg]

Me: Surely the writing can't be that bad. Skillup: Imagine Claptrap being the main character of Prey. Me: Oh... oh shit...

[@FormalGibble]

Me: Which Prey? The original or the new one? You know what nevermind, I don't want to know.

[@thetallestdwarf7041]

Ikr? Sounds like a Marvel movie, yikes.

[@lustrazor44]

Your note about the art direction sounds like you haven’t visited any post Soviet societies. They literally mix the old with the new. Same can be said about having high tech security cameras on old 600 year old buildings in watchdogs legion. It’s the same thing.

[@troonsneed3480]

I wonder what if he says the same thing about Dishonored or even Half Life

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

​@@troonsneed3480 But it's measured and considered in those games.

[@jeagerkej3171]

He’s such a good reviewer that even if he doesn’t recommend it, he still presents the game well enough to intrigue me on the game .

[@Episode_13]

He's wrong!

[@acceptablecasualty5319]

@@Episode_13 No, he's not. He has opinions which he explains and leaves open for you to agree or disagree with. Which you would appreciate if your ilk didn't just skip to the end to see the X/10 score and go from there.

[@Episode_13]

@@acceptablecasualty5319 He's wrong, as he's putting people off trying a great 8 out of 10 game, come on now, ACG loves it!

[@stevenwebbmusic]

@@Episode_13 cope

[@toxicdermyillunary4103]

@@Episode_13 oh no someone has different opinion. Boo hoo what should I doo. If anyone is so easily put off by a single KZbinr's mixed opinion, kindly tell them to grow up and stop being a parasite of someone else's opinion. Watching more review and making their own call is free.

[@polinttalu7102]

I can see that they wanted to aim a little bit of surrealism with the art direction here, I find it cool.

[@Swirrt]

Perfect gamepass title. Interesting enough to try it out, but not good enough to actually spend more money on it.

[@HarryB291]

Anyone spending £65 on a game need there head testing

[@ironmaidenmetalgod]

@@HarryB291 not everyone is too poor to buy full price games.

[@itsaUSBline]

@@ironmaidenmetalgod it's the principle of the thing.

[@bobby_c07]

​@@ironmaidenmetalgod says quite a lot about you that you think the sentiment here is about wealth.

[@biohead66]

@@HarryB291 *their

[@Vipus2501]

Jesus Christ, what game did you play? I'm 20h in and loving this one.

[@87you87tube]

I tend to agree with your analysis because many of the problems could actually be spotted in the trailers and the 10min gameplay videos. In the first half of the 10 min gameplay, the player fought a swarm of enemies in the open world part. And just as you said, not only they are massive bullet sponges, the reinforcement also just keep pouring in, make fighting them pointless. And in he second half, the player fought the ball-shaped boss at the fountain. And it took forever to chip away 20% of its health, whilst the boss just repeat its few attacks. It just felt very padded. That said, I think I'm still gonna try the game, maybe later at sales price. The aesthetics alone should be worth checking out even if everything else fails.

[@flowname]

> not only they are massive bullet sponges, the reinforcement also just keep pouring in > And it took forever to chip away 20% of its health basically, Serious Sam bosses and enemies?

[@Super-wr6cf]

To be fair, that boss fight gave some insight to the problems (that's true). On the other side, that boss fight wasn't that good of an example. The red motors or whatever they are popping out of the boss at different times must mean you shoot those, not the boss. So ofc it's gonna be a bullet sponge if you just shoot at it's shell.

[@whythefrown]

@@flowname the biggest difference is that serious sam has faster player movement and lots more ammo

[@Gogo32monkey]

Fun fact: Mick Gordon, the man behind the Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal soundtracks made the soundtrack for Atomic Heart, so expect lots of heavy metal goodness for those checking it out!

[@SimplexPL]

Even funnier fact - he donated all profits from this soundtrack to support Ukraine.

[@SlackWi]

@@SimplexPL Why is that funny?

[@R0ndras]

@@SimplexPL Because the game developers are tied to russian oligarchs so Mick probably realized how much of a fuck up he just did.

[@pixytorres7117]

​@@R0ndras It's funny you guys point out this game is made by Russian while COD for years now is spread with propaganda of USA being the good guys and the rest are bad.

[@michaelmonstar4276]

@@R0ndras - How are they tied to them? Do you think they’re Russian?…

[@ngolokantecar]

remember guys just because skill up doesnt like the game it doesnt mean that he thinks its bad or that its not for you.

[@sicdedworm09]

Especially with what you’ve been recommending lately, I couldn’t disagree with you more on this. Idk how it didn’t come together for you? The systems are all in place. Playing on hard and having no issues. Feels very fresh. Combat, puzzles, graphics, design. I don’t know what you people are smoking.

[@Justinpitchford]

Yes!! This game is on point!!

[@ItsReallyJCole]

The open world parts do suck tho

[@fel524]

@@ItsReallyJCole and the MC

[@Asufiku]

To be fair, it's his opinion

[@sicdedworm09]

@@ItsReallyJCole have you been taking down the security systems? The open world is actually better than I thought it would be with all the complaining. People saying they don’t get a second to breathe… hack the security system. It literally shuts down most of the enemies in the area so you’re free to explore without the constant respawning enemies. I love that the world isn’t filled with quests and has more to do with exploration for gun parts that are actually pretty important to skip over

[@SeniorCharry]

Good thing this game is on the Game Pass so I can play it without having the regret of paying $70 lol.

[@thepeps101]

Oh it is? Might give it a try then, and then drop it if it get boring

[@weegi7227]

@@thepeps101 have fun completing the game :)

[@Ojos.juntos]

I was rolling my eyes when you started describing the plot cuz it seemed very predictable, so I really laughed out loud when I heard you say "Chekhov violently polishing his gun in the corner" at 9:04. Brilliant!

[@_JesusIsLord_]

This guy cant stop gushing about destiny and goes on to complain bout story and writing.. just saying.

[@twice5077]

Yeah, this "review" is really weird. "I love the combat, it sucks", "the world design is gorgeous, I hate it". blah blah. But this is the same guy that said 2077 was bug free and shat on it in later videos, so!

[@_JesusIsLord_]

@@twice5077 same guy that said he loved 2077 when it was the most immersion breaking buggy unplayable mess across all platforms…

[@GowLV]

Few hours in, and I can say it's solid 9 for me. This game is unique .

[@alexmashine]

иди к врачу ебанько

[@weegi7227]

same, maybe 8.5

[@MorkandGork]

Play bioshock if you like this

[@Dan_Vice]

@@MorkandGork He probably never heard of it. Not a much known game.

[@MorkandGork]

@@Dan_Vice damn good game though

[@WodverWizard]

There was a time when I was looking forward to games like this, but unfortunately there is no more room for games that are only 'kind of enjoyable' in my adult life. I have so little time and there are too many better games coming out all the time.

[@21innocentbystander]

Maybe not.

[@AlkisGD]

This. I wish I was independently wealthy and didn't have to work. My backlog is huge 😩

[@charlesmartiniii1405]

Where are these better games I may ask

[@williamfox6826]

@@charlesmartiniii1405 They go to a different school you wouldn't know them.

[@rinvalentine7108]

@@charlesmartiniii1405 The games these reviewers tell them are good

[@confusedcabal342]

Honestly this lines up with some of the rumors about development; the dev team was forced to constantly change the size and scope of the game due to the studio heads. It would explain the terrible writing and the unbalanced aspect of things. Great review!! I’ll see you at lightfall!!

[@AstinCrow]

The clashing aesthetics is actually a lot more closer to the Eastern Europe portrayal they were trying to go for, actually. That's just how the eastern bloc was and kinda still is.

[@confusedcabal342]

@@AstinCrow I was referring more to the story and gameplay side of things, but now that you mention it- the clashing architectural styles do kinda fit the aesthetics of that era, don’t they?

[@Drbeattles]

@@confusedcabal342 i think some of the balance issue skill up is complaining about comes from him missing the upgrade system. cause his guns look stock in every clip shown in this video.

[@MaybyAGhost]

Delighted to say that Mundfish put out multiple comments since release day saying that they're working on getting an FoV slider along with a few other things into a patch as soon as possible! Also after playing the game to completion I gotta say I recommend! The worst part is 100% the MC's English dialogue but if you approach it as B-movie style parody it becomes much better!

[@SIPEROTH]

Just put it in Russian.

[@MaybyAGhost]

@@SIPEROTH Oh for sure things feel a lot better and more serious in Russian, but not everybody likes reading subtitles especially with how much talking happens mid action. But I totally agree, Russian audio feels way better than the English audio.

[@iota-09]

I really do wonder how come EVERYONE that i know who played it in italian loved the protagonist, but at the same time the ones who played it in English hated him and found the dialogues in general to be poor, i hadn't expected such a stark contrast in localization quality... Assuming it's the localization and not just the markets.

[@anonymouseovermouse1960]

@@iota-09 I'm assuming that it must be the localization. I don't speak Russian, but translating the dialogue into Polish in my mind, it all seems much more natural and much less jarring than the English localization. Some insults and sayings are wildly out of place in English, while if i imagine their equivalents being said in Polish, they're much more natural that way.

[@liamhollands344]

Thanks for the review, I'm still going to give it a go because of gamepass but your review has convinced me to streamline the whole process by not even bothering to find a challenging difficulty to play it at, super chonky enemies isn't a fun form of difficulty and I don't have much time to actually play games these days so I'm going to breeze through on easy and enjoy as much of the combat as I can and hope that I finish the game before I get sick of it.

[@Kangorrilla]

The enemies aren’t sponges if you actually use the right weapons. He’s just really bad at the game.

[@ShadowChief117]

That vendor lady is like the writers thought the appliances in the SINK in New Vegas's Old World Blues were peak comedy that deserved a full games worth of interaction instead of a one off for a small DLC.

[@greenpinapple820]

"Remember Fist-o? That was SOOOOO funny let's have Fist-o be a main character."

[@pickledparsleyparty]

Something tells me the vendor's personality isn't just to be crass. Like maybe the arms industry is machista, and the company who made that vendor knows that all you have to do to make the sales is make the straight man feel like a lady thinks he's manly. I don't know if that's how it is. But that angle would make her personality funny rather than grating.

[@uestiosnoranswer5598]

For the studios fist game, it’s impressive of what they pulled of despite the flaws of the game. I’m definitely playing this just for the fun of it despite the issues. I’m exited to see the future of this studio and see their upcoming games. Maybe they can remake bioshock who knows?

[@Shenmue06]

Yeah the studio definitely has a bright future if this is their first game . The key elements of the game are great. They probably just over did it with the puzzles and stuff.

[@crooster1]

mmm, fist game, saucy!

[@pouuuh95]

After 6 hours I went from disagree to agree with your review. The open world killed any enthusiasm left for me.

[@tangroro]

I'm 100% sure all the bad dialogues are faults to the English dub, all the lines reek of Western "comedy", like Forspoken

[@NaniteAlex]

Thank you for bringing up Prey several times, it’s still so near and dear to my heart and deserves more love. It’s a great example of a game with brilliant game and level design despite it stumbling through the final hours.

[@anonymousl5150]

I started it yesterday and thought about getting this game as well

[@velkylev4217]

Which prey ?

[@MysteryScienceGaming]

@@velkylev4217 I was going to say. The first prey is amazing, the reboot is very weak compared to the first and on its own.

[@velkylev4217]

@@MysteryScienceGaming I dont think its a reboot, it's a different game , just has the same name

[@crooster1]

Prey, Skyrim and Witcher3 three games i wish i could erase my memory of and play as the first time.

[@theolihot]

Funny how I watched ACG's review this morning and he praised the game as one of the best and weirdest experience he's had in years. Not discrediting either of you, but the difference between reviews is the sole reason I'll play this game since it is so controversial. Also, It's on Game Pass so hurray!

[@RebornVengeancex]

One of the best? Yeah that's a hell no

[@Nazylexx]

@@RebornVengeancex Your comment proved his point. 👋

[@RebornVengeancex]

@@Nazylexx idk where you get the idea that it proves his point but I'm guessing you need help getting dressed

[@Kangorrilla]

Acg nails it. A lot of shill ups complaints are just him being bad at the game.

[@RebornVengeancex]

@@Kangorrilla "get good" doesn't make the game good

[@milanhvozdik3379]

I have to disagree with the review. Playing on game pass and find the game extremely enjoyable and well-crafted. I didn't expect much since I watched this review before I started playing, but the game impresses me all the time. The level design is really good with a ton of hidden loot and puzzles, real puzzles like lockpicking and many others are all enjoyable and surprisingly varied. Combat is fun with plenty of variety in both weapons and special abilities that allow tackling encounters in many ways, multiple OP in their own way which is fantastic. And everything has its own upgrade tree including visual changes and multiple attachments/special attacks for weapons. And upgrades are meaningful. I especially like the elemental enhancement system which is probably the best I've seen. And respec of abilities is free. Visuals, art design, and environmental storytelling are top-notch. The locations are varied, interesting, inspired, well crafted, and feel Russian. I live in central Europe and it is extremely familiar to me while having a futuristic touch. And they also feel lived-in and real. Logs in computers and recordings paint a picture of how the facility operated and what they were working on and it all fits together really nicely. Including lore about research that led to the state of the world as it is. I found everything consistent and with huge attention to detail. And the best part is talking to corpses, of which many are scientists that understand they are dead and it leads to many interesting conversations. I don't agree at all that writing in this game is bad. I don't know about the main story, I just recently got out of the underground, but even if it is total garbage, all the little storytelling on different scales and mediums that builds the world is great and makes exploration worthwhile. And creating all that was much more work than the main plotline. I also play the game with Russian dubbing (can understand maybe 50%) with eng subtitles and I don't find the main protagonist or the glove annoying or cringe. He is a special government operative totally under control, it's not that easy to see the world objectively from that circumstance. And he definitely is Russian. The fridge also is not that offensive in Russian, it seems more natural and I respect that they went with it. Despite all mentioned, my favorite thing about the game is probably the soundtrack. From futuristic themes, hectic combat music through Russian songs, some old classics, and some probably made up, but all very catchy and atmospheric to genuine classical music. Not sure if everything is from Russia, but I'm sure I heard Tchaikovsky and many other familiar compositions. It really adds a special feeling to the game, especially during some gameplay segments. But my favorite soundtrack is ironically inside the fridge in upgrade screens. Parts of it teleported me back to Disco Elysium which gives this game a thumbs up even if everything else sucked. EDIT: There was a song on a radio that I had stuck in my mind and was humming even when not playing the game. And then, during a cool combat encounter in open world game started playing metal version of it and my mind is blown once more. And it is the first release from the studio. I can't believe they created this amazing game. I haven't enjoyed a game of a similar genre this much since Prey. It feels like a work of love and certainly is special and memorable. And optimization is outstanding. Can't remember when I could play a game this gorgeous on Ultra with 100+ FPS. Yeah, NEVER. The only issues I have so far are technical ones. I had some bugs that caused me to reload and some like being unable to select the conversation option and frozen enemies not dropping loot are borderline game-breaking. Hopefully, patches are on their way.

[@man_3782]

100% agree with you mate

[@onisnazir1317]

Crispy critters i love it on series s

[@acegh0st]

Pretty much took the words right out of my mouth, mate. I’ve been loving it.

[@Kotka1986]

That was a really great review. Regarding the art style ( and how it sometimes clashes and mixes too many elements that don't gel well together ) - i agree for the most part. But there are some elements that i can totally see as a natural fit for this kind of aesthetic - see, I'm from a country that has a long (and pretty problematic) history with the Soviet Union, and that Soviet aesthetic is ingrained in a lot of our older buildings/ statues/ etc. So, when i saw that silly airship that combines mechanical semi-modern parts with wooden traditional carvings for the main body panels taken right out of a Russian church in the middle of Siberia i chuckled, because that's very on point and kind of creative . As for the game - not my cup of tea. Maybe if it was just a weird janky cousin of Painkiller or Serious Sam with that kind of aesthetic - sure. But what I've seen so far ( near constant chit chat with an inanimate object a la Forspoken, long puzzles and annoying protagonist ) kind of persuaded me from buying it.

[@aahzmandiaz2767]

The art style is just direct taken out of the reality how eastern Europe cities tend to look like. That is the reason he does not understand the different art "style". It's just crumbing structures mixed with new built ones.

[@chriswelter3859]

It looks so unique. I really don’t understand what the reviewer was complaining about. It looks great.

[@Kotka1986]

@@chriswelter3859 Some parts look really great, not many games out there has that quirky design for the robots, interiors & machinery. Also some assets have great texture work & surface materials. The big disappointment for me though are the outdoors ( with the big exception of the Bioshock Infinite -inspired opening ) - they literally look like any other forest/meadow environment test in UE that just slaps a ton of megascans on a terrain and calls it a say. When i saw the driving section, it looked like a fan mode for Far Cry game - not in terms of asset quality, but how everybody is assembled together.

[@Jokerlkak]

With this being their first game I don’t blame them on the gameplay aspect I under stand that if anything but the performance being this good is honestly really impressive to me

[@daksans6764]

Gameplay is not the problem in this game. Infact people are praising gameplay of Atomic Heart

[@weegi7227]

@@daksans6764 fr, id say 9/10 gameplay, 10/10 music, 10/10 graphics/art direction, and 4/10 dialogue/story.

[@daksans6764]

@@weegi7227 I don't play game for dialogue and story. Sony exclusives have opposite problem with commendable voice acting and story but dull gameplay.

[@weegi7227]

@@daksans6764 fr

[@Бабка-Террористка]

The review surprisingly shows how much the author does not understand either the USSR or Russia. The USSR is a country of contrasts. We who live in post-Soviet countries, this game is more than understandable, moreover, I have read all the notes and computers, it is logically explained there how buses 1967, cars 1969, songs already 2001 can appear in 1955. visually, the menu is displayed in the style of Soviet cartoons and so on. As for wooden fences next to high-tech gadgets, so it is now in Russia you can find ultramodern buildings surrounded by dilapidated junk. From the point of view of the logic of the world of this game, everything is done very clearly and competently.

[@nousername2942]

That's not what he's talking about though. Someone in the comments took that the wrong way and now everyone thinks he's historically illiterate. He was talking about asset placement and incorporation in the environment.

[@jesusbarrera6916]

@@nousername2942 "asset placement" that was literally the SOVIET UNION.... high grand technology next to 4rth world country infraestructure

[@nousername2942]

@@jesusbarrera6916 THAT. IS. NOT. WHAT. I. WAS. TALKING. ABOUT. My god how many times am I gonna have to say that

[@edwardx5726]

@@jesusbarrera6916 whoosh you missed the point

[@lukaszzylik4437]

​@no username skillups critique of the assets, room variety, and placement is stupid and completely misrepresents the game.

[@jhonnycake1]

It feels like you didn't engage with a lot of the combat systems, like the glove powers combined with the weapon upgrades that do more damage to specific enemy types - really let you shred enemies. Combat gets insanely fun as you're actually able to clear waves of enemies effectively if you use all the tools at your disposal.

[@brosephdudebro2537]

He's an Englishman, I wouldn't have expected him to realize how good the game is.

[@GilgaMax305]

Of course he didn't. Skillup is incredibly biased, unless the game holds his fucking hand the whole time. Don't always trust his opinions on games and make your own judgment.

[@themanager1485]

@@GilgaMax305 literally. At 19:30 he complains that the boss is a bullet sponge, meanwhile, he is sitting there shooting fucking rockets at it. The Teardrop is fucking resistant to explosions.

[@alanalb1449]

There Is already videos of all bosses no damage gameplays using weapons, melee amd the gloves and for me It looks insane in a nearly Doom eternal level

[@GilgaMax305]

@The Manager Mate, the stupidity is unreal. Imagine not experimenting and changing your approach in combat lol

[@OneGrumpyDragon]

So on the topic of combat. I haven't really heard anyone talk about the funny russian magic abilities intergrated into combat. From my experience they made the group fights alot more fun (I used mass tele and cryo) Towards the end of the game where they swarm you with tons of enemies you could pretty much lift up a group of like 6 enemies, shoot the tanky ones with your shotgun before slamming them all into the ground killing all of them in a few moments. For more devious foes that have specific weak points you can use cryo to freeze them, wander around and one tap them with the axe

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

But these are skills we see in games all the damn time. Yeah, it works and feels ok but nothing new here.

[@Archeaon]

That is nothing new, for example Dishonored had a lot of similar abilities, plus many more to do stealth.

[@BWMagus]

So it has plasmids.

[@OneGrumpyDragon]

Aye it's not new, but I was just saying that with using those abilities the more tanky enemies become trivial and the swarms are killed with ease. Alot of people tend to complain "enemies are too tanky" while using basic gear because they didn't unlock any of the upgrades or are just not using any of the abilities at all

[@vitorsilva7783]

​@@Archeaonnot even nearly as fun

[@WannaComment2]

I like how he never actually spoils the story. He just says it's heading towards the most obvious twists and conclusions, without saying anything specific, and we all just know what that means.

[@tabaflip]

At this point, I'll consider obvious twists and conclusions a good thing. Really sick and tired of the "subverting expectations" type of quacks.

[@LogicalError007]

This man recommended scorn. Edit: "STRONGLY" recommended.

[@skrimph]

I LOVE the visuals of this game, haven’t watched the whole review yet but I hope I can still enjoy the game

[@anthonyplanzo1082]

You will enjoy it. He's so far off base with this review.

[@tsu08761e]

@@anthonyplanzo1082 nah you people are just mad hes not a sheep

[@fel524]

@@tsu08761e he's more of a shill for not giving the game an actual chance

[@zoinksscoob6523]

​@@anthonyplanzo1082 hurrrr guy speak nonsense I love boobie bots atomic heart goty huurrrrrr

[@BirdLaw6969]

"hoping for the best but expecting the worst" is a phrase that perfectly sums up the video game industry at the moment. People need to stop buying into trailers.

[@xyphoon5013]

But the game is good even without the trailers

[@BirdLaw6969]

@@xyphoon5013 no where did I say atomic heart is bad, I said people need to stop buying into trailers.

[@Vivianhawke]

Play this on easy, if you want a more enjoyable experience. Fixes the issues with bullet sponge health and respawn rates. I'm having a blast, The art style is amazing

[@nothingisawesome]

imo this is accurate. it took me a while to just lower it because gamer but it is way enjoyable. yes, it makes some things too easy but it gets rid of the bs.

[@michaelmemory6938]

Damn, that’s a shame. I always did have a small fear that this would be too much style and no substance, especially since they never really emphasized story in their trailers, until very recently. As it stands, it will make a good Gamepass / XCloud trial. I think anyone coming away concerned can be positive about that.

[@pickledparsleyparty]

It does look like a cool action RPG (what it's been called in the trailers). It probably feels bad when you expect it to be an immersive sim, for some reason.

[@flowname]

> I always did have a small fear that this would be too much style and no substance speaking of a small fear, F.E.A.R. had no style but had substance (advanced enemy AI, slowmo in FPS, one of the earliest attempts at horror FPS), and guess what were people complaining about back then? "it has no style, office blocks look like office blocks, duh"

[@hurk7984]

Been playing it for hours, this review is nuts, and I always go to reviews first. 8/10

[@kylerclarke2689]

The game's most unforgivable flaw is being worse than Bioshock despite trying so clearly to emulate it. Bioshock is better written, has better combat and much more interesting exploration.

[@milanhvozdik3379]

Combat is definitely not better in Bioshock. Played all Bioshocks recently, after Atomic Hearth, and the combat felt really dated and flat in one. It's better in 2 and really improved in 3, but still enjoyed the gameplay of Atomic Hearth more. The godlike soundtrack and fun abilities might play some role in that.

[@JayNSG0]

Bioshock is the most overrated series ever made, I have played it many times and fail to see what's so great about it, it's a run of the mill shooter with a fairly interesting story and setting but that's it, it does NOTHING amazing.

[@kylerclarke2689]

@@JayNSG0 I mostly agree. Atomic Heart has the setting but is worse in every other way that it's trying to be like Bioshock

[@MadOrange644]

This game definitely put Mundfish on the map for me. I'm interested what this studio can make in the future.

[@hunterwaguespack3963]

I love skillups channel but he’s had a few “do not recommend” games that I loved so ima still give this one a try

[@hunterwaguespack3963]

& honestly I usually just skip the “pc spec” part of the videos

[@Skegfromcraigslist]

Yeah. Wild hearts especially for me. Can’t stop playing that game

[@R-SXX]

@@Skegfromcraigslist I oftentimes think he does do recommend and do not recommend depending what the current sentiment is. The game is highly anticipated and looks good? Do not recommend. It is shun and hated by the community? Recommend.

[@zerodivided3676]

I have similar experiences with SkillUp, but do appreciate his opinion nevertheless. At the end of the day it's just that - an opinion. Yours may very well differ. Here's my approach: If I like the look of a game and some of my favorite reviewers rate it well - blind buy If I like the look of a game and some of my favorite reviewers rate it poorly - buy it and set a 2 hour alarm clock for the refund limit in which I form my own opinion. If I don't like the look of a game but some of my favorite reviewers give it high praise - consider it if it's a genre i'm interested it and also set a 2 hour alarm clock :)

[@DewaKrishna_]

His review is his own opinion so you're free to agree and disagree with it, everyone is entitled to their own

[@Lightsaglowllc]

So I REALLY disagree with this review. Dialogue is kinda cringe but otherwise the game is great. Also runs at 80 fps + at native 4k with zero stutters on my system. Best optimized game in some time.

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

Bad frame pacing on a stable 3080ti system but I seem to be very much in the minority. Only started 6 hours in tho

[@boneless_Jungle_Ham]

Yeah, I will agree. The dialogue is cringe in American English but if you switch to Russian and check out the subtitles completely changes the tone of the game

[@kemanorel3110]

I disagree on the dialogue heavily, it feels like a cheesy action B movie from the 80s and I love that kinda cheese.

[@qiang2884]

The russian dialog sounds like a soviet soldier with the iconic east european humor, where the English version sounds like you are a punk ass.

[@draxs3439]

I personally really like this game.

[@Mohgenstein]

It’s actually a really fun and weird game

[@A7XKoRnRocks1]

Having a hell of a time playing this game it's great and it's so well optimized on PC, rare to see a new PC game optimized so well and is stutter free.

[@spacedout4061]

Same

[@draxs3439]

@@A7XKoRnRocks1 and its the first game out of their studio as well.

[@dalvinduchesne2325]

I personally did not.

[@thisworldisinsane5679]

Dude the main character is a Russian KGB agent. Blindly following the orders of the higher-ups is what they are supposed to do. The guy isn't dumb he is just a typical Russian

[@rofunaciya]

🤦🏼‍♂️

[@ToxcityBass]

The fact that this game runs really well and they didnt downgrade the graphics is a huge W. I feel like with a few patches this game is gonna be really good.

[@bartibejones]

Yeah because graphics make the game right? Lol

[@YuriG03042]

patches won't fix the story, so this game is not going to be really good. it might just become passable

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Amazing given how it has Denuvo

[@skywillfindyou]

@@YuriG03042 But the story is great.

[@ToxcityBass]

@@bartibejones Absolutely not, but it does help. Im so tired of games being downgraded, its a breath of fresh air to see a game come out with what was promised.

[@xellanox]

Having completed it, I think it's safe to say, if you liked Wolfenstein the new order/old blood/new colossus you'll love Atomic heart.

[@DsgSleazy]

Bet.

[@Justinpitchford]

Yes!! Skillup is losin his grip on reality.

[@maboilaurence8227]

I know people are loving this game, but holy shit the characters' dialogue and writing in general is horseshit and probably the worst I've seen this year.

[@ethanthomas1148]

Based off this review I actually see a lot fun times with this game

[@thatoneguyfaded]

"I Do Not Recommend this 6/10 game because its not Rockstar or Naughty Dog and its not as good as established solidified studios and therefor you should not support their very first game so that they cant afford to make another one and we go back to the same serialized games we have had over the last 10 years" Okay bud, you and every other KZbinr who poops on 6/10 games are murdering gaming. Y'all are single handedly destroying the AA landscape by calling these average games a waste of time.

[@relaxedberserker4156]

Cope

[@geraldough2482]

“Okay bud” 🤓

[@xcharlesbronsonx]

​@@relaxedberserker4156keep playing ubisoft garbage and starfield bud

[@rwln]

Really can’t take anything you say seriously after saying lost judgment was bad tbh

[@JB2FROSTY]

Played this game on the hardest difficulty and I can say with confidence that I don't know what the fuq you're whining about for half an hour straight. Unsubbed. Can't be trusted telling me about no video games lmao