Surreal Russian immersive sim Atomic Heart reveals robotic resurrection bees and telekinesis
I want to swim through the goop
In the world of Atomic Heart, too many things have tendrils. They're on the computers. They dangle from the robotic resurrection bees. They're in your hand, squirming outwards in some heinous fashion that grants you telekinesis. Every peek we get into Mundfish's upcoming Russian immersive sim makes me want to get my squirming telekinesis hands on it sooner.
The news comes courtesy of YouTuber Alexey Makarenkov, who delved into the Atomic Heart of darkness and revealed this and more in his hands on preview. Wait until you see the drillsnakes.
It's in Russian, but the English subtitles work fine.
It does feel like one of those games that suffers for seeing parts before they're ready. I'm a little envious of people who get to encounter those drillsnakes for the first time in the wild, but so it goes. I've combed the 44 minutes above for what's most notable.
Telekinesis works like in Control, where you haul things up in front of you and blast them outwards. You can also zip melee weapons into your hands, though.
I'm pleased to see a focus on melee combat. Makarenkov compares it to Zeno Clash, and it reminds me of Elderborn, a pretty good bash 'em up that came out last week. The key ingredient is a liberal dose of dashing, and the nuances of timing your attacks with your movements. Marenkov also mentions that the shooting feels solid, but guns come with low clip counts that force you to swap back to melee.
Robotic resurrection bees are a big deal, too. They can be hacked if you sneak up on them, but if you don't they'll skulk around attacking you with razor blades and fixing up their friends. They're connected to hives, which will send bees out for you if you don't disable them first, and are also wired up to an overworld surveillance system that pours in more enemies as you cause a ruckus. You can't go down into a laboratory and make a tonne of noise, Makarenkov says, and presume things are going to be dandy when you get to the surface.
The bit that most grabbed me was where he explores one of those laboratories, where globs of "polymer" float about in the air, and he swims through rooms gelatinously flooded from the top-down.
Developers Mundfish haven't announced a release date for the rest of us to swim through the weird floating goop.
There's plenty I haven't mentioned in Makarenkov's video, and another where he answers audience questions.
