Spoilers for Atomic Heart aheadThe alt-history sci-fi shooterAtomic Hearthit the scene last month from developer Mundfish as a love letter to classic titles likeBioShock,Wolfenstein, andDoom. The game has been no stranger to controversy in the time since release ascritics were divided onAtomic Heartand its many conflicting mechanics seemingly working against each other. However, looking past these mechanics still results in a disappointing experience, as the game’s possible endings leave the player feeling like they’ve made the wrong choice no matter what.
Ambiguous or unhappy endings in games tend to get mixed results and need to be handled very carefully in order to leave the player feeling satisfied at the end of the game.The Last of Us Part 2is a perfect example of this phenomenon, as the game ends on a very somber note, which works in this case given the overarching themes of the game, but still ended up controversial among players. The two possible endings forAtomic Heartdon’t have the same impact, especially since players are given the choice of which ending to pursue, which poses the question of why give players a choice at all.
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There is No Winning with Atomic Heart
As players make their way throughAtomic Heart’s onslaught of killer robots, they begin to uncover the truth about the man behind Kollektiv 2.0 and P-3’s boss, Dmitry Sechenov. Based on information disclosed by scientist Larisa Filatova and P-3’s AI glove, Charles, the player learns that Sechenov always intended to use civilian robots for combat, and plans to use the launch of Kollektiv 2.0 to trigger their combat abilities around the world in a quest for global domination. This revelation puts the entire game into perspective and changes P-3’s attitude toward what he thought was the noble pursuit of his boss.
After learning of this plan, and the fact that Sechenov had been using an implant in P-3’s brain to cause him to go into a murderous rampage, the game seems to push players towards taking down Sechenov and putting an end to his scheme. Thefinale of theAtomic Heartgives players the choice to either listen to those telling him to finish off Sechenov, or side with him and simply walk away from the whole mess, allowing Kollektiv 2.0 to launch unhindered. However, these choices end up having drastically different outcomes than one would expect, and not necessarily for the better.
Choosing to walk away is the simplest answer, but it ends the game right there and leaves the story feeling incomplete. To fight the final boss and get the true ending, players need to agree to take down Sechenov, but while the final boss fight againstAtomic Heart’s Twinsis quite the spectacle, the events that follow are rather disappointing. After the fight, Charles reveals that he is the AI consciousness of Schenov’s former partner, Chariton Zakharov, who put his consciousness into a neuropolymer as a way of transcending humanity and has been manipulating the events of the game this whole time in an effort to destroy humankind.
This is quite the shocking twist, but the fact that the game ends with Chariton victorious makes it seem like this is the bad ending. However, with the alternative being an incomplete ending, it seems like neither ofAtomic Heart’s endingsare good. This undermines the entire plot, as its overarching theme of being distrustful of those seeking to limit freewill is shattered by the final revelation that Sechenov wasn’t that bad after all and that Charles had been sowing the seeds of discord in P-3’s mind and manipulating him into murdering those that stood in his way the whole time.
Atomic Heartis available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
