Atomic Heart developer Mundfish recently confirmed that their upcoming alternate history FPS title will make use of the added power of next-gen hardware—but only in certain areas of the game’s world. The promise of peak performance only extends to the game’s dungeons, and, given how far removed from a dungeon-crawler Atomic Heart appears to be, it’s tough to determine the exact parameters the developers are outlying.

First revealed in 2018, Atomic Heart has often been compared to the BioShock franchise as a result of its mid-twentieth-century setting and combat loop that appears to revolve around powers like telekinesis and pyrokinesis. This is, of course, a lofty mantel to uphold, particularly for a hitherto-unknown development outfit. Still, despite a small delay and some controversy during production, Atomic Heart is due for release in roughly one month’s time—and, according to the developer, it’ll be primed for performance on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

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Despite the relatively small size of the development studio behind Atomic Heart, Mundfish has managed to link up with publisher Focus Home as well as acclaimed Doom soundtrack composer Mick Gordon. These assets helped to legitimize the production in the minds of many, and, should Atomic Heart manage to hit the 4K 60 FPS goals outlined by the developer, the project has a chance to be remembered as a high-water mark of smaller-scale video game development. That said, as per a tweet from Mundfish, these performance parameters are only being targeted in certain interior "dungeon" locations.

An area roughly resembling a dungeon can be seen in a fifteen-minute segment of leaked Atomic Heart gameplay. In this snippet, the player evades a trio of eerie-looking androids by slipping into an elevator that transports them to a kind of subterranean facility. Performance could certainly be boosted in these smaller environments, though the gameplay on offer seems to be no less mind-boggling. If 2017’s Prey, 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order, and 2010’s Singularity could be merged into a single product, this might well be it.

Regardless of the title’s maximum performance, Mundfish has a lot to lose should Atomic Heart suffer from subpar performance. Often talked-about titles like The Callisto Protocol and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet received backlash from fans due to iffy performance, and it would be a shame to see yet another well-anticipated game replicate these mistakes. Then again, even Game of the Year-winner Elden Ring earned some ire early on as a result of issues, so perhaps performance isn’t a be-all-end-all benchmark.

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