The upcoming sci-fi/horror game Atomic Heart will be coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one. This news was ironically announced on Day 2 of E3 2021 during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, accompanied by a high-octane 1-minute trailer for Atomic Heart.
Like Chernobylite, another game that received a tense and stunning trailer at E3, Atomic Heart is a sandbox horror game that takes place in an alternate past. However, where Chernobylite focuses on time travel and is set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Atomic Heart takes place in the Soviet Union during a high-tech version of the 1950s. In this alternate timeline, the USSR made a huge leap in robotics and genetic engineering technology after the war, and now there appears to be a robot uprising going on.
The game's protagonist, P-3, is a special agent dispatched to investigate a manufacturing plant that has inexplicably fallen silent. Judging by the surreal imagery, malfunctioning robots, and fleshy red tentacle monsters showcased in the trailers, there's a good reason the manufacturing plant has gone quiet.
Developer Mundfish teased some of the story alongside the reveal that there will no load screens in Atomic Heart. What its said so far implies that Atomic Heart will focus on the aftermath of a robot rebellion after technology begins to revolt against its creators. However, there are quite a few moments in the trailer that appear to suggest something supernatural is going on as well. It's also possible that the robots have rebelled as a result of something supernatural occurring at the manufacturing plant.
In this new trailer, the protagonist is seen navigating their way through rooms that are actively crumbling into the sky, dodging the laser beams of enormous robot enemies, and interacting with a number of NPCs who range from unassuming old women to mysteriously floating figures. Atomic Heart will feature an ultra-detailed Photo Mode, so players will probably be able to take pictures of each of these phenomena in-game. As the trailer's imagery grows more unsettling, the cheerful background track becomes at once less and more fitting than ever.
Playing happy music over horrific scenes is a well-documented technique of horror games and horror-adjacent games from around the world. Given how many similarities Atomic Heart seems to have with Bioshock, it shouldn't be a surprise that this game also features a soundtrack much too cheerful for its content. However, while Bioshock's soundtrack was mostly jazz and orchestral music, Atomic Heart's latest trailer features a bright Russian pop song.
Atomic Heart is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.