Development studio Mundfish released the 3rd out of 4 promised premium DLC for Atomic Heart, a first-person shooter with RPG elements. The events of the game take place in an alternative universe where the Soviet Union has achieved a technological breakthrough and created robots that help people in their daily lives. However, as it usually happens, something went wrong, and the robots rebelled against their creators. The player takes on the role of agent P-3, who goes to Facility 3826 to sort out the situation and stop the robot uprising.
Let’s start from afar, the first and the second DLC to Atomic Heart were more of a filler variety rather than continuations of the plot. The first DLC – Annihilation Instinct – gave us an idea of what happens after the “good” ending, where P-3 refused Charles, it gave a little information about P-3 himself and the world around, introducing several new abilities and weapons for destroying enemies. The DLC was overall warmly received by players.
The second DLC had us Trapped in Limbo. P-3 got out of Limbo by following the voice of his wife, solving simple puzzles and running away from the Goose. Trapped in Limbo DLC has a strong idea of exploring the inner world of P-3, Nechaev, by presenting him as a plush body in limbo… But alas, I don’t think the developers managed to competently present the idea in the DLC. There was an attempt to explore some important details through the hero’s unconscious and distant corners of memory that he couldn’t quite reach on his own… but it simply wasn’t enough. Although the OST was quite the banger, some of the tunes are still present in my playlist.
This brings us to Atomic Heart DLC#3, Enchantment Under the Sea. It explores what happened after the true ending of the base game and Trapped in Limbo DLC. Nechaev manages to contact his wife Ekaterina, whose advice helps him escape. At first, you get a short overview of what happened in the base game taking into account the “true” ending.
P-3 wakes up in the exact spot that Trapped in Limbo ended at, on a bed next to the damaged hull of one of the Twins. However, she instantly comes to her senses and pierces his palm and the glove, transferring herself into it. This way, instead of Charles, Nechaev’s Polymer glove has Ekaterina there.
And after just one room, the player realizes that he is inside the Chelomey complex. Only if earlier it was a proud, beautiful and stately complex, now it is destroyed and blazing with fires, where crazy robots stumble about. P-3 will naturally attempt to get out, overcoming both new enemies and old acquaintances.
The locations inspire a desire to replay the original game again, the new mechanics are very competently and pleasantly integrated into the gameplay process, and the weapons are finally not just for show (as in the first DLC) but carry real combat power and are quite fun to use.
The game introduces a new rapid-fire shotgun, which will be a great addition to the arsenal of any shooter player. You can also use the Thunderer mace, created from robot parts. It is quite powerful. Another useful thing is the grappling hook, like in Doom Eternal. All arenas in the game are designed with this device in mind, especially those where you will need to fight bosses. I would like to remind you that Agent Nechayev is not very fast normally. But now he has the ability to fly to another part of the map thanks to the grappling hook.
This is especially useful in boss battles and allows you to quickly move around the arena. To use the grappling hook, the player can latch onto disposable bees (this is only available in the battle with the first boss) or onto the hooks that are randomly hung throughout the arena. In addition, the grappling hook can be used to pull you to enemies, except for flying opponents – in this case, it is useless. Sometimes the glove “whip” does not work quite correctly, but in general it is useful and helps the player in difficult situations. The whip also helps to get close to enemies, or pull them to you, and with upgrades it will also heal, weakening enemies and allowing us to inflict increased damage on them after using the whip.
The second new ability is a fireball, which can both damage enemies and weaken them, and after a good upgrade it can turn into a kind of death ray that burns through the enemy. In battle with strong enemies, it proves to be a very useful ability. The fireball can also burn through paths and puzzle pieces sealed by the mutant crabs, which looks very nice. It’s a pity that the developers did not allow us to craft weapons from the original game and the first DLC. I would gladly try out the arsenal on mutant crabs and new robots, but even with a limited arsenal, the battles in the DLC are very, very enjoyable.
If you don’t rush ahead, skipping all the boxes and stashes, you can collect enough materials to upgrade your weapons. The same Mace starts to hit not only a single target, but also enemies around, unwinding its pommel and adding electric damage to the blows. The pistol, machine gun and shotgun are also upgraded into something deadly. Each element of the weapon can be upgraded in a couple of ways, do you want a bigger spread in the shotgun? – enjoy. Extra grouping – there is such an upgrade. Changing upgrades returns all the used resources to you, so you can safely experiment.
The locations in the DLC are also varied, here we are on Chelomey, then you go to the beach, and here is Baba Zina’s hut. And then there are the underwater corridors of the Neptune Complex, which so strongly evoke Bioshock, that one. The very first. The developers themselves are a little ironic about the similarity of the locations, not hiding where they got their inspiration from. After all, when you first get into the corridors of the underwater complex, they start playing music that is very similar to Bioshock.
The new locations of the complex are also varied, we will even be given the opportunity to go out into the open waters, though not for long, but these half an hour pay off their share of emotions in full. The locations are thought out, the secrets in them are hidden very, very well, and finding all the lore talkers will be very difficult, but useful. New and old enemies will meet our Couple – P-3 and his wife. Mutant crabs, capable of digging and hiding in shells, Their big brother, the crab boss that hides his weak points from us with his huge claws, good old robots, as well as new options, capable of assembling anew and attacking from behind. New squids – polymer addicts, spitting ink and exploding spores at us, and of course new bosses.
Every boss in the DLC, much like in the base game, is simply wonderful. The Robot Girl alone – the lack of which was criticized in the main game – is already something else. The battle with her will be a great introduction to the new mechanics of the whip. The crab bosses will not be the same. Each has its own mechanics, and the final boss, which took me about 40 minutes – will be remembered for a long time.
The balance in the game is very good, on the normal difficulty the game will give a small challenge and let you pass without any complaints to the developers. Again, if you do not rush headlong, but explore the locations for secrets and caches, robbing enemies – you will have more than enough resources for good upgrades of abilities and guns.
Although the last boss gave me some problems. Especially in the last phase, where you simultaneously fly between hooks, periodically you need to do this without touching the floor, jump over damaging waves, step only on safe areas of the floor, heal and manage to shoot at the glowing segments of the robot’s body, which he also hides periodically, oh yes, and also shoot back the boss’s exploding shells.
The new heroes in Enchantment Under the Sea DLC are well developed, they are written into the plot competently, and feel like a part of the world, and not just cardboard NPCs – giving a passage or a key for a certain quest. There is chemistry and history between them. A certain security specialist is a hunter, who had shoved caches of cartridges everywhere just in case. Technician Nikolai, whom we will meet in a very original way, Ichthyologist Nastya, and finally Dolphin Nekit with his brothers. The relationship between our P-3 and his wife, Ekaterina, is shown quite vividly. You can see how she tries to take care of him, worries, and at the same time thinks about her existence and everything that happened to them. As you progress, you will see the development of their relationship from simple work-related conversations into something more.
I want to talk about filling the world with lore separately. There are a TON of references not only to Russian culture, but it is still the major point. References to dozens of works, films, books, writers and just famous people. It was hard for me to understand them all, but even my knowledge of Russian culture was enough for half a hundred references. And how many did I miss? Moreover, references are everywhere, in the name of the letter files, in the text, in songs and everything else you just might run into. And some of the phrases of the first boss made me laugh out loud. Well, it was not without a bunch of memes, one of which is “tomorrow at three”, referring to the developers’ answer “and when will the game be released?” As a result, we have an exemplary DLC, which brought in additions to the plot, and a pleasant combat with new mechanics and weapons, and a little new music.
The overall history of the world was explored a little more. And finally, I will scold the advertising. The game brought in advertising for some brands. While it was not intrusive, sometimes it felt completely inappropriate. Let’s start with Fedoskino boxes – in real life, these are quite pretty but pricey, with one going for $500+. Justifiably so, for a handmade product, with a few scattered around the game world. Finding them plays a kind of ad for a collab with the Yoomootа art universe, a funny little thing for a completely crazy big price: $10k for each one of the unique figurines and a limited edition with the microphones of the future.
The collaboration with the Pyatherochka grocery store line is the cherry on top when it comes to advertising. As I understood, you can buy ready-made food and coffee, upload the receipts to the special Telegram bot and have a chance to win a hand-assembled PC in the form of Eleanor. Refrigerator + PC, 2 in 1. While overall fun, the ads were done quite clumsily and put in out of place, in my opinion.
Check out the official site to find out more.
- Similar to: Bioshock
- Note: the Steam version of the base game & the DLC are a verified purchase by the author
