Blending first-person shooter mechanics with action-RPG depth, Atomic Heart is the latest from Russia-based developer Mundfish and follows the tale of Major Sergey Nechayev (aka P-3) through a dystopian alternate history where the Soviet Union won World War II. As it’s such an unusual mashup of genres, many folks are wondering: Is Atomic Heart a horror game? If you’ve arrived here, you’re probably in the same boat. Here’s everything you need to know. Let’s get into it!
Is Atomic Heart Scary? Answered
While Atomic Heart is comprised of a combination of different genres, it’s fair to say that it does borrow heavily from the horror genre.
You see, the regular Lab-Tech robots that you come up against are very reminiscent of the killer machines from Alien: Isolation and the Terminator series, and the flying Sprout drones are comparable to the Infectors in Dead Space as they can mutate dead bodies into deadly hybrid monsters.
Furthermore, the enemy designs are quite scary with chomping maws, eerie screams, and plant-like noggins. For instance, the mutants look like a combination of the mutated alien monstrosities from John Carpenter’s The Thing and the Clickers from The Last of Us.
In short, yes, Atomic Heart can occasionally be quite scary and takes a lot of inspiration from the horror genre. That being said, its emphasis on FPS action makes us hesitant to call it a full-on horror game, but instead, we’d describe it more as an FPS action-RPG with sci-fi horror influences, much akin to, say, BioShock, Prey, or Singularity.
So, what do you know: That’s everything you need to know about whether Atomic Heart is a horror game. For more, here’s a recent op-ed discussing the ropey writing in the game. Or alternatively, feel free to explore the relevant links below.
