Sci-Fi Shooter Atomic Heart in Development Hell: Report

Sci-fi Soviet-era shooter Atomic Heart wowed audiences with its announcement trailer and subsequent slivers of gameplay footage from developer Mundfish. The Atomic Heart release date is slated for 2019 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and it appears that it's lacking a few elements you'd expect to be in place for a 2019 launch such as its game design. According to a recent report from a game development related Telegram in Russian that's been translated on popular gaming forum ResetEra, it appears that not all is well with Atomic Heart. So much so that the report alleges that its development has been rebooted five months ago and now has a "huge gameplay downgrade".

Other concerns include the game's format. It was conceived to be an open-world game but now may have an episodic release, the report claims (via ResetEra).

"Poster says he anonymously talked with some of the Atomic Heart devs to find out what's been happening with all these rumors (rumors that almost got no attention outside local websites)," reads a post on ResetEra that contains the translation.

Here are all the details on what could possibly be wrong with Atomic Heart.

• Last gameplay is real but it's heavily directed and very linear. First trailer is mostly fake with gameplay bits rendered on engine.
• Seems like the game may have an episodic release (one episode is approximately five hours) but it doesn't mentioned anywhere else.
• CEO doesn't have any knowledge about the game development.
• Everything that people like about the game (art, design, concept) is made by one person - Artyom Galeev, who has been nurturing the concept of the game for many years.
• No actual game design. Devs don't know what they want to make. Someone liked finishers from Doom and they implemented something similar. Ideas shift from Doom and Prey to even Dark Souls.
• Major layoffs and there are not many experienced developers with C++ and UE4 in Russia, a lot of the work is outsourced.
• Development was rebooted five months ago and now it looks even worse than it did before, huge gameplay downgrade.
• The whole deal with Soviet Luna Park VR sounds like a cashgrab with peopple who bought it left behind.
• Pre-orders are already open and it seems like it's the only thing about this game that really does work.

It will be interesting to see what state Atomic Heart is in when it finally is out. That said, it would be prudent to keep expectations in check.

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