At the bottom of the sea: what will surprise the new addition Atomic Heart

Atomic Heart became a hit not only in the CIS countries, but also among foreign gamers. In anticipation of a large-scale continuation of the story, the interest of fans to the adventures of Major Nechaev on the expanses of an alternative robotic USSR is supported by story DLC - in total they were planned to release four pieces. On January 28 gamers will be waiting for the third addition, which will send the protagonist to a research institute located underwater. Is it worth pinning high hopes on the novelty, given the failure of "Prisoner of Limbo" - analyzed "Izvestia".

Old song

Studio Mundfish announced the release date of the third story add-on to the acclaimed Soviet-style shooter Atomic Heart. The novelty was called "Charms of the sea depths" and the trailer, according to which the main character will have to get his feet wet, solving the mysteries of the underwater research center.

Screenshot from Atomic Heart: Enchantment Under the Sea

Photo: Mundfish

An important part of the atmosphere and popularity of the game are famous songs from the USSR - and in this regard Enchantment Under the Sea attracted the attention of streaming music services. Geoffrey Day's remix of "In the blue sea, in the white foam (Stay, boy, with us)" is already topping the charts. Both versions - the traditional one performed by Julia Kogan and its reimagining - will be included in the official soundtrack of VOL. 5, which will be released simultaneously with the DLC.

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Previous additions "Instinct of Extermination" and "Prisoner of Limbo" were not warmly received by fans and received rather controversial reviews. Critics praised the diverse gameplay, but noted the almost complete lack of plot. At the same time, the developers themselves noted that they wanted to continue the main game in an unexpected way and make the additions as surreal as possible.

Screenshot from Atomic Heart: Enchantment Under the Sea

Photo: Mundfish

PC and console users will be able to go on an underwater journey through the hidden corners of the complex 3826 already on January 28. Of course, the novelty will have a voiceover in Russian and will be available to players from Russia through VK Play Games.

Feed the fish

"Enchantments of the sea depths" will be a direct continuation of the second DLC "Prisoner of Limbo", when Major Nechayev returns to the real, but changed world. Familiar locations will be different from what the player has seen before, there will also be a lot of amazing places.

After the robot uprising, the "Chalomey" complex looks like a shadow of its former greatness, becoming a dangerous territory full of hostile "ironmen". A new threat, capable of destroying humanity, forces Major Nechayev to go to the underwater research center "Neptune". In this he is helped by one of the Twins.

Screenshot from Atomic Heart: Enchantment Under the Sea

Photo: Mundfish

On the territory of the research center there are many dangerous robots, including MUR-8N4, as well as whole swarms of marine mutants. The fight with them will have to be not only in sealed rooms: from the trailer it becomes clear how P-3 does not like to dive into the dark water, swimming from object to object. "It's so beautiful here, but I'm not comfortable underwater. There's something creepy in the depths," Nechayev shares in the gameplay teaser.

In the third add-on, according to the developers, a lot of attention will be paid to the characters and the relationships between them. Players will also have access to new abilities, weapons and ways to interact with the world around them.

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In the arsenal of the major will appear hammer "Thunderer", which strikes enemies with electric current with increased damage, and double-barreled shotgun KZMI-4 "Kuzmich", dispersing clusters of monsters thanks to shots with customizable bullet spread. The P-3 gauntlet will also have additional abilities. The "Tan" skill will allow the character to throw glowing polymer fireballs and deal area damage. The "Whip" ability will pull Nechayev closer to enemies to attack, and will also help him to reach hard-to-reach places and dodge blows.

Screenshot from Atomic Heart: Enchantment Under the Sea

Photo: Mundfish

The main boss of the DLC will be a huge robot controlling "Neptune".

System Requirements

Minimum:

Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 380 (4 GB) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (4 GB)

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3 Ghz or Intel Core i5-4460 3.1 Ghz

RAM: 8 GB

Recommended:

Graphics card: AMD RX Vega 64 (8 GB) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB)

Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.8 Ghz or Intel Core i7-7700 3.6 Ghz

RAM: 16 GB

Popularity and plans

Atomic Heart has received positive reviews from gamers and game critics alike. On the popular aggregator site Metacritic, the project has a rating of more than 70 points out of a possible 100 on PC and consoles. The shooter also won the "Legendary Video Games" category of the Russian Game Industry Hall of Fame and the "Outstanding Visual Style" category of the Steam Awards, and the game's soundtracks were nominated for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards.

The two subsequent DLCs were rated worse by Metacritic users, with the first addition "Instinct of Extinction" receiving an overall score of 6.5 and "Prisoner of Limbo" only 4.8.

Screenshot from Atomic Heart: Enchantment Under the Sea

Photo: Mundfish

Last September, the streaming service Kinopoisk and Mundfish officially announced the creation of a film adaptation based on the game and the book about the backstory of Enterprise 3826. Presumably, shooting will start in 2025.

The developers have also previously stated their intention to release a second full-fledged installment of Atomic Heart, but that shouldn't be expected anytime soon. At least, there will be one more, fourth, addition to the first part.