Atomic Heart’s “sublime utopian world” was accused of glorifying the USSR
‘Atomic Heart’, a video game set in an alternate 1950s Soviet Union, topped the charts on the Steam digital sales platform upon its release on Tuesday. The title briefly held the number one spot despite not being available to Russian users of the service.
Developed by the Cyprus-based studio Mundfish, ‘Atomic Heart’ managed to briefly dethrone ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ as the top-selling title on Steam, which is the biggest digital distribution platform for PC gaming. The new release soon slipped to a still-formidable second place in the charts, yielding to the overwhelming popularity of the Harry Potter franchise.
‘Atomic Heart’ is a first-person shooter that puts the player in the shoes of a KGB agent “in a mad and sublime utopian world” of an alternate history USSR, shown as a technological wonder of robotics, albeit with a dark conspiracy brewing. The game’s unique retrofuturistic Soviet dystopia aesthetic has been cited as one of its main draws, although the style has also opened the game up to political controversy.
Ukrainian YouTuber ‘Harenko’ claimed that ‘Atomic Heart’ glorifies the Soviet Union and the KGB, and called on Western players to boycott it. However, multiple American content creators discarded that notion, citing the subversive nature of ‘Atomic Heart’ as a commentary on Cold War propaganda. Some also criticized developer Mundfish – many of whose staff are Russian – for not taking a stance on the conflict in Ukraine. The developers tweeted in January that they “do not comment on politics or religion” and are a “global team.”
YouTube game critic Luke Stephens argued on Friday that boycott calls appeared to mean that “a lot of people are simply engaging in McCarthyism, dismissing this studio, because it has Russians working within it.” He added that this kind of logic was “a slippery slope.”
The game’s success on Steam cannot be attributed to Russian users, as the digital storefront suspended sales in the country in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. By EarthWeb estimates, there are around 11.5 million Russian users on the platform. Instead, ‘Atomic Heart’ is available for purchase in the country via a service called VK Play.
‘Atomic Heart’ was positively received by critics, with review aggregator Open Critic currently listing it as 74/100 and its Metacritic score standing at 75/100.
Bad for nazis for sure
Apparently certain people took offense to this little poem
As if offending nazis is something bad)
I’d go further - if this poem offends you, might want to rethink your views
Are you playing it at the moment? If so, how is it in terms of anti-communist propaganda? I’d love to play it, but not if it’s anti-USSR bullshit
Liberal Russian thinking Soviet as their glory days without understanding politics, not so much anti communist but a lot of liberal BS
Nah, my potato laptop would melt if I try to. I am watching play through.
About anti-USSR bullshit… Eh, hard to say as of right now. Opening scene was beautiful, gonna see what happens in main game.