Atomic Heart: Release date & time, platforms, gameplay, more
Atomic Heart is the ambitious debut game from developer Mundfish, an interesting FPS inspired by the likes of Bioshock and Half Life. Here’s everything you need to know about Atomic Heart, including its release date.
2023 may have only just begun, but the lineup of upcoming games already looks stacked. Hogwarts Legacy is set to be the first new game to hit shelves, with the likes of Starfield still to come later down the line.
Another intriguing title gathering hype in 2023 is Atomic Heart, the exciting first game from developer Mundfish that looks to send players on a twisted sci-fi journey through an alternate reality Soviet Union.
If Atomic Heart is on your radar, we’ve got a breakdown of everything you need to know about the game right here, from how it plays to when it will release.
- Atomic Heart release date & platforms
- All Atomic Heart editions and prices
- Atomic Heart gameplay
- Atomic Heart story
- Atomic Heart runtime
- Does Atomic Heart have multiplayer or co-op?
- Does Atomic Heart have microtransactions?
- Atomic Heart trailers
Atomic Heart release date and time
Atomic Heart is confirmed to arrive on February 21, 2023, at midnight in your local region across both generations of PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Those subscribed to Xbox Game Pass will also be able to try out Atomic Heart on day one for no extra cost.
Steam players on PC will be able to play Atomic Heart on February 20 at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET / 11 PM GMT. The game was first revealed all way back in 2017 but was hit by severe delays, causing updates to dry up in the following years.
Then, it resurfaced again in early 2022, before the devs confirmed the final release date back in November. Despite the lengthy development cycle, Atomic Heart has still managed to keep plenty of fans interested over the years, who will be keen to finally get their hands on the chaotic shooter.
All Atomic Heart editions and prices
The Standard Edition of Atomic Heart is available for $69.99 / £59.99 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Players that preordered this version also received the Swede Weapon Skin and Electro Weapon Skin pre-order bonuses.
The Gold Edition costs $99.99 / £84.99 across all platforms and features everything included in the Standard Edition along with all future DLC. The Premium Edition costs $109.99 / £94.99 and features of extra skins along with a digital artbook.
Atomic Heart gameplay
Atomic Heart is primarily a first-person shooter but also contains action RPG elements. Players have access to a varied arsenal of weapons to blast through killer robots, but limited ammo means there is a keen focus on melee combat.
The protagonist, P-3, is also equipped with a Polymer Glove that grants special abilities not too dissimilar from the Plasmids seen in the Bioshock series. These powerful skills allow players to suspend enemies in the air, freeze them in place, or shock them with a bright electrical bolt.
As the story unfolds and your character levels up, more and more techniques will unlock, giving you even more options to turn foes into piles of scrap.
Atomic Heart also features a large open facility to explore, packed full of secrets and optional bosses to fight, while story missions take place in more self-contained, linear dungeons. The frantic gameplay will also be broken up by creative puzzles to put the full range of the Polymer Glove’s skills to the test.
Atomic Heart’s Polymer Glove offers a huge array of abilities. Atomic Heart story
The main story of Atomic Heart takes place in the Soviet Union in 1955, where an AI hivemind has completely replaced human labor with robots. As you’d expect, things quickly go wrong and the machines turn on the people controlling them.
We control Major Nechaev, better known as P-3, who has been tasked with infiltrating Facility 3826 to keep the situation under control.
Atomic Heart runtime
According to the developers, Atomic Heart’s runtime will be at least 25 hours. This will be because the game grants you a vast open world with five giant complexes that are waiting to be explored.
It was initially estimated that the game will be a 20-hour adventure, but the team confirmed in the Official Gameplay Overview Trailer on February 1 that it would take longer for you to get done with Atomic Heart.
Does Atomic Heart have multiplayer or co-op?
Atomic Heart does not come with multiplayer or co-op features, so you can’t hop into the game with your friends. In an interview, the Mundfish founder confirmed that the game will remain single-player only.
While a multiplayer mode was considered early in Atomic Heart’s development, it was ultimately cut from the final game. The developers promised that Atomic Heart will be “something new and innovative.”
You will have to battle mechanical enemies in Atomic Heart.Robert Bagratuni explained: “During the development process, we made the tough choice to abandon some ideas, even very big ones, like multiplayer. It was painful to have to make those kinds of choices, but it was the right decision.”
He then made it clear that their goal was to create “something new and innovative.” So, players should not expect to see a multiplayer or co-op mode to be added to Atomic Heart anytime in the near future.
Does Atomic Heart have microtransactions?
Atomic Heart does not have microtransactions. In an interview, the developers confirmed that the game is a “full-price, AAA single-player adventure with no additional bells and whistles.”
They did tease plans for a DLC to be added at a later point in time, but it’s currently not been revealed what exactly it will entail.
Atomic Heart trailers
As mentioned earlier, the reveal trailer for Atomic Heart dropped all the way back in 2017, giving fans their first look at the striking setting and horrifying enemy design.
Check it out below:
We’ve seen plenty of trailers since then including a look at Atomic Heart’s brutal gameplay which can look at here:
For more on Atomic Heart, be sure to check out the game’s PC requirements and how to preload it.
Image credit: Mundfish