Atomic Heart has a great aesthetic in search of a more interesting game

I think it was the second time Atomic Heart's protagonist uttered his quasi-catchphrase—a flabbergasted "Crispy critters!"—that I began to worry that my hopes for the game had been misplaced. An FPS with RPG elements and a lot of immersive sim inspiration, it's been one of the most intriguing games on my radar ever since its first trailer dropped back in 2018, echoing BioShock, Stalker, Nier—basically everything pensive, ambitious, and weird—and locating it all in a retro-future Soviet utopia-gone-awry. Even the soundtrack for those trailers, featuring some of the most potent deployments of Alla Pugacheva since the fall of the Berlin Wall, seemed to promise something that was self-assured and interesting. But having gotten some hands-on time with it, I'm worried Atomic Heart might not be very interesting at all...
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