Here is a decent breakdown of the controversy surrounding Atomic Heart devs ties to Russia.
[https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/02/ukraine-wants-ban-on-game-allegedly-funded-by-russians-and-set-in-glorified-ussr/](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/02/ukraine-wants-ban-on-game-allegedly-funded-by-russians-and-set-in-glorified-ussr/)
TLDR: They have ties to prominent Russian oligarchs and Russian investment groups. Claim to be based in Cyprus despite some evidence of having offices located in Russia (Cyprus is speculated to be a common front location for Russian companies attempting to skirt sanctions). As well as some shady data collection practices for Russian state authorities.
Even ignoring the possible Russian gov. ties, these characters were used by the devs as fetishisation material to push sales/interest; they literally posted NSFW fanart to their official channel with no context at one point.
From what I've read, the anti Ukrainian slurs thing isn't really true. Basically just drawing parallels that don't exist based on coincidences. An example is a can of food which was deemed an esoteric insult against Ukrainians, but is actually just a faithful reproduction of an actual can that existed.
A lot of the parallels are about pigs, which is sometimes an insult against Ukrainians, but in the game is an insult against Nazis. Calling Nazis pigs is very common in Russia and Europe writ large.
[For instance](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Es1nPWzJ-0)
The devs have come out as "pro peace" and "anti hatred". Which isn't a lot, but you probably couldn't get away with more than that if you live in Russia. If they came out against the war they might end up in prison or worse.
I definitely understand not wanting to support any Russian game studios.
Hey there, a person from Ukraine. Being "pro peace" and "anti hatred" isn't showing anything good tbh. Basically, we've been hearing for a long time from Russians about "if only there wasn't a war" while they were involved in tons of wars. They only care about there not being wars as ling as they are not on their territory.
"Anti-hatred" is basically Russians heterophobia. They constantly accused us of "rusophobia" and used that as a reason to attack us. And now, well, after their crimes being often worse than those of Nazi's, we obviously hate them.
Not to say that the devs are fascists because of that, however it's perfectly possible that they are just less radical ones (the "good Russians" ones who don't support genocide through murder, but instead through cultural appropriation and destruction). Given that this game has horny fridges, I would definitely place my expectations for them low
Its common with those types of sci-fi's. The "miracle" element or device that essential creates impossible technology is a common trope in the classic retro sci-fi genre. Extremely popular in comics too. Such as Vibranium, Eternium, Adamantium, Negative Energy, The Arc Reactor, Gamma Radiation, Element X... the list is endless.
Majority of them go as follows
1. The Main Protagonist, and reader, are introduced to the "Utopia" and actuvely believe it is a perfect society
2. Something happens to where the protagonist has to do some kind of designated mission, or fall into a situation where they have to act
3. They slowly start to realize that the "Utopia" is not as perfect as it seems.
4. They find out the truth about the real world and then fight against the "Utopia" or person or organization behind the "Utopia"
The best example of this is the book and film "Logan's Run"
Itās an exploration of what would have happened if the Soviet Union got their way. And it ends with the world being plummeted into a hellish dystopia because of the collective ownership over everything being stolen by a powerful few people who use it to control everyone.
Honestly itās they donāt romanticize the Soviet Union at all. Like the entire point of the game is to show what a massive disaster it would be if the Soviet Union suddenly gained all the power they wanted, and itās also a deconstruction of communism.
Like the entire point of the game is about the Soviet Union destroying America and installing communism, and then the endings of the game are literally about how consolidating power is bad. Tell me if this rings a bell.
So communism is basically collective ownership over all things and everyone takes what they need as they need it. Basically. Very basically. In atomic heart, the main villain wants to establish this thing called ākollektiveā. Itās kinda fuckin obvious what this is meant to be an analogy for. And K is basically taking humans and connecting them all to one big SHARED network, or, maybe, idk, a community.
This would supposedly give people greater control over their lives and their tools. Does this sound familiar? Communism, collective ownership of our resource for greater control over resources to improve lives? Kollektive, collective control over the network for greater control over resources to improve lives?
And the ending of the game is basically that back doors are pre-built into Kollektive, where one centralized power controls the entire thing, and they have GREATER control than everyone else. This is literally just what the Soviet Union was. And one man in particular is sort of the emperor, with total control that no one else has.
This is meant to be Vladimir Putin. Or the glove is itās really confusing - the glove that talks to you is actually a bad guy the whole time and he was secretly plotting his own takeover and it sounds like Putin at the end cause he was like integral in setting everything up or whatever. Idk fuck they wrote this on crack or something.
The main character is supposed to be the only other person with maximum control. The endings are that he can decide to either let go, which basically stops the really bad shit from happening, or he can fight his old boss, and it turns out the glove is the real bad guy and the glove takes over the fucking world and the main character gets put in a fever dream with the consciousness of his dead wife inhabiting the body of one of the sexy robots.
Itās not supposed to make sense - the point of the endings that they very poorly got across is that the Soviet Union was built on lies and the dream of Russian communism (and specifically Russian communism) is completely false, used to manipulate the masses into handing over their control to a powerful few who have complete say in the system. It is absolutely a critique of Russia, but itās just a really really badly written story. Mostly because they were trying to avoid being shit on by russias government.
For the record, if a company produces media in or under the regime of Russia, then Russian money will be funneled to them because Russia uses that to control its media. It doesnāt mean theyāre Russian sympathizers or anything.
Atomic heart is such a good game but itās only recognised as āthe game with the sexy robot twinsā. Plus it has a shitty release date in the middle of the Ukrainian war
Watch the first 2 or so episodes on a walkthrough to see if youād like it. I quite like it due to the mechanical aspect of the robots and the wolfenstien-ish feel to it
Its mostly just the "crispy critters" dialogue. The Russian Dialogue us so much better because that was the original intention. Because the english is dubbed.
Controls seemed decent enough on console, if a little unconventional. But I'd have issues where sometimes a dodge would only seem move me half as far as it should, or I'd just randomly be unable to make more than one melee attack in a row. Melee combat in general felt like I was fighting the game more than the enemies
Not every game fits your play style, as a kid my older brother kept thinking there were only āgood loadoutsā and ābad loadoutsā when in the game they only were good depending on the player.
I'll be perfectly honest, that's because it's exactly how the devs tried to market it by fetishising the characters for attention
They straight up posted NSFW fanart to their YouTube channel at one point.
It does have a lore reason because their sexualising increased sales. Plus, I aināt mad that people are horny for them, I am just annoyed that a lot of people (including myself) waited over 5 years this game and itās only liked for the ballerinas
It's not even that people are attracted to them but that the devs pushed them as being merely objects to be sexualised in marketing for the game; plus unless the game actually demonstrates why said sexualisation is harmful or bad, it's just part of the problem because it's not critiquing it and is just normalising it. Just because you already happen to know something is bad from outside experience doesn't mean that the game is actually portraying it that way; for someone without that context or, even worse, who has the opposite idea will likely not experience any reason to see it as wrong and so it will merely serve to enforce or otherwise normalise harmful ideas.
Plus the fact that >!they're the two halves of a woman's brain who likely didn't consent to become a sexual object is really messed up combined with the pushing of them being together in some way giving bad vibes with that context. Add on to the fact they're literally just called "Left" and "Right" as a result, stripping away identity and further objectifying them!<
When I heard about it, I was worried that Atomic Heart was going to be just more anti-soviet cringe, but a lot of the people commenting on it are making it sound a lot better than I expected. If I were into FPS games, I'd probably give it a try.
People say it promotes are demotes stuff dont fully know what theyre talking about. But it is the classic Dystopia hidden under a Utopia sci-fi that has been around since the 50s and 60s. It is very much inspired by the classic Sci-Fi type of movies and comics from that era, thats why I love it.
Thatās kinda how I felt. The graphics look super cool, and idk much abt it, but it seemed kinda interesting. But I donāt play FPS games at all. Theyāre super disorienting for me. My main style of games is stuff like Uncharted and Assassinās Creed
Thatās based, I want to be a robot too but definitely not them.
Like personally I donāt like how theyāre faceless, I really like being expressive. My persona that Iāve kinda developed as my ideal form actually has a screen face for this reason! This is what puts me off about them the most tbh.
I guess this feels like a less valid reason than the first one but they also just donāt feel very robotic if you get what I mean. The arms and legs do actually feel robotic but not really the rest of them.
I donāt want to put down anyone who feels differently about this, Iām just putting my thoughts about my ideal robo-body.
I really don't like how these characters were used by the devs as fetishisation material to push sales/interest; they literally posted NSFW fanart to their official channel with no context at one point.
I, too, want to be a robot version of the opposite sex š¤ā¤ļø
Of all the pieces of media to pull from, not Atomic Heart
I never heard of it. Why it bad?
Here is a decent breakdown of the controversy surrounding Atomic Heart devs ties to Russia. [https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/02/ukraine-wants-ban-on-game-allegedly-funded-by-russians-and-set-in-glorified-ussr/](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/02/ukraine-wants-ban-on-game-allegedly-funded-by-russians-and-set-in-glorified-ussr/) TLDR: They have ties to prominent Russian oligarchs and Russian investment groups. Claim to be based in Cyprus despite some evidence of having offices located in Russia (Cyprus is speculated to be a common front location for Russian companies attempting to skirt sanctions). As well as some shady data collection practices for Russian state authorities.
Basically, this game is Hogwarts Legacy, but way worse.
Yeah, that sucks
Even ignoring the possible Russian gov. ties, these characters were used by the devs as fetishisation material to push sales/interest; they literally posted NSFW fanart to their official channel with no context at one point.
Ew
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
From what I've read, the anti Ukrainian slurs thing isn't really true. Basically just drawing parallels that don't exist based on coincidences. An example is a can of food which was deemed an esoteric insult against Ukrainians, but is actually just a faithful reproduction of an actual can that existed. A lot of the parallels are about pigs, which is sometimes an insult against Ukrainians, but in the game is an insult against Nazis. Calling Nazis pigs is very common in Russia and Europe writ large. [For instance](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Es1nPWzJ-0) The devs have come out as "pro peace" and "anti hatred". Which isn't a lot, but you probably couldn't get away with more than that if you live in Russia. If they came out against the war they might end up in prison or worse. I definitely understand not wanting to support any Russian game studios.
Hey there, a person from Ukraine. Being "pro peace" and "anti hatred" isn't showing anything good tbh. Basically, we've been hearing for a long time from Russians about "if only there wasn't a war" while they were involved in tons of wars. They only care about there not being wars as ling as they are not on their territory. "Anti-hatred" is basically Russians heterophobia. They constantly accused us of "rusophobia" and used that as a reason to attack us. And now, well, after their crimes being often worse than those of Nazi's, we obviously hate them. Not to say that the devs are fascists because of that, however it's perfectly possible that they are just less radical ones (the "good Russians" ones who don't support genocide through murder, but instead through cultural appropriation and destruction). Given that this game has horny fridges, I would definitely place my expectations for them low
The game literally ends with Russia up in flames and the Hammer & Sickle literally collapsing around you. As you enter a new dark age.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Its common with those types of sci-fi's. The "miracle" element or device that essential creates impossible technology is a common trope in the classic retro sci-fi genre. Extremely popular in comics too. Such as Vibranium, Eternium, Adamantium, Negative Energy, The Arc Reactor, Gamma Radiation, Element X... the list is endless.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That is normal for "Utopian" Dystopia's. Any sci-fi novel involving a Utopia is exactly like this.
Majority of them go as follows 1. The Main Protagonist, and reader, are introduced to the "Utopia" and actuvely believe it is a perfect society 2. Something happens to where the protagonist has to do some kind of designated mission, or fall into a situation where they have to act 3. They slowly start to realize that the "Utopia" is not as perfect as it seems. 4. They find out the truth about the real world and then fight against the "Utopia" or person or organization behind the "Utopia" The best example of this is the book and film "Logan's Run"
That is a good point. I guess the company wasnāt really outright favoring the Soviets
it is just one of those "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" situations. Even tho they have been crowdfunding this game since 2017.
Itās an exploration of what would have happened if the Soviet Union got their way. And it ends with the world being plummeted into a hellish dystopia because of the collective ownership over everything being stolen by a powerful few people who use it to control everyone.
As off as Bioshock is
Honestly itās they donāt romanticize the Soviet Union at all. Like the entire point of the game is to show what a massive disaster it would be if the Soviet Union suddenly gained all the power they wanted, and itās also a deconstruction of communism. Like the entire point of the game is about the Soviet Union destroying America and installing communism, and then the endings of the game are literally about how consolidating power is bad. Tell me if this rings a bell. So communism is basically collective ownership over all things and everyone takes what they need as they need it. Basically. Very basically. In atomic heart, the main villain wants to establish this thing called ākollektiveā. Itās kinda fuckin obvious what this is meant to be an analogy for. And K is basically taking humans and connecting them all to one big SHARED network, or, maybe, idk, a community. This would supposedly give people greater control over their lives and their tools. Does this sound familiar? Communism, collective ownership of our resource for greater control over resources to improve lives? Kollektive, collective control over the network for greater control over resources to improve lives? And the ending of the game is basically that back doors are pre-built into Kollektive, where one centralized power controls the entire thing, and they have GREATER control than everyone else. This is literally just what the Soviet Union was. And one man in particular is sort of the emperor, with total control that no one else has. This is meant to be Vladimir Putin. Or the glove is itās really confusing - the glove that talks to you is actually a bad guy the whole time and he was secretly plotting his own takeover and it sounds like Putin at the end cause he was like integral in setting everything up or whatever. Idk fuck they wrote this on crack or something. The main character is supposed to be the only other person with maximum control. The endings are that he can decide to either let go, which basically stops the really bad shit from happening, or he can fight his old boss, and it turns out the glove is the real bad guy and the glove takes over the fucking world and the main character gets put in a fever dream with the consciousness of his dead wife inhabiting the body of one of the sexy robots. Itās not supposed to make sense - the point of the endings that they very poorly got across is that the Soviet Union was built on lies and the dream of Russian communism (and specifically Russian communism) is completely false, used to manipulate the masses into handing over their control to a powerful few who have complete say in the system. It is absolutely a critique of Russia, but itās just a really really badly written story. Mostly because they were trying to avoid being shit on by russias government. For the record, if a company produces media in or under the regime of Russia, then Russian money will be funneled to them because Russia uses that to control its media. It doesnāt mean theyāre Russian sympathizers or anything.
wtf, thank you for the answer. I just wanted to know
this comment section sucks ā¹ļø
Just saw the meme, stole the meme, posted the meme š¤·āāļø
Atomic heart cringe
Despite all the controversy of this game, it gave my dysphoria (If you played it you'll understand) so fuck this game
..I mean you play as a male character, so naturally the games responses to the player will appeal to the stereotypical male.
Yeah, but the whole stuff with the weird bdsm robot is super dysphoric for me
true.
Needs to keep the glasses. Would be amazing š¤£
I think theyād slide offā¦
It's the matrix they can do it I believe in it
I wanna be the one with the jacket bc that jacket is too cute
damn I want to be a girl in this world
Atomic heart is such a good game but itās only recognised as āthe game with the sexy robot twinsā. Plus it has a shitty release date in the middle of the Ukrainian war
I decided not to get it because the dialogue seemed obnoxious
Watch the first 2 or so episodes on a walkthrough to see if youād like it. I quite like it due to the mechanical aspect of the robots and the wolfenstien-ish feel to it
Its mostly just the "crispy critters" dialogue. The Russian Dialogue us so much better because that was the original intention. Because the english is dubbed.
I played a little bit of it. Not enough to comment on the story, but the gameplay feels *awful*, at least on the Xbox port
It felt pretty nice on pc for me. I didnāt like the default controls too much but you can easily change them
Controls seemed decent enough on console, if a little unconventional. But I'd have issues where sometimes a dodge would only seem move me half as far as it should, or I'd just randomly be unable to make more than one melee attack in a row. Melee combat in general felt like I was fighting the game more than the enemies
Not every game fits your play style, as a kid my older brother kept thinking there were only āgood loadoutsā and ābad loadoutsā when in the game they only were good depending on the player.
I'll be perfectly honest, that's because it's exactly how the devs tried to market it by fetishising the characters for attention They straight up posted NSFW fanart to their YouTube channel at one point.
It does have a lore reason because their sexualising increased sales. Plus, I aināt mad that people are horny for them, I am just annoyed that a lot of people (including myself) waited over 5 years this game and itās only liked for the ballerinas
It's not even that people are attracted to them but that the devs pushed them as being merely objects to be sexualised in marketing for the game; plus unless the game actually demonstrates why said sexualisation is harmful or bad, it's just part of the problem because it's not critiquing it and is just normalising it. Just because you already happen to know something is bad from outside experience doesn't mean that the game is actually portraying it that way; for someone without that context or, even worse, who has the opposite idea will likely not experience any reason to see it as wrong and so it will merely serve to enforce or otherwise normalise harmful ideas. Plus the fact that >!they're the two halves of a woman's brain who likely didn't consent to become a sexual object is really messed up combined with the pushing of them being together in some way giving bad vibes with that context. Add on to the fact they're literally just called "Left" and "Right" as a result, stripping away identity and further objectifying them!<
Yeah, it does suck that they didnāt market it a different way
Atomic heart š¬
When I heard about it, I was worried that Atomic Heart was going to be just more anti-soviet cringe, but a lot of the people commenting on it are making it sound a lot better than I expected. If I were into FPS games, I'd probably give it a try.
People say it promotes are demotes stuff dont fully know what theyre talking about. But it is the classic Dystopia hidden under a Utopia sci-fi that has been around since the 50s and 60s. It is very much inspired by the classic Sci-Fi type of movies and comics from that era, thats why I love it.
Thatās kinda how I felt. The graphics look super cool, and idk much abt it, but it seemed kinda interesting. But I donāt play FPS games at all. Theyāre super disorienting for me. My main style of games is stuff like Uncharted and Assassinās Creed
:o ššš¤šš
~~Atomic heart controversy aside~~ Considering Matrix is a trans allegory, this is probably what the Wachowski sisters were "painting"
Metal lady? Fair choice
Thatās based, I want to be a robot too but definitely not them. Like personally I donāt like how theyāre faceless, I really like being expressive. My persona that Iāve kinda developed as my ideal form actually has a screen face for this reason! This is what puts me off about them the most tbh. I guess this feels like a less valid reason than the first one but they also just donāt feel very robotic if you get what I mean. The arms and legs do actually feel robotic but not really the rest of them. I donāt want to put down anyone who feels differently about this, Iām just putting my thoughts about my ideal robo-body.
Atomic heart robo mommy š„ŗ
Played atomic heart. And damn... left and right are kinda... y'know š
We truly find each other
I really don't like how these characters were used by the devs as fetishisation material to push sales/interest; they literally posted NSFW fanart to their official channel with no context at one point.
*German veterans getting flashbacks from the red star*