To call Atomic Heart a straight-up celebration of the Soviet Union would be a misrepresentation. It's in-line with Bioshock’s approach to objectivism and the Confederacy, crafting a world defined by technological progress and the social problems that those technological advances have failed to solve. After all, it depicts a scenario where the Soviet Union's quest for technology and expansion-there are numerous sarcastic references to conquering the stars-has gone horribly, murderously wrong. The game’s actual depiction of the Soviet state is more nuanced than full-throated support.
In addition to its achievements in organic technology, the Soviet state has also begun the mass production of highly capable, humanoid robots, a pair of which became a central pillar of the game’s extremely horny and very successful marketing. Atomic Heart takes place in a version of 1955 in which the Soviet Union-fresh from its defeat of the Nazis-has made such significant scientific progress that it has become a nigh-hegemonic world power, based on the discovery of a highly malleable organic polymer that makes average people super-intelligent. The backlash to Atomic Heart's Russian ties has spiraled into interpreting in-game content through this lens. This fact has led to some members of the counter-backlash to Atomic Heart demanding that boycotters explain what the line they’re drawing in the sand is, and what forms of compromised media they’re comfortable consuming. firearms industry has an uncomfortably close relationship to military games like Call of Duty.
government loans out equipment to the film industry, in exchange for the right to supervise the script, and the U.S. This is not unique to the Russian games industry, but is a basic facet of media production. If a game’s developer was founded in, or based out of, a particular nation, that game’s success will likely benefit that nation in one way or another, even simply due to prestige. The shifting media landscape has been met with responses ranging from the celebration of international successes, like India's Oscar-nominated RRR, to a building moral panic about the idea that Chinese and Saudi companies could have any influence on media consumed by those in the West. Over the last decade, the United States’ near unshakeable hold over the global production of media and culture has finally begun to falter, exemplified by the recent successes of the Korean film and television industry, most notably Parasite and Squid Game, Chinese giant Tencent’s years long project of media acquisitions, and the Saudi government’s increasing investment in the entertainment industry (including Nintendo). However, Atomic Heart’s place in the discourse is not unique. The criticism that Atomic Heart will enrich Russian entities is technically accurate, due to being backed by a Russian financier. There's a lot to unpack, but it seems clear that the controversy around Atomic Heart may soon be a familiar one, as big-budget game production further globalizes in tandem with heightened tensions between global powers. Critics of the game suggest that purchasing it directly supports Russia’s war in Ukraine, that the game is a piece of Russian propaganda valorizing the Soviet Union, and that the game includes anti-Ukranian elements. These connections to Russian state-owned and state-sanctioned enterprises have led to some people questioning the game’s relationship to the Russian government and its ongoing war in Ukraine, leading to calls for a boycott. As the years went on, details about the game solidified and, following a pretty horny viral marketing campaign, the game’s release has been surprisingly successful for a new studio, and has spawned a significant amount of public discourse surrounding the game’s content and its developer's origins. The game was met with a mixed reaction upon its announcement, as the reveal featured no gameplay and it was being published by a studio that had not previously shipped a video game. You play as a soldier investigating a massive Soviet facility that has come under attack from the robots which were formerly staffing it, and are tasked with finding and stopping the person responsible for the attacks. The game is a Bioshock-esque first person shooter. Since its announcement over five years ago, controversy has followed Atomic Heart-made by Cyprus-headquartered developer Mundfish-ranging from concerns about whether or not the game was actually real upon its announcement, to questions over the developer’s relationship to the Russian government.
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