How the Hands Feel on the Mouse
The first thing I test in any first-person action game is input response. If a game wants you to swing an axe in close quarters, the swing needs to track where the crosshair points without dragging through invisible sludge. Atomic Heart feels heavier than your standard shooter. Your swings have real momentum, pulling the camera slightly forward as you commit to a strike. It takes a few minutes to get used to the weight, but once you accept that you cannot cancel mid-swing whenever you panic, the basic rhythm clicks.
Dodge timing is strict. You get a short dash to clear space when an android winds up a punch. Early on, the recovery window on your own swings gets you punched constantly. You swing, the blade connects, the enemy shrugs off part of the blow, and your dash input sits queued while your character resets his stance. It forces you to play deliberately instead of just mashing attack buttons, which I respect, though the camera can feel too cramped during frantic indoor scraps.
Tearing Apart Rebellious Machines
The enemy roster does not give you an easy pass. You go up against agile mustache-wearing androids, flying repair drones, and lumbering mutant creatures that sprint straight at your face. When combat works, it feels brutally physical. You slice into a synthetic torso, metal dents, sparks fly, and the glove abilities let you freeze or lift targets to create openings. Full English voice acting and interface support keep mission chatter easy to follow mid-fight, even when alarms are wailing and three bots are boxing you into a corner.
The trouble comes from hitbox clarity on enemy lunges. Certain leaping attacks from the repair bots and humanoid bots track your position aggressively. You dash sideways, clear the visual model of the fist by what looks like two feet, and still take full damage because the active damage volume lingers a split second too long. In a tight hallway, that lingering hitbox turns what should be a clean dodge into an annoying hit that halts your momentum.
Upgrading the Arsenal
Resource hunting feeds directly into your gear progression. You strip scrap and polymer from cabinets and wrecked bots, dragging materials through the air with your glove to feed upgrade stations. Turning a basic pipe into a bladed weapon with faster follow-ups changes the dynamic of every brawl. Crafting new attachments gives your blades better reach and heavier stagger values, which is mandatory once heavier bots start showing up in packs.
Ranged options exist, but ammunition is tight enough that you never turn this into a pure corridor shooter. You fire a shotgun blast to blow off a robot's legs, then rush in with a melee strike to finish the job before its partners surround you. The loop keeps you engaged, though navigating menus to check blueprint costs feels a bit clunky on mouse and keyboard.
The Toll of Open-Area Scraps
Atomic Heart shifts between underground research facilities and wide open surface areas. The underground complexes are where the combat shines brightest. The corridors force you into controlled one-on-two skirmishes where spacing, dodge directions, and stamina management matter. You learn enemy startup animations, bait out a heavy swing, and punish during their recovery frames.
The outdoor areas are far less disciplined. Security cameras spot you from awkward angles, calling in endless reinforcements while repair drones fix the machines you just dismantled. Instead of crisp action, combat outside turns into an exhausting sprint from point to point while dodging stray projectiles from off-screen. It muddies the tight combat foundation that Mundfish built, leaving the fifty-nine dollar release feeling brilliant in parts and messy in others.
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ur joking right the grab boxes literally extend past the model by like 2 meters i tested it in the first facility area
Yo @parryframe, those underground bunker layouts are legit. Does it run okay on lower settings though? I'm worried about the tight dodge timing on my older GPU.
Spot on about the spacing issues tbh. Running around outside feels like a chaotic mess compared to the tight bunker rooms. Dropping $59.99 makes that kind of jank sting a lot more.
Atomic heart? more like atomic hurt after those grab hitboxes got me lol. no spoilers but that underground brawl section drained whatever sanity i had left. the melee weight feels great though
@ola_ollieur joking right the grab boxes literally extend past the model by like 2 meters i tested it in the first facility area
@tampa_tytwo meters might be generous but yeah the lunge tracking is suspicious. beat the first major boss yesterday and felt like i woke up at 4 AM wondering why i do this to myself! the indoor fights make up for it though. that power glove pull into heavy swing combo is chef kiss
@tampa_tyAre the enemy hitboxes broken? I keep getting clipped by lunges even when I dodge. And the Power Glove feels super clunky for crowd control. Is it just me or is the combat weird?
@tampa_tyTwo meters? That's not a hitbox that's a committed relationship. The lunge tracking has more reach than my ex's lawyer.
dodge recovery unresponsive? try playing with a controller held together by duct tape and hope
have you checked the control bindings for dodge? sometimes rebinding to a paddle helps with the chaining issue. what difficulty are you running
Spot on about the spacing issues tbh. Running around outside feels like a chaotic mess compared to the tight bunker rooms. Dropping $59.99 makes that kind of jank sting a lot more.
Yo @parryframe, those underground bunker layouts are legit. Does it run okay on lower settings though? I'm worried about the tight dodge timing on my older GPU.
@KestutisRuns passable on lower settings but the dodge timing stays tight regardless of framerate. The input buffer doesn't scale with performance drops.
The Power Glove is a lifesaver for crowd control. No spoilers, but that ending really messed me up.
Don't sweat missing that first Power Glove combo. We all had to learn the timing the hard way.
$60 for this? The outdoor zones are a total mess with the respawns, but the indoor fights are actually fun. The underground bunker layouts are solid. The melee hits feel heavy, but the dodge recovery is super unresponsive. Still trying to get the hang of the Power Glove combos.