About

Atomic Heart is a first-person action RPG by the Russian video game development studio Mundfish and set in an alternate universe Soviet Union in the year 1955. The character plays the role of Major Sergei Nechayev, who attempts to secure a research facility thrown into chaos after the release of a new technology called "Thought" is sabotaged. Memes and fan art about two robots with female body types known as the "Twins" widely circulated online after appearing in promo media, typically presenting the machines as sexually attractive and desirable. Atomic Heart also drew criticisms from many leading up to its release in early 2023 after people began spreading word of Mundfish's purported ties to the Russian government and ongoing controversy surrounding the Ukraine war.

History

The game was first announced with a teaser trailer that was uploaded to YouTube on July 22nd, 2017, by the official Atomic Heart^[1] YouTube Channel, showcasing some examples of gore and environmental storytelling, set to a distorted carnival-type beat, earning over 1.8 million views in five years. (shown below).

The game would continue to release small trailers year after year until the eventual Combat Trailer^[2] that debuted at Gamescom 2022, telling the world that the game was almost finished and to be excited for its release date of February 21st, 2023. The combat trailer received over 6.7 million views in six months, indicative of the game's favorably received initial promos (shown below).

Online Presence

The game enjoys a strong internet presence that is somewhat coalesced into the subreddit /r/AtomicHeart.^[4] This sub, created on May 8th, 2018, garnered over 6,400 members in roughly five years. Atomic Heart also has an official YouTube^[8] channel with over 234,000 subscribers as of mid-February 2023.

Twins / Robot Fetishism

One of the most prevalent parts of Atomic Heart online leading up to the game's release was the two feminine-looking robots called the "Twins" — primarily revolved around memes, artwork and discussions about the two characters and robot fetishism.

For example, on January 15th, 2023, Redditor SuperChat01 posted an I Serve the Soviet Union meme on the /r/AtomicHeart^[6] subreddit referencing the Twins, receiving over 420 upvotes in 25 days (seen below, left). On January 17th, Twitter^[7] user zzzHADOzzz also tweeted about the Twins, receiving nearly 4,800 likes and 450 retweets in a similar timeframe (seen below, right).

Controversies

Mundfish's Ties to Russian Government

On January 16th, 2023, after noticing several comments from fans of the game questioning the studio and it's ties to the Russian Government, studio Mundfish released three statements on Twitter in an attempt to put the issue to rest, which instead only pushed it further out into social media, with more people paying attention to it as a result (shown below).

On February 6th, 2023, the YouTube channel Harenko^[3] uploaded a video titled "Please, Don't Buy Atomic Heart," in which they dive deep into the history of the studio and evidence supporting the assertion that the studio is a compromised asset of the Russian government and that the War in Ukraine will be partially funded and your personal data will be stolen if you play it, earning over 1.5 million views in two days (shown below).

On February 8th, 2023, the original claim of the YouTube video was then detailed in a Reddit post by the user u/Consistent-End-5640^[5] on the /r/AtomicHeart subreddit in which and was brushed away as being part of generic data gathering in which the players who download the game have their data able to be accessed by their host country, purportedly a common practice in gaming (shown below).

Search Interest

External References