![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Some think their stylish braids might be a reference to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. What makes them controversial? Their hair. These gynoids are plastered everywhere in the game’s ads and give off the same vibes as Resident Evil 8’s Lady Dimitrescu. It’s a questionable inclusion made that much stranger by the fact that the show wouldn’t even have existed in the year the game takes place.Įven if you haven’t seen gameplay for Atomic Heart, odds are you have at least spied its mascots: a pair of 9-foot tall ballerina robots with form-fitting skins and extendable claws. That episode includes a fairly racist statue of what is presumably an African tribesman. The game displays the 12th episode of Nu, Pogodi!, which takes place in a museum. That show is a very real piece of Russian programming (it’s similar to Tom and Jerry), although it is anachronistic to the setting of Atomic Heart since the show started airing in 1969. To help take the edge off, these areas include televisions that play the cartoon Nu, Pogodi! (literally Well, Just You Wait!). While Atomic Heart is mostly filled with fast-paced gunplay and physics puzzles, the game lets players take a breather in save rooms. However, some have also found content in the game that they object to on relatively similar grounds. Many gamers are boycotting Atomic Heart out of a show of solidarity for Ukraine and out of a possible fear that buying it could indirectly fund the Russian invasion and similar controversial actions. Is There Any Controversial Content in Atomic Heart? While you could certainly say that there was a degree to which Atomic Heart‘s subject matter was always going to be controversial, the timing of the game’s release in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (it was released exactly one year after the start of the invasion) has certainly caused the game to face further scrutiny. Of course, it should be noted that Mundfish began developing Atomic Heart long before the invasion of Ukraine, though that brings us back to the company’s non-commital responses on that issue. Some find those themes to be too much to accept at a time when Russia faces global scrutiny for its invasion of Ukraine (and other policies), though Mundfish has faced additional scrutiny over their choice to emphasize the game’s USSR utopia concepts in their marketing and during press events. Anyone who plays or even views Atomic Heart knows the game is slathered in Russian themes as part of its alternate history narrative that imagines a sci-fi USSR utopia. There’s also the matter of the game’s subject matter. Those connections raised concerns regarding not just Atomic Heart‘s possible ties to prominent state-owned industries but the idea that its success could in some way fund Gazprom’s controversial endeavors and other possible government agendas (including the invasion of Ukraine). What is VKPlay? A Russian digital distribution service owned by the Russian social media platform VKontakte (essentially the Russian equivalent of Facebook), which is also owned by Gazprom. Furthermore, outlets discovered that Atomic Heart will release on VKPlay in Russia. ![]() That company is based in Russia and was founded by Anatoliy Paliy, who was previously an executive for the Russian state-owned energy company, Gazprom. Among those concerns were references to Russian investors and other organizations that could influence Mundfish’s practices.Įurogamer, PC Gamer, and other outlets expanded on that last point by shining a light on one of Mundfish’s primary investors, GEM Capital. More recently, a Ukrainian YouTuber named Harenko posted a video called “Please, Don’t Buy Atomic Heart.” He criticized, among many other aspects of the game, the developer’s “we don’t comment on politics” stance and brought up concerns about many aspects of the game and Mundfish’s practices. While it has been pointed out that their refusal to comment further could be due to a number of legal and procedural factors, their approach struck many gamers and industry members as vague at best and worrying at worst. While that is not necessarily an issue in and of itself, Mundfish drew criticism earlier this year when they made numerous vague and non-commital comments about their stance on the war in Ukraine and allegedly began blocking users who asked further questions about their political stance. ![]()
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