Soviet-era sci-fi shooter Atomic Heart will release near the end of 2022

Four years on from its announcement, Atomic Heart will release towards the end of 2022, studio Mundfish has confirmed. The above trailer revealed the release window, specifying a "#######ber" release date, which means anytime between September and December 2022. Wisely vague: chances are the studio has a firm release date, but has chosen to keep it loose to avoid disappointment. I see what you're doing, Mundfish (or do I?).

Atomic Heart is a first-person shooter with a very unusual setting: many point to BioShock as an obvious influence, probably because there's nothing closer to compare it to. There are definitely BioShock Infinite vibes here, with the floating islands and all, but a spokesperson for Mundfish told IGN that the game's inspirations draw more deeply from Soviet-era science fiction, like Stanislaw Lem (Solaris) and Arkady and Boris Stugatsky (Roadside Picnic, aka, the novel that inspired Stalker).

The new trailer provides a good sense of how combat will work: protagonist Major Nechaev can wield a familiar array of guns, but it's his fancy glove that really stands out. With this, Nechaev can lift and suspend enemies, raise and toss them, and also just shoot at them with a laser-like projectile. Elsewhere, an upgrade tree is shown, but it's all in Cyrillic.

Mundfish describes Atomic Heart as "an action-packed first-person shooter set in the alternative, retro-future version of the 1950s USSR." In this version of the USSR, robots have been mass-produced to help on various nation-building projects, but inevitably, the robots get jack of it and revolt. Hence, you end up shooting a bunch of them. For more on the game, here's everything we know about Atomic Heart.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.