Atomic Heart: Annihilation Instinct Review

Making considered one of Atomic Coronary heart’s quirkiest facet characters the star of its first dose of DLC is a intelligent contact. Few moments in the primary sport had been extra memorable than these spent with NORA, the sex-mad Soviet AI operating riot throughout the lewd and lustful improve machines dotted all through Facility 3826. Annihilation Intuition’s story picks up after the weaker of the primary sport’s two anticlimactic endings and pits us in opposition to NORA, who’s gone fully rogue. Sadly, not like the primary marketing campaign itself, the gauntlet you run in Annihilation Intuition is a largely linear and pretty forgettable few hours, with a stripped-back suite of weapons and power-ups giving it much less of a chance to tell apart itself. 

The added context Annihilation Intuition ultimately supplies about why NORA has constantly had the hots for our predominant man P-3 within the first place feels inessential, nevertheless it matches firmly throughout the fiction. What’s much less elegant is the truth that, since Atomic Coronary heart has two completely completely different endings, Annihilation Intuition can solely choose up from considered one of them and – not less than for some time – it didn’t appear completely clear which one which was. In case you’ve solely completed Atomic Coronary heart as soon as (and battled all the best way to Sechenov’s workplace within the course of) you’re in all probability going to be completely confused on the outset. 

It additionally creates a bizarre kink within the storytelling the place we all know extra about sure characters than P-3 does himself on this timeline, due to a pivotal encounter that seems now to have by no means occurred. I’ll admit, there have been additionally occasions the place Annihilation Intuition leans a bit too closely into its techno-babble, to the purpose the place I discovered myself merely nodding alongside politely. It’s a little bit like making an attempt to clarify nuclear fission to your canine.

All of this takes place in Mendeleev Advanced, a wholly new location which is underneath the iron grip of the naughty NORA, and as soon as once more there’s admittedly little to fault in Annihilation Intuition’s visible design. It contains a terrific set of environments which might be simply on-par with the atompunk-inspired labs and amenities of the unique, and the retro-futuristic plane hangar is especially sturdy – though it’s not really someplace that you must linger lengthy. Nonetheless, whereas it consists of some open house above floor, Annihilation Intuition in any other case funnels us via a linear set of encounters that don’t give us quite a lot of scope to discover its fascinating world.

The brand new robotic varieties are properly designed – not shocking, following the power of the enemy designs in Atomic Coronary heart – however there are solely two of them.

The brand new robotic varieties are properly designed – not shocking, following the power of the enemy designs in Atomic Coronary heart – however there are solely two of them. The brand new humanoid robots – that are characterised by a extra crash take a look at dummy look than the smooth, moustachioed assault bots we had been carving up again in February – creepily tiptoe in direction of us like lethal dolls. In addition they toss their limbs like boomerangs, which is a neat thought cheapened by the truth that this assault might be efficient via partitions.

The others are BEA-Ds, that are mainly inflatable health club ball-sized bots that may mix to type extra highly effective foes. There are two scripted boss fights in opposition to a few-dozen BEA-Ds which have fashioned what basically appears to be like like a large, weaponised Mr. DNA from Jurassic Park. It’s, nonetheless, simply the identical boss struggle twice, so the second time round it’s a lukewarm and repetitive strategy to shut out the chapter.

The sparse new enemy varieties can be much less of a downer if there have been a number of new methods to eliminate them and their older counterparts, however disappointingly, there aren’t really many weapons accessible in Annihilation Intuition. Solely two are new – there’s a melee weapon that’s half halberd and half gardening instrument, and a jerry-rigged mild machine gun that doesn’t fairly have the stopping energy I’d count on from one thing so giant and menacing. These will be upgraded, though I don’t know that it’s price schlepping backwards and forwards throughout the Mendeleev Advanced to take action. A vastly explosive power-up disguised as a chocolate bar makes an look too, however I ransacked a number of rooms and solely ever got here throughout a few them. It’s a grand impact – and essential in a late, unfair encounter that pins P-3 in a small room to fend off a ridiculous wave of robots – nevertheless it’s a uncommon sight. 

I did get a number of use out of the brand new skill to decelerate time inside a bubble round me, however many of the different powers from Atomic Coronary heart (like ice and telekinesis) are absent on this DLC for causes that aren’t completely clear. Mixed with the very fact the one authentic weapons that reappear are a pistol, a shotgun, and a membership, there are occasions when Annihilation Intuition feels extra like a demo that offers you a style of the primary marketing campaign than post-release DLC that provides on new stuff.