After facing quite a lot of controversies, the first-person shooter video game, Atomic Heart, was ultimately released on February 21, 2023. The video game is the brainchild of Mundfish, which is published by Focus Entertainment and 4Divinity.
About the controversy, Mundfish was initially accused of collecting user information from Russian- based users and giving it to that country’s security agencies. After the end of this accusation, another issue that came to light was regarding the release of the game in 2022.
The game was supposed to release in 2022, but due to its Russian military theme, people thought that the game had something to do with the war between Russia and Ukraine. All these claims were later denied by Mundfish, but still, some people are trying to boycott the game.
Atomic Heart is a first-person shooter game that includes components like role-playing and stealth. There are various types of opponents or enemies in the game, which can be airborne, mechanical, or biological.
The player has to equip himself with improvised weaponry to deal with the enemies. A crafting system enables the player to assemble weapons out of metal pieces that can be taken out of domestic appliances or separated from robots.
The video game also includes quick-time activities. There are also some special tools and weapons which are acquired by the player, one of which is a Polymer Glove. The gloves bestow different kinds of abilities like telekinesis, freezing, and much more.
As interesting as it may sound, Atomic Hearts still has an elaborate and complicated narrative as well as endings. Therefore, to give you a better understanding of the ending of the video game, this post will provide you with the plot of the game along with a detailed explanation of the endings of the game.
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The Premise of Atomic Heart
The game places the player in the role of Major Sergey Nechaev (also known as P-3), a special agent whose mission is to stop a catastrophic event at Science Institute, Facility 3826, where the robots have run out of control. The game takes place in the prospering Soviet Union around the 1950s, where the country acquired advanced robotics with the aid of a mystery compound known as “Polymer.”
At the facility, Major Sergey Nechaev meets Dr. Sechenov, who hands him the AI assistant, Charles, attaching it to Major Sergey Nechaev ’s gloves.
Then, Major Sergey Nechaev locates Petrov in one of the laboratories and learns that he is collaborating with Dr. Larisa Filatova, a neurosurgeon. Petrov runs away and is murdered by a robot. The player gets to know this when Major Sergey Nechaev discovers his headless corpse. The Politburo becomes increasingly concerned about what is occurring at Facility 3826 as Sechenov hides the real effect of the catastrophe.
Next, a character named Molotov visits the facility and threatens to cease the “Atomic Heart” project. On the other side, Charles informs Major Sergey Nechaev about Sechenov and Molotov’s ongoing battle for the control of Kollektiv.
Subsequently, Sechenov orders Major Sergey Nechaev to get in touch with Molotov. As soon as Major Sergey Nechaev gets in touch with Molotov, he suddenly loses consciousness, and when he regains consciousness, he finds Molotov dead. Later, Major Sergey Nechaev gets to know that Molotov was killed by the robots.
After a while, Sechenov notices someone attempting to send a signal to America, which makes him think Petrov is still alive. He asks Major Sergey Nechaev to look for Petrov.
As Major Sergey Nechaev finds out about Petrov, he starts blurting out about how Sechenov’s plans to activate Kollektiv will cause millions of deaths and enslave the entire world, which is why he is attempting to sabotage the project.
He further tells Major Sergey Nechaev that the rogue robots already had a combat setting built into them that he simply turned on. After Viktor hands Major Sergey Nechaev a pair of rings and kills himself, Sechenov has Petrov’s head collected.
When Major Sergey Nechaev meets Sechenov, and he sees the ring, Sechenov asks about it, but Major Sergey Nechaev lies to him and deduces that Sechenov and the Politburo’s “Atomic Heart” plan entails distributing combat robots masked as civilian robots throughout the globe and stationing them to seize nuclear power plants in anticipation of a massive Soviet takeover once Kollektiv.
Then, Major Sergey Nechaev brings Petrov’s head to a facility where Stockhausen, Sechenov’s assistant, has a device that can extract Petrov’s memories. However, Filatova destroys the device with a grenade, due to which Major Sergey Nechaev collapses, and on the other side, Stockhausen is killed by blowing a batch of Neuro-Polymer.
After this, the ending chapter follows, where many secrets are revealed with the help of Dr. Filatova; this part is explained in detail below.
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Atomic Heart Ending Explained
Atomic Heart is known to have two types of ending based on the choice made by the player. Before making the final choice, the player discovers bulks of information, which makes the ending of the game quite confusing.
Towards the end, it is revealed that Sechenov’s globally dispersed robots work as sleeper agents in the Atomic Heart Project, which explains how they can switch to “combat mode” and rebel in the first place. The player also gets to know that Kollektiv 2.0 is a mind-control operation to subjugate polymerized society to the control of the Soviet government.
The player also gets to know that Sechenov is also accountable for erasing all memories of P-3’s late wife, Ekterina. Furthermore, Sechenov transferred Ekterina’s consciousness to the twin ballerinas.
The player also gets to know that his reliable AI assistant, Charles is actually not an AI. Rather, it is Sechenov’s closest companion’s consciousness that has been transferred into it. It is also revealed that this friend of Sechenov is the main mastermind of the polymerization process.
Now, coming to the very end of the game. After the revelation of all the above-mentioned information, P-3, who passed out after hearing about his late wife’s transfer of consciousness, regains consciousness to see Granny Zina, Ekterina’s mother, therefore, P-3’s mother-in-law. Granny Zina is seen to be in a rage and wants to take revenge for her daughter’s death.
So, in the end, Granny Zina accuses P-3 of killing Filatova, which infuriates P-3. At this point, Granny Zina makes a demand to P-3, to which the player has to choose between two types of responses, which will determine the ending of the game.
If the player chooses the response, “I’m not laying a finger on Sechenov. I’m out. I’ve had enough of this game,” then the player departs for an unspecified location. He burns his polymer gloves and accuses Charles and Granny Zina of attempting to turn him against Sechenov. This is followed by a mysterious black polymer which can be seen on a video near P-3’s exit, which is likely where Charles’s remains are.
If the player chooses the second response, “Whatever, lady… why don’t you show me what’s in that arsenal of yours?” then P-3 returns to Sechenov’s office to confront him with all the proofs he has gathered. Furthermore, P-3 shoots Sechenov after eliminating the ballerina twins.
Before he stops breathing, Sechenov reveals that Charles is to blame for sending the Major into Limbo, the alternate psychedelic world created by Kollectiv, where he started his own “combat mode” to kill Molotov and Filatova.
At that very moment, Charles renders P- 3 powerless and emerges from the glove’s cover in the form of polymer, fusing with a big vat of red polymer in Sechenov’s office.
Then the player sees Charles expressing his growing hatefulness after shedding his human shape and becoming a polymerized “jelly man.” He emphasizes that although humans must develop in order to survive, we are too oblivious to this fact due to our own limitations and pursuit of selfishness.
Then, Sechenov’s neck is snapped by Charles, and the alpha connector of Kollektiv 2.0 is destroyed, leaving people completely under his control. Nechaev sees one of Sechenov’s twin ballerinas reaching out to him, possibly denoting Ekterina when he returns to Limbo along with the rest of polymerized society.
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