Atomic Heart‘s Facility 3826 is located within the mountain ranges of Kazakhstan. With the help of builder robots, these vast territories quickly became a conglomerate of classified scientific complexes. These buildings strike a stark contrast with the small rural villages surrounding the facility, but it won’t be long before more complexes pop up.
There are many impressive monuments on Facility 3826’s grounds — from enormous statues to Stella memorials erected by robots. Few know that the real marvel of robotic engineering lies deep underground.
The facility follows one rule: “Real progress lies precisely at the confluence of the basic sciences, for that is how Nature works – it is all intertwined.”
Each complex has its unique architectural style and interiors shaped by its research needs, but they have standardized technical nodes and elements for personnel convenience as well. It’s worth noting that the VDNH and Theater complexes are very different from the others. Access to them is not limited to just scientists but also available to common citizens as well, granted they have clearance to visit the facility.
Open world locations are often bathed in sunlight with clear skies and a hint of refreshing breeze. This is the first impression you get visiting Facility 3826; its front showcases the bright, nearly utopian future. However, you’ll get a very different impression when you get to see the backstage of humans’ dreams in this world. You’ll quickly understand there’s trouble in paradise as you venture through cold gloomy corridors, creepy labs, and automated workshops roamed by hostile robots. There are lots of parallels between the art, level design, and the story. Atomic Heart invites you to use your imagination, think and reflect, the result will not only enrich your experience but will also help you survive.
The events of the game begin in the city of Chelomey, a citadel of science literally floating in the sky.
Down in the foothills, Facility 3826 stretches for many kilometers and incorporates many underground complexes, laboratories, research centers, scientific ranges and civilian facilities, both on the surface and underground.
The facility resembles a mushroom tree, where each one is connected to the other in one way or another.
Following the narrative, the protagonist explores each location one by one, delving deeper into the lives and livelihoods of the locals, as well as figuring out what is really being developed and happening behind the closed doors of the secret laboratories of the facility.
As you move around the open world, you will enter different locations, such as research sites, small villages or monitoring stations.
A territorial map will guide you as you move around, and you can use the vehicles of employees who have fallen victim to robots to get around more quickly. Some people’s stories will be closer at hand: every complex or village is literally imbued with individual life stories of scientists and employees, qualitatively complementing the game’s world, setting and lore. Thanks to the messages and recordings left behind, you can reconstruct these plots and learn what life was like in these lands before the fated incidents.
If you’re a completionist (or love resources) it’s good to note that the surface must be explored as thoroughly as the underground complexes. There are many scientific firing ranges around the world, the passages to which are carefully hidden.
Exploring such testing grounds is not necessary, but rare and extremely useful resources, documentation and blueprints can be found there.
The entire facility is automated, and robots are connected to a single neural network; so, while exploring the world, don’t forget that your enemies are constantly watching you. Hope you can still relax…
Atomic Heart is launching February 21, 2023, for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and will be available day one with Xbox Game Pass.