Petrov's partner-in-crime here is his partner Dr. P-3 eventually finds Petrov's decapitated body, but it later turns out that Petrov staged his own death so that he could buy some time to let the world know about the incident at Facility 3826, as well as what he believes to be Sechenov's true plans. Petrov is a Lead Engineer on Kollektiv, and did indeed cause the robots to malfunction and start attacking people.

Sechenov asks P-3 totrack down and retrieve the head of a man called Viktor Petrov, who he believes is responsible for the robot catastrophe. P-3 meets with his long-time friend and superior, Dmitry Sechenov, who runs the facility and discovered the substance Polymer, and later found a way to inject Polymer into the human body, allowing humans to control robots with the power of their minds as well as instantly learn a huge amount of information (this was known as Kollektiv 1.0). The game opens with a spectacular sequence, where P-3 walks through crowds of people gathered to celebrate the launch of Kollektiv 2.0, a neural network designed to give humans even greater control over robots and further improve the automation of menial labour, leaving more time for humanity to pursue whatever creative or academical pursuits they desire.īut in the midst of the celebration, disaster strikes: the robots malfunction, and start running rampant killing people around Facility 3826. As there's so much to unpick, we've written a separate piece specifically for Atomic Heart's Endings.

We won't be going through every single story beat, just the key ones and the 'big twists,' focusing on the unclear, ambiguous, and head-scratching moments in the game, helping you get a clearer picture of what it all means. So we're here to explain all the core stuff that happens.

By the end of it, you can end up feeling just as confused as the game's perpetually confused protagonist. Inevitably, the plot thickens into a rich broth of betrayal, conspiracies, sci-fi wackiness, and a lot of proper nouns. Set in a flourishing Soviet Union in an alternative-history 1950s, where the nation has mastered advanced robotics with the help of a mystery compound called 'Polymer,' the game puts you in the shoes of Major Sergey Nechaev (or 'P-3') – a special agent who's been tasked with shutting down a catastrophic event at Science Institute, Facility 3826, where the robots have run amok. Atomic Heart is a strange game with a fittingly strange and complex story.

What is atomic heart about