In the last decade or so, a lot of work has been done to redefine the horror genre. On the AAA side, Resident Evil VII: Biohazard effectively rebooted a franchise that … had honestly seen better days. In the indie market, we’ve received Doki Doki Literature Club and Five Nights at Freddy’s, to name two.
But, what about the AA side? To be frank, one candidate of this phenomenon could be Atomic Heart, developed by Mundfish. In looking at the dystopian, alternate history experience, ‘horror’ might not be the first word you’d use, but according to the user-generated tags for the game on Steam, it’s considered by many to be exactly that. So, let’s take a deeper look into Atomic Heart as we seek to find out if it can be defined as a horror game … or not.
Is Atomic Heart a Horror Game?
It would seem the general consensus among reviewers is that it’s less ‘horror‘ and more ‘suspense.’ Think in terms of how Bioshock was set within a creepy environ, but it leaned more into being an action shooter than a survival horror. In fact, this makes a ton of sense considering anyone can find anything scary — especially when it comes to robots and the uncanny valley.
Related: How to Solve Ballerina Puzzle in Atomic Heart
It also checks out, because as stated, the ‘horror’ tag was user-generated, which means enough people found Atomic Heart scary for ‘horror’ to be among its most popular tags. On that note, some other tags that exist alongside ‘horror’ are ‘mystery,’ ‘puzzle,’ and ‘FPS.’ So, take from that what you will.
We hope you’ve found this Atomic Heart guide helpful! If you’d like to join in on the conversation surrounding the newest releases, be sure to follow Gamer Journalist on Facebook! And, in the meantime, take a look at some of our other guides, including Atomic Hearts: System Requirements for PC – Full Details and Does Atomic Heart Have Character Creation? Answered!
