Atomic Heart is an exciting game that has wowed gamers with its unique gameplay, wacky art direction, and impressive visuals. Developed by Mundfish, this is their debut title, and the small team of developers has done an incredible job with this project.
The game has fidelity on par with most AAA games and is a thunderous throwback to immersive sim classics. This article will present a complete Atomic Heart PS5 graphics analysis and PS5 gameplay at the end.
Atomic Heart PS5 Graphics Analysis
The Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Mundfish is a small independent studio, and building an in-house engine from scratch needs to make more sense for their debut project. Therefore, the developer has gone with Epic’s Unreal Engine 4 for this game, and it’s all the better for it.
The environment looks beautiful, thanks to pristine lighting and reflections. Atomic Heart also uses ray tracing in its presentation, limited to the PC version, and scales well depending on the target hardware.
Character Models: High Poly Counts and Consistent Detail
The character models in Atomic Heart have high poly counts and exhibit a consistently high level of detail. The player character has a detailed skin mesh, and visible body hair makes the limited character models quite realistic.
The game features diverse enemies, from metallic androids to airborne drones. Their models comprise high-quality assets with physically based materials, which simulate their nature in all lighting conditions.
Environment: Geometrically Complex and Well-Realized
Atomic Heart features many environments throughout its runtime, from the cramped interiors of a Soviet Union factory to large, open outdoor areas.
Regardless of where you find yourself, the areas are high-quality assets. The environments themselves are geometrically complex and have buried terrain, and tons of props litter the environment for a dense and well-realized world.
The dense leaves and proper textures fill the outdoor areas with great trees and foliage. Additionally, the trees and grass move with the wind, adding more detail to this presentation aspect. However, we only noticed a little in the name of destructible environments.
Animations in Atomic Heart
Atomic Heart offers its players many animation choices, ranging from character movements to enemy attacks. The game employs motion capture or a similar technique to produce these animations, which have a sense of weight and look quite realistic. Players can choose from various combat options; they are:
- Using melee weapons to strike enemies at close range,
- Guns to engage enemies at a distance, or
- Special abilities like telekinesis to throw enemies around easily.
The animations blend nicely into each other, providing a smooth-flowing combat loop.
Lighting, Reflections, and Shadows
Atomic Heart features direct and indirect lighting depending on the scene, with indoor areas utilizing a deferred renderer to simulate multiple light sources realistically.
Screen space reflections are used in the game, but PC players can switch to Ray-traced reflections for a more accurate reflection solution. Shadows in Atomic Heart are rendered accurately, and the shadow rendering distance is high.
The environments retain a realistic look with proper reflections and glimmers on all surfaces, and water and other fluids have high-quality translucent textures and reflections.
Post-processing
Atomic Heart uses motion blur in its visual makeup and utilizes ambient occlusion to add depth to surfaces. The game also uses volumetric smoke, alpha particles, and high-density, high-fidelity particles to enhance its visuals.
Explosions will cause dense clouds of smoke that allow light to diffuse through them, while Sparks will fly from the mechanical parts of your gun when you fire shots. Larger enemies leave huge dust trails as they charge toward you, and several attacks feature bright orange trails of lava.
PS5 Parameters
Atomic Heart on PS5 targets 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, but it runs at a dynamic resolution based on the player’s location. Overall performance is quite high, with only a few minor dips.
PS5 Gameplay
Gameplay Features
- Experience a utopian world that is both mad and sublime.
- Engage in visceral and spectacular combat, blasting giant machines and mutants with your advanced weapons and multiple skills.
- Upgrade your arsenal and equipment to enhance your combat abilities.
We explained every feature we could think of for PC. But they overlap with PS5, so check our in-depth feature article.
Conclusion
Atomic Heart is an impressive game with quality visuals, art direction, and environments. The developer’s adept use of Unreal Engine 4 is evident in the game’s convincing movements, lighting, reflections, shadows, and post-processing, all of which immerse the player in action.
Overall, Atomic Heart provides a smooth-flowing combat loop without any game-breaking hiccups, and the game’s visual effects add to its appeal. If you want to know more about Atomic Heart, then read, Atomic Heart Xbox Series X: What To Expect From The Game.
FAQs
Q: What engine does Atomic Heart use?
Answer: Atomic Heart uses Unreal Engine 4.
Q: What are the graphics like in Atomic Heart?
Answer: The graphics in Atomic Heart are high quality and on par with most AAA games. The game features high poly counts, consistent detail, well-realized environments, and good lighting, reflections, and shadows.
Q: What types of animations are available in Atomic Heart?
Answer: Atomic Heart features a range of animations for both the player’s character and enemies, including movements, attacks, and takedowns.
Q: What technique was used to produce the animations in Atomic Heart?
Answer: The animations in Atomic Heart have been produced through motion capture or a similar technique.
Q: What types of lighting are used in Atomic Heart?
Answer: Atomic Heart features both direct and indirect lighting, depending on the scene. Direct lighting is used in outdoor scenes, while indoor areas use deferred rendering to simulate multiple light sources.
Q: What type of reflections are used in Atomic Heart?
Answer: Atomic Heart uses screen space reflections by default, but PC players can switch to ray-traced reflections for more accuracy at the cost of increased computing power.
Q: What post-processing effects are used in Atomic Heart?
Answer: Atomic Heart uses motion blur, ambient occlusion, volumetric smoke, and alpha particles to enhance the game’s visuals during combat.
Q: What are the PS5 parameters for Atomic Heart?
Answer: Atomic Heart on PS5 targets 4K resolution and 60 frames per second but runs at a dynamic resolution based on the player’s location. The game’s performance is solid, with few drops in frame rate.
Q: Overall, what is the visual quality of Atomic Heart?
Answer: The visuals of Atomic Heart are highly impressive, featuring quality art direction, realistic animations with a sense of weight, dynamic lighting, and high-fidelity post-processing effects.
Q: What is the gameplay like in Atomic Heart?
Answer: Atomic Heart offers its players a smooth-flowing combat loop with various animation choices, such as using melee weapons, guns, or special abilities like telekinesis to throw enemies around easily.