Crispy critters, Atomic Heart is officially a franchise. Formally announced at Summer Game Fest 2025 (alongside the tie-in MMO The Cube), Atomic Heart 2 portrays a new and improved Facility 3826 — a Soviet-Silicon Valley surrounded by flying cities and inhabited by scientists who, for some reason, are… sending whales to the moon?
Eager to make sense of all this, I spoke via video call with Robert Bagratuni, CEO of Mundfish, the studio behind Atomic Heart 2. We were accompanied by director of communications Christina Omelchenko, who translated between Russian and English.
On critters staying crispy…
Image: Mundfish
After completing Atomic Heart in February 2023, a few weeks after its release, I largely left the absurdist sci-fi adventure behind me. You know what I didn’t leave behind? “Crispy critters.”
Protagonist P-3’s iconic catchphrase imbued itself in my memory, which, in a game world filled with truly bonkers oddities vying for attention, is saying something. Among Atomic Heart players, opinions on “crispy critters!” were divided, ranging from annoyance to amusement.
“However crazy or stupid it may sound, or unexpectedly popular or annoying it may be, it became a part of the character’s identity and part of the whole Atomic Heart vibe,” Bagratuni said. “So yes, let it stay.”
Speaking of definitive Atomic Heart aspects making a return for the sequel, Bagratuni also confirmed the presence of the Ballerina Twins, the metallic feminine robots who caused quite a stir in the original Atomic Heart. At the time, several reviews criticized their overly-sexual features. The Gamer’s Issy van der Velde described scenes with the Ballerina Twins as “male gaze-y shots,” and Stacey Henley pointed out that while the male robots have standard bodies and faces, “The female robots however are faceless and come with cartoonish proportions on their hips and busts.” Take a quick look at Reddit and Steam posts from the era concerning Atomic Heart, and you’ll find players questioning the degree of sexualization and stating that they don’t feel comfortable playing the game because of it.
As for what their role entails in Atomic Heart 2, and whether they’ll be joined by other main characters, Bagratuni can’t yet say; they still have a part to play in Atomic Heart’s upcoming DLC — the fourth and final expansion. “Whoever is alive after that one will take a role in Atomic Heart 2,” Bagratuni explained.
Despite the divisiveness around the Ballerina Twins, though, scrapping them from Atomic Heart 2 was never a consideration.
“We’re going to stay true to ourselves and the original aesthetics of the game. We just love it when things look beautiful, and you’re really enjoying what you see. So we’re definitely not changing that part,” Bagratuni said.
Just like its predecessor, Atomic Heart 2 builds on an alternate-history Soviet setting with a healthy dose of surreal monsters and machines. In Atomic Heart fiction, due to the discovery of the “Polymer” module in 1936, the Soviet Union experienced immense technological advancements, which explains the presence of robots, flying cities, and… Is that a whale? On the moon?
Bagratuni confirmed that the opening scene in the announcement trailer shows a “whale transportation system” to a lunar station. It exemplifies the main theme of Atomic Heart 2: for humanity to evolve to the next level and, hopefully, reach the stars.
“In the sci-fi of the ‘60s, there was a very common theme of human evolution and the ambition to go beyond the limits,” Bagratuni said. “The Atomic Heart 2 story is actually the beginning of this movement. There will definitely be a lot of drama, and we’re not going to spoil that, but yes, it’s the beginning of the transformation of people; to leave the Earth and move to the stars.”
But make no mistake; the story of Atomic Heart 2 still takes place in Facility 3826, the massive research center players came to know in the first game. However, it will expand into a larger region known as Polygon Science. (No relation to the website on which you’re reading this article.)
“The whole big area [around Facility 3826] is called Polygon Science, which is dedicated to deep science exploration. As it was in the 1960s, the main purpose is the exploration of the closest planets,” Bagratui explained. “Like Mars and Venus.”
Image: Mundfish
But it’s not just Facility 3826 that’s expanding; if you look closely at the trailer, you may spot a mysterious “flying city” in the sky.
“Those flying cities, they represent different cultures, different countries that get engaged in the events of Atomic Heart 2. The flying cities are capitalistic, and they are basically floating above the territory of the facility,” Bagratuni said. “They’re attracted to the facility. There will be certain events in the Atomic Heart universe that capture the interest of scientists from all over the world, and this facility becomes the center of gravity for the whole science community from different countries and cultures.”
“They’re all coming together to explore the scientific events that are happening in the world. The premise stays within this retro-futuristic world of Atomic Heart, this dystopian Soviet Union, but it kind of becomes a Silicon Valley.”
The extravagantly futuristic sci-fi world is what fascinated me most about the original Atomic Heart, but this fascination dwindled when the lovely canal cruise, creepy moustachioed robot attack, and unexpected granny encounter were followed by a seemingly never-ending run through a dreary underground laboratory. The most interesting locations offered the fewest opportunities for exploration.
Luckily, more exploration options are exactly what we’ll get in Atomic Heart 2.
“There was a lot of feedback that we received from the players. For example, the city of Chelomey was very beautiful and people wished to explore it more,” Bagratuni says. “So we want to give players more opportunity for exploration and really take their time to discover the city and the facility.”
Bagratuni reveals one of the accessible areas in Atomic Heart 2. See that huge flaming sphere about halfway through the announcement trailer? “It’s an anomaly,” Bagratuni explains, “You’ll go in there to explore.”
Image: Mundfish
Following the February 2023 release of Atomic Heart, the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered widespread calls for boycotts, including of Atomic Heart. As Vice reported, the main reasons behind the boycott of Atomic Heart were due to Mundfish’s alleged ties to Russian investors, in addition to supposed pro-Russian propaganda in the game.
How much truth there is to these allegations remains a point of contention. As Polygon’s Oli Welsh reported, Mundfish relocated its headquarters from Moscow to Cyprus following the invasion. “The developer’s website is keen to present it as an international operation,” he wrote at the time. Mundfish responded to the boycott with a statement saying it was “undeniably a pro-peace organization against violence against people.”
Since the real-world event that sparked the boycott is still ongoing, I asked if Bagratuni is worried about new calls for a boycott as we get closer to the release of Atomic Heart 2.
“We definitely cannot predict what’s going to happen by the time Atomic Heart 2 releases, how global events are going to change, and what’s going to be the mood of people who may want to ask for a boycott. We cannot be in charge of that,” Bagratuni explained. “We had a statement and it stays the same, so nothing really changed, and it was up on our social media everywhere. Our stance didn’t change, and honestly, we just want to make games. That is why we’re here.”
