hey there, new to Gaming 🎋 I do know your headphone set is somewhat the classic of its class, but I do not have its references? Could you please tell me what model it is? Thanks for a balanced and *levelheaded review 🎋
Sure, people shouldn’t lecture others on their ethics, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking people, “Please don’t give money to killers, with which they will kill people?”
Literally can't wait for this game. Not gonna punish a studio for being born in a country whose politics they have zero influence over. For those grudging them for not calling out the Russian government or Putin directly, you clearly don't live in Russia or China where such statements will affect you, your family and everyone you know in catastrophic ways. It's a tough position to be in.
People who are connected to the studio, influencial ones, investors and stuff (I don't remember everything about it) are supporting russian aggression. It's not only their "country in which they are unfortunately live". It's not like J.K. Rowling controversy with Hogwarts Legacy. People for almost a year die every day on Ukraine, not so far away from me.
I’d argue, it’s a game, so let’s keep present day affairs out of it. These games are developed years ago, to demand or suggest they reflect the current day would ruin they entire experience and game.
to be fair you can’t talk the government in any country. you clearly have never spoken shit about the US they’ll at your door with the tweets in hand lol
Dude I know, it’s always kind of insulting when he does that. I hope he doesn’t genuinely believe his audience struggles with the concept of skepticism, and he’s just trying to lengthen the video for monetary reasons haha
I always look forward to your "A Skeptical Look at" videos. I don't think you're being cynical or a debbie downer. Everyone should have this type of mindset when a new game is announced or when it is close to launch. I see too often people jump on the bandwagon of defending a game or new IP even when there is red flags around its development and being mad or disappointed all because they were too narrow minded in trusting the developers promises. I like how you lay on the available evidence and facts on the table and you let your audience decide what to make of it.
bro, as a resident of Russia, I want to thank you for not supporting the "cancellation" of the game. Russian gamedev is different from the western one, we are not trying to adapt to left-wing journalists, we are not afraid to show beautiful women, so I think Russians can bring something new to game dev
I’m looking forward to Atomic Heart, but I very rarely get hyped for a game. I do a good job of not jumping on the hype train. Glad to see a new video.
The art style and concepts alone look so good I don't even know what the fuck is going on in this game it's so interesting everything has a weird look to it looks really interesting
Yeah as much as I dislike the USSR and communism especially I've always liked that USSR aesthetician, the vehicles etc. Used to love playing the USSR in Command and Conquer
@@TerraWare that style actually comes from the Bauhaus, Germany. A lot of it's members, teachers and students fled Nazi Germany to the USSR and worked there as artists and architects until they had to flee or some were sent to gulags.
Yeah I’ve never seen anything like this game. Even if it feels clunky I’ll still play it because the art style is so creative. But based on the gameplay we’ve seen I don’t understand how this games going to run on Xbox one. This looks like you need a ps5 or series x to play. Hopefully they last gen versions went buggy!
I'm not pre-ordering because I don't want to pre-fund the next Cyberbug 2077...BUT, I will buy the heck out of the game once it's confirmed to be working properly.
Team-handmade games are a rarity these days. Largely the market is dominated by either AAA or small indie teams/studios, but seeing a medium-sized dev stepping up to the plate despite a relatively unknown reputation is refreshing. I hope that atomic heart is more...artistic? Because these people aren't held up to the standards of shoot-em-up AAAs or mindless MMOs, I feel like they definitely have the space and time to make a very worthwhile game.
Will avoid this game: as a conscriptable Russian citizen, the only way for me to legally play it is through VK-Play, which - by its EULA for Russian users, - shares collected user data not just with FSB (Putin's Secret Police, if to be short and frank), but with military draft offices as well. Besides, since the start of the war "Soviet aethetic" aged like fine milk to me, and I have my doubts that the writers of the game will manage to get anything Levine-like out of it - especially given that they might get fired by publisher at best or get prosecuted by the regime at worst if they offend some Z-tard with the script they made.
I wouldn't say it's been that long since our last "Bioshock Fix" there was Prey back in 2017 which was incredible but this genre is sorely lacking definitely need more games like this.
@@amimm7776 Yeah could say that and I would say what formula and/or game was Bioshock trying to emulate? System Shock correct? Sure it's a little different Prey being more free form but in essence they all kind of fall together.
I left a comment on that 'don't buy Atomic Heart' video complementing them on their aptitude for deleting critical comments and saying the CCCP would be proud of them. It got deleted instantly 😂
I’m so stoked for Atomic Heart man. Slavic Dystopia is essentially its own genre now and I just can’t get enough of these types of games. They just ooze atmosphere and Atomic Heart looks no different.
@@IlIIlIIIIlIIllllIIlllIII its a utopia gone wrong thats what a utopia is, too good to be true. Also check out the steam page it LITERALLY says it refers to it as a utopia because it was good until everything went to shit THATS WHAT A UTOPIA IS DYSTOPIA IS SIMILAR BUT MUCH DIFFERENT
tbh i dont care that much about the money ,cuz frankly any money we give to any game studios , goverments will benefit from it , US is not a lesser criminal than russia
Luke, if you truly were a critical thinker, you wouldn't base your opinion of 'the scandal' on one bad youtubers account of it. You would find the facts of the situation and make an informed decision before formulating and perpetuating a misinformed opinion.
As a Russian I think that the boycott of this studio is valid. The video of that Ukrainian youtuber might have a flawed logic here and there, but I have a hunch that he's right overall. You are right, not all Russian "buddies with Putin", but I feel like Mundfish specifically are. Looking at their partnership with VK Play, and their public statement (which is vague, and doesn't condemn the invasion, just says that war is bad, like many more Putin apologists do here in Russia), this is all very familiar to me. VK Play is government-owned, and the Russian government wouldn't be working with someone who are against their ideologies. Also it's worth pointing out, that VK Play is the PREFFERED way of distributing the game for Mundfish. It's not like they absolutely have to work with Putin, they actively cooperate. They removed access to the game page in Steam for Russia, other CIS countries, even though it would take them less effort to leave it there for the people in Russia who know how to add funds to their Steam account, and just leave alone other countries which are not effected by sanctions! Steam in Kazakhstan works just fine, they still removed it from there. That shows that they do prefer the government-owned Russian VK Play over Steam. They enabled it in all the countries in which they can convince people to use it. They left Steam for the westerners, but if they could, they force them to use VK Play too. That's not to mention that the plot is literally about a KGB agent saving USSR (who didn't know, Putin was a KGB agent himself, and many think he wants to bring back the USSR). Oh, and the release day is February 21? A day before the "big Putin's speech"? You can't make that shit up. This is not for the record, it's just ironic. So, I'll pass on this one for my own moral sanity. I'm already feeling like a garbage of a person by just living here and paying taxes to fund this war, don't want to give them no more extra rubles.
I think you don't see the whole picture nor how big this is and how small it is. As a Russian in America, I know where my dollars are going. And I honestly don't care one way or the other. Only with hindsight will the truth be known.
I have a lot of respect for your approach on these videos. I really like how you try to be as objective and level headed as possible to evaluate the game and everything that may surround it. Thanks for the great content.
Join me on stream or I'll boycott boycotts of youtubers who call for boycotts while not boycotting other things that should be boycotted... Or something... www.youtube.com/@LukeStephensLive
As a person who's been very skeptical of this game and hogwarts legacy since they both got announced, both of them looked to good to be true when first announced, I'm really hoping this game suprises me the same way hogwarts did
I have gamepass so it's free for me. Just don't buy the game for a few days based on a cinematic trailer. The "gameplay" I have seen looks to edited to be trusted. It's free to wait a week.
If I'm not mistaken some of the first devs had started development of the game back in 2008. The full scale didn't start until 2017 which adds up with the devs stating the game has 113k hours of works
It's always good to be skeptical of new releases from studios you don't know of. I just hope this isn't another case of Hogwarts legacy where there's a fervorant base of people who don't like the game and anything to do with it; and then there's a people who want to piss off those people so that they buy the game anyways even though they don't like Harry Potter. This might just be some Russian shovelware. It looks like there was time and effort put into it obviously but who knows if it's a good game or not
I think the game looks fine If I had to complain I'd say the character animations during gameplay is a bit jumpy but what I'm mostly concerned about is the actual game progression. Not even knowing a little except a basic premise is a bit concerning.
I'd be careful. It's an eye candy for sure but as a shooter that can be a double edged sword with all that bloom and bob, also I heard there's no FOV slider. The gamespot guy was fairly critical, saying it's not really bioshock-y, and mentioning clunky combat. Seems to me more like a budget Wolfestein at this point...
I enjoy how skeptical people are being about big releases with lots of hype. I remember being a wee pup getting burned by a game called "Brute Force" back on the original XBOX. Fell hard for the hype and have waited til the release before getting my hopes up ever since.
Given it's an AA eurojank russian bioshock aspired title, the openworld gameplay aspects was reminiscent of Dying Light or Far Cry an amalgamation of the genre, and a game narrative direction similar to Wolfenstein.
So strangle to me how many people believe that every person in any position must openly declare their political stance and if on the „wrong“ side be boycotted
I am really looking forward to this game. I still don't understand why people make videos telling others to not buy a game due to extenuating circumstances, just like HW Legacy. It just makes me wanna get it more. Hence why I love how you take a mostly unbiased approach
Me personally Im looking forward to getting my hands on this game. The fact that it's being made by a new game dev company I think is great. I mean the game looks awesome and if its a success it's great for us gamers and I'll definitely be looking forward to a sequel or whatever new title they will make in the future
The skepticism for me comes from the fact that Mundfish was originally stationed in Moscow. I don't know if they've moved countries since then, but that means at it's foundation it is Russian. Not to mention a lot of the themes of the game revolve around an idea that soviet russia became a utopia of technology and I don't want to play something with that theme, collapsing or not.
not only this, but the financial backers of this have connections to the war machine. part of the money generated by the game will go to genocide in ukraine
From what I'm seeing and reading, the game is NOT in good shape. A complete and total mess chock full of bugs and haphazardly thrown together areas that don't make any sense. Missions that won't complete. Challenges that don't work. A terrible UI and map that's difficult to follow. Power Pyx talked a little about some of these issues. The first time I've ever heard them say they're cancelling a walkthrough for a game because the game is too broken to make one for.
He's worked with new development studios quite a bit actually. Seems like a really open minded person and is willing to work with passionate developers no matter how big, new or old the studio is.
I've been subbed for a while under what feels like subconsciously obligatory pretenses. However, I must say that seeing you host a mature, nuanced and intelligent conversation regarding this made me a proud subscriber. Great video, Luke.
@@kennypowers1945 Mostly the camera bobbing/shaking, the bright color’s flashing, tons of particle effects and motion blur (they’ll most likely let us turn it off). For instance I started playing Shadow Warrior 3 yesterday and after 30 minutes or so I felt pretty nauseous and my eyes hurt. Haha! Game looks great though, can’t wait to try it out.
It’s probably going to come out broken and unfinished, glitchy buggy and laggy as hell. Russian or not, theirs stories about scam artists being associated with the game’s development, and it’s more than likely the case this is going to be some over priced “good looking” dumpster fire
Just wait a week. Wait a little bit. Watch the first hour, it'll probably be all tutorial, nothing to spoil you wouldn't see yourself, and don't rush to play it. This is coming out the same week as Like a Dragon: Ishin and like 5 other highly anticipated games including a Demo for Wo-Long: Dynasty which releases the first week of March. This may become a backlog game for many who buy it early. At worst (performance apocalypse, oopsie war funds, eula stealing IP addresses) it'll be a Wait For Sale kinda deal. Second worst, you get spoiled from day-one story diving UA-cam cutscene compilations.
Man im so hyped for this game but I'm really pissed on how the gaming community is just saying this is russian BioShock. Sure it has elements, and the developers have stated they were inspired by BioShock. But its kinda dishonest when all anyone does is compare these works to other things. Its pretty disingenuous when you don't talk about everything they did to make themselves stand out.
No, the problem is the investors of mundfish are gazprom and gme capital, and funds from the game are going back to Russia and then converting to rockets to the Ukraine
You’d be shocked how many companies you support have investors that support and/or tolerate arguably immoral things but it’s a matter of personal perception and choice, I don’t hate Russians, I disagree with the government but I support good games and game developers in general shouldn’t be held accountable for the actions of the government of the country they’re from
It's gonna be groundbreaking when you find out you live in a interconnected world and things you do that seem small actually influence in some way other stuff that is so big you can't deductively grasp
Thanks for calling out the real point of the controversy that totally has been glazed over. The money will go to russia, putins government will get their piece
You should probably return your Devices because you gave money to a company that used cheap labor from desperate people, you wouldn’t wanna be a bad person would you?
The game looks great but I am wary because a lot of the footage sets off my _bullshot_ alarms after decades of watching hype previews especially those from Ubisoft. A lot of alternate history stories also don’t think through their alternate history and lore enough to the point where the scenarios come off as laughable when they’re attempting a serious tone.
Meh. I'm buying this coz I'm now buying every game that makes losers whinge "don't buy". I don't even care if it's a good game. Now there's a principal at stake.
I mean politics is everyone's purview, it effects us all. You may be being critical of the game itself but the game itself doesn't exist in a bubble, unfortunately.
And thus you fail as a 'journalist' Luke. You should have dug deeper. Spoken to people who know more than you do. You failed to cover the fundamental underlying issue about this game.
Watched a 5 hour Stream of Atomic Heart in UA-cam and the trailers didn't lie. Everything that was there, is in the game. Which is cool but WHERE THE TWINS AT?! They appeared briefly in the beginning and never again so far. Looks like they'll be late game encounters.
Bravo Luke. Great take on the issue. Also for those not in the industry some insight. Alot of these woke crowds are tied to ngo that are funded by big gaming studios (UBI, EA, BETHESDA). Their job is to attack little studios in hopes of squashing potential rivals and competition under the guise of "idealism." This is akin to the male lion killing the young cubs of potential rivals in the wild. By jumping on board with them you (as a consumer) are doing the big studios bidding and simultaneously restricting your self of the amount of content you will have access to. It's a very clever tactic that they use. Weaponized idealism. Good luck Luke great if you to be the adult in the room. You will go far in life with that mindset. Stay comfy for Wednesday's storm. Cheers.
It seems like there's been so many "game controversies" lately. Bayonetta 3, Hogwarts, Atomic Heart, etc, etc. Makes me feel old thinking "remember when games just came out and we bought them"
I kinda hoped that this game wouldn’t get this popular before it released, because now people will have super high expectations. I think the game will still be good though.
Kinda sad that prey 2017 is not understood as a bioshock spiritual successor, bethesda really dropped the ball in the marketing of that game. I'm more interested to see the reaction to the new system shock remake actually, atomic heart looks good but the focus in melee gameplay with the axe is too much dying light for me, not my favorite style of combat.
It's NOT okay to buy and play this game because it trivializes something that NEEDS to be CONDEMNED. USSR was a murderous regime, not unlike Nazi. We condemned the Nazi regime as something evil. So if you make a game where Nazis won the war, you make Wolfenstein, where they are still the bad guys and you fight against them. Soviet regime wasn't better than the Nazi one, not even slightly. Soviets (and, by extension, modern russians) still have the superiority ideology. In Soviet Union only the Russian citizens were considered a higher class. If you ever claimed to be Ukrainian or Georgian, you were looked down upon. Not to mention ethnic cleansings, butchering millions of Ukrainians with artificial famine, etc. This was done by KGB. So how come it's okay to portray them as the good guys? Would you play as a good SS officer? Probably not. How come it's okay to play as a good KGB officer in a setting that portrays the survival of the regime that sought to subjugate and perform ethnic cleansings?
What the hell are you talking about Georgians and Ukrainians in the USSR? Stalin was a Georgian, half of the leaders of the USSR were Ukrainians. What's the point in lying all the time?
@@edistoorbust I mean, morality is subjective. But if you don't mind consuming the ideology that whitewashes genocide while also paying the people who are using the money to buy weapons and wage war on the civilians as you play, then knock yourself out. No wonder the humanity has become so numb to each other's suffering.
@@MrSkoresh Yup. But all of them had this ideology of a 'soviet man' who is beyond nations. To that end, most non-Russian nations who were imprisoned by what you call 'USSR' were considered inferior. Case and point, even Stalin's name was not Joseph Stalin. He was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, but that sounded too Georgian. Another case and point, countless millions of people were murdered by his decree. Look up Holodomor, if you actually care to learn. Long story short, you couldn't be a Ukrainian within USSR and cultivate your own culture. Musicians, poets, thinkers - all killed in the name of wiping the nation and turning Ukrainians into Soviets. I am alive today because the day my grandfather's family was forced to Siberia in a cargo train for being Ukrainian, his mother, my great-grandmother, managed to push him (he was a kid) through the train car grate and he escaped. Most of my family didn't survive the trip. The rest died in Siberia. The man behind this is regarded as a hero in Russia. The regime behind this is considered to be "one of the regimes" and apparently it's okay to portray it as something good.
Dude, it's impossible to live by your logic. If before each purchase we think about something like "fuck, and if the money I'm going to give this guy will go to bad things," then you can go crazy. The same applies to your struggle with this game, because you see propaganda in it. And in every way you try to convince others that this is a game, this is propaganda, do not buy it. Put yourself in their shoes. Every country has enough black pages in its history. If an Irishman starts urging you not to buy a game because it's developed in the UK or a Vietnamese because it's developed in the USA?Will an Azerbaijani call for a boycott of purchases of goods from Armenia, and will all Muslims boycott goods from Israel? You won't listen to them, I'm sure. Therefore, what you are calling people to now is your personal hatred of the Russian nation, and you have just reasons for this.
I have a pre-order. I'm really looking forward to this. I've been waiting for something like Fallout or BioShock for a long time. I can't believe the graphics look small like from the UE5 previews.
If the game is more action oriented I’ll wait for a sale. But if they go the full immersive sim route with a good amount of replay ability then I’m sold. Last immersive sim I played that was somewhat enjoyable was death loop. But even that game couldn’t hold the candle for the genre like Deus ex and Dishonored did.
Fun fact: Boycotts came from 18th Century Ireland (ironically named after an English man, a Captain Boycott, who along with his family was blanked and ostracised by an entire village, thus giving rise to The Boycott). I'm boycotting the new Harry Potter game - I do know trans people, so I won't support Rowling's work - and I think I'll Boycott this game too. I'm actually interested in old-skool Soviet imagery, iconography and architecture - but notwithstanding the uncomfortable reality that Atomic Heart's developer finds itself in - no, I'm not supporting Russian-funded anything, including this game.
I feel the same way about Atomic Heart as I do about Hogwarts legacy. I will be playing both because of the material. I will play Hogwarts because harry potter was a huge part of my childhood and this will probably be the best game we've ever had in that universe. I will play Atomic Heart because it seems to blend great elements of other games with Bioshock better than prey did, and Bioshock is my favorite video game ever. I could care less who or what is related or involved with it aside from the people who created the games, and if I find it to be great, the devs deserve the recognition.
Check out Apex Gaming PC's to get a great PC from a company that takes real pride in their work: apexgamingpcs.com/products/luke-stephens
I build my own PCs every other year and I checked the link just to drive some traffic for you...the PCs are ridiculously overpriced
When is the review embargo?
hey there, new to Gaming 🎋 I do know your headphone set is somewhat the classic of its class, but I do not have its references?
Could you please tell me what model it is?
Thanks for a balanced and *levelheaded review 🎋
Is there a more conservative perspective than "I think it's arrogant when other people express their point of view?"
Sure, people shouldn’t lecture others on their ethics, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking people, “Please don’t give money to killers, with which they will kill people?”
Literally can't wait for this game. Not gonna punish a studio for being born in a country whose politics they have zero influence over. For those grudging them for not calling out the Russian government or Putin directly, you clearly don't live in Russia or China where such statements will affect you, your family and everyone you know in catastrophic ways. It's a tough position to be in.
People who are connected to the studio, influencial ones, investors and stuff (I don't remember everything about it) are supporting russian aggression. It's not only their "country in which they are unfortunately live". It's not like J.K. Rowling controversy with Hogwarts Legacy. People for almost a year die every day on Ukraine, not so far away from me.
Well said, especially the last bit.
I’d argue, it’s a game, so let’s keep present day affairs out of it. These games are developed years ago, to demand or suggest they reflect the current day would ruin they entire experience and game.
to be fair you can’t talk the government in any country. you clearly have never spoken shit about the US they’ll at your door with the tweets in hand lol
Born in Russia is not a problem. Staying there is the problem. Whether they say anything about the regime or not, they're supporting it anyway.
I feel like this is the first skeptical video where Luke didn't take 5 minutes to explain what the word skeptical means. Good job
Stephens often has redundancy in his scripts unfortunately. It's probably the area of his writing that could improve the most.
Dude I know, it’s always kind of insulting when he does that. I hope he doesn’t genuinely believe his audience struggles with the concept of skepticism, and he’s just trying to lengthen the video for monetary reasons haha
But he did take 5 minutes to insert a sponsorship
I always look forward to your "A Skeptical Look at" videos. I don't think you're being cynical or a debbie downer. Everyone should have this type of mindset when a new game is announced or when it is close to launch. I see too often people jump on the bandwagon of defending a game or new IP even when there is red flags around its development and being mad or disappointed all because they were too narrow minded in trusting the developers promises. I like how you lay on the available evidence and facts on the table and you let your audience decide what to make of it.
being skeptical and thinking critically is something everyone should do always. there is no downside.
Yea, there's always that benefit of the doubt.
Come on in this case hes just doing it for the views
bro, as a resident of Russia, I want to thank you for not supporting the "cancellation" of the game. Russian gamedev is different from the western one, we are not trying to adapt to left-wing journalists, we are not afraid to show beautiful women, so I think Russians can bring something new to game dev
Imagine Americans being mad about atomic heart and giving Call of Duty a slide when it activitly trying to rewrite history in the American favour lol
A three minute ad spot? Damn Luke, that bag better be worth it.
I’m looking forward to Atomic Heart, but I very rarely get hyped for a game. I do a good job of not jumping on the hype train. Glad to see a new video.
same, but in my case I'm busy clearing my game backlogs. Other than I get the advantage of playing them during sale or avoiding a bad product.
The art style and concepts alone look so good I don't even know what the fuck is going on in this game it's so interesting everything has a weird look to it looks really interesting
Yeah as much as I dislike the USSR and communism especially I've always liked that USSR aesthetician, the vehicles etc. Used to love playing the USSR in Command and Conquer
The "visual style" does encapsulates the Soviet cold war era aesthetic of USSR design.
Periods are cool!
@@TerraWare that style actually comes from the Bauhaus, Germany. A lot of it's members, teachers and students fled Nazi Germany to the USSR and worked there as artists and architects until they had to flee or some were sent to gulags.
Yeah I’ve never seen anything like this game. Even if it feels clunky I’ll still play it because the art style is so creative.
But based on the gameplay we’ve seen I don’t understand how this games going to run on Xbox one. This looks like you need a ps5 or series x to play. Hopefully they last gen versions went buggy!
I'm not pre-ordering because I don't want to pre-fund the next Cyberbug 2077...BUT, I will buy the heck out of the game once it's confirmed to be working properly.
Proper attitude 👍🏻
Team-handmade games are a rarity these days. Largely the market is dominated by either AAA or small indie teams/studios, but seeing a medium-sized dev stepping up to the plate despite a relatively unknown reputation is refreshing. I hope that atomic heart is more...artistic? Because these people aren't held up to the standards of shoot-em-up AAAs or mindless MMOs, I feel like they definitely have the space and time to make a very worthwhile game.
Will avoid this game: as a conscriptable Russian citizen, the only way for me to legally play it is through VK-Play, which - by its EULA for Russian users, - shares collected user data not just with FSB (Putin's Secret Police, if to be short and frank), but with military draft offices as well. Besides, since the start of the war "Soviet aethetic" aged like fine milk to me, and I have my doubts that the writers of the game will manage to get anything Levine-like out of it - especially given that they might get fired by publisher at best or get prosecuted by the regime at worst if they offend some Z-tard with the script they made.
When he said he is just going to give us the information and let us decide how we feel just reminded me of why I subscribed
I wouldn't say it's been that long since our last "Bioshock Fix" there was Prey back in 2017 which was incredible but this genre is sorely lacking definitely need more games like this.
One could argue Prey is more of a system shock fix
@@amimm7776 Yeah could say that and I would say what formula and/or game was Bioshock trying to emulate? System Shock correct? Sure it's a little different Prey being more free form but in essence they all kind of fall together.
I’m so excited for this game; been waiting for a game like this since Prey (2017)
I'm happy i found out about it last autumn so i don't have to wait for that long
Prey is the only game that has been able to itch my Bioshock scratch since Bioshock, 10/10 imo. Hopefully this delivers the same vibe.
@@loganmcallister4635 LUL
Yea just in time before we got the Judas game (ken Levine)
Keep an eye on the System Shock remake, that's Prey's grandpa right there.
8:30 there is a word for it, it's called retro futurism
I left a comment on that 'don't buy Atomic Heart' video complementing them on their aptitude for deleting critical comments and saying the CCCP would be proud of them. It got deleted instantly 😂
Same haha
I've been following the development for years and I think this game has a lot of potential for interesting gameplay and interesting social commentary.
Man, we FEEL old, imagine how Troy Baker must feel, he voiced Booker back in 2013 and then Last of us same year and I barely knew of him back then.
I’m so stoked for Atomic Heart man. Slavic Dystopia is essentially its own genre now and I just can’t get enough of these types of games. They just ooze atmosphere and Atomic Heart looks no different.
*utopia
@@IlIIlIIIIlIIllllIIlllIII its a utopia gone wrong thats what a utopia is, too good to be true. Also check out the steam page it LITERALLY says it refers to it as a utopia because it was good until everything went to shit THATS WHAT A UTOPIA IS DYSTOPIA IS SIMILAR BUT MUCH DIFFERENT
EA / Activision / Ubisoft do outrageous dirt ALL THE TIME and people don't bat an eye. I'mma play the shit out of this game.
tbh i dont care that much about the money ,cuz frankly any money we give to any game studios , goverments will benefit from it , US is not a lesser criminal than russia
Luke, if you truly were a critical thinker, you wouldn't base your opinion of 'the scandal' on one bad youtubers account of it. You would find the facts of the situation and make an informed decision before formulating and perpetuating a misinformed opinion.
His hands are tied until the embargo ends. I think he is telling us not to buy. But I could be wrong.
@Pyametra google it hero.
As a Russian I think that the boycott of this studio is valid. The video of that Ukrainian youtuber might have a flawed logic here and there, but I have a hunch that he's right overall. You are right, not all Russian "buddies with Putin", but I feel like Mundfish specifically are. Looking at their partnership with VK Play, and their public statement (which is vague, and doesn't condemn the invasion, just says that war is bad, like many more Putin apologists do here in Russia), this is all very familiar to me. VK Play is government-owned, and the Russian government wouldn't be working with someone who are against their ideologies. Also it's worth pointing out, that VK Play is the PREFFERED way of distributing the game for Mundfish. It's not like they absolutely have to work with Putin, they actively cooperate. They removed access to the game page in Steam for Russia, other CIS countries, even though it would take them less effort to leave it there for the people in Russia who know how to add funds to their Steam account, and just leave alone other countries which are not effected by sanctions! Steam in Kazakhstan works just fine, they still removed it from there. That shows that they do prefer the government-owned Russian VK Play over Steam. They enabled it in all the countries in which they can convince people to use it. They left Steam for the westerners, but if they could, they force them to use VK Play too.
That's not to mention that the plot is literally about a KGB agent saving USSR (who didn't know, Putin was a KGB agent himself, and many think he wants to bring back the USSR). Oh, and the release day is February 21? A day before the "big Putin's speech"? You can't make that shit up. This is not for the record, it's just ironic. So, I'll pass on this one for my own moral sanity. I'm already feeling like a garbage of a person by just living here and paying taxes to fund this war, don't want to give them no more extra rubles.
I think you don't see the whole picture nor how big this is and how small it is. As a Russian in America, I know where my dollars are going. And I honestly don't care one way or the other. Only with hindsight will the truth be known.
I have a lot of respect for your approach on these videos. I really like how you try to be as objective and level headed as possible to evaluate the game and everything that may surround it. Thanks for the great content.
I will buy this game like I will buy Stalker an Ukranian game. If the game looks fun I’ll buy it no matter what.
Join me on stream or I'll boycott boycotts of youtubers who call for boycotts while not boycotting other things that should be boycotted... Or something...
www.youtube.com/@LukeStephensLive
THANK YOU, THANK YOU SO MUCH LUKE) I was waiting for it so much)))
I'm more concerned about the quality of the game, because based on different stories, the development was a living hell
Don't forget the most important part....MICK GORDON SOUNDTRACK
Can’t wait to try this, if it fails then it fails, but imo I don’t think it’s going to fail
As a person who's been very skeptical of this game and hogwarts legacy since they both got announced, both of them looked to good to be true when first announced, I'm really hoping this game suprises me the same way hogwarts did
I have gamepass so it's free for me. Just don't buy the game for a few days based on a cinematic trailer. The "gameplay" I have seen looks to edited to be trusted. It's free to wait a week.
If I'm not mistaken some of the first devs had started development of the game back in 2008. The full scale didn't start until 2017 which adds up with the devs stating the game has 113k hours of works
yeah the game was supposed to be a movie but then one of the developers found out about unreal and decided to make a game
It's been in the works for a very long time and restarted many times but I'm happy it's finally coming out
It's always good to be skeptical of new releases from studios you don't know of. I just hope this isn't another case of Hogwarts legacy where there's a fervorant base of people who don't like the game and anything to do with it; and then there's a people who want to piss off those people so that they buy the game anyways even though they don't like Harry Potter. This might just be some Russian shovelware. It looks like there was time and effort put into it obviously but who knows if it's a good game or not
Confused. Are you saying hogwarts is bad? And people only bought it to piss people off?
The way you word it like people bought the game just to piss off the idiots who demanded no one was allowed to buy it or talk about it positively....
Personally I think it’s a great game. Better than I expected it to be. They did a really good job with it
@@samgoff5289 oh but people have bought it for that exact reason (per internet popular consensus), never underestimate anonymous spite
The review embargo is on monday. For anyone wondering their main twitter said yesterday i believe. You are free to look it up.
They revamped loot mechanics completely and now you can "vacuum" loot from nearby containets. Watch more recent videos.
The gameplay and game footage got me hooked. The robot mommies sold it.
I like how you compared this to Metro. Metro: Exodus is one of the most underrated games of the past decade.
If you want the most accurate info on how this game funds the russian government watch NFKRZ’s video.
I think the game looks fine If I had to complain I'd say the character animations during gameplay is a bit jumpy but what I'm mostly concerned about is the actual game progression. Not even knowing a little except a basic premise is a bit concerning.
I'd be careful. It's an eye candy for sure but as a shooter that can be a double edged sword with all that bloom and bob, also I heard there's no FOV slider. The gamespot guy was fairly critical, saying it's not really bioshock-y, and mentioning clunky combat. Seems to me more like a budget Wolfestein at this point...
No fov is a big turn off for pc
@@jakpote88 yup, really hope it will be in the release version
Tbh I’m more skeptical of reviews these days than games.
I enjoy how skeptical people are being about big releases with lots of hype. I remember being a wee pup getting burned by a game called "Brute Force" back on the original XBOX. Fell hard for the hype and have waited til the release before getting my hopes up ever since.
idg why people care about fov it always look ridiculous off of default lol
The same people screaming “Russian propaganda” play Call of Duty not realising it’s American Army propaganda
Not true most times it’s against America
Given it's an AA eurojank russian bioshock aspired title, the openworld gameplay aspects was reminiscent of Dying Light or Far Cry an amalgamation of the genre, and a game narrative direction similar to Wolfenstein.
"Outside of my boathouse"
I see you were channeling Michael Scott there lol
So strangle to me how many people believe that every person in any position must openly declare their political stance and if on the „wrong“ side be boycotted
Its gonna be on game pass,so many who have it will be decide themselves if its a win or lose
Bro it's on game pass day one, no need to wait for reviews or be skeptical if it sucks it sucks and if it's not that's awesome
I am really looking forward to this game. I still don't understand why people make videos telling others to not buy a game due to extenuating circumstances, just like HW Legacy. It just makes me wanna get it more. Hence why I love how you take a mostly unbiased approach
This game gives me a combination of Bioshock, Wolfenstein, Fallout, Deus Ex, Prey and Metro vibes 🤣
Same here and those are my favorite games of all time.
Not sure why its funny. I mean, i agree with you completely....but funny?
@@kevingarcia6746 will this be the next? 🤞
@trivediji2764 well I've never really had coop games or friends to play them with so... 😂
The way I feel about games and marketing now days is hoping for the best but expecting the worst
13:50 Absolutely based take. That's why I respect you
Absolutely based, we can make our own decisions
Definitely waiting for reviews on this one… something about it feels slightly off?
Really good pre release analysis.
Keep up the good work 🙂
Me personally Im looking forward to getting my hands on this game. The fact that it's being made by a new game dev company I think is great. I mean the game looks awesome and if its a success it's great for us gamers and I'll definitely be looking forward to a sequel or whatever new title they will make in the future
The skepticism for me comes from the fact that Mundfish was originally stationed in Moscow. I don't know if they've moved countries since then, but that means at it's foundation it is Russian. Not to mention a lot of the themes of the game revolve around an idea that soviet russia became a utopia of technology and I don't want to play something with that theme, collapsing or not.
@Worst Case Scenario tax haven aka where they launder money.
not only this, but the financial backers of this have connections to the war machine. part of the money generated by the game will go to genocide in ukraine
From what I'm seeing and reading, the game is NOT in good shape. A complete and total mess chock full of bugs and haphazardly thrown together areas that don't make any sense. Missions that won't complete. Challenges that don't work. A terrible UI and map that's difficult to follow. Power Pyx talked a little about some of these issues. The first time I've ever heard them say they're cancelling a walkthrough for a game because the game is too broken to make one for.
I think the example may be a tad cherry picked.
just the fact that this new development studio convinced Mick Gordon to make the soundtrack is more than enough to make it a must have for me
Hopefully they treated him better than Bethesda did
He's worked with new development studios quite a bit actually. Seems like a really open minded person and is willing to work with passionate developers no matter how big, new or old the studio is.
@@nathanblough2919 they absolutely did , there was an interview with Mick and he said he was very happy and the studio treated him like the king he is
@@afroahmed3989 I’m glad to hear he’s being taken care of. I love doom eternal but knowing how they treated him is upsetting
Wait.. Mick Gordon was part of the game!?!?
LIT-ERALLY LIT-ERALLY LIT-ERALLY
I've been subbed for a while under what feels like subconsciously obligatory pretenses. However, I must say that seeing you host a mature, nuanced and intelligent conversation regarding this made me a proud subscriber. Great video, Luke.
"subconsciously obligatory pretenses" beautiful phraseology, it's witty (don't see enough of that in people).
This game is 100% going to give me eye strain and a massive headache. Lol
How? It looks really clear and smooth
@@kennypowers1945 Mostly the camera bobbing/shaking, the bright color’s flashing, tons of particle effects and motion blur (they’ll most likely let us turn it off). For instance I started playing Shadow Warrior 3 yesterday and after 30 minutes or so I felt pretty nauseous and my eyes hurt. Haha! Game looks great though, can’t wait to try it out.
People also seems to compare this game to Wolfenstein.
The spiritual successor to bioshock was prey. In fact it was more of a spiritual successor to system shock than bioshock.
Hit the nail on the head, Prey is an actual immersive sim unlike Bioshock.
It’s probably going to come out broken and unfinished, glitchy buggy and laggy as hell. Russian or not, theirs stories about scam artists being associated with the game’s development, and it’s more than likely the case this is going to be some over priced “good looking” dumpster fire
Just wait a week. Wait a little bit. Watch the first hour, it'll probably be all tutorial, nothing to spoil you wouldn't see yourself, and don't rush to play it. This is coming out the same week as Like a Dragon: Ishin and like 5 other highly anticipated games including a Demo for Wo-Long: Dynasty which releases the first week of March. This may become a backlog game for many who buy it early. At worst (performance apocalypse, oopsie war funds, eula stealing IP addresses) it'll be a Wait For Sale kinda deal. Second worst, you get spoiled from day-one story diving UA-cam cutscene compilations.
We already have a spiritual successor to Bioshock. It's called Prey (2017).
More like an System Shock sucessor
Hey Luke, I have been watching you for the last couple of months, and You became of my favorites no doubt, keep up the good work and honesty
I'm hoping it reviews well, I'm interested in this one.
You missed a chance to quote God Howard "it just works"
10:42 Compared to the trailers, this gameplay looks like a huge graphical downgrade
Man im so hyped for this game but I'm really pissed on how the gaming community is just saying this is russian BioShock. Sure it has elements, and the developers have stated they were inspired by BioShock. But its kinda dishonest when all anyone does is compare these works to other things. Its pretty disingenuous when you don't talk about everything they did to make themselves stand out.
Scandal lol anyone with a working brain assumed the internet would move to this after Hogwarts. Nothing admirable about crying on twitter.
If it’s gonna be half of my wishes from this game it’s gonna be already enough!! Can’t wait for this game!!!
Very refreshing Luke. Legend
Literally the only game I've preordered in years
Pffffft
Concerned that the reviews aren’t out yet…
you have to understand problem isn't putin, problem is russians.
No, the problem is the investors of mundfish are gazprom and gme capital, and funds from the game are going back to Russia and then converting to rockets to the Ukraine
You’d be shocked how many companies you support have investors that support and/or tolerate arguably immoral things but it’s a matter of personal perception and choice, I don’t hate Russians, I disagree with the government but I support good games and game developers in general shouldn’t be held accountable for the actions of the government of the country they’re from
It's gonna be groundbreaking when you find out you live in a interconnected world and things you do that seem small actually influence in some way other stuff that is so big you can't deductively grasp
Thanks for calling out the real point of the controversy that totally has been glazed over. The money will go to russia, putins government will get their piece
You should probably return your Devices because you gave money to a company that used cheap labor from desperate people, you wouldn’t wanna be a bad person would you?
@@Terminal_Apotos thats got nothing to do with russians killing innocent ukrainians, youve missed the point
The game looks great but I am wary because a lot of the footage sets off my _bullshot_ alarms after decades of watching hype previews especially those from Ubisoft. A lot of alternate history stories also don’t think through their alternate history and lore enough to the point where the scenarios come off as laughable when they’re attempting a serious tone.
Meh. I'm buying this coz I'm now buying every game that makes losers whinge "don't buy".
I don't even care if it's a good game. Now there's a principal at stake.
The entire BioShock franchise is 90℅ off on Steam right now BTW
That’s literally the longest sponsorship ever bruh wtf.
A whole 3 mins of ad smh
I mean politics is everyone's purview, it effects us all. You may be being critical of the game itself but the game itself doesn't exist in a bubble, unfortunately.
And thus you fail as a 'journalist' Luke. You should have dug deeper. Spoken to people who know more than you do. You failed to cover the fundamental underlying issue about this game.
They have said what the game is about and what you do in the game. Just have to look around.
Watched a 5 hour Stream of Atomic Heart in UA-cam and the trailers didn't lie. Everything that was there, is in the game. Which is cool but WHERE THE TWINS AT?!
They appeared briefly in the beginning and never again so far. Looks like they'll be late game encounters.
Bravo Luke. Great take on the issue. Also for those not in the industry some insight. Alot of these woke crowds are tied to ngo that are funded by big gaming studios (UBI, EA, BETHESDA). Their job is to attack little studios in hopes of squashing potential rivals and competition under the guise of "idealism." This is akin to the male lion killing the young cubs of potential rivals in the wild. By jumping on board with them you (as a consumer) are doing the big studios bidding and simultaneously restricting your self of the amount of content you will have access to. It's a very clever tactic that they use. Weaponized idealism. Good luck Luke great if you to be the adult in the room. You will go far in life with that mindset. Stay comfy for Wednesday's storm. Cheers.
It seems like there's been so many "game controversies" lately. Bayonetta 3, Hogwarts, Atomic Heart, etc, etc. Makes me feel old thinking "remember when games just came out and we bought them"
I kinda hoped that this game wouldn’t get this popular before it released, because now people will have super high expectations. I think the game will still be good though.
I mean…. It was at quite a few award and announcement shows at this point. Wasn’t exactly hidden
Kinda sad that prey 2017 is not understood as a bioshock spiritual successor, bethesda really dropped the ball in the marketing of that game.
I'm more interested to see the reaction to the new system shock remake actually, atomic heart looks good but the focus in melee gameplay with the axe is too much dying light for me, not my favorite style of combat.
It's NOT okay to buy and play this game because it trivializes something that NEEDS to be CONDEMNED. USSR was a murderous regime, not unlike Nazi. We condemned the Nazi regime as something evil. So if you make a game where Nazis won the war, you make Wolfenstein, where they are still the bad guys and you fight against them. Soviet regime wasn't better than the Nazi one, not even slightly. Soviets (and, by extension, modern russians) still have the superiority ideology. In Soviet Union only the Russian citizens were considered a higher class. If you ever claimed to be Ukrainian or Georgian, you were looked down upon. Not to mention ethnic cleansings, butchering millions of Ukrainians with artificial famine, etc. This was done by KGB.
So how come it's okay to portray them as the good guys? Would you play as a good SS officer? Probably not. How come it's okay to play as a good KGB officer in a setting that portrays the survival of the regime that sought to subjugate and perform ethnic cleansings?
Because it’s a game.
We consume fiction. How boring when everything we consume aligns with ideology.
What the hell are you talking about Georgians and Ukrainians in the USSR? Stalin was a Georgian, half of the leaders of the USSR were Ukrainians. What's the point in lying all the time?
@@edistoorbust I mean, morality is subjective. But if you don't mind consuming the ideology that whitewashes genocide while also paying the people who are using the money to buy weapons and wage war on the civilians as you play, then knock yourself out. No wonder the humanity has become so numb to each other's suffering.
@@MrSkoresh Yup. But all of them had this ideology of a 'soviet man' who is beyond nations. To that end, most non-Russian nations who were imprisoned by what you call 'USSR' were considered inferior. Case and point, even Stalin's name was not Joseph Stalin. He was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, but that sounded too Georgian. Another case and point, countless millions of people were murdered by his decree. Look up Holodomor, if you actually care to learn. Long story short, you couldn't be a Ukrainian within USSR and cultivate your own culture. Musicians, poets, thinkers - all killed in the name of wiping the nation and turning Ukrainians into Soviets.
I am alive today because the day my grandfather's family was forced to Siberia in a cargo train for being Ukrainian, his mother, my great-grandmother, managed to push him (he was a kid) through the train car grate and he escaped. Most of my family didn't survive the trip. The rest died in Siberia. The man behind this is regarded as a hero in Russia. The regime behind this is considered to be "one of the regimes" and apparently it's okay to portray it as something good.
Dude, it's impossible to live by your logic. If before each purchase we think about something like "fuck, and if the money I'm going to give this guy will go to bad things," then you can go crazy. The same applies to your struggle with this game, because you see propaganda in it. And in every way you try to convince others that this is a game, this is propaganda, do not buy it. Put yourself in their shoes. Every country has enough black pages in its history. If an Irishman starts urging you not to buy a game because it's developed in the UK or a Vietnamese because it's developed in the USA?Will an Azerbaijani call for a boycott of purchases of goods from Armenia, and will all Muslims boycott goods from Israel? You won't listen to them, I'm sure. Therefore, what you are calling people to now is your personal hatred of the Russian nation, and you have just reasons for this.
Holy shit that was a long-ass ad spot...
Great video man. You should make one about Jedi: Survivor!
I think the series should be titled “levelheaded” look at games…skeptical I think has an aura of cynicism even if that’s not the intention.
I have a pre-order. I'm really looking forward to this. I've been waiting for something like Fallout or BioShock for a long time. I can't believe the graphics look small like from the UE5 previews.
Everytime i see stuff on this game it makes me think falloutish
Times like this I’m grateful for day 1 game pass
Man had a legit 3 minute commercial lmao
If the game is more action oriented I’ll wait for a sale. But if they go the full immersive sim route with a good amount of replay ability then I’m sold. Last immersive sim I played that was somewhat enjoyable was death loop. But even that game couldn’t hold the candle for the genre like Deus ex and Dishonored did.
Play Prey, it’s fantastic.
Fun fact: Boycotts came from 18th Century Ireland (ironically named after an English man, a Captain Boycott, who along with his family was blanked and ostracised by an entire village, thus giving rise to The Boycott). I'm boycotting the new Harry Potter game - I do know trans people, so I won't support Rowling's work - and I think I'll Boycott this game too. I'm actually interested in old-skool Soviet imagery, iconography and architecture - but notwithstanding the uncomfortable reality that Atomic Heart's developer finds itself in - no, I'm not supporting Russian-funded anything, including this game.
I feel the same way about Atomic Heart as I do about Hogwarts legacy. I will be playing both because of the material. I will play Hogwarts because harry potter was a huge part of my childhood and this will probably be the best game we've ever had in that universe. I will play Atomic Heart because it seems to blend great elements of other games with Bioshock better than prey did, and Bioshock is my favorite video game ever. I could care less who or what is related or involved with it aside from the people who created the games, and if I find it to be great, the devs deserve the recognition.
I only play games when they're political.