Disclaimer for the politically sensitive
During the peak of the Russo-Ukrainian real life conflict, came a Bioshock type game from a team of Russian Developers, "Mundfish". The game being released at the worst possible time could cause some of you to instantly dislike the game because of politics, but I know that governments are not their people and that everyone is trying to live their lives the best they can. We all have families and aspirations, so trust me when I conclude this disclaimer with a quote by Mark Twain, " If voting mattered, they wouldn't let us do it".
Brushing aside politics, let's talk about the game.
The game has been mostly compared to Bioshock and an early 2000s fps game, where you explore a city in ruins whilst using a combo of weapons and superpowers to fight supernatural enemies. The game's ending also give off a bit of that Far Cry Good and Bad ending at the very end. Unlike normal First-Person Shooters, in this game you can use a variety of "spells" or "special abilities" to give yourself an edge in combat. You also have to collect scrap materials to upgrade your gear, so there is a tiny RPG aspect in it as well.
The setting and visuals 8/10
The game is set in a dystopian world where the Soviet Union won the second world war and became the dominant superpower in the world. In that world, Not only did they manage to establish themselves as the greatest nation, they also managed to expand the horizons of science into fields such as robotics and space travel. The robots are designed with 1950's clothing and fashion with a semi-futuristic yet rustic feel. It adequately represents those early century writers like "Isaac Asimov", "Stanislav Lem" and "H.G Wells". Those books introduced Science Fiction before half of our current scientific concepts were even invented. Robots and space shuttles running on huge vacuum tubes is exactly the kind of setting you will be greeted with at the start of the game. Everything is really well-designed with decent graphics to match accordingly. It's visually as stunning as your average 2023 video game release, since everyone is hell-bent on delivering the best graphics possible. You will be fighting your way through waves of robots through mostly underground facilities, wooden huts, occasional stadiums and farm villages. The game doesn't really offer that much of a choice when it comes to areas, but it does suit the game well.
The story: 3/10 ( English Dubbing) / OR / 7/10 (Russian Original Version)
The story might be a bit predictable because it doesn't really try hard to go beyond, which is a pity. In essence, you are some kind of super soldier who ends up in the midst of a robot disaster, where you will be tasked to hunt some traitors responsible for the malfunction. The story will be predictable with the same old plot twists and turns. You know the ending where the ones you trusted most ended up betraying you. The unusual suspect if you will... well I hope I didn't spoil it for you.
The English dubbing is horrible, please play the game in original Russia with English subtitles. The game tries to emulate Russian jokes and culture in an English medium, which doesn't do it justice. As a person from Eastern Europe who studied Russian for many years, I could understand pretty much most of the dialogue and when compared to the English version it's 100x better. Stay away from the English version, I beg of you!
The combat: 8/10
The combat is interesting and offers a somewhat decent variety of weapons. Nothing incredible, but the weapon upgrade system, the elemental canisters and the glove abilities really make it a nice combo when dealing with waves of enemies. The thing I disliked was the enemy variety. I feel as if there are 5 types of enemies (Robot, lawn mowing robot, flying robot, bigger robot with blades and their zombie organic counterparts) and that's pretty much it. It becomes repetitive very quickly. The bosses are interesting, but they aren't amazing. The bosses are pretty much just huge balls of tentacles with lots of hit points. I seriously don't remember them because they all look so similar.
The music: 8/10
The music seems to be a mixtape of the best post-war soviet pop songs. It gives that "Russian" feel, and it represents accurately the culture and type of music Russians are used to. It's a mix of electro music "PPK - Resurrection" , "Red Army Choir hits" and Russian 80's ballads like "Komarova". The soundtrack is simply a mirror of Russian culture over the years and I think it gives the right vibe.
The Bad:
Few enemies types, very predictable. They respawn instantly because of "repair drones" forcing the player to mostly run away at the beginning of the game before getting good gear.
A few bugs here and their forcing me to restart my game, like clipping through walls and getting stuck.
Many interesting dungeons (Test Sites) which should have been integrated into the main mission but are featured as side quests. You need to manually find them, and they aren't included in the waypoint system. It's the only way to find weapon upgrade blueprints.
The game has so much dialogue. Your character and your companion"Charles" speaks all the time and never shuts up. They talk and talk and comment about everything.
They could have made an effort with the story and the game would have been much better. Furthermore, they turned it into a generic action-comedy type game. Some of the jokes land, but others don't. My guess is that it lands better in Russian than in English.