ATOMIC HEART: TRAPPED IN LIMBO Review

ATOMIC HEART: TRAPPED IN LIMBO is a strange piece of DLC that may throw players for a loop with how different it is from the main game, and that’s absolutely the point, which will be the story’s double edged sword.

Trapped In Limbo is the second of four planned DLCs and takes place directly after one of the two different endings in the main game, this story takes place in the titular world of limbo and sees P-3 stuck voiceless in a furry avatar armed with a gingerbread ax at first. Things gets and stays strange right out of the gate, P-3’s voice is muffled and can only grunt while being followed and guided by Blesna, who takes the form of a strange floating liquid. Players are quickly introduced to the rules of Limbo, it’s momentum based and requires quick reflexes.

For some the main thing that stands out when it comes to Trapped In Limbo is the obvious inspiration for the main gameplay loop, surfing, more specifically the surfing game mod made popular by the Counter-Strike community.

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Trapped In Limbo has multiple sections, the aforementioned surfing section, arena combat, platforming sections and a very strange final section that plays like an endless runner mobile game. These sections are mixed at a rate that feels poorly planned out, it feels like the developers had ideas for smaller games but decided to just put them all into the DLC rather than just making them standalone experiences, as if they knew there wasn’t enough there to justify the different styles.

The part that players will experience the most is the surfing sections, these can be very frustrating to those who have little to no patience, this part of the game is all trial and error. It doesn’t take too long to get the hang of the surfing, but the challenge comes from anticipating the layouts and reacting fast enough to land and maintain or gain momentum, which can be achieved if you can land in a good spot.

Players that are able to play Atomic Heart at 100 plus frames will definitely benefit when it comes to the surfing section, the surfing gets faster and more complex as the levels go on, having the game running over 30 frames is absolutely the best way to experience Trapped In Limbo.

The screen stays busy as Limbo is filled with bright vibrant colors with a draw distance that allows players to see what kind of surfing challenge lies ahead of them, at times this beautiful view can be daunting when you finally finish a tough section and you spot the progress bar at the top of the screen showing that you are only 35% through.

But it’s not enough to just find the right angles to gain momentum while sliding around, there are also spiked obstacles on the platforms and moving walls that can easily distract as you have to time your angle and jump. Players new to surfing will quickly notice how little control they actually have, you can’t hit a button and simply jump, that all comes from your momentum and angle.

Depending on your ability to try and fail and try again, the surfing sections can feel a little long and the relief of landing at a checkpoint can be exhilarating, checkpoints feel properly spaced out and the game is quite forgiving when it comes to players failing a section. After falling off a platform or hitting a wall, the game instantly puts P-3 back on solid ground with no loading (I played on PC with an SSD).

Arena combat is another section, these areas help break the surfing gameplay and makes for great stress relief, sadly there aren’t many of them and they don’t last long. Trapped In Limbo reskins enemies and weapons from the main game and doesn’t give them any new abilities or attack patterns, in fact the combat sections feels like an afterthought and was just put in to pad out the DLC, these battles are over so quickly you won’t even need to use any of your abilities.

Speaking of abilities, the only way to get your powers or upgrades is from a chest that randomizes your powers, weapons and character upgrades. In order to gain these upgrades players must collect apples that are sprawled around the maps, these apples can actually be helpful as they are often laid out on surfing paths that look like guidelines for the best way to travel, some apples can even be found in cubes found at checkpoints.

But it becomes quickly evident that these upgrades are not very helpful or useful for players that have set the difficulty below the highest tier, if you miss a platform you instantly restart and health only matters during the few and short combat sections and the enemies are barely a threat compared to the ones in the main game, especially since each weapon has unlimited ammunition.

Trapped In Limbo is a fun idea that feels like it belongs in a different game, especially the last section that takes a complete left turn and starts to continuously introduce new unnecessary rule changes after it turns into Subway Surfers for no real reason. The endless runner section lasts way too long and was honestly the worst part of the DLC, especially with that non-ending as a reward.

Trapped In Limbo is one of those strange DLCs that feels too long and short at the same time, and that may be because the story itself doesn’t have a satisfying ending that is obviously going to continue in future DLC, so some players may feel that they achieved nothing and will probably leave Limbo feeling empty and more confused than when they entered.

This review is based on a code provided by the publisher