Atomic Heart: When They Had Internet Before the Internet

I don’t know what it’s about, but the name is awesome!

While I’m sitting here trying to think of what to write next, I remember that I discovered this game not too long ago that had a really cool name. It’s only because it has a cool name that I could remember in its entirety: Atomic Heart. It sounds like the name of a gritty hero from a 1980s cyberpunk anime, or maybe just something cyberpunk in general, regardless of the period and/or geographical origins. My point is it sounds cool.

So, I looked it up and what I’ve found is that it’s a game about the Soviet Union in the 1950s where they had the Internet. It baffled me by that statement alone since I don’t even think the Arpanet was born (I’m not sure if that’s spelt right). Anyway, I realised that it was just another carbon copy of the archetypal anachronistic society. It sure seems that way at first glance, so I went to watch a trailer, and although I had to change the background music with one of my own choices by playing a different video behind it, it sure seemed fantastic the way I saw it.

Anyway, gameplay trailers showed some usual action RPG mechanics and the likes. It sure seemed like a technologically advanced dystopia, but otherwise, it was a pretty decent game. But that’s not the problem I have with it.

So… is the game going to be in Russian… all the time?

The game takes place in the Soviet Union in the 50s, right? The characters are going to speak Russian all the time. Unless they want to remove the authenticity by having the voice actors speak English with a Russian accent, they do that all the time, so what can I say? But still, it would be weird if you walked down an abandoned lab or a mall or whatever, riddled with failed experiments and robots gone array and looking at a poster for anything. It would be weird if the poster were written in English. That wouldn’t make sense since it would need to be written in Russian.

So, on one side, I have an English speaker, and on the other, I have a poster that says something that I can’t even understand. The authenticity is easily ruined, as I’m trying to understand how the English speaker is… wait… he’s not just an English speaker, but he also speaks in a heavy Russian accent. So basically, he can speak Russian, but he prefers to speak English? In a place when he doesn’t need to? But… why? Speak your native language. Unless, of course, you were talking to someone who only speaks English, then that would make sense. What doesn’t make sense is that back then, the Cold War prevented the Soviet Union from being in contact with virtually any part of the world. But it’s an alternate timeline where they have the Internet, so make of it what you will.

Of course, this is apparent in many game designs, where even when the game takes place in a place where they shouldn’t speak English (like the Soviet Union, I guess), they still speak English. This is mainly done for the players’ convenience, whom the developers probably assume are American.

What do we do about this?

This situation has a straightforward solution. However common or uncommon it may have been before, games come with various languages to listen to while playing. If one wants to play in Russian, but the default language is English, they simply have to go to the options menu and switch the language. So, it’s just contemplation between convenience (English) and authenticity (Russian). So that which comes first should be the default language.

Of course, the player will always, naturally, prefer to go with convenience since most of them don’t care too much for “immersion” or “authenticity” because they just came home from work and want to slack off before their wives send them off to do chores. Anyway yeah, English should be the default language.

But still, I’d probably go for Russian just to for it to feel authentic. And regarding any translation issues on billboards in the lifeless streets of the game’s dystopia, it can just be chalked up to having it directly translated on the HUD. There’s your convenience.

I don’t speak Russian, so I’m not one to say

This is weird since I’ve heard Russian all my life and most I gained from it is that “harasho” means “good”. I was told it was a difficult language to learn, which I find peculiar since I hear people speak it all the time. Regardless, I was never interested in learning the language despite how many times I heard it.

This is why I shouldn’t answer the question of how to translate Cyrillic into English correctly. But I think they don’t care too much about how it’s done from a gamer’s perspective.

Regardless, someone should understandably translate the game… and that someone won’t be me.

In conclusion…

This game looks pretty decent to try out, is what I’m thinking. Still, there needs to be a strong consideration between convenience and authenticity. I prefer the latter, but every person will do what they think is right for them.

Anyway, I’m dead tired right now. Good night, everybody… well… for me, it’s night anyhow.