Crispy critters and robot lovers rejoice! Atomic Heart continues its post-game streak of content with the Enchantment Under the Sea DLC.
Much like the rest of Atomic Heart, Enchantment Under the Sea feels like a wink and nod to the Bioshock series, taking place in a massive underwater complex, although it also indirectly references and flirts with the bizarre NASA-funded Dolphin House experiment.
Atomic Heart‘s latest DLC introduces new weapons, new enemies, new characters, and big plot developments, but can it live up to the base game’s excellent story mode?
Atomic Heart – Enchantment Under the Sea
Developer: Mundfish
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows (Reviewed)
Release Date: January 28, 2025
Players: 1
Price: $9.99
Before we begin, all of Atomic Heart‘s DLCs are direct continuations of the main game’s story. It is impossible to discuss the DLCs without mentioning at least one of the game’s endings, so be warned that there are massive spoilers ahead for Atomic Heart‘s ending and its follow-up DLC.
Enchantment Under the Sea‘s story picks up right after the game’s second DLC, Trapped in Limbo, which follows one of the two ending timelines. The story that DLCs 2 and 3 follow is the one where P-3 confronts the game’s main antagonist, Sechenov, and is betrayed by his living polymer glove, ending up stuck inside of his own mind alongside his late wife’s consciousness.
Trapped in Limbo is a tough act to follow, not because it’s good, mind you, but because the entire DLC was a mixture between Subway Surfers and CS:GO surfing gameplay (yes, really), which served as some of the worst content Atomic Heart had to offer.
Enchantment Under the Sea continues with these themes of enhanced mobility introduced by the previous DLC, but instead applies them in a much more tasteful manner to a grappling hook, which is constantly used in both combat and exploration.
The DLC does a lot with this grappling hook and features some really creative encounters and boss fights where the player has to constantly maneuver around hazards or simply can’t touch the ground for a while.
These sections don’t reach the level of something like Ultrakill or Doom Eternal as far as fast-paced shooters go, but I imagine console players might have some trouble with this one, since the DLC requires a good amount of precision in sections that are tough to deal with even when using a mouse and keyboard.
The relationship between Major P-3 and his wife, who now takes CHAR-les’ place as a talking glove, is one of the DLC’s many highlights, as they try to continue their relationship despite being left as incredibly dysfunctional individuals.
P-3 is an amnesiac who barely remembers what his life was like before being both saved and manipulated by Sechenov, while his wife, Katya, had her brain split between the twin robots, only one of which P-3 manages to recover.
Their relationship throughout the DLC is pretty interesting to see, as both P-3 and Katya clearly care for each other, despite having lost their relationship after basically becoming different people and being manipulated into trying to kill each other, but are still trying to make it work in their own weird way.
Enchantment Under the Sea introduces quite a few new characters as well, although most of the cast is delegated to a secondary role, with P-3 and his wife taking center stage. In a way, it’s understandable, but also somewhat disappointing considering how Nastya is all over the promotional material despite not doing that much.
Thankfully, none of the characters reach the point of being unlikable; in fact, Hunter and Nikolay, even if a little devoid of personality, have a few interesting character moments and dialogue, but most of the legwork is done by the main characters.
My feelings about the cast and their participation on the DLC are mostly hinging on whether or not they are being set up for the upcoming fourth DLC or the game’s rumored sequel, although that doesn’t do away with the fact that base game characters, like Granny Zina, have much more interesting moments while the newcomers mostly just sit around.
Alongside introducing new characters and underwater-themed enemies, the DLC also adds two new weapons to P-3’s roster, those being the Thunderclap and the KM-4 Kuzmich.
The Thunderclap is a heavy melee weapon extracted directly from a malfunctioning NORA robot, which works as a hammer and flail hybrid depending on what attack the player performs, while the KM-4 Kuzmich is a double-barreled shotgun that shoots energy blasts as its alt-fire.
Both weapons introduced by the DLC feel fantastic to use; the Thunderclap brutalizes regular enemies in one or two hits when fully upgraded, while the boss fights are all structured around players using the Kuzmich to exploit weak points.
The last fight of the DLC is very active and quite fun once you get the hang of it, but it does have some balancing issues, like a few moves killing you instantly because of the way they work.
The idea to give the boss multiple projectiles that slowly spread out is not brutal by itself, but the fact that they start grouped up and then spread means that you can get damaged by all of them simultaneously if you are hit too early, almost always resulting in an instant death.
This can make the fight a little frustrating at points because it’s reasonably long by the game’s standards, and dying takes you all the way to the beginning. Thankfully, there is a great song playing throughout the fight, which makes having to replay it sting a little less.
The DLC clocks in at around three to four hours and features an impressive hour and a half of new music. The variety between tracks is enough to give anyone whiplash, going from remixes of old cartoon songs to what can only be described as a Russian version of Brazilian funk, but they somehow all fit together cohesively.
There’s a collective six hours of absolute bangers in the game’s entire soundtrack, and just knowing that we are probably getting even more when DLC 4 comes around is already enough to get me excited.
It really can’t be overstated just how much variety there is between each track, and even if you aren’t interested in Atomic Heart or its DLCs, you should probably give the soundtrack a listen:
Enchantment Under the Sea is the perfect expansion for Atomic Heart, providing a much-needed and satisfying continuation to what feels like the game’s canon ending. The DLC expands upon everything the base game did well, featuring tight boss fights, engaging exploration, and weapons that are very satisfying to use.
I have a lot of hope for both Atomic Heart‘s fourth DLC and its rumored sequel, as it seems like Mundfish finally understood what players wanted out of the game and its extra content. This is the stride that we were expecting these developers to hit, and I’m very glad we could finally see it happen.
Enchantment Under the Sea is some of the best content Atomic Heart has received so far, keeping up with the quality established by the base game and also providing players with some much-needed mobility through the grappling hook, adding quite a bit of depth to both exploration and combat.
Enchantment Under the Sea was reviewed on Microsoft Windows using a game code provided by Focus Entertainment. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Atomic Heart and its DLCs are available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows (through Steam).
