Atomic Heart Blood on Crystal DLC Review Explaining How the Final Story Chapter Connects Facility 3826 to the Future of the Series
It's been three years since Atomic Heart first came out, and now Mundfish has finally given us the big finish. This fourth and last expansion, called Blood on Crystal, really serves as the link between the first game from 2023 and the new games everyone is looking forward to. The Ultimate Edition is out, so players can once again step into Major Nechaev's shoes for a final ten hour journey into the crazy world of Facility 3826 to stop the out of control AI, CHAR les.
If you were hoping the creators would continue from the base game's "good" ending, get ready for a big change. Blood on Crystal clearly makes the "bad" ending the real story. It turns out the happy ending many players got was just a made up simulation created by scientist Lebedev in Nechaev’s mind which means everything that happened in the first two expansions was just a dream.
This expansion brings back characters from earlier DLCs, tying up loose ends with the complicated love story between the Major, his wife/Blesna, and that famous refrigerator. But the story's pace feels a bit off. While it's interesting to learn more about the world, the ending seems pretty predictable. The story finishes with a somewhat silly, clown themed video that doesn't quite fit with the intense fight to save humanity, leaving the door wide open for bad guys to come back in future games.
Mundfish’s art team is still the studio's best part. It might not have the pure, grand beauty of the Chelomey complex from the third DLC, but the visual storytelling here is excellent. You'll get to explore a polymer factory that looks a lot like Egyptian tombs, a strange hotel built for people who are full of polymer, and a new Park of Culture.
Two places really stand out. First, there's a very creepy "infected" ship, which focuses a lot on body horror as a group mind slowly takes over a living person. It's a very atmospheric and scary part. The other highlight is a Polymorph village, where the developers carefully created an environment to show how these creatures actually live. The only problem with these beautiful settings is the level design itself; the DLC is very straightforward, guiding the player too much and not offering much chance to explore.
When it comes to how it plays, Blood on Crystal has both the good things and the obvious problems of the main game. Platforming gets a small change with the addition of rafts you pull with a hook to cross water, but the puzzles are still as clumsy as ever. Be ready to get annoyed by strange hitboxes like trying to shoot a fiery object through a super narrow gap. Even the lockpicking mini games have had small, almost funny changes, asking you to move sticks instead of circles.
Your weapons get a minor update with a new spear for close combat. It works like a boomerang, spinning around and coming back to your hand when you throw it, though it feels pretty much like a different skin for an old weapon. Getting stronger also takes a hit: you start with plenty of health kits but hardly any ammo, forcing you to upgrade your regular pistol and assault rifle from scratch again. Instead of a deep skill tree, abilities (Fire, Cold, Hook, Conductive Foam) are now just swapped at special stations, while new collectible dolls give you small boosts.
If your skills have gotten rusty since you last visited Facility 3826, the sudden jump in difficulty will hit you hard. The combat is definitely tough. Besides the usual robot enemies, you'll fight the new Polymorphs. These enemies change into elemental forms, making you use a tactical rock paper scissors approach: you have to melt the ice ones, freeze the fire ones, and use your shield to ground the electrical enemies. It requires quick thinking and keeps the fights intense.
Boss fights are a mixed bag. You'll fight a huge crane manipulator where you need to shoot its eyes and use things that drop to solve puzzles during the fight, which is really engaging. Unfortunately, most of the other big fights are just recycled enemies. The final boss, while having moves you can predict, is saved by amazing cinematic scenes and the emotional return of Blesna’s voice a companion presence that is definitely missed throughout the rest of the DLC's story about family.
When it comes to sound, the design really presents two extremes. The newly released soundtrack features a fantastic, high energy rock cover of a classic Pugacheva song, but it's a real shame that it’s only used during a single boss fight. For the rest of your ten hour playthrough, you'll mostly hear ambient noises and Soviet radio chatter.
As you explore, you'll uncover a wealth of text logs. These explain everything from Sechenov's mysterious past and global political tensions to the reason the facility is covered in grappling hooks. The game is absolutely packed with internet memes, YouTuber easter eggs, and some rather crude toilet humor perhaps a bit too packed, actually, since the constant jokes start to feel exhausting by the halfway point. Still, new characters like the incredibly funny "Validol" manage to land their comedic punches perfectly.
Pc Version Tested.
Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from Devs
