Atomic Heart DLC Annihilation Instinct available now

The first piece of DLC for Soviet fantasy Atomic Heart is here.

Titled Annihilation Instinct, this expansion takes place following the game’s ending. Players are tasked with discovering “the truth about NORA’s story”, with lots of AI chaos ensuing all around.

The DLC takes place in a previously unseen swampy area of Atomic Heart, which boasts new enemies (including a new boss), weapons and characters. This includes the “enigmatic” Professor Lebedev.

Along with all this, there is also a new glove ability to try out, known as Technostasis. As you may have surmised from the name, this new ability will allow players to manipulate time. You can see a little teaser for Annihilation Instinct in the video above.

Annihilation Instinct is available now to purchase across platforms, although if you have the Atomic Pass or the Gold or Premium editions of the game it is included.

Atomic Heart originally released back in February amid controversy around the supposed Russian origins of its developer, Mundfish.

Even after release, racist cartoons were discovered in the game, although the developer later apologised and seemingly removed them.

Despite all this, our deputy editor Chris Tapsell still managed to find some positives in the game.

“It’s a grab-bag of ideas from other games that made them their own, and viewed as a whole it’s derivative and over-ambitious,” he wrote in his Atomic Heart review while criticising its marketing, “which is a shame because, individually, these disparate parts are often quite good.”