Atomic Heart lets you go to town on your enemies in a variety of different ways. Inspired by the Bioshock franchise, this first-person shooter offers firearms, melee weapons, and powers via a Polymer Glove to cause mayhem in your wake. However, all of these options fail to live up to the more primal act of chucking something at an unsuspecting foe. While the game does teach you how to do this nifty feature, you might have been too busy to notice or just didn’t care until now. Let’s break down just how easy it is to pick up objects and throw them at your enemies in Atomic Heart.
Can you throw things in Atomic Heart?
Early in the game, during the Vavilov chapter, you will learn how to lift and throw objects via Charles, your nifty talking glove. If you somehow missed the dialogue, here are the default controls used for throwing things:
- Pick up the object by getting close enough and pressing F on your keyboard, Right Bumper on an Xbox controller, or R1 on a PlayStation controller.
- Hold down the button you just used to pick up the item, which will cause Sergey to pull back his hand to aim and prepare the throw.
- Release the button to launch the object in the direction you directed your hand. Aiming higher will increase the distance of the object, so plan accordingly, and it does have a bit of a lobbing effect.
There is a selection of things available in the environment that Sergey is able to throw. It should be noted that this feature is useful to distract Dandelion CCTV cameras while you sneak by them. It can also just be used simply as a combat mechanic when low on ammo, or to save ammo. Enemies do react to thrown objects, so be sure to aim carefully when utilizing your glove.
Related: Atomic Heart is a winning one-two punch for narrative first-person shooters – Review
Atomic Heart is an entertaining romp through an alternate reality of Soviet Russia after World War II in 1955. The country flourished after harnessing technology useful in creating robots but fell into disarray when the robots turned against their makers. There is a lot to explore here, and that includes things just waiting to be thrown.
