Weapons and skills are doled out fairly slowly in this initial stretch, and with only a fireman’s axe and limited shells for my shotgun I found myself favouring stealth wherever possible – so it’s just as well that the earliest upgrades you unlock are the abilities to track enemies through walls and shock the Dandelion surveillance cameras in order to avoid alarm-raising detection. The opening moments of Atomic Heart’s reportedly 25-hour campaign takes you from the sun-kissed streets of Chelomey City floating high among the clouds, all the way down to the shadowy subterranean depths of the ruined Vavilov facility, where a violent robot uprising has wiped out almost all human workers. The good news is that after going hands-on with the first couple of hours of a near final build of the game, this bolshevik BioShock seems as though it could well be worth the wait – its superpowered combat, fascinating story and spectacular setting all appear to be clicking seamlessly into place to form a cohesive whole, blinking into vibrant life like one of its many deadly assembly line creations.

After nearly five years since its stunning announcement trailer, we’re now just one month away from the launch of Atomic Heart, the strictly single-player first-person shooter that thrusts you into an alternate history Soviet setting and tasks you with taking on an army of angry androids.

Atomic heart - xbox one - ign