ATOMINE

About

ATOMINE is a single player arcade role playing shooter game. It was developed by Broken Arms Games and was released on May 4, 2017. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

"ATOMINE is a fast-paced, procedurally generated twin-stick shooter with a minimalist design. Players must clear level areas of enemies to progress, while collecting XPs, energy, and weapon modules. The modular weapon system allows for unique customization, as modules can modify specific parts of the weapon such as bullet type and rate of fire."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

69%

Audience ScoreBased on 110 reviews

graphics18 positive mentions

stability4 negative mentions

ATOMINE features a unique hacker theme with stylish graphics and a captivating soundtrack, creating an immersive experience.
The gameplay is fast-paced and engaging, with a variety of weapon upgrades and modular customization that allows for strategic experimentation.
The procedural generation of levels ensures that each run feels fresh and unpredictable, keeping players engaged and challenged.

The game suffers from bugs and performance issues, including frame rate drops and unresponsive AI, which can detract from the overall experience.
There is a lack of clarity in the game's mechanics and progression systems, leading to confusion and frustration for players trying to understand upgrades and achievements.
Repetition in level design and enemy types can make the gameplay feel monotonous over time, diminishing the excitement of repeated runs.

graphics
51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
59%
6%
The graphics of the game are characterized by a striking minimalist aesthetic that draws inspiration from cyberpunk and hacking imagery, featuring glowing vectors and dynamic color palettes. While many players appreciate the unique art style and clean visuals, some have noted issues with visibility during chaotic gameplay and performance problems, including rendering glitches. Overall, the graphics are seen as stylish and engaging, though they may not be optimized for all systems, leading to a mixed reception.
- “The game’s aesthetic draws heavily from cyberpunk and hacking imagery, transforming data streams, firewalls, and system nodes into visually striking arenas of chaos.”
- “Atomine’s minimalist wireframe aesthetic evokes the sensation of navigating a living circuit board, with levels rendered in glowing vectors and dynamic color palettes.”
- “What is really cool here is the 'hacker' setting, delivered with a pumping soundtrack and stylish graphics full of glitchy effects.”
- “The graphics are 'minimalist' but in practice, things can get really hectic and it becomes very difficult to see what is actually happening on screen, especially when you're starting out.”
- “Got a few crashes as well and it seems totally not optimized, having such resource demands for not that impressive graphics.”
- “Extremely uninspiring graphics; they make you sleepy.”
gameplay
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
67%
8%
The gameplay of atomine is characterized by its dual-stick mechanics that emphasize precision, fluid movement, and strategic combat, allowing players to navigate confined spaces while engaging in fast-paced action. While the game offers a satisfying loop of modular upgrades and encourages adaptability, some players find the mechanics poorly explained and the gameplay repetitive, leading to mixed feelings about its overall execution. Despite its minimalist aesthetic and solid controls, issues such as lackluster upgrades and occasional bugs detract from the experience for some users.
- “At its core, atomine’s gameplay is a refined exercise in precision and control.”
- “Using dual-stick mechanics, players move fluidly through confined spaces while firing in any direction, balancing aggressive offense with constant evasion.”
- “Its thematic focus on digital warfare gives it a distinct personality within the roguelike genre, and its blend of fluid combat, procedural design, and modular customization provides a satisfying gameplay loop.”
- “It plays it safe in every aspect of the game such as the gameplay, upgrades, enemies, and so on, yet still manages to fail.”
- “The gameplay is dull and unexciting; the upgrades are lackluster, the weapons/combat lack punch, and worst of all, there are two really annoying elements which make it unplayable for me.”
- “First, I had no idea what I was doing, how to use certain mechanics, and I had no idea what I was even collecting on the map after killing these red anti-viruses.”
music
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
44%
13%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising its energetic electronic beats and ability to enhance the gameplay experience, while others find it repetitive and occasionally annoying. Some players appreciate the soundtrack's ability to create a dense atmosphere that complements the game's abstract setting, though a few criticize it for being bland or lacking variety. Overall, the soundtrack is noted as a strong point for its thumping quality and stylish integration with the game's aesthetic, despite some concerns about sound design and repetitiveness.
- “The soundtrack underscores the experience with pulsing electronic beats and ambient distortion, perfectly matching the rhythm of the action.”
- “A unique and stylish top-down shooter with an incredible art style and soundtrack.”
- “What is really cool here is the 'hacker' setting, delivered with a pumping soundtrack and stylish graphics full of glitchy effects.”
- “The sound design is mediocre with the music being okay but very repetitive, and the low health noise is super annoying; trust me, you will be hearing it often.”
- “- the music, sound effects, and general aesthetic aren't great and tend toward annoying after a bit.”
- “The music in the game seems to only be one track, unless it's a number that all blend in together exceptionally well.”
story
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
50%
21%
The game's story is minimalistic and abstract, focusing on players embodying a self-replicating computer virus navigating a digital battleground rather than delivering a detailed narrative. While some players appreciate the conceptual design and visual style, many criticize the lack of clarity and depth in the story, feeling it detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the storytelling is seen as a secondary element, with gameplay and aesthetics taking precedence.
- “The stripped-down storytelling works in the game’s favor, keeping the focus on survival, movement, and progression rather than lore-heavy explanations.”
- “The story/environment is quite cool, the artwork is nice, the music is great, and most importantly, the gameplay is solid.”
- “Starting with the good, the visual style is nice as is the story and setting in which the battles take place.”
- “Not worth it, and I got it 60% off. It does not explain anything because it is too caught up trying to make a story even though there are no cutscenes or dialogue at the beginning to make it worth the time. It's not like an abstract story either; it's just bad. The upgrades have a very bad description to them as well. Now, if you ignore all of that, the gunplay is still bad.”
- “Still have no idea about the story though; I think I'm a computer virus?”
- “The details of the plot are not completely clear to me -- I'm not sure if you're trying to take over the missile system or prevent others from doing so -- but in any case, you need to gradually work your way through each system, defeating the defenses and progressing to the next system via a backdoor.”
optimization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
20%
40%
Overall, "atomine" generally runs smoothly, but users report occasional frame rate dips during intense action and particle effects. Some players have experienced crashes and noted that the game's optimization is lacking, especially given its relatively modest graphics demands compared to other titles.
- “As you progress, you collect modules that modify your gun’s performance — increasing fire rate, bullet spread, damage, or adding elemental and mechanical effects such as ricochets or energy beams.”
- “My GPU/CPU should be more than sufficient to play this game, and I have gotten great performance from other games which are clearly more graphically demanding.”
- “Got a few crashes as well and seems totally not optimized, having such resource demands for not that awesome graphics.”
- “In terms of performance and technical execution, Atomine runs smoothly for the most part, though minor frame rate dips can occur during heavy particle effects or when multiple enemies swarm the player.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with frequent glitches and bugs that persist regardless of graphics settings. Many users find it unplayable due to these problems, leading some to consider uninstalling until future updates potentially resolve the issues. Additionally, the game tends to freeze when handling a large number of objects.
- “Actually, the glitches occur regardless of the graphics settings, but despite various tweaks, it always runs into these crunches.”
- “Frankly, the combination of these glitches and other bugs leads me to believe that it is simply poorly coded.”
- “Unfortunately, it's just too buggy to be playable, so I will uninstall it and check back in some months with the hope that these issues are ironed out.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and unengaging, with repetitive combat and minimal variety in unlocks and upgrades. The only notable challenge comes from the first boss, which adds to the overall sense of monotony in the grinding experience.
- “The combat is just not that interesting, the unlocks and upgrades don't add a lot of variety to the game, and the idea of grinding through the game as many times as it would take to unlock everything just sounds incredibly tedious.”
- “The only enemy in the game that provided any substantial challenge was the first boss, a long and tedious battle that can only be described as a major difficulty spike.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is described as frenetic and engaging, complementing its challenging rogue-like gameplay. Players find the comedic elements to be a notable aspect that enhances the overall experience.
- “A really frenetic rogue-like; it's as funny as it is challenging.”
- “The humor in this game is sharp and unexpected, making every encounter a delight.”
- “I found myself laughing out loud at the witty dialogue and absurd situations.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Players highlight the game's strong replayability, noting its engaging gameplay, impressive graphical effects, and an energetic soundtrack that enhances the overall experience.
- “It is, however, a very good game, with plenty of replayability, some nice graphical effects, and a thumping soundtrack.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is characterized by a dense and immersive experience, enhanced by an impressive yet somewhat repetitive soundtrack, which effectively complements the abstract setting of being a computer virus.
- “Together with the incredible (but sadly a bit repetitive) soundtrack, the visuals were able to invoke a - given the rather abstract setting (you're a computer virus) - pretty dense atmosphere.”