Atomic Heart has always been a strange game to think about. Even back when it launched, while its foundations were pretty decent, there was something to be said about the level of repetitiveness thanks to the games rather unnecessary open world. Since then, discussions about the title have been divided, with some praising the core gameplay, writing, and imaginative story, while others criticising the lack of variety present throughout the game, only punctuated by clever but brief bits of puzzle-solving. With its DLC releases, however, developer Mundfish has been hard at work experimenting with not only the gameplay, but with level design and writing as well. In many ways, the latest DLC Enchantment Under the Sea feels like a culmination of all the studio has learned when it comes to game design.While the previous DLCs for Atomic Heart have been wildly different, with one essentially offering up more of what was already present in the base game and the other being a wild alternate-reality take on the story, Enchantment Under the Sea is an interesting one where it focuses back on the central storyline of the game, while also eschewing the base games more open design in favour of linear levels. While the game kicks off with a bang, having you break out of the building where you fought off the previous antagonists and finding your wife, you very quickly end up reuniting with Granny and setting off to explore an underwater facility in an effort to find the all-important wedding rings."You very quickly end up reuniting with Granny and setting off to explore an underwater facility"In being a much more linear experience where youre constantly making unambiguous forward progress in some form or another, Enchantment Under the Sea often ends up showing some of the most creative aspects that Atomic Heart has ever seen. Not only does the game introduce a host of new enemy types that you will have to juggle with, each with their own unique weaknesses that require entirely new tactics than what you might be used to, the game also goes further with its puzzle solving aspects. Now dont get me wrong, youre not going to get puzzle designs that rival something like a classic Zelda title, but their presence still ends up providing quite a bit of variety, as well as some breaks, in between bouts of relatively difficult encounters.The writing also feels a lot better than what weve seen from Atomic Heart so far. Yes, there are still moments of unnecessary dialogue with jokes that tend to kill the tension that is otherwise bearing down on you. And yes, it does contribute to the identity crisis we mentioned even in our review of the games first DLC, Annihilation Instinct. But at least this time around, the jokes arent going to make you cringe or groan. Much of the humour comes from P3s attempts to reconnect with his wife, which tends to offer plenty of tender moments as well. While there is still a general sense that the studio was torn between making this a more serious story in an effort to wrap things up in time for the next DLC to serve as a finale of sorts, the presence of these jokes still ends up undermining quite a bit of the atmosphere they were going for with Enchantment Under the Sea.Aside from that, however, the story continues what has ostensibly been an insane ride from the get go. The underwater facility you spend much of the DLC exploring eventually ends up much more sprawling and spacious than you first thought, and my first impression was that Atomic Heart is trying its own hand at a Rapture-esque setting. While BioShocks Rapture served as more than just a scenic backdrop, offering up some commentary on the idea of objectivist philosophy and unchecked capitalism, while also being a rather fantastic setting for a horror game, Enchantment Under the Seas setting doesnt really bother going there. Sure, there are tiny tidbits of lore strewn about that players can find, be it through conversations with corpses or records on computers, but ultimately, the DLCs setting really is just a scenic backdrop to the action.The only real downside of the story in Enchantment Under the Sea is that it needs quite a bit of buy-in for the player to be able to understand. Essentially, since its picking things up where the game last left off, you cant just start with the DLC; you will absolutely have to finish at least the base game to understand whats going on. All in all, however, when you consider the fact that this is the third DLC release for the game, this isnt really that much of an issue."Essentially, since its picking things up where the game last left off, you cant just start with the DLC"When it comes to action, Enchantment Under the Sea brings with it new types of powers that players can experiment with, with the standouts being a grappling hook and a fireball. The grappling hook, called the Whip, is used quite extensively throughout the DLC, and ends up being surprisingly versatile, useful in both exploration as well as combat. In fact, the whip was likely the key inspiration behind most of the puzzles in the DLC, which often require you to grapple around to get a vantage point on the whole puzzle. There are also platforming challenges that involve heavy use of the whip, with a memorable example involving you having to constantly swing between two electrified train tracks to dodge oncoming trains while you try to look for safe nooks and crannies. While it wont exactly let you feel like Spider-Man as you swing around, it still offers a fun new way to explore the DLCs levels.In combat, the whip starts out with a simple enough function: you can grapple into enemies to get closer. This can then be further augmented by providing various buffs and debuffs, like letting you block an enemys major attack when you grapple into them. The fireball, while not nearly as versatile, still feels great to use. Essentially acting like a large grenade, fireballing becomes an excellent way to maintain crowd control when youre getting swarmed by lots of enemies, for example. The fireball unfortunately doesnt do much for exploration, aside from letting you destroy specific obstacles; this ends up feeling like little more than an afterthought.Really, the only real problem with the combat in Enchantment Under the Sea is one that cant really be solved with a DLC release, and would require a fundamental redesign of the entirety of Atomic Heart. The problem is that when you get into a big fight, readability essentially goes out the window. While enemies will let you know when theyre about to hit you, the general speed and abilities of the various enemies you fight always end up feeling like theyre ideas taken from a much faster game, but without the slowing down to make them more suited to Atomic Hearts combat. It doesnt help that enemies can also sometimes be quite difficult to even spot. While it doesnt feel too bad often, the few times the games readability became an issue stuck out like a sore thumb."Youre not going to be getting any ground-breaking new content"Ultimately, Enchantment Under the Sea just goes to show how strong the foundations of Atomic Heart have always been. Despite its identity crisis, the writing in the DLC is still some of the best from throughout the game, with characters feeling more like real people than they have in either the base game or the previous DLCs. The story also definitely feels like its coming to a head, and Enchantment Under the Sea feels like its getting ready for the big finale with the next DLC. Visually, the DLC takes heavy inspiration from BioShock, with its underwater facility feeling like it might just be as sprawling and huge as Rapture was. The more focused approach to storytelling, opting for linear levels rather than throwing the player into an open world also does wonders for not only the writing and pacing, but for gameplay as well.While youre not going to be getting any ground-breaking new content with Enchantment Under the Sea, it is quite easy to recommend the DLC, especially to players that like Atomic Heart. Not only does it offer up the same excellent shooter gameplay as the base game, but the level design, variety of encounters, new enemies, new powers, and fun writing all add up to being an excellent way to spend a weekend. Throw on top the fact that the DLCs story makes it feel like Mundfish is just about getting ready to wrap things up with the overarching plot of Atomic Heart and Enchantment Under the Sea ends up feeling like a DLC you just cant miss.This game was reviewed on PC.