An Atomic Heart mod reveals what is underneath the robot Ballerina Twins' masks. The results are not only unexpected but make Atomic Heart's robotic Ballerinas even more unsettling than they were before.
Atomic Heart launched on PC and next-gen consoles last month to generally favorable reviews, despite some harsh criticism from those who felt the game didn't live up to its potential. The game's robotic Ballerina Twins featured heavily in Atomic Heart's marketing. They quickly achieved viral popularity, including bizarre internet rumors that the game contained a multi-hour sex scene between the player characters and the two robots. With a woman's body and a blank metal face, these feminine automatons get more unsettling the closer one looks at them, even before they try to slice players apart with lasers and retractable claws.
A mod maker called DmgVol decided they wanted to see what the twins looked like behind their mirrored faceplates and created a simple mod to do just that. While Atomic Heart's Ballerina Twins are biomechanical constructs rather than pure electronics, most would not expect to find a human face underneath. However, that's precisely what the game's new "Unmasked Twins" mod reveals. The final result is significantly creepier than the mechanical ballerinas were beforehand.
Atomic Heart's developer Mundfish never intended for players to see what is underneath the Twin's reflective face plates. As such, developers never modeled anything to go underneath it. Instead, removing their masks reveals Unreal Engine 4's default female face serving as a placeholder. Since developers never intended for players to see behind the Twins' masks, their faces are unanimated, and they just stare blankly at the player character. They also appear to have a lower texture quality than other characters in the game, with the Twin's Red Star emblem clipping through their foreheads.
The result almost looks like Atomic Heart's mad scientist decided to decorate his robot Ballerina bodyguards with rubber masks. Either way, it's enough to tip the Ballerinas over the edge and plunge them directly into the uncanny valley. Several Nexus mod users have made posts describing how much creepier the twins are without their metal face plates, and it really is hard to disagree with that assessment. Still, it is weirdly appropriate for Atomic Heart’s robotic enemies, many of which seem like they were deliberately designed to be off-putting.
Still, it could be a fun Atomic Heart mod for some fans to play around with. "Unmasked Twins" is available on Nexus Mods for anyone who decides they want to try it out for themselves. However, players should probably be prepared to get a little creeped out when they see those blank faces crab-walking toward them later in the game.
Atomic Heart is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Unmasked Twins/Nexus Mods