Since the release of Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo is just days away, we thought that this time it would be interesting to tell the creation story of our hero - Sergey Nechaev aka P-3.
And it's worth starting with the fact that there was actually no Sergei Nechayev in the earliest story concepts! The whole story was supposed to revolve around Larisa Filatova and Viktor Petrov, who were then called Fred and Laura.
But that's a whole other story…
And as with any story being created, the choice was to go with what works best for it. So the team settled on a single character. It was immediately decided that it should be a special agent - since this Atomic Heart is supposed to be an action-oriented game, it means that the protagonist should have combat skills.
The first prototypes of the character design, as in the case of the Twins, have nothing to do with the final version.
Since the beginning of development, the image of the P-3 has changed several times.
With each artistic decision, our hero became stricter, more focused, and more intertwined with the atmosphere of Facility 3826
It is worth mentioning P-3's hairstyle, which looks quite modern, and although it has quite a long history in the real world, it is unlikely that any of the inhabitants of even the alternative USSR would wear it.
As in the case of Larisa Filatova's absolutely impossible hairstyle - is at the intersection of the past and the future.
As you can see from the early concept arts, it was implied that the main character would be using an exoskeleton. But this idea was abandoned in favor of more elegant and futuristic concepts for justifying P-3 abilities.
And speaking of his abilities, we can't help but talk about his main tool/companion - the polymer glove.
The glove should look interesting and intriguing, but it should not raise questions about how it can be used in everyday life.
Originally it was intended to be more "military", modeled on the equipment of elite units and some of these ideas have since been realized.
However, the main idea - to present the glove as a kind of living creature, a symbiote - led the artists' imagination towards insect body parts and engineering devices.
That's how we came up with the wires that would later become the manipulators of CHAR-Les.
We won't spell out the history of the creation of CHAR-Les at length (maybe later) but we will clarify that adding a companion to the main character who's always talking to him, allowed us to create a “buddy movie” character chemistry.
And since we play as the protagonist, he should be the "hands" and "man of action" then CHAR-Les due to his "features" acts as the brain and mind.
But Nechayev wasn't always been so gruff and scowling. In the past, he had been much more cheerfully open and even adventurous, while remaining a professional. But something (plot-wise) changed him, seemingly forever. He's on the road to being better though.
Funny thing, that despite the rather polar attitude of our community towards the main character (yes, we read your reviews), when we conducted a narrative survey in May 2023, Sergei took the top spot as the most popular character!
Maybe Sergei Nechayev is different for everyone after all.
And what's your P-3? Describe how you see him in the comments.
The other side of Nechayev - Newton was created as a concept character by our art director Artem Galeev long before the game's development began.
So, to avoid unnecessary spoilers ahead of the release of Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo, all we can say right now is that it's not some separate entity... it's just a dude in a fuzzy suit.
While you still have time, you might want to read our articles about creating different aspects of the Atomic Heart world:
Creating: VOV-A6
Creating: The Twins
