The head of the Mundfish studio, Robert Bagratuni, said that the player will need approximately 25 hours to complete Atomic Heart on the average difficulty level. If you focus solely on the story campaign.
Robert also stated that for the best experience, it is recommended to play Atomic Heart in hardcore mode.
It is on high difficulty that all those details are revealed that are difficult or almost impossible to notice on medium or easy: because the demands on the game itself, on response, on interruptions of various actions, increase. The combat itself is quite dynamic, so it is very important that the game reacts dynamically to the player's input as well.