Chernobylite by developer and publisher The Farm 51—PC Review written by Natasha
with a copy provided by the publisher.Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
I imagine people have heard of the most
tragic and biggest Nuclear disaster to ever happen on earth. Back in 1986,
Chernobyl created a chain of events, all due to a safety test gone wrong. That
lead to the explosion of power plant No.4 and destroyed and altered the lives of
thousands of people living and/or working nearby. This game takes you deep into
the heart of Chernobyl, but not everyone who survived the event remained human.
Join me as I explain how a man named Igor struggles to survive in this
radiation filled environment of war, sickness, mutation and time.
Chernobylite is set in the Chernobyl
Exclusive Zone in Ukraine, forcing you to use what little resources you have to
survive this radioactive wasteland to find your beloved. It is currently
available on the PC, but is scheduled to release on Xbox One and PS4 in
September and to other consoles later this year.
The Story
You play as our protagonist, professor
Igor Khymynuk, who is searching for his missing wife Tatyana. They were once
residents of Chernobyl, working as scientists, before the plant explosion.
During the events of the blast, a mysterious ore known as Chernobylite created
a strange chain reaction that not only caused radioactive pollution, but opened
strange wormholes throughout the area. Igor believes that his wife was sucked
into one of these warps and is trapped in limbo. With his hired team of
professionals he braves the unstable, deadly environment in hopes that he can
find her again. However, he will have to face rogue individuals, soldiers and
other unknown, distorted and deformed, creatures that stalk the land if he
wishes to succeed.
Gameplay
In this game it's all about survival and
there are multiple factors that you'll have to familiarize yourself with as the
game progresses. To me, this game reminds of how 'The Last of Us' plays in a way.
You'll wonder area that are either deserted or unstable, trying to scrounge up
food, resources, ammunition, clues or even people. Together, you'll have to
build a small populace in order to achieve trust and power if Igor is going to
continue his search for his wife in this dangerous environment.
Scanning
At the start of the game your teammates
hand over a device called an Environmental Analyzer. This gadget helps you
locate resources when you're out in the field. It can locate specific items
like Herbs, Food, Oil or other valuable materials by shifting it to a singular
setting if you're looking to gather that one item you need to stock up on, or
you can set it to track all item classes at once by selecting the 'Other'
option. I find that this is the setting I use the most since I tend to collect
anything that's nearby around me. Not only can it locate resources, but it can
detect the rise of any radiation nearby. Any human or creature near you will
set off the scanner, giving you a nice heads up that something is nearby, but
it won't really point you in which direction it's coming from. It will also
pick up on a cluster of Chernobylite Ore, high radiation fumes and poisonous
bodies of water. So make sure to always keep on eye on your scanner. If you find
you're walking into a high level radiation field you can craft a gas mask to
help lessen the effects it has on your body, but it will require you to also
have filters on hand, since it drains it quickly.
Scavenging
In order to craft anything you'll need
materials, which you can collect by scavenging the areas you visit throughout
the game. Some are easy to spot and will light up once you're staring straight
at it or standing near it, others you'll need to use your scanner tool to help
locate specific ingredients or items. Not all items are easy to get to.
Sometimes you might have to trigger certain events or fight (or sneak by)
enemies that tend to be blocking a room full of goodies, which usually result
in either a large collection of material or even rare items.
Crafting
In this game you have to make everything
from scratch in order to make it or break it in Chernobyl. Good news for us
since Igor is quite the tinker bug. First up. you'll require a crafting bench
in order to work on anything. Once that's built you'll have everything at your
disposal to craft. Health, boosters, weapons, furniture, ammunition, armor, and
many other useful items. Igor can also craft off camp, but his crafting is
minimized to just the basics: healing kits, ammo and mechanisms that can help
distract your enemy if you wish to make a quick getaway.
Building
The game decides to give you a place to
relax, refresh and reorganize after every mission. This is a nice breath of
fresh air when you're running low on health, psyche and supplies. It's also
yours to do absolutely anything you want with. It's home. And with that Igor is
allowed to express his creative kink and feng-shui in his living environment
however he (You) wants. Again, resources are required to build anything in your
base, so gather as much as you can with each mission you embark on. You'll be
able to open your building menu anytime you're inside the camp, where you can
select between different categories of crafting. You can build furniture,
crafting stations, gardens and other useful necessities. Please note that as
you build things you'll also have to watch how much power each thing may absorb
or how much pollution they may cause in the air quality. This will prompt you
to build multiple Generators and Air Purifiers to counter-balance each other.
But it can be a bit of a vicious circle, with each bulky generator and purifier
you make the lower your comfort goes down. Nobody wants to hear low noisy
machines. They do provide a chart in the building menu to help keep you up to
speed on what each item you build will affect which area in your base. Power,
Air Quality and Comfort are always your top priorities.
However, Igor isn't the only one you have
to keep happy in the base. The other base members will need to feel 'At Home'
and are looking to you to provide them with all their comforting needs. If you
neglect to keep your base 'Healthy' you may wake up and find that some of your
followers have left you. The base will also have a separate room for Igor to
relax in. You can investigate the clues he's found during his travels, that are
kept well organized on a bulletin board in his bedroom. You can rest at his bed
and jump to the next day. (Note: The game will give you a warning if people in
the base are unhappy, giving you a chance to either ignore it and suffer the
consequences of loss or spend some extra quality time and get to know and help
the others when they need it). There is also another bulletin board that is
connected to the main story of the game called 'The Heist'. This board will
only activate once you have a significant amount of clues and the proper team
members required to help you.
Missions
Missions are provided to you on a daily
basis at the start of each new day. They are accessible at the viewing point in
your base and range between normal supply runs to digging up information and
tracking down targets. Each mission will have on icon displayed in the corner
to indicate the type you'll be dealing with: food drop off, ammunition run,
ration pick-up and so on and so forth. Others, with a bit more seriousness to
them, will have a color marker. Indicating that they are points of interest
that may help you uncover details about Tatyana(Wifey), locating traitors or
snitches and/or recruiting helpful allies.
These tasks can be divided among you and
your camp-mates. While you're taking on more dangerous missions, maybe send a
few of the newbies you picked up earlier to scout the areas for resources and
food. You can also observe the condition of each Zone area when the missions
menu appears. They will be highlighted in different colors depending on their
difficulty and/or how high the radiation has spiked in the area. Green means
good, yellow for caution and red for dangerous. If you find you need to enter
an area with a high danger rating, don't panic. You can lessen the effect of
the pollution in the area by crafting an anti-radioactive distributor. This
will help clear the high hazardous effect it has in the Zone, but be warned. If
you build this out in the open, both monsters or soldiers will attempt to
demolish it. It's best to build it away from prying eyes.
When you've selected which mission you
wish to focus on you'll use your handy-dandy wormhole making machine to
teleport you to the area. This machine is always with you so at any given time
you feel like you have to return to base, just pull it out and activate it.
Once it's activated you won't be able to return so make sure you got what you
came for.
Once you step foot in and begin the
mission you'll notice a type of tracking ledger at the top of your screen. This
will pin point your main objective as well as other points of interest on the
map. Be careful though because they may be guarded by NAR soldiers or strong
creatures. Some areas will even be locked off, but if you've crafted some
lock-picks ahead of time you'll have no problems getting in.
Once you find that your mission was a
success, return to camp, and you'll have access to the reward table. Here
you'll see how you and your camp-mates fair throughout your travels. Most of
the time everyone comes back alive and full of new goodies, but if you're not
careful and send someone who's not mentally or physically ready, they'll come
back empty handed or injured. Possibly even kidnapped or killed. That's why at
the end of each mission it's up to you to feed your teammates. The more people
in your camp the more mouths you'll have to feed, which in turn means more food
ration runs. So make sure to balance out how much food everyone will intake. If
you're high in supply and you can feed every at once, great! However, if you're
running low on stock you'll have to sacrifice either your well-being over
others or vice versa. Not being able to feed individuals will drop your camps
morale, so make sure to keep on top of things.
Fighting
The combat in this game has elements of
stealth and precision. You can choose to fight more on the offensive or
defensive side. For my approach, I chose to stay hidden and out of sight in
order to preserve supplies and ammo. If I ever found myself stuck in a corner
with enemies then everything I've saved up until then will come in handy.
Having extra stuff in your pockets can also be useful when you come across
traders. They may have things that catch your eyes. However if you're the type
to run in, guns-a-blazin' then I suggest you upgrade your weapon and armor to the
best of their ability. When you're low on ammunition after notifying the entire
squadron of your presence, you're gonna be thankful you made that heavy-duty
armor plate and gas mask before you left home (Base camp).
The game does a good job at using the environment
to your characters advantage. Hiding behind a bush will lower your chances of
being seen or even help give you cover from being chased. However, once you've
been discovered by the enemies you'll enter a phase where a timer will appear
on your screen, showing the amount of time you have before back-up arrives, or
how much time you have left before the enemy will give-up chasing you. Your
actions will change the outcome of the timer. If you're trying to stealth your
way around enemies, you're screen will provide you with a warning when someone
or something is looking in your direction. For human bad guys your indicator
will glow yellow. The more intense the color of the indicator, the more visible
to them you appear. Stepping out of their line of site will make the indicator
disappear. Same goes for the Shadow monsters, however their indicator will be
colored red.
Sound is also a dangerous factor that can
get you in trouble. Opening doors, walking through water, falling from high
places or just straight up running will cause sound to travel a great distance
in this game, and will notify the enemies of your presence. I tend to walk and
crouch throughout most of my missions. But if you're lucky sometimes the
weather will be on your side: rainy days are your friends and you should make
sure to pay attention when they visit. This weather condition is a BIG help in
keeping the noises you make to a minimum. Stealth-ops seal of approval over
here.
You can customize your equipment, which
is only available to you in your base and, with the right amount of resources,
you can power-up your weapon with better stats. Each time you decide to upgrade
your equipment your weapons current stats will be showing. When you hover over
the section you wish to improve you'll be able to see the different stats and
effects that the new part will provide before customizing it. Will you optimize
for more firepower over the loss of reload speed, or go for quick and accurate
shots at the cost of power? The choice is yours. The game also provides you
with a dodge feature, but I found that I never really use it since it has never
saved me once from a combat situation.
Skill Points
Guess what? You have skill points you can
spend in this game, and the best way to round them up is by exploring or
crafting. For every item you build you're given some points. These points can
also be found when finding clues, saving individuals or even picking up
materials. You'll have a points bar that sits on-screen for you to observe.
Once you build up enough points you can spend them training with Olivier (Your
hired help). These training sessions will help increase your stealth
performance, take down enemies, and even steel your psyche when having to
unleash a killing blow.
Recruiting
You won't be able to find your lovely
wife on your own, and that's why you must head out into dangerous territory and
recruit others to aid you. It won't be a simple task as each person you have a
possibility to recruit come with an added mission. If you can help them on
their mission, then in return they will offer their help and join you back at
the base. Sometimes it may require you to go on several mission before you gain
their trust.
Graphics
I won't lie, I didn't think this game
would live up to my standards in what I find 'Fun' in most games I play.
However, I was pleasantly blown away by how detailed and crisp the environment
look in this game. Each mission zone looks to be captured in a overgrowth of
plantation, thanks to the area being almost Nigh-inhabitable due to the
pollution and radiation, but it's breathtaking to see how picturesque each zone
is. Even though abandoned areas tend to bring in a creepy and unsettling
atmosphere to them, it can also show you the beauty of what nature can do to a
once thriving human-run Eco-system. There where times I would stop and just
take in the surreal imagery the game would present to me. Then I would scurry
to the nearest bush to hide from incoming monsters and soldiers that patrol the
land.
Conclusion
To conclude, Chernobylite is a game
that ended up surprising me. It kept me engaged with how much stuff there was
to do and the people I needed to handle, manage, and care for. It gives you
control over every decision you make. You may come across tough situations
where you might end up losing trust in certain team members by helping a
wounded soldier, but even helping a bloodied soldier who works for the enemy
may end up helping you sometime down the road.
The game's not overly scary where you
have to keep a light on in your room, but the handful of jump scares and creepy
enemy designs will make your heart race from time-to-time. If you're looking
for something that'll keep you engaged and engrossed in the story and
game-play, then this game is for you. I'm giving Chernobylite a 8.5 out of 10
for being an absolute delight to experience.
Score: 8.5 / 10
