Video Game Review: Chernobylite

Chernobylite

Developer: The Farm 51

Publisher: All In! Games

PlayStation 4

Many gamers are likely familiar with the premise by now: in 1986, a nuclear reactor meltdown in Pripyat, Ukraine, led to the evacuation of the surrounding area and the creation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. While in real life the exclusion zone exists for the relatively mundane reason of radioactive contamination, the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl in 2007 inspired an entire mini-genre of games set in versions of the exclusion zone where the Chernobyl disaster caused supernatural phenomena to start manifesting. Chernobylite, developed by The Farm 51, is the latest game to offer its own take on the premise, that being the story of a scientist trying to unravel a web of conspiracies surrounding his fiancée’s disappearance 30 years ago and how it ties into a mysterious and highly valuable substance resulting from the disaster – the titular chernobylite. Though I will admit I had some initial misgivings due to my own personal/anecdotal experiences with these games and the type of people who make and/or love them, Chernobylite is an excellent title which can really suck the player in.

One such misgiving is that I feel the genre of “spooky exclusion zone” games is oversaturated, but Chernobylite sets itself apart in two ways: the game world is modeled after 3D scans of actual, real-life Pripyat, and a set of base-building-slash-companion-management mechanics. The first thing doesn’t really impress me because I think attempts at photorealism (regardless of how successful they are) are boring, and the PlayStation version of the game at least don’t do it particularly well. The graphics look grainy in many places, especially when the player is hiding in the bushes for stealth purposes, which is at least 70 to 80 percent of the exploration gameplay. The management aspects, on the other hand, are great, and go a long way towards creating an addicting loop of exploration and construction feeding into one another. I would play until late at night, telling myself I’d just go on one more mission and hopefully get enough parts to build another thing for my base, but then I’d discover some other upgrade I wanted to build after that and do another mission and so on and so forth. There’s also a skill system which produced similar feelings, albeit to a slightly lesser extent.

Gripes about the game’s art style (or arguable lack thereof) aside, the atmosphere of the zone is phenomenal. Strong sound design including a spookily melancholic soundtrack helps to create a tension between the odd serenity of a forbidden place and the intensity of creeping past things that want to kill you. To add to this, engaging in open fights with enemies is something the player should only be doing when unavoidable – the player character is, after all, a scientist who’s getting up there in years rather than a mercenary or soldier, so choosing to pull the trigger is a desperate act. Appropriately, combat is purposefully somewhat obtuse and difficult; enemies hit hard, your vision/aim can be disrupted rather easily, and lining up your own shots isn’t always easy. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again here: desperation-by-design is one of my favorite things in survival and/or horror games when done well, and Chernobylite very much does it well.

I would be remiss, however, not to mention the things I took issue with, minor though some of them may be. First and foremost is the semi-frequent crashing I encountered, to which there was no apparent rhyme or reason. Sometimes I would crash just after loading in, while other times I would be able to play for hours before being booted out of the application – in one instance, the game crashed as soon as I booted it up, before I could even select any options in the main menu. The story, while compelling on the whole, can be weak in the moment-to-moment dialogue and voice acting. In particular, there were many times when I noticed a discrepancy between the English-language voice over and the subtitles displayed (audio comes in English and Russian and can be switched at will). There was one point where the captions read “idiot” and the voice over said the r slur, which needless to say I was not happy about. In addition, there are a number of pivotal flashback sequences in which characters appear as translucent green figures that are very faint and not obvious enough if you don’t know what to be looking for. Even then, they can be hard to see, and having to squint to find them distracts from the actual events unfolding.

Chernobylite isn’t the best game I’ve played this year. Frankly, I don’t think it’s the best game I’ve played this month, but the fact remains that it’s still a very cool title with (usually) cool-as-hell vibes and a solid core of gameplay. Plus, hey, I noticed my PS4 downloading a patch just before we published this review, so it’s possible the game is a bit more stable now than it was as I was playing it. In any case, if you’re needing a game to scratch that feeling of grit and guns that seem rusty even if they’re not actually in all that bad condition, Chernobylite can serve as an excellent itch cream.