Developed by The Farm 51 and published by All in! Games, Chernobylite is a science fiction action RPG that was originally released for PC and last-gen consoles last year. Now after much wait, we finally have the next-gen release for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S along with an Enhanced Edition update for the PC release. Chernobylite is set around and in the 3D-scanned wasteland of Chernobyl’s exclusion zone. The game combines base-building, roguelite, RPG, and team-management into one package and executes everything really well. This is our review of the PS5 version of Chernobylite in which we explore a post-nuclear wasteland and try to sneak around some supernatural creatures.
Before starting your adventure, you are given the option to pick various settings for your adventure. You can choose the difficulty settings individually for Survival, Combat, and Management which gives you a customized experience. Since all three of these mechanics are interlinked with each other, increasing the difficulty of even one aspect will make the game harder because if you are unable to survive yourself, you cannot take care of your base and if you are unable to manage your base well, your chance of survival goes down and this goes on. Having a customized playthrough also results in a different one every time you start the game, and this drastically increases the replayable factor of Chernobylite.
Chernobylite is an action-survival RPG, you can also consider it a roguelite because your ultimate goal is the same and its success level depends on how much you grind in the game. You jump in the shoes of Igor who used to work at the Chernobyl Power Plant. He returns 30 years later to find his wife who was lost during the Chernobyl incident and now the whole area is a wasteland and nuclear radiation is spread everywhere. You start the game with a brief intro mission where you explore the Chernobyl Power Plant and you are introduced to Chernobylite, a rare metal only found in the nuclear reactor’s explosion site along with the main villain of the game Dark Stalker.
You finally manage to reach a safe spot and you find a warehouse which you turn into your base of operations. This base of operations is a junk-filled place that you turn into a fully functional working military base with living amenities and combat facilities. You can craft plenty of buildings and place them wherever you like in this whole warehouse. These include weapon upgrade stations, ammo crafting stations, and many things to improve the living standards of your team which include air filtration plants, water plants, beds, sofas, tables, and much more. What I really liked about base building in Chernobylite is that everything you craft, and place actually feels useful to your cause.
It is not just for the sake of crafting and expanding your base but every structure or item that you craft and place in your base is actually beneficial to you and your team. The better the items you craft and place at your base, the happier your team gets, and it will keep their morale high for missions and this results in better mission completion rates. Looking after your teammates is vital for you and if you look after your team members, they perform better in missions that you assign them and you can trust them more as well. Apart from a few key members that you need for the final mission, you will meet plenty of other team members as well.
Survival in Chernobylite is not possible on your own and you have to rely on your team members as well. This makes keeping a happy and healthy team around really helpful. Generally, you need to have three items in stock for your team at your base including food, medicines, and ammo. The missions you or your teammates complete in the game give you one of the three resources and you need to make sure that you keep a good balance between the three and not just focus on one item. Members who successfully complete missions for you also expect to receive bonus food rations and special treatment so if you still give them nothing, their morale starts to drop, and in return, their chances of mission success as well. Making sure that both the physical and mental condition of your team is key for success and their loyalty towards your cause. Both of these factors are influenced by various key factors.
Apart from keeping them healthy, well-fed, and well-stocked on ammo, the condition of your base plays an important role as well. When I was playing the game for the first time, I was surprised to see that the game wanted me to improve the base during my first-ever night before sleeping so that the team’s morale would not go below. So, I crafted two tables and a sofa along with a revolver station and a workstation. This made the base tolerable and I was able to sleep with the peace of mind that when I will wake up the next day, the team’s morale will not be low despite it consisting of just one member at the time.
As you complete missions, you get to meet new NPCs and some of them are professionals who you want on your team for the final mission. Your ultimate goal in Chernobylite is not survival or taking care of your people or building a settlement but it is actually to grind enough to form a team capable of supporting your heist and you must equip them properly in order to increase the success chance of the heist. Consider it as Mass Effect 2 and its final mission requirement where everything you do in the main game leads to improving your team’s morale and making them better equipped for one final do-or-die mission. However, in Chernobylite, you literally start from scratch and have to become strong enough to complete your mission successfully.
For increasing your chances of success, you must build yourself and your team. Every NPC that you add to your team can give you advanced skills in the form of training. You can spend your skill points to complete these trainings and make yourself better in various aspects. Every NPC added to your team has their own set of training however it is up to you to see which training you want and which training you do not want first. Ultimately, if you want to max out everything, you will need an additional grind of missions that come your way. You begin your day by assigning yourself and your team members various missions. Since daylight is limited, you only get to complete a single mission during a day and each mission comes with a time limit.
This is where your choice comes into play of choosing what you need for your base and what you must sacrifice. After assigning a mission to yourself and your team, you embark on the mission which loads you into that particular area and a marker is present on your compass which leads you to your main mission objective. These mission areas are huge, and you are free to explore them for additional resources, challenges, and supplies while you are there. Apart from exploring, you can also craft some temporary items and small structures which help you in crafting medical supplies, food and weapon upgrades, and ammo.
This is really helpful if you plan on spending a long time in the area and there are plenty of enemies around. You can scan the area for supplies as well using your Environment Analyzer which is normally used for detecting radiation levels. While out on missions, you also have to make sure that your inventory is not overflooded with junk and that you only keep useful items with you. Inventory management is important in the game because you have a limited inventory space and if you are out hunting for resources, you will run out of space pretty soon. Once you are done, you can use your portal gun to open a portal and go back to your base.
Your main enemies in the game include the NAR soldiers who litter the Chernobyl Power Plant and its surrounding areas. The game’s biggest threat is the Black Stalker who is an unknown entity, but he is a little hopped up on Chernobylite, so he possesses supernatural powers and abilities. Apart from the normal enemies, you also come across various monsters known as Chernohosts which are supernatural enemies and use portals to arrive at the normal, human world. While Chernobylite is a more stealth-oriented game, choosing to go head-on-head with enemies is quite satisfying as well but only on lower difficulties. The NAR soldiers only possess a threat if they are too many in numbers otherwise you can take them out while in stealth pretty easily. Out in the open, you can use various environmental elements to hide and stay in the shadows.
Another important aspect of Chernobylite is the dialogue which plays a key role here. You will make or break your relationships with your teammates with your dialogue here. While some of the choices do not matter much in the game and you get the same outcome, some of the key points matter a lot and you have to be careful with what you choose for yourself and your teammates. During one of the starting bits, I tried getting away from some NAR soldiers by pretending that I was a tech guy and wanted to fix some computers but it did not work however I was lucky I had some allies with me who took care of them.
Coming to the gameplay, Igor’s movement feels standard however I do not like the fact that you are unable to climb walls and perform some other basic movements as well. During a section, I fell down in a basement and was unable to climb back up because there was no place high enough so I could jump back, and despite Igor’s hands reaching the ledge, I was unable to climb back up. This was a little disappointing and apart from this, jumping around feels a little basic as well where you have to jump even on small steps as Igor gets stuck there and does not comprehend if there is one step so he could just move above it rather than getting stuck.
Gunplay feels a little dated at first but after you have updated your weapons a bit, it starts to feel meaty. I think this is a good mechanic because the weapons that you get at the game start are in a pretty bad shape but still landing headshots with them deals a good enough damage. If you find the enemy and shoot at them, hit points are always registered despite it looking like the enemies not responding to any of the gunshots. As you upgrade your weapons and find some good ones in the world, gunplay really changes pace, and you are cutting down enemies in no time given that you have enough ammo in your storage. Ammo is not always available since you technically have to survive in the game.
Earlier in my review, I mentioned that Chernobylite is a roguelite and this is because the game does not dictate how to proceed in the game and gives you an open canvas every time that you can choose to do whatever you want. Missions are varied, different dialogue choices lead to different outcomes, and based on your choices and progression, the final mission’s outcome will be different as well. You will be surprised to know that the game allows you to begin the final heist right after completing the introduction as well without the team put together but obviously, the outcome is not a favorable one. This brings out the roguelite mechanic in Chernobylite as you must grind enough to make sure that you and your teammates are well-equipped for the final heist.
The PS5 release brings plenty of next-gen features and it certainly feels like a next-gen release. The visuals look beautiful and if you go for the performance mode, you can enjoy the gameplay at silky smooth 60 FPS. Adaptive Triggers come into play when you are firing a weapon and vibration is much more dynamic as compared to the PS4 release. Chernobylite combines a lot of different mechanics but most of them are really simplified which allows you to focus on your ultimate goal while giving you just enough push to explore the world around you and look for different resources in order to survive. The game looks amazing visually and the sound design is brilliant as well. It runs pretty stable on PS5 with no noticeable frames dropping even in areas with dense foliage or a lot of lighting. You also have a detailed Photo Mode which allows you to take customized photos in every section of the game.
Final Verdict:
Chernobylite is no doubt a brilliant survival RPG and it is really an underrated title as far as I know. This game deserves more attention because, during my two playthroughs, I enjoyed this title more than I enjoyed Fallout 4. While the locations are not as diverse as I hoped for and the crafting is pretty basic, it is surely more haunting, engaging, and looks really good. The next-gen release is not just a hasty port but some of the sequences in Fidelity mode look drop-dead gorgeous on a decent 4K screen. If you love playing survival RPGs or are looking to kill around 40 or so hours with a game that offers you action, strategy, base-building, team management, and horror all thrown into one, you should definitely give Chernobylite a chance. I definitely place it among my favorite next-gen releases of 2022 so far.
Final Score: 8.5/10
