The Chernobyl disaster has always fascinated me for a number of reasons. Growing up under the shadow of the Cold War and nuclear expansion into many people’s back yard, the idea of the world coming to an end from a nuclear disaster was ever present. From the evening news to pop-culture film and television, the world seemed on the edge of destruction, and that was even before the Chernobyl disaster. After that event, one that still resonates and still enters the news from time to time as it’s still very much active, our view of nuclear power shifted from fascinating science fiction disaster to reality. And since the success of the Chernobyl television series and the popularity of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video game, it only makes sense a new era of Chernobyl media takes hold.
Chernobylite takes place in the time just after the disaster and puts a very science fiction twist to the entire thing. We’ve moved on from the reality of nuclear disasters and into the era of science fiction once again. You play as a scientist/scavenger who was there during the meltdown and lost your wife (also there) in the process. You return once again in order to secure some Chernobylite, a mysterious element that appeared after the reactor went critical and is littered across the surrounding area, all the while having your dead wife talk to you inside your head as you search for a way to find her, or, at the very least, bring her back from wherever she is. But it’s this crazy element that is the fuel source for your special weapon, a modified cordless drill with some scavenged Erector-Set pieces crudely tied to it. This weapon can open portals in time and space moving you around mission and out of danger. But as is always the case, things go awry and a a mysterious stranger who can also portal around chases you and your selected team down.
Along the way you’ll be tasked with taking out some monsters, dealing with sorta dumb human enemies, looting goods, and craft all sorts of gear, alongside upgrading your abilities with some RPG elements all in a very spooky setting. Chernobylite is essentially an RPG stealth action game that checks all the main boxes. You can even play the game without firing all that often, something I can really appreciate. It’s an efficient game with an interestingly weird story, which makes it such a shame that the game is pretty borked at times.
It’s been a very long time since I played a game that broke on me several times within the first chapter of play even days after release. We are talking about forcing checkpoint restarts multiple times within the first twenty minutes. The first came after you are tasked with taking a radiation reading that never registers. I walked around scanning for nearly an hour trying to figure out what I was doing wrong only to find out that the ‘Talk’ icon never appeared over a character. Reloading the checkpoint fixed this and I moved on and wrote it off as a weird bug.
Then it happened again less than ten minutes later when I reached the reactor control room and my two friends opened the door leading to the core. One of them went through just fine while the other decided it would be a great time to wedge himself inside the door and endlessly run in place. Nothing I did could force him out, requiring yet another restart of the last checkpoint. It’s a frustrating experience on a modern console and something I’m not used to experiencing. It’s the sort of thing you get from an Early Access game on Steam in the first year of development. It’s impossible that the QA team didn’t run into these issues and I doubt I’m the only person to come across this. So, while Chernobylite is pretty interesting, it starts really poorly.
And then there is the voice work that is straight out of the Manga Entertainment playbook of the early 90s. Just grab anyone in the studio the day of recording who can speak even the most basic of English. Everything just lacks impact and feels like movie of the week dialogue. I know that translating Russian is no simple task but it really does feel like the sort of budget release Japan would send over this way on the PS2. Look, Chernobylite isn’t that bad, but if it evoked my days playing Chaos Wars on PS2, you might have been better off with just text. Trust me when I say that you need to be playing this one in its native language and dealing with subtitles. It’s a far better experience in its native tongue.
But it’s not all negative. Chernobylite does have a lot going for it, it just never really builds on what is already available on the market. The crafting system is efficient and lets you craft food items to help you during your adventure. It’s a lot of soup that works in unique ways along with other goodies. One soup might help your health, another can stabilize your psyche after seeing too much crazy shit, while another might reduce your radiation. It’s simple and gets the job done. You can also craft weapons and stuff for your base as well. Again, Chernobylite is an efficient game with efficient systems that are done better elsewhere.
The gunplay also feels a bit dated and stiff like FPS games from the early and mid 2000s. None of this a bad thing, per say. Heck, many might even find it a bit retro with its clunky shooting feeling more, maybe, realistic? I can’t say since I’ve never fired these Russian weapons, but like I stated before: it gets the job done. The one thing that is pretty stunning is the terrain that the game uses. Chernobylite is a pretty good looking game, nothing groundbreaking or anything that pushes the Xbox Series X or S, but the terrain system itself is really neat.
Apparently, the team got time in the actual disaster zone and worked to accurately map the region the game takes place in. As I’ve never been there, or know much about the topography, I can only take their word for it. Still, that’s pretty darn cool and something you don’t often see done outside big racing games with famous tracks. So, outside of some cool mapping tech the game is pretty efficient and plays solidly. But that isn’t enough to carry a title above mediocrity, especially in today’s day and age. What you need is something pushing you forward in terms of a good narrative. So, does Chernobylite do this?
For the most part the answer is: yes. If you love choices and those choices having an impact, then Chernobylite is for you. You have choices in speech checks as well as with how you deal, not only with enemies, but with NPCs and their like. Some choices will have long-term impacts on what you experience, some will have mild immediate consequences, while others none at all. This is nice as it makes you question what might happen next and if you should play it as a hero, a villain, or something more human and in-between. That said, some choices are pretty dumb and don’t quite feel natural, and even then other games have a choice system.
But where things get interesting is if you do make a choice you don’t always have to be stuck with it. You see, because of your magical Black & Decker cordless portal gun, you’ll often get to break space and time and revisit past events and change them. And because time is borked, every time you die you’ll be saved and resurrected in the portal world with a chance to see how what you did got you to that point. You can then choose to take an alternate path if you pay the troll toll to the god of that universe with Chernobylite pieces that you collect along the way.
This mechanic is what really makes the game stand out from the crowd and make you think about your playthrough as you are playing instead of after, or, in the case of Fallout, restarting an old save. I can’t really think of another game that lets you replay past events to alter the course of the game depending on if you have the cash to spend. Mark my words that this sort of system will be co-opted into a ‘Pay-2-Win’ feature by some EA or Ubisoft game in the near future. And these altered choices can have a huge impact on the game itself as the entire landscape can be altered because of a single choice.
One might make an area harder, while another give you more aid from friendlies that are in the area scrapping for cool loot to. Chernobylite might be a game with basic systems, but it wraps them all inside one very cool choice system. It even borrows from Breath of the Wild in allowing you to zoom right over to the end boss area to have a go, although I’m not sure it’s a winnable event without your full squad and some decked out gear, but the option is there and is nice for those wanting to really push themselves.
It’s just a shame the combat feels a bit clunky if you are the sort of player that wants to take that route. It wasn’t an issue for myself as I took the mostly Deus Ex approach and tried to avoid danger an engagements. You can even tailor your gear for such a playstyle if you want, focusing on silenced weapons when you must engage when in trouble. But even this pales in comparison to the games it apes off of. Chernobylite does a lot of things, it just doesn’t do any of those things exceptionally well, or at least it doesn’t dive into them very deeply. It is weren’t for the choice system at its core the game would probably felt a lot flatter than it really is.
Choice elevates a middling experience, one that even translates into the squad system you use during the game. Characters might be voiced poorly, sure, but they still have heart and their own stories to tell which really makes you want to keep them around, alive, and happy. Happy because the game also has a basic morale and life system for each of them that you need to monitor. Most games just let you focus on yourself and automates the squad. Here, though, you need to feed them, outfit them, keep them well-rested between missions, and even deal with any interpersonal issues that might arise between them that will break out because of each persons unique personality.
What I don’t much care for is the mission based system the game employs. I love a bit of freedom but I still need some sort of direction. So much of the time I felt like I was completing missions for very little reason, many of which have no connection to the story. Think Metal Gear Solid V, but on far smaller scale and little connection to the plot. The game makes you feel pretty boxed in a lot of the time. I understand its based on a specific area, but with such a grand vision it feels limiting, especially when sending squad-mates on their own missions like a side game element in an Assassin’s Creed game. The base building also feels clunky as well, even with regards to managing your team. I talked about Chernobylite being the lesser of other games and all I could think was how much better Fallout 4 did it. This all really stinks as the story is super weird and out there, something I love, it just feels very stop and start at times that I spent what felt like ages during the game sorta bored. And that’s just it. This is not a bad game by any metric, it just has you wanting to play the games it takes so much inspiration from.
In the end I would say Chernobylite is a decent game that is more ambitious than anything else. It takes a lot of systems and does them to a lesser degree than most other games in their respective genres, but it holds them all together with a fun choice system, mostly rewarding compatriots that allow you to enjoy the game more than once and more than a single way, and a weird story that is engaging when its actually moving. This does seem like a title that I can see myself coming back to it a couple of times and having a fun seeing and experiencing new things. Maybe even liking it the more times I experience it like I did with something like ELEX. Is the game simple? Sure. But sometimes keeping things simple works best, and if it makes you want to come back to experience it again in a different way then you are getting more value out of it that many more refined AAA experiences that hold your hand along one single path with only the illusion of choice and fake friends that are never in any danger.
If you want something a little different and love the freedom to play a game the way you want to play, then Chernobylite should be on your radar, especially for that great AA price of $30. I really hope the developers can take this connective tissue of choice and fun story and build on top of it with gameplay mechanics that aren’t plying catch-up from games that do them better in a future title. Let’s just hope that the game gets a few patches to fix some crippling bugs that might end up making this a future “cult-classic” instead of a sales success. As of right now it’s the sort of game that requires a bit of work and patience to really fall in love with and that shouldn’t be the case. Sort out those bugs and you might have a winner underneath it all. Or, at the vert least, maybe check it out on PC if you have a great rig to get the most out of the visuals.
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