(Image credit: The Farm 51)

Radiation and Horror Meets Cat and Mouse Tactics

Low on supplies and my radar shows a needed gas can lies in the middle of the road, but enemy soldiers patrol the area. Should I sneak up and take them out, lure them into a trap, or go in guns blazing? Choices like these await players in every mission of Chernobylite. The expansive gameplay developed by The Farm 51 finds ways to moderate complex sci-fi mechanics against a rich story, all while avoiding an intense grind for survival supplies or crafting materials. The Load Screen reviews this ambitious post-apocalyptic FPS as worthy of playing despite some fixable end-game problems and minor physics glitching.

The game’s deep narrative is confusing since its nonlinear form contains dimensional manipulations that often rearrange his past circumstances. The main character is a former Chernobyl Power Plant physicist named Igor searching the Pripyat region for clues to his missing wife. The game starts as Igor awakes from a dream about searching Chernobyl for his love Tatyana. He leads a break-in at the power plant with two partners to retrieve chernobylite, a radioactive and reality-altering material. They are successful but takes a considerable toll when a mysterious interdimensional hunter begins tracking Igor.

Beyond just the nonlinear storyline, other aspects take adjusting for fans of survival or horror genre games. Days do not cycle with game-time; however, chernobylite storms and radiation zones change based on map conditions that players can modify directly. Building the best crafting stations and supplies are only available in the Refuge, Igor’s home base. Also, player failure and death mechanics that offer further clues or alter past decisions can complicate matters for those who never want to lose in a video game.

(Image credit: The Farm 51)

The three separate parts of the day perform different functions that conveniently regulate gameplay aspects. Players plan their missions during the Morning and wrap those duties up in the Night. Both sections occur in the safety of the Refuge, so the complete range of crafting is available. However, Igor can only train with his companions at Night. The Day section allows Igor’s team to carry out selected missions while providing the gamer the opportunity for exploration, stealth, combat, and little crafting with layers of psychological horror. The cycle only breaks once Igor selects the final heist, but it requires five crew members, five special tools, and four solved mysteries.

Chernobylite’s setting is the city of Pripyat, which the indie developers created from 3D-scanning the actual Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Five map sections divide the zone while offering different daily rewards and a variable difficulty as the player modifies the landscape with environmental gear and story decisions. My favorite zone is Moscow Eye for pure exploration, but I prefer Pripyat Central for stealth and combat. However, each map has its surprises based on real-world scans so that players will have other selections for their go-to zones. A bonus NRA facility area is only available when Igor gets captured that offers players the opportunity for a solo prison break.

This survival horror game takes advantage of next-gen technology for realistic effects in a surreal and sci-fi world. Glowing interdimensional monsters and chernobylite storms stand out from the bleak palette caused by the irradiated decay of the plant explosion. Particle and fog effects add eerie atmospherics that give off Silent Hill vibes throughout Chernobylite. The level of damage caused by weaponry on enemy combatants shows why Igor’s mind falls apart, especially when using the railgun.

Despite the separated day cycles, another mechanic section only occurs upon complete storyline failure and death. It is an alternative dimension that displays every active story arc that Igor can change to solve imperfections while potentially causing more issues. I found understanding this section the most challenging because it purposely breaks the linear narrative. However, once I understood how to resolve conflicts correctly, the area made more sense. Having all teammates in good relationship status through fixing the timeline was nearly impossible for me, but the developers weave another balance for managing the five companions. There are so many variations at the end that genuinely made this reality manipulation Rick and Morty style fun.

(Image credit: The Farm 51)

Chernobylite has a balanced system for life, radiation, and sanity that balances gameplay and punishes extreme violence. Similar to Bethesda’s Fallout series, radiation damage reduces overall health, and taking enough is lethal. Players can reduce radiation and health damage but may cause Igor some mental impairment but not as much as when he murders anyone. While too much radiation or physical damage ends a mission, dipping into zero sanity does not. So accidental Rambo gunfights with large groups of enemies will not cause instant failure.

Various issues break the realism a little throughout the game. Glitching through the floor and objects was a problem since the duck and skip dialogue buttons are the same on controllers. I was frustrated more by the game-breaking errors I ran into when completing the final heist. My game consistently crashed if I failed the theft because of poor planning, like going into the mission alone. Then, rebooting Chernobylite and loading the latest save left Igor at day zero with all his gear and Refuge buildings, a plausible scenario for interdimensional time manipulation. Indie developers at The Farm 51 did not intend for the intricate storyline restart since other heist collapses at the same spot resulted in Igor going to a heist-specific dimension manipulation hallway.

Another concern is the controller support and its UI. Playing Chernobylite through Steam gave me access to Xbox and PlayStation controllers, but the listed buttons in the UI are wrong for specific things. The camera mode buttons for taking pictures say a menu button no matter the controller maker, but it is the action button instead. Most of the issues listed, including the UI, are fixable with updates to the title, but the lean functions and the total number of buttons on controllers are more complicated fixes. Leaning is done with the bumpers while the triggers target and fire weapons, so I had to use four fingers on the backside buttons instead of the more relaxed position of just my pointers.

Scour the wastes of the post-apocalypse in search of survival supplies and clues while a teleporting hunter, irradiated monsters, and the NAR’s contract army in pursuit. Find companions who will join the cause, but player decisions have consequences that may anger them. Balance everyone’s mental and physical damage while upgrading the Refuge. The game mechanics have a learning curve, and there are some issues with the indie’s late gameplay, but it is solid overall and appropriately challenging. Chernobylite is not a typical survival horror indie, and its flaws only slightly undercut its ambition. The Load Screen looks forward to any decision The Farm 51 takes in expanding one of the best games I have played in 2021, including bringing it to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Chernobylite

·         Platforms: PC

·         Developer: The Farm 51

·         Publisher: The Farm 51

·         Release Date: July 28, 2021

·         Played on: PC