KickStarter Chernobylite - survival horror action RPG set in Chernobyl

[Parsimonious cook]

An excellent walking simulator with base building, party management and crafting elements. RPG elements are there (you level up and can ask companions to teach you various perks that give you bonus damage etc) too, but dont really hold central importance. Stealth is very viable which I always appreciate.

Graphics and atmosphere are absolutely top notch, certainly a depiction of radioactive Slavland of the highest quality. Story is kinda meh with supernatural elements, ghosts and shit, but it has you searching for a cute waifu so w/e. The game is memeing extremely hard in the conversations (there were references to the Chernobyl HBO show, Trump, Putin, Jack Maa and Steve jobs in about first 15 minutes, there is a crazy old timer raving about NKVD, a stereotypical shady Slav trader that would definitely try to sell you counterfeit Adidas sneakers in a dark alley and I could go on), I am a bit disappointed that there was not a single hard bass sequence so far and nobody said "cheeki breeki" yet, but I only did two missions so far.

Combat is definitely not the focus of the game, in fact this along with the Pathologic is probably one of those few games where it makes sense to trade a pistol for a loaf of bread. Dont get this if you want to shoot and blow shit up, get this if you want to explore great looking environments, sneak around guards and loot tons of stuff to build up your base.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...review-a-haunting-and-atmospheric-stalk-em-up

Chernobylite Review - a haunting and atmospheric Stalk-'em-up
It clicks.

Slight repetition can't diminish the incredible atmoshpere of Farm 51's post-apocalyptic survival game.


Chernobylite may look like it's a cheeki breeki away from being a full-on S.T.A.L.K.E.R tribute act, but The Farm 51's shooter isn't quite a retread of irradiated ground. While aesthetically the two games are interchangeable, sharing core stylistic motifs like mutants, anomalies, oppressive weather, and a certain nuclear power plant that had a bit of a mishap in April 1986, structurally they've mutated in quite different ways.

After a brief, dreamlike introduction that sees Igor arrive in the Zone by train, Chernobylite kicks off proper with a slick, Call of Duty-like night-raid on the power plant itself. Aided by your solider-of-fortune pal Olivier, you learn how to sneak past NAR patrols while the vast bulk of the NPP looms above you like a sleeping leviathan. This opening mission presents an interesting amalgam of Chernobyl fact and fiction. As your stalkerish characters skulk through the meticulously recreated corridors and reactor halls of the power-plant, you trigger flashbacks to that fateful night which recall scenes from the 2019 HBO series, technicians arguing in confusion and denial in the control room, and turning valves by-hand in the flooded vaults beneath the open reactor.

After the raid, in which Igor retrieves a chunk of Chernobylite to power a handheld portal device of his own devising, Igor and his Olivier regroup at a warehouse on the fringes of the Zone. This warehouse forms your base of operations, where you construct machines to craft new equipment, and slowly gather resources in preparation of a second, larger scale "Heist" on the Power plant.

Each new in-game "Day", sees you venture out into one of five regions in the zone on a mission of your choice. This could be purely to collect resources intended for expanding your base or feeding your companions, or it could be a more bespoke mission that moves the story forward, either bringing you closer to solving the mystery of your wife's disappearance, or helping out one of the various companions who gradually populate your base as the game progresses.

Guards are pretty easy to avoid in the early game, but patrols become denser as things progress.

Spoiler

In either case, missions play out in a similar fashion: you skulk through the Zone's knotty vegetation and dilapidated buildings, using your environment analyser to avoid radiation pools and highlight collectible resources. Occasionally, you'll bump into a mutant or a NAR patrol, which you can either sneak around or engage in combat. Once you complete your main objective, you can either continue exploring, or exfiltrate using Igor's portal device.

Exploration in Chernobylite's early hours is tense and exhilarating. The Zone is at once beautiful and dreadful, and the game squeezes an impressive amount of variety out of each location. Red Forest is a sprawling expanse of woodland interspersed with soviet infrastructure like rail-tracks and hidden bunkers, while the Moscow Eye is a mixed rural and urban landscape overlooked by the vast Duga Radar Array, the source of so much Chernobyl folklore. My favourite area of the game is probably Pripyat Port, at the centre of which stands the rubble-strewn Pripyat Hospital, its rooms and hallways echoing faintly with the sounds of daily life prior to the disaster.

These five zones also evolve over time. Radiation pools expand. NAR soldiers arrive better equipped. Tempestuous "Chenobylite storms" grow more intense. Mutants become more common and diverse, with new types introduced such as the fearsome, portal-hopping Shadow. In the game's latter half, you draw the ire of the "Black Stalker", a dynamically appearing boss who randomly rocks up to shoot you with a big green laser gun and eat all your ammo.

It's from these elements where Chernobylites emergent play derives. While approaching an objective at the Moscow Eye with a Chernobylite storm broiling overhead, I snuck through a tangle of NAR guards and was about to quietly dispatch one, when the Black Stalker stepped through a portal right beside me. Chaos ensued as the alarm was raised, and I legged it into a nearby patch of woodland, with bullets and Chernobylite-infused lightning strikes peppering the ground around me.

In general, Chernobylite's maps lack the dynamism brought by S.T.A.L.K.E.R's A-Life system. But it compensates for this with other, neat little mechanics that enhance roleplaying. For example, killing enemies damages your psyche, essentially a second health bar. Psyche can be restored by drinking vodka, which means fights often end with you washing away the trauma in long draughts of Ukrainian moonshine.

There's greatness in Chernobylite, but finding it requires some patience. The maps are smaller than they initially appear, which means you spend a lot of time exploring the same places. The evolving Zone is designed to mitigate this, but the changes happen too gradually. The result is that the mid-game missions can be repetitive and uneventful, with you trawling the same handful of locations for resources before slipping through a light sprinkling of NAR patrols to complete the objective.

The environments are based on 3D scans of Chernobyl and its surroundings. The results are wonderful.

The base management attempts to make up for this, but as is the case in-mission, the systemic complexity doesn't always pay off in the way you would hope. Successfully building and managing your base requires you to juggle several different base conditions, such as power, comfort, and radiation protection. Building a new piece of equipment, such as a weapons crafting table, will increase power consumption and reduce comfort, which can affect your companion's attitudes toward you.

The trouble is, beyond providing new equipment, the effects of building your base are all abstract. While building beds or chairs or TVs will increase the comfort stat, you never see your companions use them. They don't alter the base's feel or function in any meaningful way. Character relationships suffer from a similar issue. Both how you approach base management and the choices you make in the story affect your companions' opinion of you, but this change in attitude doesn't manifest in their demeanour around the base or their general conversation. The result is that base-building, while mechanically involved, is also rather staid.

That said, the story is interesting, albeit convoluted. The script is mostly well- written and the characters enjoyably drawn. Your motley crew includes Mikhail, a loose-cannon Stalker who tells tall tales and swears like a sailor, and Tarkan, an eccentric, rodent obsessed Zone native who refers to you as "mousey" and believes he's locked in an epic struggle with an entity he calls the "Rat King".

Also, while you may become over-familiar with the environments, the missions themselves are diverse in concept and objective, while your decisions in-mission can have some pretty impressive consequences. An early mission lets you choose to blow up the Duga Radar Array, doing which alters the layout of the Moscow Eye. Later on, choosing not to burn some documents in one mission resulted in Igor being captured by NAR several missions later, prompting an additional mission where you must escape the NAR's prison.

It was little surprises like this that kept me invested in Chernobylite whenever my attention began to drift. I'd endure a couple of survivalist milk runs and start eyeing the quit button, but then I'd have to pull a companion out of a building filled with hallucinogenic gases, or be forced into a protracted fight with the NAR because I'd stumbled into a radiation hotspot while trying to sneak past. It's not a thrill-a-minute game, and the structure is as much a hindrance as it is a help. But when everything comes together, Chernobylite clicks like a dosimeter near the elephant's foot.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Still not an rpg.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Can this be played using Russian VA with eng subs?

 

[Tyranicon]

Sounds like it should've been an isometric squad-based game instead.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Sounds like it should've been an isometric squad-based game instead.

Pretty much everything does.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

The description of "Diet S.T.A.L.K.E.R" sounds like something I could get into. I don't get hardcore about my gaming anymore. Just wanna chill on my comfy couch with my big 43", my controller in hand, and zen-out.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Can this be played using Russian VA with eng subs?

The VA is excellent, I am playing with Russian VA and English subtitles for maximum cheeki breeki factor and it is really enjoyable.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

anyone got this?

i'm getting an awful itch to buy this

 

[Rean]

10 minutes in, already can tell this will be a fun game (only 2 beers in, so I'm sober).
To get the technical stuff out of the way, it has options for everything (aside from AF which is permanently set at 8x, easily fixable through .ini), DLSS, supersampling, separate audio sliders, FOV, voiceovers in different languages (English is not even bad!). PC gaming as it's supposed to be. MASSIVE incline.
Story is obviously made FOR men BY men. It seems your wife died (?) and now her ghost or memories are tormenting you. Mix in some science fiction 'reality bending' and you have the hook for the game. Fuckin' awesome, fucking classic, great impetus to tell a tale. Just what I like. Let's fucking go.

More on the meat of how the game plays later, still in the intro.

 

[Jenkem]

The game is fun and the various choices it presents are interesting. I feel like it starts a little slow and the first time you meet a couple of the vendors they are really memey so it's kind of ehh... but once the various questlines start kicking off and you start recruiting people it gets very interesting. the people you can recruit all seem like good characters so far... the "gameplay loop" is nice and once you get into the swing of things you find you don't need to scavenge as much once you get your base set up a little.

As you go further along there are more enemies on your expeditions, and armored enemies that cannot be stealth killed. It also seems like radiation levels build up over time though apparently there are things you can build in the areas that will help reduce or negate that for a few days if it's getting to be too much. I also appreciate they have three different difficulty settings for: Survival, Combat and Crafting so you can tailor it to how you want.. Survival changes how much supplies you get and amount of stuff you can find, Combat is.. combat and Crafting changes how much material you need to craft, so you can really customize it pretty well..

I think if you go into this thinking it will be like Stalker or even Metro you will be very disappointed but if you take it as it is, as a game where you are building a base and recruiting, building up a team to eventually take on a large mission Mass Effect 2 style while uncovering the narrative of what happened and is happening, it's pretty fun. Story is also interesting so far and overall I feel the game is paced pretty well..

 

[Konjad]

idk why everybody says it's stalker but building or compare it to stalker when the game has nothing similar with stalker (except the Chernobyl area but who cares), instead is more like a Fallout 76 shelter building, just less retarded.

 

[Harthwain]

idk why everybody says it's stalker but building or compare it to stalker when the game has nothing similar with stalker (except the Chernobyl area but who cares), instead is more like a Fallout 76 shelter building, just less retarded.

Because S.T.A.L.K.E.R. pretty much popularized the theme and there are shockingly few games quite like it. I can name Escape from Tarkov, Chernobylite, Survarium and... that's pretty much it before I have to add S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 to this list.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Its been quite a few years since I read the Roadside picnic/Stalker novel, but I would say that Chernobylite is 100% more Stalker (the book) than the S.T.A.L.K.E.R SoC/CoP. In the book the protagonist (IIRC) doesnt even carry a gun and relies completely on stealth and cunning to sneak past the UN guards that cordon off the Zone and to deal with anomalies. There are also outright supernatural/reality bending elements in the book (at one point a stalker asks the Wishgranter to bring his dead father back to life and a reanimated corpse is waiting at his house when he gets back). Stalking as it is showed in the book is literally a walking sim with stealth elements, much like in this game.

Anyway when speaking of vidya, anything that will have you hiking through a radioactive Slavland full of mutants/monsters, anomalies and various cheeki breeki individuals in gas masks will always be compared to S.T.A.L.K.E.R, since this is a game that started the trend. Kinda like people actually called FPS “Doom-likes” back in the 90s.

 

[Gerrard]

Stalking as it is showed in the book is literally a walking sim with stealth elements

Yeah, it's almost like Stalker devs realized that didn't make for a good game.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Excommunicator]

An excellent walking simulator with base building, party management and crafting elements

That sounds terrible

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/10...lZd4aeQ6p3yVX_iAWAeatR8J1syALK2MBFJAgpKtvpjbs

Weekly Report #92​

What you don't know about Chernobylite?
Hello Stalkers!
In the recent reports we've devoted a lot of space to what’s going on behind the scenes of Chernobylite. And as you well know, the vast majority of what we're showing you in the reports is in the game, sometimes on a 1:1 scale, sometimes in a slightly altered form. But as you'll see, there are also things that players don't know exist. And discovering them by yourselves takes some time.

Today we’re going to help you a bit by showing some of the hidden gems in the game. Maybe thanks to this we’ll encourage you to explore the Zone even deeper. Who knows what you will find there?

How has Chernobylite changed?

Before we get to the main menu, we encourage you to check out the Steam post below. We think it’s a real treat for those curious to see how Chernobylite has changed over the past 2+ years. Starting from entering the Early Access until its official launch. We are not sentimental people ourselves but the movie you find there evokes good memories!


Chernobylite AnnouncementTh 4, 6 tháng 10, 2021
How has Chernobylite changed?
35,000 scanned 3D models, 7,000 dialogue lines, about 100 days spent in the Chernobyl zone, countless feedback from our players.

Spoiler

Time to search!

It's time to talk about what is "not seen" at first glance in Chernobylite. We'll start with the very beginning of the game. Each of you knows this scene: Igor and the crew come to the vicinity of the Power Plant and try to get into it. However, have you ever wondered what would happen if Igor… didn’t want to participate in the mission? If you return to the car after watching the cut-scene with the exploding power plant, this will happen:

As you can see, sometimes it's worth breaking the rules. You never know what you can find with it.

But we also know that this doesn't always work and sometimes players need a hint. Here's one: look at the photos of Igor's crew members. If you think that we hired professional models for the photo shoot... you’re very wrong. In the photos you’ll find the faces of The Farm 51 team. These are the charms of a small, independent studio.

Finally, one curiosity that you will not find in the game. And for a good reason. Putting your faces to the game is one thing. But there was a time when we thought you might hear us too. As you know, you can hear English and Russian voices in the game. We also planned to record dialogue lines in Polish. Unfortunately, such recording sessions with voice actors are expensive, and we wanted English and Russian voice overs the most. That’s why we decided that... we would record these lines ourselves. We are Poles, we speak Polish. So it can't be hard, right? Well… it is. The end result was far from perfect, to say the least. Eventually, we abandoned this idea. Again, that's the charm of a small, independent studio...

We hope you enjoyed the stories. Now go on, stalkers! There are many other things in the game just waiting to be discovered.

That's it for today!
Take care, Stalkers!

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3085522248128497048

Mega patch - “Monster hunt”​

We promised to support Chernobylite long after its release, and we intend to keep our word. This is the first in a series of free DLCs we have prepared for you. The optional missions will give you the opportunity to face new monsters and replenish your Chernobylite supplies.

Spoiler

Changelog:

Additions:

• New enemy: Feral Chernohost. Watch out! You’re not alone in this forest. This monster usually spawns outdoors. When you see its green, glowing head, it means survival is about to get real. Feral Chernohost is extremely fast and it’s hard to escape him running in a straight line - try running in a zig-zag instead.
  
  
  
  
  
• New Enemy: Overgrown Duster. It can spawn anywhere, as long as there’s a flat surface, so watch out for building rooftops or decayed vehicles. It’s small and attacks from a distance, which helps it blend into the background, making the monster even more dangerous. Overgrown Duster has also the ability to disappear.
  
  
  
  
  
• New enemy: Ancient Shadow. It usually spawns indoors and likes to hide in the dark corners of buildings, so bring your flashlight and don’t get lost. Ancient Shadow is slow, but don’t be fooled - the monster can gain speed by glitching when moving.
  
  
  
  
  
• New side quests: MONSTER HUNT. This new quest draws less frequently than regular food drops. After drawing it, the player must defeat one of the three monsters mentioned above. Each one can appear on any given level in three specific spots. Killing the monster ends the mission.

Improvements and feedback:

• The Black Stalker has been heavily redesigned. He is now actively looking for the player. When defeated, he won’t respawn on the same day, and his strength scales with the strength of the storm.

Technology:

• We have thoroughly updated the NVIDIA Ansel tool.
  
• Nvidia DLSS now allows you to turn on the “Auto” setting.

General:

• Sometimes the loot screen was visible for too long. We fixed that.
  
• Items brought by your companions when the inventory is full will no longer disappear, but will be placed on the ground instead.
  
• We have corrected the wrong names of some containers.
  
• An indicator might occasionally not show up on some containers, when the player was in sprinting mode. We fixed that.
  
• The lockpick icon would sometimes not display correctly. This has been fixed.
  
• When giving away meals, the companion status would sometimes not display correctly. We fixed it.
  
• The Black Stalker will now be highlighted by the PDA if we have the appropriate bonus.
  
• Fixed a very rare bug where one of the crystals on the fractal timeline would not change its colour, making it very difficult to return to reality.
  
• The poison that we could use to poison Kozlov would not disappear from the inventory. We fixed it.
  
• Meeting with Tarakan: We fixed the blocker that was triggered by very fast skipping through dialogues.
  
• Meeting with Tarakan: We fixed a blocker that was triggered by running in and out of the apartment without interacting with Tarakan.
  
• Meeting with Tarakan: Soldiers should no longer get lost in front of the Tarakan’s block.
  
• Voice in the woods: We fixed a bug that was blocking the interaction with the food crate when loading save at a very specific moment.
  
• Heist: Sometimes Igor was unable to use the explosives, even though he did have them. We fixed it
  
• Hermit: We corrected collisions to make it impossible to miss the key elements of the quest.
  
• Chain Reaction: We removed unnecessary collisions that were blocking the player.
  
• The opponent's death animation would sometimes break if the player has not witnessed it from the beginning. We fixed it
  
• With a specific combination of upgrades, the Shotgun would start to deal much less damage than it should. We fixed it.
  
• The zones should now be better marked when selecting missions.
  
• Enemies in the large building in the Moscow Eye level should now move normally.
  
• Fixed some objects disappearing while being too close to the player in the Moscow Eye and Pripyat Port levels.
  
• We fixed some collisions in several places in Heist level to reduce the chance of getting stuck and falling out of level.
  
• We have disabled the ability to climb certain objects in the prison level and on the timeline. They made it possible to go beyond the accessible area.
  
• Fixed the spot in Kopachi where the player could get completely blocked.
  
• Fixed the position of some dusters that were too far from the surface (Kopachi, Red Forest)
  
• We have improved spawning points available for some Chernohosts at the train depot in Red Forest. They should not be blocking themselves anymore.
  
• We improved the location of several resources in Pripyat Port level that were unintentionally unavailable for collection.
  
• During one of the events with Tatyana in Pripyat Port not all objects would appear/disappear as planned. We fixed it.
  
• We improved the implementation of the animations Pripyat Port carousels. They no longer should act as a catapult
  
• We improved streaming in the largest building of the Moscow Eye level. It could have been the reason for clipping on slower computers
  
• It was possible to leave Igor's room after turning on the photo mode. We fixed it.

+ A whole bunch of smaller bugs you've reported to us, too many to list them all. Thanks!

This is the first of many DLCs we are preparing for you. See what awaits you in the coming months.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3085522248128497048

Weekly Report #95 - Monster Hunt​

Hello Stalkers!
Happy Halloween! We wish you a spooky week! We don't have any sweets for you, but we've got something much better — new DLC and a free content update! Sit back and pick up your Black Halloween Punch. We're starting a very spooky week…

Spoiler

Autumn Dread Pack
Autumn Dread Pack will give your weapons +10 to fear, even among monsters, and not only by passing a wall of bullets towards them. We are giving you a new pack of skins for all weapons in the game. If you want to send enemies into dust, it's best to do so in the right style.

In the base you will also find several decorations that will put you in the right Halloween mood. The key word is:.....

pumpkin! Sweet, green, radioactive pumpkin.

Will you find them all?

Monster Hunt
Let us move on to the main course. If you thought that fighting monsters was a piece of cake so far, we race to tell you — this will change from now on. Use your skills and knowledge to take part in the hunt for the strongest monsters in the Chernobyl Zone. Each of them is not only stronger and more durable than their predecessors that you have dealt with so far, but also has their own unique skills — read about them carefully to plan your attack... or escape.

Feral Chernohost. It appears in open space. Very fast, which makes it difficult to escape from it when it attacks you in a straight line like a battering ram.

Overgrown Duster. It appears on any flat surface, e.g. a ceiling or a wall. Extremely cunning beast and very fast. After the attack, it quickly changes its position to make it harder to hit.

Ancient Shadow. The toughest competitor of all. At first glance, it moves slowly, like a tank. But when it sees its victim, it can appear in front of it in no time, making it difficult to hit. And once it strikes... it really hurts.

See them in action in the latest Chernobylite Trailer. Feeling spooked? Or maybe you feel the urge to HUNT?
That's it for today!
Happy hunting, Stalkers!

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Can this be played using Russian VA with eng subs?

Yes, and I prefer it, like watching a movie in subtitles. The English voice acting doesn't fit the character of the game, especially the protagonist, who sounds like an English dandy. I did recognize the 'Sam' VA from Metro:Exodus, who's ok.
The game has an influence system reminiscent of Alpha Protocol's, and C&C that stack up to a final 'heist' mission where the survival of your crew members depends on your influence and game choices. There is a mechanic to go back in time and change your decisions to optimize your ending.
The graphics are pretty good. The companions are pretty good. They recycle maps over again for several missions, which is ok since level design is good. Listening to 'ghosts' for exposition is overdone, and it's here. Combat is ok. IR scopes are mandatory.
I'm not a fan of base building or foraging for crafting, but that's a cancer that's spread to most titles.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

End game bumps this up a notch, maybe notch and a half. Some themes echo PS:T. Worth a play. Would potato again.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news...nCdtlzCnmYjmKHK6KQGAsIB6sI8VrzL5Gz5xZCLxQftxA

Weekly Report #99
Back to Chernobyl​

Hello Stalkers!
If you think that our job consists only of sitting at our desks and typing lines of code on the keyboard, you are wrong. Do you remember our behind-the-scenes materials from the creation of Chernobylite? We made several trips to Chernobyl to collect a lot of photos and videos, which then served as the basis for our game. Then came the pandemic and we had to suspend our trips to this place ...

UNTIL TODAY!


As you can remember from our roadmap, we plan to release a lot of new content for Chernobylite in the near future. And no, we're not just talking about weapon skins. We’ve got something bigger in the works.When the borders have been reopened we went to Chernobyl fto gather a new batch of materials. We’re already using it in our work! Join us on this journey.

Spoiler

Before setting off for all-day photo sessions and looking for atmospheric spots, you should eat something. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

If you spot such a card, it is a sign that you are in the right place.

We've reached our destination.

We saw some familiar objects on the spot…

...and said “hello” to some old friends.

Before we threw ourselves into work for good, we decided to visit familiar areas.

We even managed to capture some pictures of the local fauna.

Last group photos…

...also the less serious ones…

...and the crew can go to work.

The first leg of the expedition: taking photos and videos of the interior of the buildings. On the walls and doors you can see fresh traces of people who must have visited these places recently.

We photographed not only the walls, but also some stuff left behind by the inhabitants. These are vital parts of the history of these places.

The next point: fieldwork. We focused on the area around the chimney, as well as inside it. Apart from taking photos, we also recorded the sounds of the surroundings. Yes, almost everything you hear in the Chernobylite soundtrack comes from the real world.

The day is almost over. Last photos, last recordings.

We also caught a beautiful sunset.

Photos and recordings lasted until evening. However, we took the opportunity and, under the cover of the night, we also revisited some iconic locations known to us (and also to you).

We also managed to find a completely new spot - a supermarket!

Of course, we follow all the safety procedures every time we enter and leave the Zone.

A new day and new tasks. This time we visited a completely different spot.

Don't be deceived by the appearance, for interesting locations outside of Chernobyl can also serve as a reference material.

Last, but not leastbligatory photos with goats.

Upon our return, we started working on the new content for Chernobylite that we promised you. You can see just a tiny bit in the form of the graphics below.

We promise that this is just the beginning.

That's it for today!
Take care, Stalkers!

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3123806740758235242

Weekly Report #101
A brief history of the "Lazurny" Pool​

Hello Stalkers!
In the previous report, we gave you a riddle. We wondered if you could recognize the location in the pixelated image that will be featured in the upcoming DLC. Most of your answers were correct. Yes, it was the "Lazurny" Pool (Басейн "Лазурний") located in the 3rd microdistrict of the city of Pripyat. As a reward, we will tell you a bit about this place.

The inhabitants of Pripyat, like almost everyone in the Soviet Union, were actively involved in sports and led a healthy lifestyle. The city had two football stadiums, and numerous sports clubs. The "Lazurny" swimming pool was one of the largest sports facilities in Pripyat.

The pool was built in the mid 70's. The building is divided into two parts: a gymnasium and a swimming pool. In addition to that, the complex has five swimming lanes and two diving towers, as well as a gym for gymnastics (a basketball court or a small football pitch).

"Lazurny" was not abandoned, unlike most of the other buildings and facilities in the city. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster the swimming pool was still open and served liquidators until 1998. After the liquidation operations in Pripyat were finished, the swimming pool was finally closed. Its reopening was prevented by the condition of the building, which had not been repaired for a long time. Despite this, it is considered to be one of the cleanest places in Pripyat in terms of radiation.

The "Lazurny" swimming pool is not only a hot tourist attraction. Recently it has been popularized by pop culture. For example, you can see it in the music video "Marooned" by Pink Floyd, as well as in the HBO mini-series "Chernobyl". However, it appears most often in video games, like in the Call of Duty games. And now it will be in Chernobylite as well.

What do you think? Excited to visit this place soon by yourself?

That's it for today!
Take care, Stalkers!

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/4453495168680164314

Weekly Report #102
Mikhail's great mission​

Hello Stalkers!
Another fantastic addition to the Chernobylite world in the form of a DLC will soon appear in our game. The pictures that we showed you in the previous report prove that we’re not exaggerating - this is going to be a big deal.

Spoiler

We actually planned to surprise you by showing the contents of the new DLC before we officially release it into the world. That’s why we sent our correspondent to take some photos of the new location for our report. However, we made one miscalculation...

That correspondent in question was our good old Mikhail. Mikhail took the matter very seriously and with commitment. Unfortunately, when his photos reached our marketing team, we realized that it was probably the first time he had ever held a camera in his hand.

Here’s an example of his "skills": Apparently Mikhail was strolling between apartment blocks with his camera on, without even realizing.

But it’s about to get more interesting. We have no idea what Mikhail originally intended to capture with his camera, but he ended up taking pictures of his own shoes. Maybe he followed the recent Instagram trend and decided to photograph his feet? Who knows? We’ve spent so much time together in the Zone, yet Mikhail still remains a mystery to us.

Of course, as befits an amateur, there were also photos with fingers on the lens. Mikhail, however, is a very unique photographer - he managed to capture a photo of not only his fingers, but his entire hand. And at the worst possible moment! Damn it, Mikhail, did you hide something on purpose?!

Mikhail also discovered the pure bliss of taking a selfie. Let us reiterate: we never asked for this. The good thing is he took the photograph against the background of… well…what is that exactly? It kind of looks like a piece of a basketball court.

We know very well that Mikhail enjoys skulking around the bushes. It was not required on this particular mission, yet he did it anyway. Force of habit, I guess.

The last photo is absolutely perfect because it shows the new location from a slightly wider perspective. Well… it would be perfect if Mikhail knew how to use the autofocus option.

We hope we whet your appetite a little bit for the upcoming DLC. Expect more information soon. And Mikhail won’t be taking any more photographs for our marketing team anytime soon. That’s a promise!

That's it for today!
Take care, Stalkers!