So, I completed Chernobylite. Took me 21.5 hours and around 30 in-game days (which means as many missions into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone).
During this time I got to visit all the iconic places of the not-so-desolate area, made a few new friends and lots of enemies, most of whom tragically died in the course of events. But it's all good, after all, everything I did was for a noble cause.
We play as Professor Igor Chiminiuk, a nuclear physicist who 30 years prior to the events of the game lived in Prypet with his fiance Tatiana and worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. One day the woman disappeared without a trace and the next day disaster struck, forcing general evacuation. It seems Professor managed to leave these events behind - disgusted by the way Soviet authorities tackled the crisis and treated those hurt by its consequences, he managed to leave the Homeland of the Proletariat and have a rewarding scientific career abroad. However, everything changes when he receives a package from an unknown sender. Inside there is a fragment of chernobylite - a mysterious crystalline substance created after the disaster and a photo of Tatiana. He starts having dreams about his old love, calling him to return to the place where they were once happy - and search for her. The problem is the Exclusion Zone is under tight quarantine instituted by the secretive NAR Corporation, which promised to the government of Ukraine to recultivate the area in exchange for full control. So, Professor hires two mercenaries to smuggle him into the Zone and help infiltrate the powerplant itself - where he hopes to find the truth about the events of 1986. Here the gameplay begins.
Chernobylite is a mixture of several genres - it is part roleplaying game with a character development system and important choices that shape the story, part a managerial sim in which you are in charge of a base that you develop with limited resources and a crew you have to keep alive, and part survival horror, in which you face the numerous dangers of the Zone. The game is divided into days. Operating from a hideout in an abandoned warehouse, each day you pick missions to complete for both your PC and his growing cast of companions, develop the base to get access to more advanced weapons and equipment, and train your character so that he slowly transforms from a peaceful scientist into a commando able to deal with everything that stands between him and Tatiana.
Exploration of the world happens in the first-person perspective. The game does not offer an open world - instead, the Zone is divided into several vast areas and each mission takes you to one of them. From time to time you revisit the same locations, but then the situation often changes - the world is dynamic, and as the radiation and chernobylite storms in the Zone increase, it becomes more dangerous. When you start damaging different operations of NAR, they begin to deploy more numerous squads of mercenaries against you. Some of these effects are visible on the map of the Exclusion Zone - helicopters fly over certain locations and an ominous green glow appears in others. These visual cues at least partly prepare you for what you're about to meet there.
Upon arriving in the area, you don't only fulfill your main mission objective but also collect resources, avoid or fight enemies, and explore in search of clues. And sometimes also experience visions. You see, Igor's connection with reality starts to weaken the moment he enters the Zone. Now he has to deal not only with dreams but also with visions while awake. When walking through a cafe, kindergarten or apartment building, he hears voices of people who once stayed there and sometimes even sees Tatiana among the rubble in her red dress and playing her violin. The memories and tragedies of those who lived, died, or were forced to flee the Zone still linger in the abandoned buildings.
Of course, that's not the only thing that lingers there. Chiminiuk will often be forced to deal with more or less friendly residents of the Zone. With some he can trade, some can offer advice - but some can only be reasoned with a gun. Or a landmine. While the selection of guns is not very rich, each of them feels different and can be modified in various ways to better suit your playstyle. I mostly took out enemies from afar with sniper scopes, but there are also close-quarter options available. If enemies are too tough, you can get rid of them in a less direct manner - for example drawing soldiers into a prepared minefield or provoking fights between NAR operators and nearby monsters.
Once the Professor accumulates enough experience through fighting, collecting resources, and solving quests, he receives skill points. Advancing his abilities is quite immersive. In the evening (after the mission, before going to sleep) you can talk to companions in your base. Each of them has a different set of skills and might be willing to teach them. When you pick the skill (and have enough points to purchase it) Igor and his companion leave the hideout and move to the training course. Sometimes it's a shooting range, sometimes a parkour track. You need to follow the instructions of your trainer before being rewarded with a new perk. And these can seriously change the gameplay by making the PC more combat-ready or giving him new exploration options.
The story is quite interesting and manages to stay that way until the very end - the great heist on the Chernobyl power plant for which you prepare your PC and his crew. It often forces you to make important choices, that will influence the plot and relations with companions. However, thanks to the nature of the chernobylite - a substance that allows traveling through space and time - some of these choices can later be changed, however not without consequences. The final reveals are both surprising and satisfying. The game also offers several main endings with numerous variants of the ending slides.
For an indie game (recipient of Players Choice Indie of the Year 2021 award), it has really terrific production values. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, painstakingly recreated thanks to thousands of photos, looks beautiful and eerie at the same time, the sound design and music add to the heavy and depressive atmosphere. I think it's the atmosphere that's the most striking feature of the game - more than the storyline, exploration or gunplay. It is simply masterfully crafted.
I enjoyed my time with Chernobylite. Despite limited resources, the team at Farm 51 managed to create an excellent, immersive adventure that respects player time and does not waste it with pointless grind. I can recommend it to fans of Stalker, Fallout and Deus Ex. You'll have a blast!
