There is a lot going on in Chernobylite, both narratively and in balancing the mission assignments and base building where you need to account for comfort, air quality, radiation protection, and sleeping accommodations. The game makes expert use of this wormhole concept as well as time-shifting sequences that flash back to the 1986 disaster where we see scientists and staff trying to avert the infamous explosion. This substance has several unique properties including triggering telepathy as well as emitting exotic energy that can be used to power Igor’s portable wormhole generator that allows him to open a tear in space-time and travel through it. Igor is a professor in search of a rare substance called Chernobylite that seems to be a byproduct of the Chernobyl explosion in 1986. Most items fall into either gear or food categories something you learn when you start trading with vagabonds that wander the Zone. You can carry a lot of items, most of it crafting materials while other more useful items can get assigned to quick access slots on the D-pad. Igor has a nifty scanning device that can filter for a variety of resources, sending out a pulse to light up matching collectibles a very useful tool indeed since the world design and environmental detail is surprisingly rich and complex, making it nearly impossible to find anything without this visual aid. The core gameplay loop is completing these daily assignments for both you and your men, as well as slowly building up your base and other resources to tackle the increasing threat in the Zone. The larger your team the more objectives you can complete, which is crucial because missions expire in a day or two. You also get to recruit companions and build a team that you can assign to daily missions, sending them out to forage for food, ammo, and other supplies. At first the game appears to have the standard crafting loop of collecting “junk” and turning those ingredients into something beneficial, but all too soon you are introduced to base building where you can collect scrap and turn it into useful equipment for your home base everything from a workbench to a bed and much more. Unlike most games of the genre that are linearly driven by the story, here you are given unprecedented freedom to play Chernobylite pretty much how you see fit at least once you’ve completed the somewhat linear intro and tutorial section. It’s all accompanied by a chilling soundtrack that continues throughout the duration of the game, creating and enhancing your emotional investment into the story and gameplay. The presentation at this point is outstanding with incredible environmental graphics, trees and grass blowing in the wind, eerie lighting and shadow, and fallout particles drifting around like aimless snowflakes. You’ll be playing Igor who we see in the opening movie traveling by train with Tatyana, but things turn sinister as reality shifts and we are left on a ghost train stuck in the woods following a ghostly image of Tatyana who beckons us to follow her deeper into the forest. One additional perk is that the PS5 version does not suffer from the infamous shader-render stuttering issues currently plaguing PC games. ![]() ![]() While the PS5 obviously can’t match the presentation of a powerful PC it certain offers one of the best possible experiences on consoles with your choice of 60fps Performance mode rendering at 1080p or a Quality/Resolution mode rendering at 1512p upscaling nicely to a 4K output. Previously played and reviewed on the PC last year, I had a great time with Chernobylite both then and now perhaps even more so now that the game has been given the royal RTX treatment, adding all new flashy lighting and reflections to bring this world to even greater levels of realism and life. Blending real-world locations and events with crazy paranormal, sci-fi themes, Chernobylite will have you exploring, looting, crafting, sneaking, and engaging in deadly combat with man and monster as you search for your lost love, Tatyana. or any of the numerous Fallout games, but it only takes a few minutes of actually playing the game to see this is much, much more. At first glance Chernobylite would appear to be just another derivative knockoff of games like Metro, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |