Chernobylite (PS4) – Review

The Chernobyl disaster happened over thirty years ago and yet it continues to fascinate many people. Whether it’s the preventable nature of the incident or the many long-term consequences it has had for humanity, there is no shortage of series, movies, and documentaries centered around this Ukrainian nuclear power plant. With Chernobylite, The Farm 51 has done their part immortalizing this setting in the form of a harrowing survival horror RPG. We covered the PC edition of the game here, and today we’re looking specifically at the later released PS4 version.

Story

Chernobylite takes place in 2016, a few decades after the disaster. The main character of the game is an ex-physicist named Igor, who used to work at the nuclear power plant. With a team of hired mercenaries, Igor plans to break into Chernobyl to acquire a special radioactive material only found at the melted nuclear base – the titular Chernobylite – which allows for cross-dimensional travel, similar to teleportation. But beneath the surface, Igor is looking for his fiancee who disappeared during the initial disaster, and who he keeps seeing ghostly apparitions of.

Chernobylite has a non-linear structure in its story-telling, as the plot unfolds depending on the player’s choices. Mystery is an important element of the story, only supplying you with tiny pieces of information at a time to keep you guessing. It really does leave us engaged to keep playing.

Graphics

Obviously, we can’t complain about how this game looks. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Chernobylite looks stunning. The entire game takes place in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, a big area of about 2,600 km² around the nuclear plant that has been deemed too dangerous for humans to live due to radiation residue. The developers have done their homework though, and the game’s version of these locations has been made to represent this real area as realistically as possible, meaning there is little difference between playing the game and going there in real life. It’s a cool touch for a video game to have. The game seems to have a little more trouble with the loading screens compared to the pc version, but aside from that, it runs absolutely smoothly.

Sound

The sound design also has nothing for us to complain about. We have a whole array of music in the game, especially the returning motif of a violin being very recognizable and haunting. We soon learn it’s an instrument Igor’s fiancee used to play. The game comes with full voice acting, even giving the players the option to choose between the original Russian/Ukranian cast or an English one. Whichever one you go for, this game features near movie-quality voice acting, something which only helps us get attached to the many characters.

Gameplay

Chernobylite is a survival horror RPG with elements of base-building thrown into the mix. The game can be roughly divided into two segments: the ones taking place at your base and the ones taking place on missions. Your base is a sort of hub positioned within the Chernobyl exclusion zone which you build up yourself. It’s where your gathered companions are and where you manage resources and crafting. Your base has stats, determining not only how safe it is, but also how comfortable it is to live in, in turn making it easier to maintain the health and happiness of yourself and your companions.

From the comfort of your base, you can use a pair of binoculars to scout out the area and decide where to go. These missions progress the story and also allow you to gather items and materials which you need to survive the harsh wilderness. You can only go to one place at a time yourself, but you can send your companions out to do their own chores, though the percentage of their success relies on their skills. Gathering new companions is essential to add more diversity to your team.

The missions themselves play similar to a first-person shooter. The skill points you earn can be traded back at the base to learn new skills as well. Slowly you can chip away at your quests – the main one of which is breaking into the nuclear plant where the army has settled – but all of this has to be done while keeping an eye on your water and food intake, the amount of power your base uses and the radiation in the area which can chip away at you and your companions’ health.

Conclusion

Chernobylite is as much of a masterpiece on console as it was on PC, transitioning smoothly between platforms. The graphics keep their smooth look on the bigger screen and the controls run exactly as we’d expect them to, making this game a harrowing journey into Chernobyl’s dark history and the fictional consequences it’s had in this game’s universe. We were very impressed with the quality of this port.

Jessica

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Games are my escape and writing is my passion.

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