REVIEW: Chernobylite on PS4

Review by Jon Donnis

I have played a few Survival games recently, with mixed results, I still feel that I have not found a truly great survival game yet, so I come to Chernobylite with an open mind.

Chernobylite is a science fiction survival horror game. It somewhat mixes the classic survival type games with something more akin to a first-person RPG/Adventure game.

The game features a somewhat non linear story, although the start of the game is very linear until you get to the missions.

You play as a physicist Igor, an ex-employee of the famous Chernobyl Power Plant. You have lost your beloved Tatiana, and want to find them, hopefully alive. Although you play for yourself, you do have AI team mates, who you can send on missions, but you also need to make sure they stay healthy, have food, medicine, weapons and so on.

Once past the initial parts of the game, where you see ghostly images of Tatiana, you will settle down with your crew in a deserted building, each day you need to complete missions, as you complete the missions you will meet people, how you treat them and interact with them, will decide whether they become friends or enemies. You will also need to build up your base, craft beds, work stations and even mushroom gardens.

There is combat in the game, but stealth is your friend. There are also supernatural entities to worry about. Once a mission is complete you can use a portal machine to return to base, but sometimes it is worth searching around before going back, as there are often collectables around you will need to survive. Machine parts to craft items, gear, weapons etc, food, and more. The better prepared you are, the more chance of success you will have.

Making choices is a big part of this game, and those choices may or may not affect how things go later on. Now a great part of this game is that when you die, and you will die, you find yourself in a dreamscape of sorts, where you can see the results of your choices, and you can choose to go back in time and make a different choice, which of course then will change the future, change allies or enemies, even parts of the area itself, if you avoid destroying something you did previously.

The main object of the game is to reach the Heist mission. Now you can actually attempt this pretty much straight away, however without a team built up, weapons and full preparation, you will fail, so you might as well complete the daily missions, and make yourself and your crew as strong as possible.

The Good

The game looks great, the area the game takes place in was actually 3D scanned, so about as realistic as can be.
The gameplay is good, the mission concept works well, along with the crafting of items. The fact that choices really can make a difference is very much welcome.

The Bad

Controls at time can feel a bit clunky, and combat itself is not great, so you might find yourself playing in more of a stealth way, simply because that is easier and more fun. There are a few bugs in the game, especially early on. Things like a character getting stuck behind a door with no way to free them, so there only way to continue is to restart the checkpoint.

Overall

Chernobylite finds itself sat in many genres, without ever quite mastering one. Not fully survival game, not fully FPS, not fully RPG.

With that said, Chernobylite is an enjoyable game. And although the PS4 version is decent, the PS5 version is graphically a big difference.

I Score Chernobylite a solid 7/10

Out now on PS4 and PS5 at https://amzn.to/3MhHRJC