Chernobylite Complete Edition

Banger game. Great graphics and atmosphere. Interesting story.

6/10 Imagine a mix of Stalker and the mechanics of Fallout 4, and you’ve got Chernobylite. I’ve played through the whole game, and here are my thoughts. Pros: +good graphics, +interesting blend of the themes and atmosphere of the Stalker games with the mechanics of Fallout 4, +the shooting is quite good, +crafting and weapon upgrading elements, +atmospheric locations, +well-chosen music, though nothing breathtaking Cons: -the simulation missions near the main character’s bed are boring, unnecessary walking sims, -repetitive enemies, -monotonous gameplay – the maps are empty, the tasks are repetitive, the characters have untapped potential, and generally there isn’t much to do in the game apart from killing the same enemies and mass-collecting items to upgrade weapons and the base, -little content for a closed-world game, -the entire main storyline is literally simpy and cheesy - we’ve got a bloke who, 30 years on, still can’t come to terms with the loss of his lover, obsessively searches for her and asks practically everyone if they’ve seen her. A psychiatric hospital, hello? -the enemies’ AI is stupid – they have X-Ray vision the moment we attack them (even if we do it quietly) and immediately know our position, -I couldn’t pick up notes when ‘enemies were nearby’, even though they were on the other side of the map because I’d run away from them. Why? -minor dialogue bugs, -stealth is practically useless when fighting more than one enemy, as everyone automatically detects you, -ZERO use for the titular Chernobylite stones. I finished the game with about 50 of them, and I couldn’t do anything with them throughout the entire game, -health and sanity bars don’t regenerate at all whilst sleeping - Why x2? To sum up - the game has some decent elements, but there’s clearly a lot of untapped potential here. Would I recommend it to fans of Stalker, Metro and post-apocalyptic games? Yes. Give it a go if you’re tired of playing through the aforementioned franchises for the hundredth time. I should warn you, though, that the 15-hour game starts to get boring around the 6-hour mark and isn’t much fun after that. Would I play it a second time? No. I prefer Stalker.