I am always interested in a game that has Chernobyl as its setting. Chernobylite is a real mixture of game styles offering FPS action, stealth, RPG elements, and survival horror too. It all blends together very well and it is wrapped around this epic sci-fi story that had me hooked right until the very end.
How to Download Chernobylite
To download the game for your platform, click on the Download button at the end of the review and make your choice. If you fancy the Chernobyl theme, check out also our reviews of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and Fear The Wolves.
The Game Review
We play as a man called Igor. Igor used to work at the Chernobyl power plant and now he has returned! His fiancée went missing 30 years ago here and he has returned to try and figure out what really happened. Igor has some memory issues though and soon he is thrust into a living hell full of creepy monsters and a military presence that wants him dead!
The story is fantastic and it is a great blend of sci-fi and horror. The game also gives you various dialogue and story options as you play. This means that conversations or even the story in some places can go in a different direction. I like this kind of thing as it gives you a reason to play through the game more than once.
The survival aspect of Chernobylite is pretty interesting. You will have to scavenge around for supplies that you can use to make gadgets and improve on your equipment. There is also base building here too and you get to manage other characters, telling them to go scavenging for example. You need to think carefully about what you want to tell your companions to go out and do each day!
The first-person shooter action of Chernobylite is done pretty well. I will say as an FPS it is kind of basic, but the firefights you get into with monsters or soldiers can be very tense. Speaking of tense, the stealth sections of the game were pretty damn spine-tingling and I mean that in a complimentary way.
Having to sneak to avoid soldiers is one thing, but when you have to hide from one of the horrific creatures, you will be scared to death of them catching you! The game handles tension very well and I am a huge horror fan so I greatly appreciated it making me feel uneasy to go into a new area in case there was something that wanted to eat me!
I played the game on an Xbox Series X and was very impressed with the way the game looked. There is only so much you can do with a game that is set in Chernobyl, but they managed to be pretty creative here. The creatures look creepy and there are some very cool sci-fi/supernatural style effects that looked fantastic.
While it looks great, it was the sound design and the great voice acting that really kept me on the edge of my seat. No spoilers here, but Chernobylite has a great into that gets you invested right away. A massive reason for that is the incredible job that all of the voice actors in this game do.
I know that there have been other games with a similar setting to this. However, as far as games set in Chernobyl go, Chernobylite has the best story I have had the pleasure to play through. It is not just a great story, the mixture of gameplay styles and the replay value all add up to make this a very entertaining game.
