Chernobylite

No matter the game's problems, I guess I gotta give Chernobylite credit for never making me feel like I had to put the game down, and it's an admirable attempt to marry survival horror aesthetics with some immersive sim and RPG qualities. It's Fallout 4's base management sim mixed with a Don't Starve-esque survival and resource management system, and the actual gameplay is closer to immersive sim with the unique mixing and matching of combat, stealth and dialogue, but the survival is emphasised by the dour atmosphere and relentless danger despite the stark presence of the world around you. Wandering around the nuked out Pripyat, desperately looking for the most basic supplies to either help upgrade gear or just make sure everyone has food for the night, it all goes a long way to make up for how...nothing...the actual gameplay loop is.

The big problem with Chernobylite's survival aspect is that there's really only one aspect you need to focus on: food rations. Aside from that and a soft time limit, there's no risk to your scavenging because everything else can safely go into your upgrades. There are some interesting moments where you can barter some resources for others, but mostly you quickly realise that resource management really only affects how quickly you can get the best base upgrades and personal items, and a better game would have you weighing up whether those upgrades are worth it in the long run when they can lead to short term risk, either through food deficiency or an overlong excursion that leads to danger or death. Even then, while personal skills can feel like a big boost, the actual meter-based management of your home base doesn't yield much in the way of exciting breakthroughs. Certainly not in gameplay, which is the definition of mediocrity. Shooting is loose and clumsy, and stealth is manageable but somewhat asinine; enemy detection ranges are way too generous, but to counteract this, they will chase you forever if they catch you.

Chernobylite's story and atmosphere are also a real mixed bag. The English dub borders on so bad it's good; having to hear Russian and Ukranian names butchered by a bunch of lads, blokes and chaps from Britain is hilarious, and the inconsistent pronunciation and voice direction is endlessly entertaining...when it doesn't suddenly slap you with a slur not present in the game's subtitles. But the story's sci-fi bent on a real world tragedy leans far too hard into the former to make the latter have more than surface level bite. The references to chaos theory, when taken in context with the litany of facts about nuclear energy and fallout the game throws at you, seems to hint at an underlying message of the effects of the Chernobyl disaster still lingering today, and perhaps forever, underscoring how our biggest human responsibility should be to each other, and to this planet, and not mindless expansion of scientific understanding, and alongside references to the space race, the Cold War and so on, does make Chernobylite a bit more grounded than Stalker or Metro. But it also spends a lot of time on its weirdly undercooked sci-fi A-plot, which seems to think is a lot more mysterious than it is: all of the ending's big reveals are things the game tells you hours earlier if you're paying even a little attention. Even with the political parallels, it all ended up a bit sillier and campier than the stark atmosphere really called for.

Add in one of the most bizarre yet still underwhelming "moral choice" systems you've seen in a while and you have Chernobylite: slightly weird Euro-jank that still ticks the boxes of a lot of its host genres and feels a bit undercooked and second fiddle, despite the weirdness of how it all comes together. I was never totally bored, but it would be a stretch to say the game was ever "engaging" either. Once I had unlocked all the upgrades and hit the final stretch of story points, I was crawling through the radioactive muck just to get it over with. Not a total wash, but very difficult to recommend.