Chernobylite is an excellent RPG held back by edgy writing, excessive profanity and overconfident developers who react unfavourably to negative feedback and criticism
One recruitable character (Mikhail) openly admits to being a rapist during the recruitment scene, something which is unacceptable in 2023, rape is not funny, and it should never be used as a joke, especially when Mikhail, for all his faults, is presented as a “loveable jerk”.
I understand the developers may have wanted to create a similar character to Far Cry’s loveable oaf Hurk. Still, by belittling rape, they do little but show their immaturity and lack of sensitivity towards an issue that changes the lives of millions of people each year.
I have reached out to various members of the development about this and have received no reply.
Chernobylite is buttery smooth, and I maintain a steady 110 fps+ even during combat when playing on maxed settings/1080p on my RX 5700 XT, meaning it’s likely that 4k/60 fps will be achievable for those with 4K displays and comparable or better GPU.
Chernobylite is a very visually pleasing game that frequently surprises me with just how good the world looks and its inhabitants look; with lighting effects that would not look out of place in a AAA release in 2021, Chernobylite has raised the bar for affordably priced indie titles and will be the standard to beat for several years to come.
The setting of Chernobylite necessitates that most characters wear survival gear, including full facial covering, making the creation of memorable and unique characters difficult.
However, Chernobylite has overcome this by accessorising to the hilt, with characters being instantly recognisable by the small personal touches they have made to their gear, from flashy capes to rather bizarre shamanic furs, each character is unique, and the addition of avatars showing photorealistic portraits of each character helps to establish their uniqueness further.
I didn’t expect much from Chernobylite in regards to narrative, many smaller studios struggle to create a good narrative, and when you take into consideration that Chernobylite is essentially a Russia-centric story, which does not always translate well to western audiences (and vice versa), the creative team at The Farm 51 have done an exceptional job.
Following Igor as he tries to come to terms with his fiance’s disappearance in the aftermath of the Chornobyl disaster, is a tale worth experiencing and approaches the issue of love, loss and sanity in a new and refreshing way.
Chernobylite dances between excellent dialogue with decent voice acting and mediocre dialogue with awful voice acting; fortunately, the latter is the minority, and most characters have voice acting on par with a big budget tv production.
One area in which I feel the writers at Chernobylite failed to read the room is in regards to excessive profanity; moral objections aside, certain characters swear so frequently it’s almost a meme; absolutely, men and women in this harsh and unforgiving world would use profanity and harsh profanity when facing the things they face, but certain characters cuss for the sake of it, and it’s almost parodical.
I once knew a young lad who was part of a forum for webmasters, and he was by far the youngest of any registered member at around 13 years old; being younger and lacking the experience of many active members, he constantly sought to “be a man” and often this consisted of little more than swearing every few words or insisting that he loved beer and women.
All of us older webmasters shook our heads at his actions; they were the actions of a young man trying to be a man by acting like he thought men acted.
As he grew older, he swore far less, and seemingly drank far less, no longer having to prove himself an adult; he became one.
Chernobylite deals with mature themes, and excessive profanity aside does so very well; however, I would love to see the profanity reduced slightly, as I feel the result would be more believable dialogue.
The Farm 51 are obsessed with creepy dolls, many of which are 3D scanned from real toys found in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. I honestly find the dolls and their bizarre hijinks (moving around when the light goes off etc.) far more terrifying than any monster in Chernobylite or Resident Evil, mission accomplished!
Chernobylite allows players to change the past and, by doing so, alter the future; this is great when you mess up early on and kill someone who should have been an ally (oops)!
Chernobylite is one of the few games requiring players to maintain physical and mental health. Repeated cruel actions and poor living conditions weaken your character’s mental state and lead to potential hallucinations and impaired judgment.
Chernobylite has one of the most in-depth survival horror crafting systems I have seen, allowing players to craft weapons, attachments, ammo, armour, medicine and even furnishings and machinery for their base of operations.
Chernobylite is a role playing game video game developed and published by The Farm 51 , it was released on 28 July 2021 and retails for $29.99.
Chernobylite is available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
The developers of Chernobylite have been consistently transparent during early access, with a whopping 80 weekly community updates keeping the community informed of changes, developments and new releases.
In addition, the developers have remained active in the Steam forums for better or worse, with the community liaison becoming defensive and combative when interacting with players.
Developing a game as good as Chernobylite requires plenty of confidence, but overconfidence is never attractive. Many player suggestions are met with variations of “Our way is better” by the developers.
While this is sometimes and perhaps often the case, players do not like to feel dismissed. I have experienced this with four separate developers/community liaisons refusing to comment on some of my concerns.
In short, The Farm 51 are talented, transparent and dedicated, but they certainly have room to grow in some areas.
Chernobylite’s main story takes around 14 hours to complete, with a completionist playthrough coming in at around 20 hours.
Chernobylite is rated PEGI 18 and contains the following:
I like Chernobylite a lot and would rank it as one of the better RPGs to release in recent memory; however, I am having trouble getting past the developer’s lax attitude regarding rape.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think anyone at The Farm 51 is a rapist or supports rape; however, I feel they lack the sensitivity to understand just how big an issue it is, with almost 100k people affected by rape in the UK alone each year (source).
There are certain things you do not make light of, and one of them is sexual assault.
If the developers remove the dialogue that makes light of rape and stops presenting a rapist as a “loveable rogue”, I will change my review to recommend Chernobylite, however in respect for the millions of women and men who experience rape and sexual assault each year worldwide, I will not be recommending it at this time.
For those who wish to play Chernobylite and wish to do so without the character of Mikhail joining your party, it’s possible to kick him from your party permanently or avoid recruiting him at all.
