Chernobylite
Chernobylite is a horror survival game that borrows from a few different genres. Personally I really dislike horror games, but wanted to try this just because they actually photographed and recreated sections of Ukraine and the powerplant and that sounded really interesting. The environments are indeed gorgeous, and I think it's worth taking a look around just for that. Eventually I lost interest in the game itself, but big points for them continuing to work on the game long after release and adding new patches. The game consists of day-based missions. While you're out, you scavenge for resources and can build functional things in your base back home, while trying to find your lost fiancee.
Pros
- Lots of content updates since launch (most recently the Enhanced Edition, shortly after I bought the game)
- Looks amazing
- Has a story
- Has a scanner thing. Useful, but it breaks immersion. Instead of searching for anything, everything is highlighted and outlined and impossible to miss
- There are skill points, and instead of just allocating them to skills, each one requires that you train with one of your companions to learn how to use it
- If you find an area behind a locked door or other obstruction, the map records it for you to come back to later
- The weather changes, and affects noise and visibility
- Base building is pretty nice
- You can hire new companions
- There's a mechanic towards the end of the game that lets you change your decisions from hours beforehand
Cons
- I was expecting it to be open world, but instead you choose a mission to do each day, and then return to base
- I really dislike the way you select and use items. You press a number to use the item, but you can't see what item you're going to use until you use it
- Other minor things on the UI. The two bars on the inventory screen are referred to as "Condition and Psyche", but they're listed in order as Psyche, then Condition (I think?). Equally, it took me 2 hours to realise the bar that shows all the time is an XP bar, not your health
- I would have liked it more without the horror parts, but such is life
- The voice acting is bad in English. I'd like to play it in Russian, but I can't watch the screen and read the subtitles at the same time
- The combat is really bad. Shooting doesn't feel great, and the monsters mostly just walk straight up to you, making aiming abilities useless
- Minor text errors throughour. For example, referring to Olga as "he", an item called "electronical parts", and "Companion has rest in the base"