- Engaging story and immersive open world.
- Visually appealing, atmospheric environments.
- Perspective and difficulty customization.
- Unfinished, buggy, and unpolished experience.
- Poor voice acting and translations.
- Clunky and unsatisfying combat.
Verdict
Mixed
Summary
Positive 67% · Negative 33%. Score: 33 / 100
Positives:
- Many reviewers praise the game's engaging story, immersive world, and well-developed characters, often drawing comparisons to the first game in the series and highlighting returning elements. The plot involves meaningful choices and a compelling blend of suspense and mystery, making it a standout feature.
- Reviewers appreciate the expansive and atmospheric open world, which encourages exploration and provides a sense of freedom. The world is visually impressive and well-designed, making exploration a rewarding experience. Base building is also a key element, with expanded mechanics and customization options.
- The game offers both first-person and third-person perspectives, allowing players to choose their preferred method of play. This customization, along with adjustable difficulty settings, enhances immersion and caters to different playstyles.
- Reviewers note that the game is actively supported with substantial upgrades and that the developers are responsive to player feedback. The game runs smoothly and provides a solid foundation for future content and development, indicating a commitment to ongoing improvement.
- The game's environments are visually appealing and realistic, capturing the eerie atmosphere of Chernobyl. The graphics are often described as top-notch, with reviewers praising the attention to detail and the overall visual experience.
Negatives:
- Many reviewers describe the game as unfinished, unpolished, and buggy, even for an early access title. They report various bugs, glitches, and jankiness affecting gameplay, skill progression, and save files. Some reviewers feel the game should have been released as a demo instead of early access.
- The game features poor voice acting, often described as robotic or AI-generated, which detracts from immersion. Multiple reviewers also noted issues with translations across different languages, including machine translation errors, untranslated text, and inconsistencies in tone.
- Reviewers find the combat system clunky, unresponsive, and unsatisfying. Specific issues include poor melee combat, weird enemy timings, lack of feedback, and unnatural enemy homing capabilities. Some reviewers also mention the first-person perspective negatively impacts melee combat.
- The game's animations, including facial expressions, character movements, and cutscenes, are often described as stiff, unnatural, and low quality. Reviewers also noted issues with texture pop-in and inconsistent transitions in cutscenes.
- The game suffers from significant optimization issues, leading to poor performance, stuttering, lag, and frequent crashes, even on high-end systems. Many reviewers recommend waiting for patches to improve performance before purchasing. Some reviewers experienced crashes on Steam Deck, regardless of settings.
Gameplay:
- The game features a large, open world, shifting from the previous installment's smaller maps. It blends first-person and third-person perspectives, offering exploration, resource scavenging, and combat against mutated creatures in a post-apocalyptic setting reminiscent of Fallout and Stalker.
- The game incorporates RPG elements like classes (melee, shooting, elemental, and hybrids), skill checks, and dialogue choices influenced by character attributes. These attributes impact combat, dialogue options, and skill checks, creating a character progression system.
- The game features base building and management mechanics, requiring players to gather resources and construct/upgrade their base. However, some find the base building tedious due to the scattered loot and restrictions on where items can be placed.
- The game uses a handheld device/tablet for navigation, which switches the view between first and third person. Some reviewers found this immersive, while others found it cumbersome, especially since the HUD lacks necessary information, forcing frequent tablet use.
- The combat system is described as a generic third-person shooter, with melee combat feeling imprecise due to targeting issues. Some reviewers have compared the combat to Dark Souls, while others find it to be a middle ground between easy and difficult.
Performance:
- One player reported getting stuck in the environment after a cutscene, requiring a game restart. This highlights potential issues with collision detection or scripting.
- The absence of certain AI voice lines suggests that the game is still in early access and that some features are not yet fully implemented.
Recommendations:
- The game's Early Access state is a major concern. Many reviewers advise waiting for further development due to prevalent bugs, performance issues, and missing features. Some suggest the game should have been delayed, even for Early Access, while others recommend purchasing only to support the developers with the understanding that it's an unfinished product.
- Several reviewers suggest waiting for a sale or the full release before purchasing. This recommendation is primarily aimed at players who are easily frustrated by bugs and unfinished content, as the game's current state may not be worth the full price for them.
- Some reviewers suggest specific improvements, such as optimizing performance, adding co-op, and including Portuguese language support. These suggestions aim to enhance the game's accessibility and overall player experience.
- Despite the issues, some reviewers express optimism about the game's future and are looking forward to future updates and the full release. They are already enjoying the game and see promising things ahead.
- Several reviewers mention the first Chernobylite game, with some recommending replaying it while waiting for the second game to improve, while others express disappointment with the second game compared to the first. This suggests that the first game sets a certain expectation for the sequel.
Miscellaneous:
- One reviewer expressed concern and confusion over the game's direction and use of AI voices. However, the AI voice acting is likely a placeholder during early access.
- The game features a variety of unique and powerful skills, including bullet deflection, levitation shooting, and teleportation. Some skills are described as 'pretty crazy' within the game itself.
- The game features a large and visually appealing map with interesting and immersive atmospheres. This contributes positively to the overall player experience.
- The game has a large download size of 115GB, which may be a consideration for players with limited storage space or slower internet connections.
- The game incorporates references to Ukrainian culture and the city of Kyiv, adding a layer of authenticity and local flavor to the game world.
