Info about Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone: Official game description: ABOUT THIS GAME --------------- Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone is a post-apocalyptic action RPG that combines free exploration of a vast, realistic open world with challenging combat, unique crafting, team and base management, and non-linear storytelling. You’re a Planewalker who travels through parallel worlds in search of the precious, high-energy material called Chernobylite. Cut off from the world, trapped in the Zone, and attacked by hordes of nightmare creatures, you must fight for survival and unite the handful of remaining survivors. OPEN WORLD EXPLORATION ---------------------- Explore and analyze a vast, vibrant open world crafted from the real-life Chornobyl Exclusion Zone locations. Switch between first-person or third-person perspective and don’t miss a single radioactive detail. DEEP CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT -------------------------- Create and develop your hero. Attributes and skills will affect the effectiveness of combat, as well as the style of conversation. An arrogant muscle man with a big sword trying to intimidate everyone? Or a smart sniper who always finds the right arguments? The choice is yours. PLANEWALKING ------------ Seamlessly switch between different character builds and equipment with Planewalking, letting you adapt to any situation on the fly. Develop multiple builds and skill sets to stay prepared for anything. Encounter a scenario where your heavy melee build would be more effective than your current sniper setup? Simply Planewalk and change your loadout instantly. DIVERSE COMBAT -------------- Fight for survival with an advanced melee combat system, or keep your enemies away with a diverse arsenal of firearms in first or third person perspective - gain complete control over your character. You can also use the stealth approach or ask others for help in online cooperative missions embedded in a single-player campaign. TEAM AND FACTIONS ----------------- Fight for influence and negotiate with factions. Assemble an unstoppable team from a range of companions you’ll encounter out in the world. Each one brings their unique strengths and abilities, along with valuable skills and knowledge they’re willing to teach—if you earn their unwavering trust, that is. BASE DEVELOPMENT ---------------- Build, upgrade, fortify, and customize your base. Equip your sanctuary from the harsh realities of the Exclusion Zone with the tools to craft valuable items and upgrade your weapons. Assign your companions to critical tasks, from managing your supplies to caring for your gear and crafting your arsenal. Release date: 6 Mar, 2025 Categories: Action RPG, Open-World Exploration, Base Building, Character Progression, Real-time Combat, Resource Management, Single-player Story, Cooperative Multiplayer - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Engaging story, immersive world (weight 0.93): 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. - Vast, atmospheric open world (weight 0.79): 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. - Perspective and difficulty customization (weight 0.17): 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. - Active support and smooth performance (weight 0.16): 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. - Visually appealing, realistic environments (weight 0.16): 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. - Variety of gameplay elements (weight 0.11): The game offers a variety of quests, enemies, and environmental weapons, contributing to the depth and customization options. The weapon arsenal is wide, providing players with diverse combat options. - Mix of familiar gameplay elements (weight 0.1): The game evokes comparisons to other popular titles like Fallout, Stalker, and Remnant, blending elements from these games into a unique post-apocalyptic experience. The scavenging and survival aspects in a nuclear wasteland create a strong and immersive atmosphere. - Decent Early Access experience (weight 0.09): Reviewers find the game to be decent, especially for an Early Access title, with well-done character models and animations. The voice acting is also considered to be nearly on par with previous games from the developers. - Deep character progression system (weight 0.05): The game features a character progression system with meaningful perks and item stats, similar to Souls-like games. There are dungeons with loot and bosses, adding a treasure hunt element that can be addictive for players who enjoy looting and RPG mechanics. - More freedom after demo (weight 0.04): After the demo, the game opens up and provides more freedom, with the story divided into three storylines estimated to take over 20 hours to complete. Players can continue their gameplay from the save from the demo. - Solid early access launch (weight 0.04): The game is a decent launch for an early access title, especially considering it was rushed, and has relatively few bugs for the first 30% of the content. It has solid foundations to become a great AA title. Common complaints: - Unfinished, buggy, and unpolished (weight 0.93): 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. - Poor voice acting and translations (weight 0.91): 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. - Clunky and unsatisfying combat (weight 0.8): 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. - Poor and unnatural animations (weight 0.69): 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. - Severe optimization and performance issues (weight 0.59): 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. - Drastically different from first game (weight 0.53): The game feels significantly different from the first Chernobylite, shifting away from survival horror elements and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-like atmosphere. Reviewers express disappointment with the change in genre and gameplay style, with some feeling it resembles a generic RPG or even a mobile game. - Chaotic open world, easy combat (weight 0.08): The open world feels chaotic and uneven, and traveling between camps and NPC locations can feel monotonous. The game's combat difficulty is non-existent; enemies can be easily defeated with melee weapons without taking damage, even when surrounded. - Unintuitive base building system (weight 0.06): The base building system is not intuitive, visually unappealing, and has bugs. Finding enough materials to build can be a pain, making base construction difficult. Gameplay feedback: - Large open-world RPG (weight 0.26): 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. - Character stats influence gameplay (weight 0.19): 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. - Base building and management (weight 0.16): 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. - Cumbersome tablet-based navigation (weight 0.07): 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. - Imprecise, generic combat system (weight 0.06): 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. - Limited weapon acquisition (weight 0.04): The game features a variety of weapons, but some reviewers noted that weapons can only be found in boxes and according to the game's script, which limits player agency. - Fixed protagonist, Cole Grey (weight 0.04): The player controls Cole Grey, a Planewalker, with the main goal of bringing down the dome enclosing the Zone. The player character is not customizable. - Requests for TPP and ADS (weight 0.03): Reviewers express a desire for a third-person perspective option to see their character and armor, as well as the ability to aim down sights (ADS) while shooting. - Limited enemy variety (weight 0.03): The game features a limited variety of enemies, consisting mainly of mutants with crystals and ordinary marauders. This lack of enemy diversity may impact the long-term engagement. - Lacks in-game explanation (weight 0.02): The game's complexity and numerous mechanics can be overwhelming, making it easy for players to get lost. A journal explaining the mechanics would be helpful. - Unclear mission objectives (weight 0.02): Random missions involve clearing rooms, but the portal to the next room isn't marked on the map, leading to player frustration. - Limited dialogue choices (weight 0.02): The game's dialogue choices are limited to two options: being nice or being a jerk. This limits player expression and role-playing opportunities. - Dimension-hopping mechanic (weight 0.02): A new dimension-hopping mechanic adds exploration options and unpredictability to the game. Performance notes: - Getting stuck in environment (weight 0.02): One player reported getting stuck in the environment after a cutscene, requiring a game restart. This highlights potential issues with collision detection or scripting. - Missing AI voice lines (weight 0.02): 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: - Unstable Early Access state (weight 0.69): 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. - Wait for sale/full release (weight 0.59): 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. - Suggestions for improvements (weight 0.59): 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. - Optimism for future updates (weight 0.58): 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. - Compared to first game (weight 0.49): 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. - Alternative options/advice (weight 0.42): One reviewer suggests Stalker 2 as a playable alternative on the Asus Rog Ally z1 extreme, while another recommends watching gameplay footage to determine if the game suits individual preferences. These points offer alternative options and advice for prospective buyers. - Consider developer's commitment (weight 0.42): One reviewer advises considering the developer's roadmap, community engagement, track record, and independence from big publishers to assess the game's investment potential. This point encourages players to look beyond the game's current state and consider the developer's long-term vision and commitment. - Appeals to specific audiences (weight 0.26): Reviewers recommend the game to fans of specific genres and franchises, such as Stalker, Fallout, Metro, and the Souls series. Some consider it a worthy successor to the first Chernobylite game, while others believe the increased content justifies the price. - Potential cult classic (weight 0.03): A few reviewers believe the game has the potential to become a cult classic or even a masterpiece, provided that the developers address the optimization issues and fix the bugs. This sentiment reflects a belief in the game's underlying quality and potential for long-term success. Other player notes: - Direction Change and AI Voices (weight 0.04): 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. - Crazy and Unique Skills (weight 0.02): 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. - Large and Beautiful Map (weight 0.02): The game features a large and visually appealing map with interesting and immersive atmospheres. This contributes positively to the overall player experience. - Large Download Size (115GB) (weight 0.02): The game has a large download size of 115GB, which may be a consideration for players with limited storage space or slower internet connections. - Ukrainian and Kyiv References (weight 0.02): The game incorporates references to Ukrainian culture and the city of Kyiv, adding a layer of authenticity and local flavor to the game world. - Previous Game Performance Better (weight 0.02): The first game in the series had better performance at launch, but it was also smaller in scope than the current game. - Six Playable Classes (weight 0.02): The game offers a selection of six distinct classes for players to choose from, allowing for varied playstyles and character customization. Emotions: No emotions}