When Chernobylite appeared four years ago, many only thought it was a stalker. The title with the open world classic did not have much more than the scene in common: the contaminated zone around the damaged nuclear reactor of Chernobyl. Otherwise, the game designed its pleasantly compact 15 hours of play about subtle survival game mechanics, a dark mindfuck story and a play mechanical mix of shooter and stealth. Chernobylite 2 is different. Very different.
Chernobylite 2 is only: Wow! If, as described, the predecessor was characterized by its compact, more modest approach, the first impression of the successor is almost: my face is fat! So much larger, so much more extensive, so much more sophisticated - are your crazy, dear developer?! How do you want this game, the great dimensions ofOr assassin's Creed and brought in just 150,000 euros on Kickstarter, ever finished with your small team and manageable budget?
But the fully playable early access version, which was now available to me, actually makes a decent impression and seems to be on the right track for such an early build of the game.
Four games in one?
In contrast to his predecessor, Chernobylite 2 is now a real open-world game-and now the Stalker clone, which many already sensed in the first part. But maybe better than the original. The game world is gigantic, but not only that.
As in a full -fledged role -playing game, your character is defined by tens of values that influence your way of playing and unlock new skills in the skill stree. At first a look at the complex character leaves it looks more like an RPG epic in the Art of Baldur's Gate 3 than from a shooter action game.
But the madness continues. At the beginning of the game you can choose from three classes that play so differently that the whole game suddenly feels like a completely different genre: the ranged fighter is the typical shooter character. The scientist shoots chic spells in the fight, but prefers to wind out of conflicts by choosing intelligent dialogue options by skill check. With the melee, the game even changes to the third-person view and suddenly plays like a derivative of Dark Souls-together with evasive maneuvers and waiting for cheap attack windows.
Travel through the multiverse
But let's start over. Chernobylite 2 begins in Kiev in 2024. However, a look from the high -rise window on the impressive backdrop of the city immediately makes it clear: something is wrong here. The buildings sparkle in futuristic steel, and there is no question of war against Russia in the television news. We are apparently in a parallel dimension in which the mysterious Chernobylit crystals have led to technological progress from its predecessor, of which we can only dream of in our reality.
Chernobylite grants almost unlimited energy and drives technical devices that seem to us like magic. It also enables travel between the dimensions. We ourselves belong to a group that travels between the realities in this way to collect chernobylital deposits there and thus enhance the prosperity of our own world by stealing it from foreign worlds.
With the help of our dimensions spaceship, which looks a bit like that from ET, we travel from the world to the world, which, like in everything everywhere all at on, all look a bit like ours, but more, sometimes more, times distinguish less small and large nuances. Until it comes to an accident and we crash on one of them. And now as the only surviving centuries later awaken ...
Wow, what an entry. Chernobylite 2 begins captivating, full of amazing mindfuck experiences and staged. And then you suddenly stand there in this gigantic world, mother soul, without a view, ever to ever get home and only know: From now on you can expect all the stuff for many, many hours that video games from such open-world scenarios make.
Mutanten zombies want to get you on the leather, crafting resources improved equipment, and in a cave the first NPC awaits us to release us with an order to explore contaminated forests, buildings and bunkers. The boss fight in the junkyard in front of it is still plenty of bumpy, as many things are still expected, but that can be expected in such early access versions.
Great or megalomaniac?
Let's leave it with it first. Overall, you now know what to expect in Chernobylite 2, and you can paint the rest yourself. Until a final judgment is possible, will move into the country in the early access for some time.
In any case, the vision of the developers is large for their game, but probably also slightly megalomaniac. I am worried that you could have completely taken over with such a project. To fill a huge game world with life, many AAA publishers have been lifted. To grind a combat system with ego and third-person perspective at the same time-a pure balancing alb dream. Plus complex role-playing and survival game systems- if everything goes well. Let's wait and hope for the best.
Conclusion
Chernobylite 2 is incredibly ambitious - hopefully not over -ambitious
In his idiosyncratic mixture of stealth action and survival elements, the predecessor still represented a pleasantly modest alternative to the open-world colossi à la Stalker, the developers with part 2 apparently want to know it now.
A huge open game world, a complex role-playing character system, a fascinating mindfuck story between the multiple and even three very different combat systems, in which the game even changes the perspective of first to third-person and accordingly according to shooter, sometimes after Souls-Like feels.
Chernobylite 2 looks as ambitious as three games at once - and hopefully not overambitious. Finally, developers who had significantly more budget than the relatively small Polish Studio The Farm 51, which had a lively playing world. Complex RPG mechanisms, survival aspects and then three completely different classes-Chernobylite 2 sounds like the blown balancing and fine tuning album dream of every quality assurance department.
At the moment I can only admire the developers for their courage (and a little emotional). Like Baldur's Gate 3 at most, you seem to have deliberately dispensed with Nice-to-Have lists-and instead determined that you want to bring everything into play as an idea in your heads. Something like that can go wrong. Or become very great.
