My review of Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone has been delayed for a while. GiN got a code for it from developer The Farm 51 right before a major update was released for the title, which is still currently in Early Access but also available for sale on the Steam platform. Given that many early reviewers reported performance problems and this patch was meant to specifically address that, I decided to wait just a bit and let the new update and the inevitable follow-up patches take hold before diving into the new exclusion zone.
Like the original title, Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone takes place in and around the Chernobyl nuclear plant which melted down a number of years ago and poisoned the land around it. However, unlike in real life, the disaster in the game also spawned a new kind of uber-material called Chernobylite, which has near magical properties. For one, it provides nearly unlimited energy. Oh, and you can also use it to go back in time or to other dimensions, so it’s kind of valuable.
The original adventure, which was released to surprisingly little fanfare back in 2021, followed a scientist named Igor who was heading back to the zone 30 years after the disaster in order to find his long-lost fiancee who disappeared shortly before the plant melted down. While that might seem weird, the fact that Chernobylite can allow someone with the right gear and training to travel back in time made his journey possible. Along the way, players collected a scrappy crew of misfits, upgraded their makeshift base, and went on plenty of missions in the zone with the ultimate goal of breaking into the heavily guarded reactor building in a kind of heist mission.
The original Chernobylite was pretty fun to play and earned good reviews, including here at GiN. The gameplay was kind of at a slower pace and felt much more like an adventure title rather than a straight shooter. So, it was kind of surprising that Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone really changes things around.
The plot for the sequel opens up with players following a new main character, a guy named Cole Grey (who has one of the dullest names in video game history). Anyway, Grey tells us during the opening narration that society has changed a lot since the first game. Chernobylite has been collected, studied, and totally changed the world. There is now mostly unlimited energy, instant transportation all around the world, and no diseases or sickness that the mystery substance can’t cure. There’s also a whole bunch of unemployment too since people don’t have much to do. Cole decides to take a job doing the one thing that is still needed, collecting more Chernobylite from the exclusion zone. But unlike the first game, collecting it now requires going back in time and to alternative dimensions (a new power for the mystery metal) in a process known as plane walking.
Plane walkers like Cole get training in one of three areas, all of which are explained very well in the tutorial. You can choose from a melee, ranged, or pseudo magic user. The cool thing is that each style leads to vastly different playthroughs. The melee class, called eliminators, use a block and counter type of system which should be familiar to those who play medieval combat titles or even things like the recently remade Oblivion or the new Assassin’s Creed Shadows. My emissary (ranged) training went well although I had a few misfires because I thought the reload animation had completed and it hadn’t, which is a pretty standard problem with non-AAA games with shooter interfaces. And then there was the chernomancer class which allows Cole to use radiation to create fire or other magic-based attacks. I ended up going with an eliminator/emissary cross class called recon, but it was nice to get to play with all of them in the tutorial. You also have a full character now with stats which can be improved with experience points.
The plot of Chernobylite 2 thickens when things go wrong on the very first mission. Cole is sent to an alternate dimension to steal Chernobylite when everything breaks down, and he ends up stuck there nine months in the future. So, he is not in his original world and nine months have passed, making everyone probably think he is dead. Cole will have to make new friends in the alternate reality zone (don’t worry, there are a lot of people and even different factions) and find a way to get back to his wife and daughter, which is your main goal this time around.
Whereas the original title was more of an adventure game with shooter elements, Chernobylite 2 is pretty much a pure shooter with a couple other elements like base building sprinkled in for good measure. The gameplay loop is basically running to a spot on the map where you have an objective, shooting pretty much anything you find there, and collecting as much loot as you can carry. You then lug that loot back to your base and start to craft things from it. I was really happy that the base building mechanic from the first game was included and even expanded. It was one of the best parts of the original title and still is here. You can even recruit people to work at your base, and then assign them jobs to do while you are away, like making more healing items or repairing things.
Unlike in the original Chernobylite where the team you recruited went out on missions for you, everyone stays put in the base this time other than Cole. That means you don’t have to equip them since they are not doing any fighting. But they do have different skills, so assigning them to a workstation that they know how to use is going to be much more efficient than putting them somewhere new. I found that being able to reliably source healing items back at the base was essential to surviving the wilderness, but all of the base buildings and crafting stations were ultimately helpful.
In terms of the combat, you can tell that the developers really wanted to create a smooth, shooter like experience, very much like what we got with the other recent game to come out that is set in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl. It does not quite achieve that level of success, but it is pretty good for a smaller studio. I had a good time exploring in Chernobylite 2 and also had quite a few memorable encounters.
For example, while I was not great with melee combat in Chernobylite 2, I managed to crush most of the enemies I encountered right up until the first boss fight. During that combat, I ran out of ammo (something that happens a lot) and had to go toe to toe with them. I actually survived, but my hit points were just above zero and I had no healing items. So, I had to carefully spend the next bit of time in the zone without taking any damage at all because even a pin prick would surely have killed me. I really enjoyed this kind of combat in Chernobylite 2, where you are not invincible as it adds a lot of realism and challenge even when playing on medium difficulty.
The art style was good, if not spectacular, from a technical standpoint. It reminded me a lot of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 where a smaller AA studio nonetheless tries to carefully place every object and environmental effect to create a mood, more or less, overcoming the fact that it’s a step behind really top of the line, modern graphics sets that are nearly photorealistic.
The Farm 51 took a big swing with Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone, transforming their small adventure-like title into a full-on shooter/RPG experience for the sequel. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty fun to play. And there is still time to fix some of the rough spots too while it’s still in Early Access. But even right now, it earns 4.5 GiN Gems for offering players a unique experience in a fascinating and constantly evolving series.