Chernobylite is a fantastically weird nuclear-based fantasy thriller made by Farm 51, taking place in the nuclear wasteland surrounding the Chernobyl disaster. This S.T.A.L.K.E.R-like game started its life as a Kickstarter project, and spent two years in Early Access on Steam before releasing its 1.0 version in 2021.
While the full release of Chernobylite has been generally well-reviewed, with new DLC and updates coming, it still does need a fair few fixes that will hopefully be addressed in the future. Improving the following issues can elevate the game from a good experience to a great one.
10 Invisible Walls? In 2021?
The game does have a decent number of different maps for Igor to explore over his many missions attempting to find his missing fiance. However, all of them have these very obvious invisible barriers around the edges.
The game tries to hide these with Radioactive or Fog-Filled Zones, but they can still be easily seen for those who venture through these areas wearing Gas Masks. It’s a relatively small complaint, but this is a game all about being in this Chernobyl Exclusion “Zone.” Developers could have used Chernobylite Crystals to barricade the exits of each map, which would make players feel more “trapped” and add to the overall mystery of the game.
9 The Control Mapping Screen Doesn’t Show All Controls
This is another small problem that probably should have been fixed long ago. The controls in the options menu don’t show all possible inputs in the game, meaning players can’t change all their inputs if needed. For example, the inputs to select what type of objects the Scanner is scanning for is entirely absent.
Granted, it’s not often that players will ever need to take it off the “Other” setting, since that scans for everything, but it's still frustrating. There should never be a situation where a player has to look up the controls for a game, rather than being able to see them within the game itself.
8 Fewer Seemingly Climbable Objects
Igor, all things considered, is a pretty interesting main character. He’s not some mercenary that can kill an entire platoon on his own; he’s just a physicist. Still, he should have the basic strength required to climb up or crawl into things.
There are so many little cubbies and areas in this game that look accessible, but Igor is always just a bit to low to reach it, or the area has an invisible barrier blocking players from climbing on it. Not every game has to have to have parkour or climbing mechanics; however if that's not the intention, it's confusing to have environmental design that appears climbable.
7 A Way To Reread Old Tutorial Tooltips
So much of Chernobylite is centered around players figuring out how the game actually works. From the survival aspects, to branching story choices, to even basic inventory management, this is one of those games where the player is thrown into the deep end.
There are pros and cons to this approach, because when it’s done right, the journey to “discover” all the mechanics is a blast. However, there are some aspects Chernobylite that really should be expanded upon within the game. For example, players should be told beforehand that placed objects can’t be picked back up, that enemies can break Environmental Modifiers they stumble on, or that there’s no way to move unconscious/dead NAR Soldier bodies.
6 Let Players Move/Rotate Buildables
This next fix should have been something implemented in the Early Access version of the game, and it has to do with the base-building mechanics of Chernobylite. It's incredibly frustrating that objects in Igor’s home base can’t be moved once placed; they can only be broken down and remade.
Over the course of the game, Igor is going to be crafting a lot of beds, lights, crafting tables of all varieties, and more. And, in any game with base-building, players want to make their base look as nice as possible. But if there’s no method of moving the objects they already spent the resources on, so to move objecets, players must break them down, get half the resources back, then build it again in another spot. This game is all about material scarcity, so it's really not worth it.
5 Enemy Variety & AI Improvements
Chernobylite has a lot of interesting mechanics in it as well as an incredibly interesting Nuclear Apocolypse sort of setting, but the enemy variety is about as basic as it comes. There are basically five enemy types in the current version of the title, and all of them are dumb as bricks when it comes to their AI. The NAR Soldiers are especially bad. They struggle to detect Igor standing just 10 feet away, and take even longer to actually fire at him when they do detect him.
Granted, this game is more about the exploration, scrounging, story, and building aspects than it is about complex enemy AI and combat. However, even some small changes like less rigid patrols or quicker reaction times could make a huge difference.
4 This Isn’t The Mushroom Kingdom
It's bizarre that almost everything craftable in Chernobylite has some part of it that’s made out of wood, yet “wood” isn’t even a resource that Igor can find in-game. For some reason, everything requires a big pile of mushrooms instead of Sheet Metal or Wood.
The overdependence of the game on its Mushroom resource is obvious, and could easily be fixed by either adding a “Wood” resource, or by making Metal Sheets both an Armor resource and a crafting resource. For a game that has intensely minute mechanics like a Psyche Meter or Food Rationing system, it just feels odd that reality-bending machines can’t be built without a handful of random mushrooms from the forest. Still, at the very least, they're easy to start hoarding early on.
3 More Accessibility Options
Accessibility options can be improved upon in just about any game. The current standard is relatively low, which is why the games that do nail it are so rare. Sadly, Chernobylite needs a lot of improvements in this area.
Colorblind options, in-depth control remapping, HUD scaling, better sensitivity options, and more are all missing from Chernobylite’s settings menu. The basics are all there, and Free Play Mode is a nice alternative for people who aren’t interested in the story. However, as far as making the game accessible to as many people as possible, Chernobylite falls a bit short.
2 An Option To Move Bodies
This one doesn’t exactly make a huge impact on the gameplay of Chernobylite, but it is annoying once first noticed and incredibly frustrating once more enemies start to spawn. A big part of this game involves Igor taking out NAR Soldiers from stealth, as he isn’t very good in combat (at least canonically).
Yet, for some reason, there’s no method of hiding any unconscious or even deceased NAR bodies, which can lead other soldiers to discovering the bodies and searching the area. Most of the other common mistakes players make in this game are warranted, but this one just feels unfair. Even if the developers couldn't integrate a system like this, the least they could have done is given players a “Hide Body” prompt that fades the screen to black, then comes back with the body suddenly gone. No one was expecting this game to be Metal Gear Solid 6, but as a game centered around sneaking, the stealth mecahnics should be a little more complex.
1 General Performance Fixes
Lastly, there are still a few problems involving Chernobylite’s optimization and technical issues. The game spent around two years in Early Access and it’s come a long way from its initial state, but there are still a good number of performance and progression bugs, especially on consoles.
Whether it’s FPS drops, lost progress, deleted items, or even just some stuttering, it’s obvious that this game needs one more big optimization patch. These little performance improvements will really help the game feel like it’s finally out of that “early access” phase.