Joining the surprisingly robust genre of sci-fi survival games about the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Chernobylite 2 takes the warped-landscape scrounging of the original and supersizes it, putting the player in the role of a mercenary working for an interdimensional colonial exploitation project.

In the original Chernobylite, we learned that the titular mineral, a byproduct of the Chernobyl disaster, had amazing properties which allowed for expanding human potential, creating horrible monsters, opening doorways to other dimensions, and more.

Chernobylite 2 starts the action in one of these alternate dimensions, where the cheap energy that Chernobylite offers has allowed people to build a peaceful utopia. Of course, that utopia is entirely dependent on the continued access to the aforementioned mineral, and when the dimension’s supply runs low, a project is undertaken to travel to other dimensions and raid them for their resources.

The plot kicks off when one of these raids goes horribly wrong and player’s ship crashes, stranding them and the rest of the crew on a world ravaged by the beasts and anomalies Chernobylite creates. Awakening after a stint in suspended animation, it’s up to the player to figure out exactly what happened to their expedition, and hopefully to find some way home — at least, that’s the part featured in the demo. I’d imagine the actual plot is going to feature all sorts of twists and turns, as well as an eventual indictment of interdimensional strip-mining, although that remains to be seen.

While the first Chernobylite focused as much on base management as it did survival, the demo content suggests that Chernobylite 2 is going to hew more in an action-RPG direction.

As the demo begins, players are encouraged to try out three character archetypes — a melee class that clobbers enemies with swords and focuses on parry-based combat, a ranged class that deals largely in firearms, and a mystical class that uses Chernobylite-influenced technology to warp reality. So, a fighter, archer, and mage, basically.

In addition to the combat I encountered, I ran across a few skill-checks — my high agility allowed me to squeeze through a gap keeping me from having to figure out how to open a door, but I lacked the technical knowhow to repair a turret, forcing me to use valuable resources when bizarre creatures attacked during an ersatz tower-defense sequence.

The simplified scavenging system (which has the player scrounging up types of resources en masse without strict inventory limits) is back, and it’s just as good as it was last time. Base building has also returned, with the player forced to gather enough resources to construct facilities before they can use that same pool of resources to upgrade their equipment. Is it largely a trick to give the player an excuse to head back out into the wasteland and fight monsters for scraps? Absolutely, but it’s a good one.

Chernobylite was an occasionally-punishing survival adventure that, from my point of view, made me focus too much on management when what I really wanted was to explore a genuinely fascinating locale. The developers at Mill 51 seem to have heard that complaint and are expanding on all of the best parts of the first game, giving players more of the adventure elements that worked last time, while now downplaying some of the fiddlier elements.

The glimpse I got of Chernobylite 2 offered a creepy and foreboding world full of terrifying foes that were satisfying to fight, and it was compelling enough that I’m excited to get a look at the larger world that the game will offer.

Buy Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone (Early Access) – PC

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HIGH Goodbye “Quests”, hello “Leads”!

LOW Shallow gameplay mechanics.

WTF They “say less is more” but isn’t it too little!?

Atomfall is Rebellion’s timely break from the Sniper Elite franchise.

Officially called a first-person survival actioner, this work of historical science fiction is a reasonably-sized double-A project that does not want all of a player’s time and attention, instead offering a short, mysterious adventure filled with conspiracies and moral dilemmas.

Atomfall‘s story is set five years after the UK’s (real life) Windscale Fire nuclear incident of 1957. In this alternate take, a military quarantine protocol is enacted and players control of someone who’s had an accident that left him unconscious for five years. Upon waking up, the protagonist discovers that he’s lost his memory and now must find the truth behind the incident and a way out of the quarantine that’s been in effect for all this time.

Atomfall is played from a first-person perspective, and employs stealth and shooting elements. In the early stages, firearms and bullets are rare and combat is mostly focused on melee. Later on, different types of firearms such as revolvers, marksman rifles, and bows can be acquired through looting, exploration, or trading. The world consists of four areas that are connected through a hub-like facility called The Interchange. Different factions reside in each part of the world, and as one might expect, the factions can consider the player either friend or foe based on their choices.

Atomfall can largely be seen as two halves — the gameplay and the narrative.

Though there is a barebones skill tree that improves combat, stealth, and survival capabilities of the player, it doesn’t provide any active special abilities. As such, Atomfall largely plays the same at the end as it does at the beginning, resulting in the combat and stealth feeling shallow, especially since the mechanics (in general) are on par with something from the early 2000s.

For example, players can crouch or hide in bushes to prevent being detected and to take out enemies silently from behind but that’s all there is to it. The awareness of enemies is also incredibly high, which makes it nearly impossible to stealth without it eventually turning into a shootout. The same goes for combat. Melee is tanky and slow because there’s no dodge or deflect, and shootouts are all about hiding behind a rock and returning fire. There are no cover systems or special abilities to add depth or strategy to any of the action. In fact, the only good thing about combat is the weapon variety and the ability to upgrade later in the campaign, increasing a weapon’s stats and their looks.

With such straightforward action, Atomfall‘s narrative and story are certainly its strongest suits, and to be fair, its opening is a good one — imagine leaving an underground bunker, suffering from amnesia and the very first thing in view is an atomic powerplant on the horizon surrounded by strange cyan auroras. Before that sight can be properly digested, a nearby payphone rings and a monstrous voice on the other side requests the death of someone called Oberon! Just five minutes into the experience we’re already faced with so many questions — what happened to that powerplant? Who is Oberon? Who are these people living in this mess? And what is my role in it? Mystery is a classic way to kick off an adventure, and the team at Rebellion have nailed it.

Atomfall also tries to redefine the notion of quests and rebrands them as “leads” — and they don’t start and end in a traditonal linear way. Some of the leads players find at the beginning of the story will continue to get updated until the very end. Sometimes finding an object updates the log for multiple leads and adds entries about them. Every lead might be as important as the next, and players will find themselves in a web of interconnected leads whose value and importance are sometimes revealed only after their conclusion.

Further, Atomfall doesn’t believe in handholding when it comes to exploration and lead design. Players must follow visual clues such as a bloody set of footprints that lead to a waterfall to find a hidden cave behind it. Such do-it-yourself encounters are the basis of exploration which might result in finding rare resources, weapons, quest items, or more leads.

While Atomfall‘s ending isn’t a top-notch example in the genre, it is highly reflective of the choices players make and their interactions with NPCs. Supporting characters met along the way are well written and each have characteristics that make them feel like unique human beings with agendas and aspirations, and very often they’re in contrast with what someone else wants — for example, one might be focused on accepting what’s happening in the zone, another NPC asks you to fight against the odds, while yet another might suggest jumping ship and leaving everyone else to their fate. Credits will roll accordingly.

Atomfall is ultimately what I call a “chimera” game — it incorporates elements from different genres, but keeps their influence on a surface level. It has resource management and crafting mechanics of classic survival titles, multiple endings and choice-related story and gameplay outcomes akin to classic RPGs, and an emphasis on exploration usually seen in action-adventure counterparts. These are all good things at first glance, but the lack of depth in most regards makes it hard to recommend to dedicated genre fans while also making it relevant to any discussion on traditional boundaries of defining genre.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Buy Atomfall: PC – PS – XB

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Rebellion. It is available on PC, PS4/5, and XBO/X/S. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 14 hours were spent in single-player and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood, Language and Violence. The site reads: Battles are highlighted by gunfire, cries of pain, and blood-splatter effects. Players have the ability to attack/kill bystanders and civilians, snapping their necks and/or slashing them repeatedly, with large blood-splatter effects. During the course of the game, players can encounter bloodstained corpses and/or blood on the ground. The words “sht” and “prck” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are subtitles and visual options available in the game, all of which can be adjusted. There were no audio cues of note. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls can be remapped.

The post Atomfall Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great balance of management and narrative.

LOW Characters don’t interact with each other much.

WTF The random morale drops made me sad. 

The group moved through the windy, ash-filled land while searching for supplies – mostly wood, to make a campfire for the night. Luckily, they stumbled across an abandoned mansion. It looks like a good place to rest.

After going inside, the front door slams shut, and a locking mechanism is heard. Slowly moving into the next room, a group called The Hounds surrounds the group. The group has heard of these people from a scavenger they came across days prior. The leader wants the group to prove they are warriors.

After a short deliberation, the group presents a giant wolf pelt, taken from the monstrous beast they had slain. The Hounds are impressed and decide to shelter the group for the night, feeding and keeping them safe until the next day, when they move on to the unknown in the wastes.

Ashwalkers is about a four-person group traveling through a land that’s been decimated by ash. It’s unclear what’s caused it – possibly a volcano – but the result is that just about everything is covered in it. The group is on a noble mission to discover the Dome of Domes, a sort of ‘final colony.’

The game is controlled via point-and-click, so there’s no need for arrow keys or WASD. Traveling happens in third-person, and clicking on the path ahead moves the four characters forward. Right-clicking will switch between which character is leading the group. Items that can be interacted with have a swirling sparkle to them, and they usually consist of food, wood for a campfire, or medicine to treat wounds. Each character has a certain amount that they can carry, so swapping items around in each backpack is important so that one character isn’t getting more tired than the others.

Team management is a large aspect of Ashwalkers. This takes a more menu-based approach and revolves around keeping morale, hunger, and energy levels balanced. Searching for supplies will take away energy, but resting at a campfire will raise levels back up, for example.

A campfire can be built anywhere if the wood is handy, and the player can feed the characters and also assign them roles for the night, like keeping watch, sleeping, exploring for more supplies, or just talking with one another. Talking with each other can raise morale, but every time I did it, it felt like morale dropped more often than not. There might be a tidbit of a backstory revealed here or there, as well.

Early on it feels like most useful items are pretty abundant. Health items were a little more scarce than wood but still found when needed. however, the further into the world I went, the harder it was to find useful items, and the harder it was to keep my team well-rested, fed, or even at maximum health. Because I needed to have someone on the lookout at every camp, at least one of my team was always tired by morning.

Each of the four characters has a role. Petra is the fresh captain, Sinh the big warrior, Kali is a diplomatic researcher, and Nadir is the quiet scout. When faced with decisions, each character will give their input. Let’s say a new group is encountered – Kali will be more diplomatic, while Nadir will want to avoid them altogether. It’s a pretty standard mix, but it works well and gives the player a variety of viewpoints.

With all of this taken into consideration, it should be clear that choices are the biggest draw in Ashwalkers, and they come in all flavors – which fork to take in a path, to follow animal prints or not, and what area to explore? Should vultures be fought off to save a scavenger? If so, will the scavenger group welcome the crew into their camp, or will they be expelled from a safe area and lose morale? These sorts of interactions make the world feel alive, and it’s neat to see how those decisions would reward players or cut them down further.

In terms of presentation, Ashwalkers is entirely in greyscale, and the only color that stands out is the red of blood on the characters when they’re hurt, or when they take down an enemy in a fight. I think it looks great and works effectively to help build the world that the game is trying to invoke. It can sometimes be hard to see a path that the game is trying to point the player towards, but with everything being point-and-click it’s easy to figure out the correct way. It’s mostly just moving forward, making it from one region to the next.

Ashwalkers is a relatively short game, but there is some replayability. The developer says there are 34 different outcomes, but unfortunately, it feels like some decisions are ‘correct’, instead of things being more open-ended. For example, choosing the path to take down a giant wolf granted me safe passage through another group’s area, but when I went back and chose the path away from the cave, I was attacked by wolves and then forced to show my strength to the same tribe. With all of my characters beaten down, I ended up losing the fight and was pushed back out into the ashes with nothing to show for it. That said, there’s always some give and take with each decision, and many of the choices do feel meaningful, which is what the developer is aiming for.

Ashwalkers is an interesting and sometimes dark story. I was always curious whether I was making the right choices and getting my team closer to their goal, or if I was sending them to their deaths. Seeing how even the smallest of choices can affect the playthrough was rewarding, and the mystery of the Dome of Domes is worth a trek through the wastes for any fan of survival management and choice-based games.

— Cody Bolster

Disclosures: This game is developed by Nameless XIII and published by Dear Villagers and 24 Entertainment. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is Not Rated by the ESRB, but contains killing and death of humans and animals, along with illustrations of violence with blood and bodies. I’d say it’s appropriate for teens and above.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Dialogue and information in Ashwalkers is entirely text-based. The text cannot be altered or resized. There are no audio cues needed for play. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. Everything is done via mouse and mouse clicks.

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