Where is Igor’s Tatyana?
I spent 39 hours completing Chernobylite, so you could say that I was not in a hurry. I played it on hard difficulty. I have played and completed the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, a game I loved, and we all love games where we can explore Chernobyl, right?
So in Chernobylite, you play as a scientist named Igor. He is trying to find his irritating wife, Tatyana. Personally, I ended up hating the stupid and self-centered woman, so I hoped I did not find her. She is a woman who must love to smell her own poetry farts.
To locate her, you have to gather clues about your past and hers and explore smaller maps. The maps are not big, so please don’t expect something like the size of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. You have to visit the maps several times to gather items so that you can build and upgrade weapons and items for your base, to keep your group of misfits happy. You also gather skill points that you can use to make your character stronger. And yes, I preferred to sneak around and choke out enemies rather than kill them.
This is a beautiful-looking game with a great atmosphere and an engaging story, accompanied by a solid score and sound effects, even though I wanted to kill the irritating Tatyana. You meet several characters whom you bring home to your beautiful fish hole, and you must feed them and keep them happy so they can go out into the zone and find items for you.
However, I wasn’t satisfied with their effort, so it’s best to feed them half a ration and keep them unhappy, so they don’t eat you out of your own house. If you don’t feed them enough, they will complain a lot, and they have such a negative vibe. I gave them half a ration the whole time, and it wasn’t enough for these fishholes! I wonder if I could have starved them to death. I never tried that, so please give it a try!
And for Christ’s sake, stay far away from the English dub. Go for the original language. It is so much better, and it helps to keep the experience more authentic. The voice actors are great, even though I hated the voice of the other Tatyana. It was like listening to a child actor trying to be scary. I laughed several times. It is so bad!
So my tactic was to sneak around and spend my skill points on becoming a ninja. You will find five new friends in the zone with whom you have to live with in your fish hole of a polluted base, and they can teach you new skills you need to survive by spending your skill points.
But the game isn’t that hard. I never had any problems playing on hard difficulty, and I almost never got into a firefight. It’s easier to set up traps and kill the bad guys with the traps. That is fun. However, the enemies are pretty stupid, but if they spot you, they will hurt you since they almost have heat-seeking Igor bullets.
The base building in this game is nothing special. Just have enough electrical power and clean air, and you will be fine. Make some ugly furniture and tables where you can make and modify weapons, and you will be fine.
I don’t like to spoil anything, but there is a character that is following you. The first times you encounter this character are pretty intense when you’re not quite sure how to get rid of him. I was running like an idiot, screaming for help. Get away from me, you fish hole! Leave Igor alone! Kill Tatyana, you stupid idiot!
I enjoyed my time with Chernobylite. It is a beautiful game, the score and sound effects are great, and it has interesting characters that you get under the skin of. It can be a little repetitive when you just have to scan and pick up items so you can build your next machine, upgrade your weapon or collect a lot of herbs and mushrooms you need for making health potions and radiation potions. So after visiting the same maps for the fifth time, I felt the need to move forward with the story. But as long as the story and the characters were interesting, the time I spent on the game was well worth it.