Get Even developer The Farm 51 is back with a follow-up to Chernobylite, its 2021 survival FPS. Things have changed significantly in Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone, which is in development for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, but you won’t have to wait long to learn more. Following its successful Kickstarter campaign, the open-world action RPG will enter early access on March 6th for PC. After going hands-on with a preview demo, here are 15 things you should know before stepping back into the Zone.
Set-up
Remember how the first Chernobylite was set in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and centered on Igor Khymynuk exploring its reaches? The sequel is a lot more…out there with its premise. You control Cole Grey, who originates from an alternate dimension and is part of the Planewalker program. Your dimension is an apparent utopia powered by Chernobylite – the only problem is getting more.
As a Planewalker, Cole’s job is to venture to other dimensions and harvest theirs, whether they like it or not, to help keep his home dimension running. Of course, things go wrong after a mission, and Cole finds himself home away from home.
Connection to the First Game
The Exclusion Zone will look pretty familiar for fans of the first game, even with all the Chernobylite popping up. You’ll even run into the Black Stalker, although – spoilers – he’s not immediately trying to kill you. Though the preview build teased a large map, The Farm 51 highlighted “travelling between worlds” in a new Reddit AMA. As a result, you won’t know if “the reality entered is exactly the one you remember from the first game. As a result, the characters you know may recall certain events differently than you do.”
Classes
From the outset, you can choose from six classes – Eliminator, Recon, Emissary, Technician, Scientist and Chernomancer – with varying playstyles. Melee enemies to death with the Eliminator, specialize in guns as the Emissary or mix the two up with Recon. Each specializes in different stats and features unique bonuses like the Recon’s Camouflage Master or the Chernomancer’s ability to convert damage received into health. However, there’s also Planewalking, which allows for quickly swapping your build, though this has yet to be fully detailed.
Third-Person (and Experimental First-Person)
When Chernobylite 2 was first announced, The Farm 51 revealed it as a third-person title, which saw a mixed reception from fans. However, thanks to reaching its crowd-funding stretch goal, first-person perspective has returned, and players can switch between them anytime. The preview build still has the latter as an “experimental” feature, so hopefully, things will be polished further when early access launches.
Combat
If you stick with the third-person perspective, the game becomes an intriguing mix of Souls-lite melee combat and over-the-shoulder shooting. You can dodge-roll, execute charged attacks (good for breaking through blocking enemies), and even backstab unsuspecting foes. Some enemies also have shields to tear through before damaging their health.
Attributes and Skill Checks
Chernobylite 2 focuses heavily on Cole’s Attributes, each providing different benefits. Strength affects your melee damage and stamina efficiency, while Perception improves projectile damage and crit chance. However, they also pose secondary benefits – higher Cunning makes it easier to obtain information and lie. While these also determine equippable gear (with penalties inflicted if you don’t meet the requirements), you can leverage Attributes for Skill Checks and dialogue choices. You can’t break through doors without the right amount of Strength, but maybe you can squeeze through openings based on your Cunning.
Skills
Though unavailable in the preview build, Skills fall under three trees – Mutants, Scientists, and Mercs – with multiple tiers and can be either passive or active. Air Control offers mid-air dodging, while Know Your Enemy lets you scan enemies to ascertain their behavior (and potential weaknesses). However, learning anything requires a Trainer, a role that some of your squad-mates can fulfill (based on the Steam listing).
Factions
Those three trees also represent the Zone’s factions, with Kendall leading the Mutants, Milena behind the Scientists and Roy in charge of the Mercs. Each has associated companions (including Glyeb, who you meet throughout the beginning sections) and Reputation meters, so depending on your actions, they may decide to assist. The Farm 51 also teases picking a side when “old conflicts are revived.”
Loot
You’ll be scrounging for a lot in the Zone, including ammo, resources, treasures, money, and consumables. That also includes loot from various armor types with different resistances and shield amounts to weapons like revolvers, assault rifles, shotguns, and melee weapons (including swords and ye olde gas pipe).
Base Building
Base building returns, and though this build didn’t offer the full suite of options, the fundamentals still apply. With the materials gathered from roaming the Zone, you can build rooms, starting with a Small Quartermaster Room and then different stations like a Medical Lab Table for crafting various healing consumables. Other subsequent stations include armor crafting, a chest for storing items, furniture, armor repair, and more. Of course, you can also modify the layout of rooms in the base and shuffle things around.
Vitals
As for survival mechanics, Chernobylite 2 presents multiple Vitals you must take care of. They’re divided into Mind, Bloodstream, Heart, Nervous System, Skin, and Muscles, with different conditions affecting them. For example, fire and slashing damage can result in burns to your skin, but killing humans can warp the well-being of your Heart. Radiation and bullet damage will bestow the irradiation effect in your Bloodstream while using stamina will contribute to sleep and affect your mind.
Co-op
One of the other new features is online co-op, with specific tailored missions throughout the campaign. How exactly this works remains to be seen, but based on the brief footage we’ve seen thus far, you can seemingly take on powerful enemies together.
PC Requirements
The PC requirements for early access seem pretty tame at first, with minimum hardware including an Intel Core i7-7700K and AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, 16 GB RAM, an Intel Arc A580, a GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or an AMD Radeon RX 580 for 1080p at the Low preset with 30 FPS expected. However, the recommended requirements include a Core i5-12600K or Ryzen 5 5600, 16 GB RAM, and an Arc A770, RTX 3060 (8 GB) or Radeon RX 6700 XT for 1080p at the High preset for an expected…45 FPS.
Despite meeting most of the recommended requirements, the preview build suffered extensive frame drops, especially in the open areas and some cutscenes. This was with DLSS enabled and after dropping some settings to Medium. There’s plenty of optimization work still happening, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
Early Access Content
Though it didn’t outline everything included with the early access launch, The Farm 51 confirmed about one-third of the final game’s content. It’s also seemingly bigger than the first game compared to the amount of content and playtime. Considering Chernobylite 1 required 14.5 hours for the story and 24 hours for completionists on average (per HowLongToBeat), the sequel’s final playtime should be something.
Planned Features
In terms of features, a lot is inbound, based purely on the Kickstarter campaign’s stretch goals. All weapons from the first game return, and they’re customizable in first-person. The new Blaster weapon also gets fresh customization options that weren’t in the original, while co-op/solo play will get more unique maps. Finally, players can customize the HUD in first and third person. The timeline remains to be seen, but considering the team’s turnaround on implementing first-person mode, it could be sooner than expected.
