This is a stealth, suspense, horror game first and foremost, with some minor puzzles to solve for progression. The game places you in a space station around a gas giant, and the game mechanics force you to sneak around whether it's to avoid other inhabitants with weapons, killer androids or of course the Alien itself. The game is very well done graphically, with appropriate lighting that really captures the dark feelings of the original movie. It also has that same 'lo-fi' tech feel with the amusingly 70's tech terminals etc. I've carried out almost no combat, and instead have played stealth, but enjoyed the progress. One tip is that the save points can be sparse, so it's worth returning to a save point after completing some tasks to re-save, or you can find yourself having to redo a lot, and with the Alien it's very unpredictable were it will be at any given time. If you like horror, sci-fi and stealth games, this is definitely recommended. It's not as good as Prey, but a definite 4/5.
Unlike STALKER, this version of the Zone is as close to a real life rendition of the Chernobyl exclusion zone main areas as you'll probably ever see. So much so, it has a tourist mode where you can just look around them without any risk. The main game is very interesting, the story so far about finding your love (who clearly seems to be long dead) is intriguing, but more so is the central base where you have to balance your companions comfort and air quality, and anti radiation needs with setting up crafting benches to produce things you'll need. It's been fun so far completing missions and seeing the progress on the base daily with the new resources acquired. That's much of the good, the graphics run well and still hold up in 2025. My biggest issue is the gun play and stealth mechanics. All of it feels quite janky, and while it's acceptable, it's for me the weakest part of the game. Chernobylite is a stealth, crafting, survival story adventure game overall I would say. For the sort of discount price it's available on now, it's good value and for those who love this type of game, it's great. What it does not do however is have super smart AI like STALKER that make the zone feel alive. The AI are fairly stupid and go back to their predictable routine within a minute of cool down.
