Several months of hard work by the entire team, thousands of hours spent in front of the computers, a lot of tests carried out (also with the participation of our community). The last Mega Patch is finally ready for download for everyone who owns Chernobylite Early Access!
Prepare space on your disks! There is a ton of new stuff waiting for you, as well as significant changes to the story, dialogue, location and soundtrack. In addition, from now on, you all have the opportunity to get to know an impressive fragment of the final, get it right, THE FINAL level - Heist.
Make sure you play the patch before the game officially launches - in this Mega Weekly Report you’ll find the one true... PREMIERE DATE!
Long story short: we’ve got a huge news for you!
We can finally reveal that the gates to the Exclusion Zone in Chernobylite will open on the most popular gaming platforms in July this year! PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are planned for later release this year.
Don’t forget this, as then you’ll get the chance to sink into a true survival horror RPG experience. One that will require planning, finding allies, team building, and searching for clues to solve the mystery that has brought you to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. However, you don’t have to wait another three months to enjoy the Chernobylite’s offerings, as the final pre-launch Mega Patch has just been added to the Early Access version, including significant changes to the story, dialogues, language localizations, optimization, and soundtrack. Last but not least, this major update will also give you a taste of the Chernobylite’s final level!
It’s also the last chance to grab a PC version of Chernobylite with 20% discount before the final release and get the all upcoming DLCs for free. Only Early Access buyers have guaranteed all future DLC content free of charge after the game’s premiere.
Chernobylite lore
We've never hidden the fact that the Chernobylite storyline is the apple of our eye. All the main and side plots are crucial for the reception of the game as a whole. From your reactions we can see that the story has drawn a lot of attention, and you are looking forward to the continuation. However, there is nothing that cannot be refined even more. This also applies to the plot, which has been thoroughly re-edited and corrected by us.
We tried to highlight the different layers and aspects of the Chernobylite story we wrote as much as possible. This one is focused on the figure of Igor - a man who tries to solve a mystery from the past and understand his role in the events that took place many years ago. The attempt to find his beloved Tatyana is not only literal, but also metaphorical - it is a desire to face the past full of riddles and understatements. These and many other aspects of the plot have been remodeled and, despite many twists, it is a coherent whole.
In order to fully exploit the potential of the Chernobylite scenario, we not only reworked the storyline, but also the dialogues that were rewritten line by line. In addition, all dialogue lines in the game have been re-recorded in English and Russian. As a result, the characters sound even more natural, gaining personality and depth. It is worth mentioning that we have prepared a localization for all the main languages in the game: English, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Polish, including the new ones we’ve promised some time ago: Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Simplified Chinese and Japanese.
The world of Chernobylite also consists of characters. During your journey, in addition to the well-known and liked faces, you will meet four new characters also important for the plot - Vagabond, Volodya, Hermit, Deserter. So far, their appearances have been only placeholders - today it can be said that they’ve officially entered the Chernobylite canon.
We've also added something to this Mega Patch that you've all been asking for a long time. We added the first part of Heist, 1/3 of the entire level to be exact. We give it to you so that you can taste it. So experience something you await since the day of the Early Access release.
As you explore the world of Chernobylite, you will enjoy new melodies played in the background. They are from a completely new, original soundtrack, composed by the award-winning Mikołaj Stroiński, a talented man who worked with multiple well-known titles like The Witcher 3, League of Legends or Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
Gameplay improvements, and not only
Mega Patch also introduces a number of novelties and solutions to improve gameplay. For example, the possibility of arming companions with armor and weapons that can be found or crafted in the base. Thanks to this novelty, our companions will have an easier time completing the tasks we send them to. This is something you have asked us and what we can finally give to you.
It is also worth mentioning that we have improved the save system. From now on, players have three additional autosave slots, one separate for quicksave (operated by F5 and F8 keys). In addition, each save has the appropriate markings in the form of a screenshot from the last moment in the game, a time stamp and the length of the game.
However, it will not always be that easy. We added to the game a new enemy - Heavy Armored Soldier. He is the strongest and most formidable soldier. Armed from head to toe this one has almost indestructible armor. It takes more than just a regular gun to defeat him.
And death can also be painful for our pockets - after each death, the player will lose some valuable random items from the inventory. On the other hand, it is sometimes worth dying in Chernobylite, as we show in the tutorial where we explain why.
We also have good news for those who prefer a pad over a mouse and a keyboard - we've introduced full support for controllers, including PlayStation and Xbox controllers. This is a tribute to those players who appreciate smooth movements throughout the game.
Optimizing everything
We spent many months to polish Chernobylite - to correct bugs, graphics and increase stability. Everything that you have signaled to us many times. The effect of our actions can be seen in the new Mega Patch. The game has been thoroughly optimized in terms of memory consumption and displayed geometry. Thanks to these changes, the game works much better, is more stable, loads much faster and displays more details in a higher quality.
Additionally, it's worth mentioning that we've completely reworked the graphic settings. Now, individual options should have a greater impact on the performance and a better scaling. Owners of weaker PCs should be particularly pleased with these changes.
But it isn’t everything
Of course, the mentioned changes are only a percentage of what you will be able to find in this Mega Patch. In total, we are introducing several thousand fixes and improvements. Below you will find another portion of the most important of them:
Technology:
- The game has been thoroughly optimized in terms of memory consumption and displayed geometry. The game run much better and more stable, while loading faster
- We have thoroughly reworked the graphics settings. Now individual options should have a more pronounced impact on performance and scale better
- We optimized this when the game uses data synchronously and when it uses data asynchronously. The vast majority of random FPS drops should therefore be removed
- We've added save support in Steam Cloud
- We added DLSS support and improved support for Fidelity FX
- We've added support for Steam Achievements
Story and graphic:
- The entire storyline of the game has been thoroughly rewritten and improved
- All 4 fractal worlds summing up Igor's investigation have been rebuilt, elongated and finished. A minilevel showing how Igor got Arianna's possession as well.
- New level: Heist. We've added the first part of Heist (about ⅓ of the total) so you can get a taste of what it's all about before the game's premiere.
- All dialogue lines in the game are voiced with new VOs - both in English and Russian
- New story character: Vagabond (earlier character mesh was just a placeholder)
- New story character: Volodya (earlier character mesh was just a placeholder)
- New story character: Hermit (earlier character mesh was just a placeholder)
- New story character: Deserter (earlier character mesh was just a placeholder)
- 5 new village characters (all earlier character meshes where just a placeholders)
AI and combat:
- New enemy: Heavy Armored Soldier. The strongest and most formidable NAR soldier
- We have added new properties to armor. Now wearing them affects how well our enemies can see and hear us
- Opponents now react better to their surroundings. They hear worse in the rain, see worse in fog, and spot the player's flashlight
- We've added the ability to create a thermal sight for a rifle and shotgun
- We've added the ability to convert the shotgun to a semi-automatic fire mode
- We've improved how soldiers react to a melee attack. Igor's fist should no longer be the ultimate tool of destruction
- We added AI state indication. The player is informed whether the opponents are in combat, whether they are looking for him, whether he is being chased by a black stalker and how long it will all take
- We improved the performance of covers. Opponents should no longer use covers that do not offer them any real protection
- For the hardcore players, we've added a new difficulty mode: Insane. If Chernobylite is still too easy for you, be sure to try it out
Gameplay mechanic:
- We've added the ability to arm your companions with armor and weapons. You've asked for it so often, so… Surprise?
- We've added 3 new armor types, one for each tier
- We have introduced severe punishment for death. Each time a player dies he will lose some valuable random items
- We improved the save system. Now the player has 3 additional autosave slots, a separate quicksave slot (supported by F5 and F8), and each save is tagged with a screen, timestamp and playtime length
- We updated the descriptions of items and clearly indicated how the items are used
- We have added to the description of all crafting tables which specific items can be built with them
Redesign and balance:
- We spelled out and updated all of the in-game tutorials. We are aware that Chernobylite is quite a unique game and a lot of its mechanics needed to be explained more literally
- We have thoroughly balanced the amount of resources and items on the levels. Recipes needed to craft items and build structures in the base have also been balanced
- We rebalanced all base stats
- We have balanced the game difficulty levels. Now very easy should be really simple and accessible for players who just want to quietly learn the history of the game
- The sounds and musical direction of the Quests have been greatly improved
- There are now many more soldiers in the NAR secret prison, and getting out of it now requires more attention and cleverness
- We have redesigned the armor status bar. Now it should more clearly inform about the current and maximum strength of the armor
Quality of life and feedback:
- In the fractal timeline, memories that have only been slightly modified do not require interaction anymore
- We have added the ability to disable the laser aim indicator. Use it if you want the fight with soldiers to be more like a classic action game
- For people who don't want to die, we have introduced an additional tutorial that will explain why it is worth dying in Chernobylite sometimes
- We have greatly improved the performance of the game on low and high FOV
- We have added ADS support in the game options
- We have added the ability to split stacks into any parts
- We have added the ability to call the quickuse menu with mmb for those who keep forgetting where they assigned what ... and the ability to handle it with a scroll for those who do not want or cannot use it in the classic way
- We've added an icon in inventory that shows what item is currently being used by Igor.
- We have added the ability to disable head bobbing
And that's all! Now there is nothing else to do but download the Mega Patch and get ready for your summer trip to Pripyat. You have a long journey ahead of you, but its end is worthwhile. Also, don't forget to visit our Steam account, where we will be streaming Chernobylite every day.