Blue's News reports that Chernobylite received free content, and that a demo was now available on Steam.

Chernobylite Adds Demo, Free DLC, and Skins

Publisher All in! Games and developer The Farm 51 announce that Ghost Town (musical accompaniment) is now live as a new free content update for Chernobylite, the irradiated sci-fi RPG. Additionally, a playable demo is now available on Steam, offering the chance to sample the game with payments, Geiger counters, or hazmat suits. Here's word: "Another addition to the game’s offer is a demo of Chernobylite that is now available to play on Steam. The demo will include the game’s intro as well as two whole in-game days for players to go through." Here's a Ghost Town Trailer and here's the news:

The free content update adds a new map to the game of the Pripyat Residential Area, full of events and side missions. Here players will be able to explore the 3D scanned recreation of Pripyat’s neighborhoods and visit iconic locations such as the Azure Swimming Pool.

Released simultaneously with the content update, a new set of weapon skins, the Deadly Frost Skin Pack, is also now available on Steam for $3.99/€3.29/£2.89 and will add the icy bite of winter to your attacks. Additionally, the game’s original soundtrack, from award-winning composer Mikolai StroiÅ„ski, is now available for purchase on Steam for $4.99/€4.99/£4.99.  With the haunting melody of the Zone following you wherever you go, will you ever truly be able to leave?

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GamingBolt details the content of the new update for Chernobylite.

Chernobylite DLC Adds New Enemies, Monster Hunter Side Quests

Along with big changes to The Black Stalker, the update also includes a number of fixes for bugs, glitches and progression blockers.

The first free DLC for The Farm 51’s Chernobylite is now live, adding several new foes and a new side quest type. The enemies in question include the Feral Chernohost who is extremely fast and the Overgrown Duster which attacks from a distance along with being able to disappear. Check them out below along with the Ancient Shadow.

The side quest is Monster Hunt, which requires killing one of the three new enemies. They can appear in any level, though the quest won’t be as common as food drops. Other changes include a redesign for The Black Stalker who will now actively hunt the player and scales his strength based on the storm. But if defeated, he won’t appear again in the same day.

Various bug fixes have also been made – check them out below for more details. Chernobylite is currently available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions coming later. [...]

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TrueAchievements has reviewed Chernobylite:

Chernobylite review

Chernobylite is dubbed a survival horror RPG, but it is really its own beast. Sure, the game borrows elements from both genres, but the resulting experience is neither here nor there when compared to them... and that’s what makes it so fantastic. It’s the blend from those two genres that gives Chernobylite the edge it needs to stand out from the other titles clawing for attention in the post-apocalyptic crowd. There is no doubt that The Farm 51 poured every ounce of love it could into this title, sculpting a time machine that not only transports the player to a land frozen in time, but also blends a layer of science fiction with it that feels natural and sends your mind into a state of imagination.

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Summary
Chernobylite is a lovingly crafted example of what a post-apocalyptic game can and should be, offering players a rollercoaster of a story with plenty of choices that naturally lend to an overarching sense of freedom. Aside from a few technical issues, Chernobylite does everything right and wraps it all in a tense, and oftentimes uncomfortable, package that has you wanting to see what’s lurking around the next corner. If there has ever been a game that makes you want to pack your bags and take a trip to a dangerous part of the world, this is it.

Score: 8/10

Geekdad reviewed the survival/horror RPG Chernobylite:

Chernobylite, New Survival Horror RPG Review

Chernobylite is a new survival horror RPG set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone from developer The Farm 51 and publisher All in! Games. 

Recently I watched the HBO series Chernobyl for a second time and I felt that it is still one of the most horrifying films of this century. So when I heard about Chernobylite using 3D scans from the actual site in Ukraine my interest was peaked. True this is not the first time I have played a game that is set in the shadow of the Chernobyl reactor. I too played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but Chernobylite is not like that game outside of its setting. The goal of Chernobylite is survival. Not just your own survival but that of your entire team. This is where the similarities to another game namely Fallout comes into play. In Chernobylite you work on building a base through finding resources in the field and missions that will take you to specific parts of the map where there are drops that you can pick up.

Chernobylite is not as simple as collecting materials. The irradiated survivors are out to get you for trying to collect those precious articles you need to survive. It is a survival horror/RPG hybrid in the best sense of those two genres.

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Final Thoughts and Recommendations

Chernobylite is a rock-solid Survival Horror/RPG made by a small Indy company that had the guts to go to Chernobyl and 3D scan the actual area you will be traversing. That is what I call going the extra mile to give gamers the verisimilitude they crave. I cannot say enough how the price of $26.99 right now on Steam is an absolute steal. Chernobylite has far more value than any game that starts at that price point. Seriously I had to look at the price more than once to make sure. If you are currently looking to get lost in a dystopian nuclear-irradiated world then Chernobylite should be at the top of your list this summer.

Gameranx checked out Chernobylite:

Chernobylite - Before You Buy

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Chernobylite (PC - PS4 PS5 Xbox Series X/S/One later) is a survival horror RPG where your decisions affect everything. How is it? Let's talk.

The survival RPG Chernobylite has been released today on Steam and GOG:

SURVIVE

Ally or compete with other stalkers of the Chernobyl zone to survive. Remember that life is fragile, and it’s your decisions that determine the fate of your companions. You can spend as long as you need preparing, however, be aware that your story is still being written. Every passing moment, your chances of success are dwindling: comrades are dying, supplies are running out, or an unexpected patrol could discover you. And on top of all this, supernatural dangers are arising around you in mysterious patterns. Each day brings new challenges with the ever-increasing severity of your current situation. Plan your strategy carefully if you want to survive.

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EXPERIENCE

Maintain your resolve and keep your wits about you – the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is not what it once was. No one can foresee the horrors that may have befallen your beloved.

• Explore the beautiful and horrifyingly accurate 3D-scanned recreation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
• Collaborate or compete with other stalkers of the Zone, but whatever you do, never fully trust them. Remember – everybody has a hidden agenda. Always.
• Face and survive the natural and supernatural threats.
• Immerse yourself in the thrilling non-linear science-fiction horror story.
• Make good use of your character’s physics and chemistry knowledge to craft your equipment and manage your supplies.
• Fight against the savage creatures pouring from the alternate reality.
• Investigate and collect data with a set of sophisticated environment and substance analyzing tools.

Rock Paper Shotgun checked out the upcoming Chernobylite:

Chernobylite review: hardly horror, but still a strong survival roguelite

More tense than outright horror, but Chernobylite is still a solid RPG with interesting base-building, management and survival elements that balance nicely to form a fun roguelite loop.

After reading Matt Cox's (RPS in peace) early access review of Chernobylite, I was less scared about the mutant nasties I'd be facing in this horror-y survival RPG and more concerned with how janky it might be. Had the devs over at The Farm 51 smoothed things out for the game's final release? Well, I can safely say that they've polished up the game into quite the pleasant surprise. There's a compelling mystery here that you'll unravel through a mix of base-building, team management, and stealthy survival, and it all fits together to form a roguelite loop that'll actually have you itching to venture back out into radiation-town.

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I won't spoil any of those climatic moments, but Chernobylite's a genuinely good time, folks. The ease of the crafting and the management side of things might lack depth for some, but it does give you a constant sense of satisfaction as you bring goodies back to base and watch it grow. Similarly, the simplicity of its party management ensures balancing their needs doesn't detract from the fun roguelite loop it's got going on. The Chernobyl wilderness might be distinctly "bad vibes" here, but Chernobylite the game gets a big, irradiated thumbs up.

Gematsu reports on a new story trailer for Chernobylite.

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In Chernobylite, you play as Igor, a former employee of the Chernobyl Power Plant who returns to the Exclusion Zone to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his fiancee, Tatiana, 30 years prior. In the Zone, time is not a simple, linear matter. You’ll have to make choices that will affect your ultimate fate—even changing the past. Will you make the right decisions? Will they lead you to Tatiana?

DSOGaming reports that Chernobylite will be leaving Steam Early Access this July.

The Farm 51 has announced that Chernobylite will fully release in July 2021. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team released a brand new trailer that you can find below.

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The developers of Chernobylite were interviewed by Wccftech. Chernobylite is described as a science-fiction, survival horror single-player experience set inside the Exclusion Zone of Chernobyl. 

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Can you tell us a bit about the expanded nuclear power plant and the Red Forest locations that were originally unlocked through the stretch goals?

We wanted to add places which are not easily available to reach for tourists and also are a great fit for our story. We plan to recreate these areas as precisely as possible and add something extra from us. However, sometimes it can be a tricky task because few places in the Zone are harder to be digitized – especially when there’s a higher radiation level there. To properly prepare to work in these places we needed more time and better logistics than for scanning the random parts of Pripyat city or Chernobyl village. For example, when we wanted to scan the undergrounds of the Power Plant below reactor 4, it turned out they are completely sealed due to high radiation and entering them would kill us. Fortunately, we were lucky to scan other parts of the undergrounds that are identical and implement them in the game.

What was the reason for splitting the locations into different maps in Chernobylite instead of using a seamless 'open world' design?

First, we wanted to recreate a real Exclusion Zone of Chernobyl and in reality the area is 2500 square kilometers, 95% of which covered with forest. We didn’t want to change its character and ruin its real mood by artificially placing hundreds or thousands of artificial objects only to give players anything interesting to watch or to do there. Instead, we decided to focus on showing the most interesting parts that are scattered within the whole area, and in order to do this, we had to cut the smaller parts from the whole Zone. And second, but not less important - we’re a small team of around 30 people and creating a seamless open world with such detail as we do would be impossible in a team of this size. We would need to sacrifice the quality just to let players explore bigger and more empty or non-inspiring areas. That was a big no for us. However our maps are still going to be big, and the player will be able to walk around wherever he or she pleases… while paying attention to radiation of course.

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What do you think of the store war between Epic and Valve? Would you ever consider going exclusive to the Epic Games Store?

We hope that the existence of more store platforms will ultimately lead to a better situation for players and for developers. But since we’ve decided to go into the community driven development, launching Kickstarter, planning Early Access – then a non-exclusive presence on platforms like Steam and GOG seemed a much better idea for us with Chernobylite.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks Farflame!