YMMV / Chernobylite

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: They really do call anyone in the Zone illegally a Stalker. Before the game came out, the title was self-applied to those working legally in the Zone as a reference to the film but after the game it's become applied to the number of illegal tourists that go into the Zone.
• Ass Pull: The reveal of the Black Stalker's identity at the game's climax. If you follow the investigation sub quest you find enough clues to determine the Black Stalker is really Boris, an old friend of Igor and Tatyana who experimented on himself with chernobylite. But when you confront the Black Stalker at the end he tells you he's actually the real Igor Khymynuk who assumed Boris' identity.
• Americans Hate Tingle: The game, being in many ways a Spiritual Successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R., was always going to attract sizeable Russian interest. While it was known that Russian special forces would be the primary antagonists, the audiences there are generally resigned to it in the Western games as well. However, the protagonist stating "I can handle a single Russian" before the stealth kill tutorial, while being ethnically Ukrainian according to the storyline, was widely seen as going too far, and triggered backlash, especially in Russia.
• Demonic Spiders: Heavy Armored Soldiers. Immune to stealth takedowns, too tanky for a One-Hit Kill with the crossbow, an enormous health pool that eats ammo like candy once combat starts, and armed with hard-hitting shotguns that can take you down in a couple of hits regardless of armor. These guys are just a massive pain to deal with, in the late game they often make up half or more of the NAR squads you encounter, and you never unlock an efficient way to neutralize them quickly - if they detect you, and they will, all hell breaks loose.
• That One Level: If you rely on a stealthy approach and use the traps Igor can construct to take out human enemies, it is possible to get to the final mission with just a silenced pistol. However, this makes the final boss fight against the Black Stalker in which stealth is not an option (and Igor cannot build traps when an enemy has detected him, and he stays 'detected' throughout the fight) difficult to say the least.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The game came out five years after Russia illegally annexed Crimea (a stretch of land internationally considered to be part of Ukraine where the Chernobyl power plant is located), and three years before Russia commenced a full-scale military invasion of the rest of Ukraine, which has since turned into the deadliest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. Chernobylite's protagonist and at least some of the supporting cast are explicitly Ukrainians with a rather low opinion of Russians, and an even lower one of mercenaries associated with the Wagner Group, a real-life PMC that's heavily engaged in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Most former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe are supporting Ukraine in the war, with Poland - the developer studio's home country - being one of Ukraine's staunchest allies. None of this aside from the Wagner name drop is ever openly discussed in-game, but it's hard not to read numerous dialogues as thinly veiled commentary on this particular geopolitical situation.
• Win Back the Crowd: The devs have acknowledged that their previous game, Get Even, performed poorly, at least partially due to the heavy emphasis on being a Environmental Narrative Game, forced stealth, and poor gunplay that the game actively discourages you from engaging in. Chernobylite, while still heavily story-focused, has a much greater emphasis on gameplay and non-linear exploration, and while you can play the game stealthily, combat isn't heavily discouraged. Unlike Get Even, Chernobylite doesn't punish the player for playing it like a video game.

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