The Farm 51’s Chernobylite entered into Early Access late last year after having a successful run on the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter. The team is dedicated to regularly updating the game with big new updates every so often and the latest patch, entitled “Old Friend”, brings with it a bevy of new features, quests, and fixes.

The full patch notes were made available over on the Kickstarter page, where they outlined that they’ve improved the AI behavior and the appearance for some of the enemies that players will encounter, making them more aggressive and dangerous. And they also added various events to the game, filling up both Pripyat and Kopachi with new secrets to uncover.

They’ve added additional lootable containers to every level in the game, and also reduced the difficulty for the easy and very easy settings, low enough that even game journalists like Dean Takahashi will be able to play it.

In addition to all the story related events, missions and AI improvements, they’ve also added in new attachments and upgrades for the assault rifle, in addition to adding a brand new crafting table to the game.

They’ve redesigned the adrenaline system, enabled an option for players to choose how many days a single time loop will take, and also improved optimizations for levels, reduced load times, and improved CPU handling.

The FOV values have been fixed, they reduced the number of spots players could get stuck, and also modified the level of detail.

Chernobylite is currently available in Early Access right now over on the Steam store for $29.99. But given that it’s in Early Access expect the ebb and flow of the good and bad to see-saw as new updates roll in.

I personally steer clear of Early Access games that are heavily story oriented because it seems like a huge spoiler to play half-way through the game and then sit and wait a year or so for the finished product to release. By then most people probably aren’t going to completely replay the game unless they absolutely love it, but to each their own.

(Thanks for the news tip Guardian EvaUnit02)