Dark, terrifying entities ready to appear out of nowhere and a dense mystery. We tried SWAN: Chernobyl Unexplored on Xbox and came out whole (maybe): here is the review of this terrifying horror game.
SWAN: Chernobyl Unexplored – We explore a terrifying research institute after the nuclear disaster
Just like the worst travel agencies, today we offer you a tour to a perfect place for your New Year holidays. In fact, we take you to Chernobyl towards the end of the 1980s, immediately after the nuclear disaster that tragically made the Ukrainian town of Prypjat ‘. But rest assured, we will not go to the site where the tragedy took place, we are not so macabre. Our tour instead aims to explore a terrifying and mysterious research center on the consequences of radiation: it S.W.A.N. Institute.
With these premises we can begin our review of S.W.A.N.: Chernobyl Unexplored, videogame developed by the independent software house Tungsten and published by Art Games Studio. The game is essentially a first-person horror, but it mixes puzzle game with FPS elements well, and opens with a dedication:
“Dedicated to all those whose lives have changed after the events that took place in Chernobyl in April 1986”
Then we are ready: we find ourselves catapulted into the SWAN research institute (so called because it investigates a mysterious disease called Syndrome Without A Name). And since the game is in first person, I will tell you in first person.
An inscription tells me to turn off the flashlight: do I have to?
I am alone: it’s dark and I’m already afraid. The flashing lights and super-tense sound only fuel my belief that something monstrous and misshapen will appear at any moment. Luckily I find a flashlight. Indeed unfortunate. Yes, because if I groped in the dark and there are monsters who cares, I don’t see them. Instead the flashlight forces me to shed light, and with every movement it could come the inevitable jumpscare. Which in fact arrives on time. As if that weren’t enough, I find myself in front of encouraging blood writings on the walls of the building’s infinite corridors. These first warn me that “Here it is dangerous” and then encourage me to continue: there are not so many dangers.
The puzzles to be solved are actually very simple, however, everything is in English, so my survival also depends on my knowledge of the English language, which luckily it’s not that bad. At a certain point I find myself in a dark room full of blood: as soon as I enter the door behind me it closes by itself and when I reopen it I find it walled up. Then I turn around, shed light in the darkness and I realize that a writing has appeared on the wall which, with a total lack of empathy and pity towards me – intimates to me: “Turn off the torch”. I’m screwed.
As I continue I reveal the many mysteries of the institute, the secrets that lie behind the disease and the true aims of the SWAN project. It all seems extremely complex to me, perhaps too much, but in not even the time to elaborate this thought that I find myself in front of a creepy creature throwing a stack of hospital beds at me. But what have I done wrong to you? I just wanted to make friends.
Then I realize, in waving my little hand to the umpteenth inhuman monstrosity I meet in the corridors, that many of the jumpscare elements placed there to make me jump out of my chair are actually harmless. They let themselves be approached without problems. But I keep the distance, you never know, at least for social distancing from covid. Through different chapters of the game, including dead humans, terrifying writings and increasingly thick mysteries. In the end – after just over 4/5 hours – I get out alive. Alive but destabilized.
SWAN’s review: Chernobyl Unexplored – A lot of anxiety, but also a lot to review
In essence, the game fulfills its duty, provided that its duty is to put the player in a constant state of anxiety. The jumpscare are indeed effective, placed in the right places, but the fact that the terrifying creatures are mostly harmless tends to ruin the immersion of the gameplay. The puzzles to be solved are simple, and seem more like an excuse to take the player to explore the labyrinthine institute than a real mental challenge. At times the game will take us to cross dimensional portals, which will be the only alternative locations to the institute. In some moments we will be offered challenges in which we will have to shoot at mysterious entities, elements that – wanted or not – appeared to me as clear references to DOOM.
The settings are well cared for, with intermittent lights and dark areas which, together with a very tense sound, contribute well to creating a status of general anxiety. But there are also many critical issues. The game – which I previewed on Xbox One – tends to manifest important drops in FPS, especially when moving from bright areas to dark areas. The acting is definitely to be reviewed and not very credible, with actors who speak English with a marked Russian accent, without any interpretation. Perhaps a better choice would have been to record the voices in Russian and add the English subtitles. In the end history must also be reviewed (which lasts just over 4 hours). It becomes more and more complex until it becomes decidedly too much. Useless twirls, for a title that it would have benefited from a simpler and more linear narrative.
S.W.A.N.: Chernobyl Unexplored will officially release for Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S on January 26, 2022, priced at 13,49€. The title is already available for pre-order on the Microsoft store and is also discounted by about € 1. It is also already available for PC (on Steam) and Nintendo Switch.