SWAN: Chernobyl Unexplored reviews: Am I Drama?

Title:  SWAN Chernobyl Unexplored
Developer:  Volframe
Publishers: Artwork Video Games Studios
Platforms:  PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Release date of: August 31, 2022

There is something inherently frightening about Chernobyl and Pripyat. You don't even need to know the story before entering the evacuated and deserted city to feel how scary it is. If you add in the devastating story that accompanies it, anyone can see why there are so many short stories, films, and video games that use it to create horror. Simply seeing the title, SWAN: Chernobyl Unexplored , you robotically have excessive hopes, and perhaps the hopes are just a little excessive.

SWAN: Chernobyl Unexplored follows a team that will be sent to the evacuated metropolis. There is an undisclosed bunker there and its crew has disappeared. Contained within the partitions is experimental know-how, radiation, and unknown dark energies. This game starts off so strong. The subject material alone sends players with reservations and anticipation. The dark corridors and lurking shadows create such a mood that you simply don't want to turn a corner.

Unfortunately, this strong strangeness is ruined every time it's important to enter this dimensional wormhole. From the first time you do it, it becomes a tutorial and every time it's important to play in the same area, you never get away from that feeling. Select this factor, shoot at that factor, select this other factor, and then shoot at that other factor. Rinse and repeat. It will go by very quickly and totally snaps you out of the mood of horror you were looking through the corridors of the bunker.

Indie horror can be unbelievable and Tormented Souls is probably one of the best examples of this. You don't want AAA graphics and all the money in the world to create something amazing and SWAN: Chernobyl Unexplored it had all the options to be that. If they had simply taken the “exploring half” with some checks for radiation, shadows, monsters and the like, it could have been a giant suggestion from me. Unfortunately, the addition of the extra dimensions with the squares falling out from under you, making you start over, totally ruined the experience.

You can play SWAN: Chernobyl Explored now and when you can look past the moments that take you outside, what you will be left with is a scary game with an honest story.

SWAN: Chernobyl Unexplored (PS5) Rating: 6/10

SWAN: Chernobyl Unexplored had a lot of potential to be one of the scariest video games to play this spooky season, but it simply bites off more than it can chew and takes the player out of the setting too much, ruining the impact.