Chernobyl Liquidators review: A Chaotic Stroll Through the Radioactive Playground
We’re diving headfirst into the radioactive rollercoaster that is Chernobyl Liquidators. This game promises the thrill of the meltdown without the lifetime of medical bills. But does it deliver on its nuclear promises or does it fizzle out like a defective Geiger counter? Spoiler alert: It’s a bit of both.
Graphics and Atmosphere: A Tour of the Wasteland
Let’s start with the good stuff, shall we? The visuals in Chernobyl Liquidators are like a mixed bag of radiation-laced candy – some bits are sweet, while others will leave you with a nasty aftertaste. The devs clearly put some love into the environment. Wandering around the eerily quiet reactor and seeing the desolate landscape is almost poetic. You might even forget for a moment that the game is held together with duct tape and wishful thinking.
The atmosphere is spot on. You really feel like you’re trudging through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The ambient sounds and visuals do a fantastic job of immersing you in the disaster. It’s like Fallout met your high school chemistry lab and had a very unhealthy baby.
Gameplay: More Bugs Than a Roach Motel
Here’s where things start to go downhill faster than a cooling tower on fire. The gameplay is clunkier than a Soviet tank in a swamp. Imagine trying to navigate a minefield with flippers on – that’s Chernobyl Liquidators for you. Movement is a mess, the controls feel like they were designed by someone who’s never played a video game before, and the character animations? Let’s just say they’re more wooden than a Russian Matryoshka doll.
And don’t get me started on the bugs. This game has more bugs than a Chernobyl insectarium. From soft locks that trap you in an infinite loop of frustration to quests that disappear like vaporized cesium, it’s a miracle if you can play for an hour without hitting a game-breaking issue. If you’ve got a thing for frustration and yelling at your screen, this game is a goldmine.
Quests and Storyline: Soviet Saga or Digital Disaster?
The quest system is like a bad Soviet joke – you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s littered with tasks that make you want to stick your head in the reactor core just to end the misery. There’s a certain charm in being asked to fix a reactor with a shovel you can’t pick up or follow directions to a roof only to find yourself knee-deep in radioactive sludge.
The dialogue is a special kind of terrible. It’s like they translated it with a potato – half of it makes no sense, and the other half makes you wish you were illiterate. I found myself meeting KGB agents and being thrust into classic Soviet cover-ups, which would be thrilling if the execution wasn’t so laughably bad. I mean, seriously, there’s a note in the game that says “Yo dawg.” Is this Chernobyl or a meme factory?
Bright Spots: Is There Any Hope in the Fallout?
Alright, let’s give credit where it’s due. The game’s setting and premise are intriguing, and there are moments of genuine awe when you’re exploring the abandoned plant. The developers clearly have a passion for the topic and it shows in the detail and atmosphere. The ending, while rushed and wrapped up like a nuclear burrito, is surprisingly emotional and leaves you wanting more – in a “this could have been great” kind of way.
Optimizations and Bugs: A Fallout of Frustrations
The game’s performance is as stable as a house of cards in a wind tunnel. Frame rates drop like radioactive fallout, and the optimization is non-existent. It’s like they designed the game on a potato and decided that was good enough. The bugs are infuriating, and the fact that they reset your progress is enough to make you want to fling your monitor out the window. Developer replies on Discord with promises of future patches are all well and good, but it doesn’t change the fact that right now, playing this game is like wading through a bog of misery.
Conclusion: Worth the Radiation Risk?
So, is Chernobyl Liquidators worth the risk of radiation poisoning? Well, if you’ve got a high tolerance for bugs, a love for the Chernobyl disaster, and a masochistic streak, then sure, give it a go. Just be prepared for a bumpy ride and a lot of yelling at your screen. There’s potential here – buried under a mountain of glitches and bad design choices – but it’s going to take a lot of work to dig it out.
Rating: 5.5/10 – A radioactive mess with glimpses of brilliance.
We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn’t impact our review in any way.