Chornobyl Liquidators

About

"Chornobyl Liquidators" is a grim, historically-inspired game that immerses players in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. As a firefighter or dosimetrist, you'll face treacherous radiation and combat the fallout's deadly effects. This is not a game for the faint-hearted, as it confronts the real-life sacrifices made by the liquidators.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

51%

Audience ScoreBased on 366 reviews

story36 positive mentions

gameplay18 negative mentions

The game has a compelling story that immerses players in the Chernobyl disaster experience.
Certain locations, like the Power Plant and Pripyat, are well-designed and capture the atmosphere effectively.
Despite its bugs, many players found the game enjoyable and appreciated the unique perspective it offers on the historical events.

The game suffers from severe optimization issues, with frequent frame drops and performance problems even on high-end systems.
Many players reported numerous bugs, including game-breaking glitches that hinder progress and poor mechanics that disrupt gameplay.
The voice acting and dialogue quality are often criticized, with mismatched subtitles and awkward translations detracting from the overall experience.

story
150 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
64%
12%
The game's story has received mixed reviews, with some players praising its unique premise and emotional depth, particularly in its portrayal of the Chernobyl disaster and the sacrifices of the liquidators. However, many criticize the execution, citing issues such as inconsistent writing, poor voice acting, and numerous bugs that detract from the narrative experience. Overall, while the story has potential, it often feels disjointed and underdeveloped, leaving players frustrated with its delivery.
- “The storyline was very immersive; I appreciated the several subplots which allowed for different experiences.”
- “This game had a great story line, and I believe it brought honor to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice during this disaster!”
- “The message is here telling the story of these brave heroes of the Chernobyl incident.”
- “The story is severely lacking of what you would expect from something calling itself *Chernobyl* liquidators, given that all of about 30 minutes of the 5 hours you need to play through it take place in and around the actual power plant.”
- “Instead, it feels more like an experimental build for a completely separate game, with far too many mechanics stuffed inside it, half-finished and built the story and characters only as a framework to not immediately lose the test players.”
- “The kgb cover-up storyline is executed very poorly and one bit of it has you backtracking back and forth between locations in one level, hiding this bad game design behind a 'random dead npc gone mad' story.”
gameplay
92 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
65%
20%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players highlighting clunky mechanics, frustrating bugs, and poor optimization that detract from the overall experience. While some aspects, like atmosphere and certain gameplay elements, are praised, the repetitive and tedious nature of tasks, along with confusing maps and inconsistent mechanics, leave much to be desired. Overall, the game feels unfinished and lacks the polish needed to justify its price, making it hard to recommend despite some enjoyable moments.
- “Writing this review as I'm playing, so far this is amazing even with minor translation errors. The gameplay and story are great, and there's notable nods to media I enjoy heavily.”
- “The gameplay was excellent, the environment was very well done - the devs were clearly dedicated to making this game perfect.”
- “The most fun parts of the game are the ones where the focus was simply on the gameplay leading towards containing the situation in Chernobyl.”
- “The mechanics are janky, the graphics are bad, the performance is lacking severely, and the characters are half-assed at best.”
- “Add confusing maps, barely working game mechanics, and many, sometimes extremely disorienting or straight-up game-breaking bugs, and the shitfest is complete.”
- “This game is nowhere near ready for release, with clunky mechanics, horrible graphics, annoying doors (seriously, why force them to close when I go near them?), and tutorials that look like run-on sentences and are in broken English.”
optimization
74 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
35%
62%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with many players reporting severe performance issues, including stuttering and frame rate drops, even on high-end systems. Despite some positive aspects like gameplay mechanics and atmosphere, the overall execution is deemed unpolished and buggy, leading to a consensus that significant optimization is needed before it can be recommended. Many reviewers suggest waiting for performance fixes before purchasing, as the current state makes it difficult to justify the price.
- “One memorably noteworthy example of this was available on our parliament's website: a fully explorable, detailed map of the national parliament building, complete with a third-person avatar, easter eggs, and actual multiplayer, all done through JavaScript and optimized to run on a school laptop.”
- “Game is in desperate need of optimization.”
- “The optimization is awful.”
- “It's clearly not optimized well; even after meeting the minimum and recommended system requirements, it was still laggy and choppy.”
- “This game definitely needs a huge optimization in performance, which I doubt will arrive anytime soon as this was also an issue with the demo more than 2 years ago.”
graphics
52 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
50%
15%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising certain visual moments and overall aesthetics, while others criticize poor performance, inconsistent lighting, and a lack of customization options. Many users report issues such as janky animations, graphical glitches, and a significant disparity between the game's promotional materials and the final product. Overall, while there are glimpses of good graphics, the performance and optimization issues detract from the experience.
- “The graphics are fantastic and the sound design is superb.”
- “Ran at a constant 70-80 fps when playing at highest graphic settings.”
- “But so far, the visuals are decent, and the game is fun.”
- “The graphics are disappointing and the lighting is so much worse than in the trailers.”
- “Well, even when I downgrade the resolution to 1280x720 and use the AI upscaling feature on my graphics card engine, the game can say 90+ fps all it wants, you still experience this awful stutter and constant sluggishness when looking in directions where the rendering engine is worked to the limit.”
- “This game is nowhere near ready for release, clunky mechanics, horrible graphics, annoying doors (seriously, why force them to close when I go near them??) tutorials that look like run-on sentences and are broken English.”
stability
48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is widely criticized for its significant stability issues, with numerous reports of bugs, glitches, and performance problems that hinder gameplay. Many players describe it as a "buggy mess," with some unable to progress due to game-breaking glitches. While some enjoy the unique aspects of the game, the overall consensus is that it feels unpolished and unfinished, suggesting that players may want to wait several months for potential fixes before diving in.
- “This really disappointed me, the game is buggy, laggy, and unfinished.”
- “Buggy mess, for some reason the devs thought that a game where you can't even progress to the second part of the game because of a glitch that crashes your game was fine to release.”
- “It has some good ideas but the overall execution is a sad, buggy, unoptimized mess and the story is an insult to the real liquidators.”
atmosphere
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
21%
13%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive environments, sound design, and attention to detail, creating a nerve-wracking experience that enhances gameplay. However, many players noted that performance issues, janky controls, and some unrealistic design elements detracted from the overall experience. Despite these flaws, the unique atmosphere remains a standout feature that contributes significantly to the game's appeal.
- “Despite the issues, it's very unique and they nailed it with the environments and the atmosphere.”
- “Loved the general atmosphere, true to nature world building, and little details.”
- “Atmosphere is great, seeing the plant up close is awesome.”
- “Sadly it's quite rough around the edges in terms of controls and atmosphere.”
- “But there's still tons of enjoyment to be had regarding gameplay mechanics, sound design, animations, atmosphere and story but gets bogged down by these terrible performance issues.”
- “I enjoyed the game and liked the puzzles and the atmosphere of most missions with the exception of Duga radar.”
emotional
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players report a mix of emotional experiences, highlighting touching moments and a powerful ending that resonates deeply. However, some find the game's difficulty and certain mechanics detract from the overall emotional impact, with a few even experiencing discomfort while playing. Overall, the emotional journey is noted as significant, particularly towards the conclusion.
- “The game made me feel sick; it is the second game to do so to such an extent.”
- “There are interesting and touching moments in this game.”
- “Keep in mind this game's story is very iffy and really only gets 'good' at the very end (emotional ending).”
music
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
38%
38%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with several users suggesting that it could benefit from a broader selection and a reduction in the use of mixtapes. However, the inclusion of Russian/Soviet doomer music has been positively noted, contributing to the overall atmosphere. The soundtrack is generally rated around 6/10.
- “Nothing better than Russian/Soviet doomer music on the radio!!”
- “Nothing better than Russian/Soviet doomer music on the radio!!”
- “Music/soundtrack: 6/10”
- “Music/soundtrack: 6/10”
- “Add more music and drop the mixtape!”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be initially engaging but quickly devolve into a tedious and repetitive experience, making it less enjoyable over time.
- “Gameplay-wise, although interesting at first, becomes quite tedious and repetitive quickly.”
- “The beginning was extremely tedious.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization of the game has been widely criticized as a blatant cash grab, with many reviewers expressing disappointment over its exploitative nature, particularly in relation to the sensitive historical context of the Chernobyl disaster.
- “A sad and very disappointing cash grab dancing on the graves of the real men and women who gave their lives in trying to liquidate Chernobyl.”
- “A sad and very disappointing cash grab dancing on the graves of the real men and women who gave their lives in trying to liquidate Chernobyl.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game offers limited replayability, with many users expressing that there isn't much incentive to play it again after the initial experience.
- “You're not going to get much replayability, though.”