Live Motion Games has released Chernobyl Liquidators, a survival game inspired by real events, where your mission is to contain the biggest nuclear disaster and uncover the main cause of the tragedy.

The game’s story is based on a nuclear disaster that occurred on April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union. One of the nuclear reactors exploded, and fires released the radioactive reactor core into the environment, threatening to transform a large part of Europe into a desolate territory. Fortunately, due to the courage and sacrifice of firefighters, officers, and liquidators who were sent to extinguish the fires and clean the place, the catastrophe was prevented. However, most of these heroes did not survive due to the high radiation doses they received. Will you be among those who survive or die?

Live Motion Games promises a highly realistic atmosphere of the Chernobyl disaster to be experienced in the game. The events are created with attention to historic details, including emotional depth, in which players must make decisions based on moral principles. Tasks are organized to keep players under constant stress, allowing them to experience the realm of tragedy. All of this enhances the feeling of being directly involved in the game’s action.

Chernobyl Liquidators take place in Pripyat, the original name of the city where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. You explore the location covered with radioactive dust and clouds. The most dangerous place to investigate is the tunnels under the damaged reactor. To survive in these highly contaminated zones, you must equip yourself with specialized gear: radiation suits, gas masks, and radiation detectors.

The game features three distinct roles for its characters: a liquidator, a firefighter, or a commanding officer. Depending on the chosen role, players can take part in different missions, such as cleaning up contaminated areas, helping civilians, marking radioactive zones, or acquiring classified documents for the KGB, the Secret Service of the Soviet Union. The most dangerous task to cope with is clearing the radioactive graphite from the roof, as you are exposed to such an extreme level of radiation that it is hardly possible to endure.

Chernobyl Liquidators offers a variety of ways to deal with the invisible threat. Players can manage their character’s stats by taking medicine and iodine tablets to minimize radiation damage, smoking cigarettes, and eating chocolates to fight stress, which accompanies the character throughout the entire game. I think this is the first survival game in which your character can die from the heart attack caused by the stress.

The developers incorporated plenty of conversations into the game, in which players must engage to uncover the real reason behind the nuclear disaster and make choices based on moral values. Each of the player’s decisions has its own consequences and leads to one of two game endings.

Chernobyl Liquidators is available on Steam with a 10% launch discount for $17.99.