In the months following the nuclear reactor disaster within Chernoybl, a research team returns to follow up on the rumors of a secret medical research facility named S.W.A.N., or Syndrome Without A Name. Players take part in the expedition into the exclusion zone and are tasked with uncovering the truth behind the omission of the mysterious S.W.A.N. institute.

“S.W.A.N.: Chernobyl Unexplored” is a bland and confusing trek through an unremarkable institute that made me believe some stones are better left unturned.

Waking up on the dirty floor of the institute, I was tasked with finding my missing research and rescue team members that I had gotten separated from. Armed with little more than a flashlight and a journal, I began searching through the various rooms and corridors of the facility and soon learned how empty the environments would be. During most of my exploration, there wasn’t much to look at, with most levels boasting only drab medical equipment strewn about in windowless corridors.

There would be the occasional audio log or note to read, but they often weren’t that interesting, or had little to do with progressing the narrative. The deeper I got into the game, the more I realized I couldn’t really tell any of the areas apart because it all looked the same. There really wasn’t anything special of note, and I found that to be disappointing given the Chernobyl setting it was intended to be taking place in.

The narrative only drives this point home further, as the player discovers the nature of the medical research taking place within the institute. The patients had been suffering ailments that were shifting them between dimensions, and the researchers had been developing technology to explore these realms. While it was interesting to learn more about the nature of these dimensions, it also became quite confusing the more surreal the game became.

Most of the narrative is delivered by a massive floating head in a dark liminal space, who speaks in riddles and told me all would be revealed if I just kept going further. The actual effort of doing this, however, was marred by the gameplay mechanics that were thrust onto me.

The worst part of the gameplay experience was the tedious and clumsy implementation of the S.W.A.N. technology. After searching the grounds, I acquired some of the institute’s experimental technology, which was developed to interact with other dimensions. On paper this sounds like an interesting mechanic, though in practice it is anything but fun. The two main tools are the nadya filter, which is a visor that reveals hidden entities from other dimensions, and the mind reader, which confusingly is a weapon to destroy and close parallel dimensions.

The mind reader weapon is equipped when traversing different levels after entering a dimensional rift and brings in a shooter element that the game certainly did not need. Having four different firing modes, with three ammo types, the gun itself is needlessly confusing to operate. In these transitions, the game dropped me into an empty void where I had to shoot particles in the sky to destroy the dimensional rift and shoot enemies that meandered toward me before I escaped into a portal.

If this sounds confusing and random, it’s because it is. This creates a disjointed progression through the game as it rips the player out of the institute, and simply does nothing interesting as I had to repeat this at the end of every encounter. My biggest issue lies with the other piece of technology, the nadya filter.

This visor says it reveals hidden objects, but these almost always just turned out to be a box with a key inside. Outside of revealing these boxes, it also allows the player to collect balls of lightning, which are used to open the boxes and certain doors. Beyond the simplicity of the tool, it is incredibly tedious to collect these orbs because they are randomly generated, meaning I would spend upwards of 5 to 10 minutes searching for enough orbs to crack open a box.

During these encounters I would also be dodging an enemy called “The Blind Man,” who would periodically spawn ghosts that would instantly kill me if I ran into them. I could shoot out some of the orbs I collected to defeat them, but that would just extend the search even further. Repeating this every time I needed to find a key was frustrating, and my time with “The Blind Man” wasn’t scary, only annoying.

There is the occasional puzzle here or there to shake up the gameplay ever so slightly, but the main thing I was doing was wandering around and fumbling through empty environments with the irritating game mechanics. While some areas and enemies provide moments of unease and a glimpse of horror, there just isn’t enough. With only sparse moments of interesting gameplay and a lackluster narrative bogged down by even worse mechanics, I would say your time is better spent elsewhere.