Previous Next

No doubt some of the real sickos amongst you - and there are some, I've seen the letters! - were jumping for joy when US Gold announced the launch of Chernobyl, the simulation of a nuclear power plant, but I must admit I felt a certain chill. Now that real life disasters were apparently becoming fair game as subjects for computer games, would the shelves soon be lined with games based on the Hungerford Massacre, the Kings Cross fire, the Zebrugge ferry disaster... The very ease with which any of these could be transferred into perfectly playable adventures rather made me think so.

Now, having played Chernobyl, I'm not so sure. It is unlikely to be a best-seller, and so might knock on the head any embryonic "real life disaster" simulations in the pipeline. This is not, I hasten to add, because it is in any way a bad game - in fact, it is just about the best game possible at what it does - but simply that I think most of you will find it pretty dull. It is a very serious simulation of a very serious part of our lives, and whatever your politics, it is arguable that it is an important responsibility that we should all have a taste of. It is not a video game in the same way that OutRun or Rastan are video games.

Never having been within ten miles of a nuclear generator I don't feel particularly qualified to comment, but the game feels right; it feels authentic. CND has apparently endorsed it as being as accurate as they come, and they should know, I guess. It certainly shares with real life disasters the long period of waiting, followed by moments of sheer, desperate panic. Nothing happens very fast, and you are going to need a considerable amount of patience to find your way around the complexities of your power station, not to mention work your way through the dry, text-book like, but gruesomely fascinating manual that comes with it. If you don't fancy the responsibility of having blown away or irradiated thousands of innocent lives, you are really going to have to do your homework.

The simulation's real strength is in the atmosphere it generates. Sitting there in the dark - I was that into it - with the low hum of the generators in the background, you can easily imagine yourself the lonely operator of a power plant, flicking through displays showing floorplan, warning systems, control rods and other workings of your charge.

Slowly, you build up the power, bringing the station on line, making those corrections needed to cope with fluctuations and problems as they arise. By the time things start to go wrong, the warning messages light up the screen and the sirens blare.

You find yourself breaking out into a cold sweat. Against all reason or logic you begin to ask what if this was for real, just what if in some way this was all connected up to a power station somewhere. If you've ever seen the film War Games, you'll know what I mean...

Whatever happens from then on, whether you save the day or blow everything sky high, it is an experience you are unlikely to forget in a hurry. You may play it only once, but it offers a taste of a horrific responsibility that it is humbling and probably healthy for us all to experience at some time or other. Simple graphics and, by any other standards, slow gameplay notwithstanding, Chernobyl belies any accusations of tasteless opportunism by its very authenticity, and shows some of the potential for simulations for - and I hate to use the word, it is so off-putting - educational purposes.