S.W.A.N. (Syndrome Without A Name) is a very freaky first person Sci-Fi horror game where anomalies and mutants with special abilities are being studied in an institute within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
In S.W.A.N. you find yourself inside a top secret research facility called the S.W.A.N. Institute. A little like the SCP Institute, it was set up to investigate unexplained phenomena and is situated in Pripyat, Ukraine. Your story takes place a few months after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and sees you uncovering the dark secrets of the institute, meeting some freaky local residents and bending reality to travel to different dimensions.
The current demo build of S.W.A.N. is clearly still very early in development so does have some rough edges – most notably the basic UI, some awkward voicework and an overly-complicated FPS section that serves no purpose. It’s also fond of giving big info dumps via large chunks of text, which isn’t ideal, but the narrative is intriguing.
If you can look past the current rough edges there’s a lot to like about S.W.A.N.. The audio and visual design are excellent, the setting is very creepy and the various mutants are unique and terrifying. It does a great job of building a tense atmosphere throughout the game and there are some very freaky moments. It needs a lot more polish, but it shows a lot of promise.
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Download The S.W.A.N. Alpha Demo Here (Steam)