The year is 1986, but you get to play as the Chernobyl plant from before the disaster. You're in control of the plant's systems, trying to keep everything running smoothly. However, there's no way your actions will change what happens later in history.
Gameplay involves looking at menus and entering commands through a parser. You'll analyze numbers and enter instructions like disabling generators or closing exhaust valves to influence those numbers. The goal is to maintain stable power generation, but if things go wrong, you'll have to follow the emergency guide from the manual.