Comparison

Chernobyl 3D vs Cairn

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Chernobyl 3D

Experience intense single-player arena combat with escalating waves of enemies and a variety of weapons. Utilize power-ups and a portal gun for strategic traversal and boss elimination. Compete on a global leaderboard with replay functionality.

Highlights
  • Wave-based arena combat
  • 18 enemy types
  • Four distinct weapons
  • Portal gun for traversal
  • Power-ups (QUAD damage, SPEED, BERSERK)
  • Global leaderboard with replays
Features
Read full description

Chernobyl is a frenetic single-player FPS built from the ground up in C with raylib. Ten waves of escalating chaos, a roster of 18 enemy types, and four weapons (shotgun, machine gun, rocket launcher, tesla cannon) — plus a portal gun for fast traversal. Power up with QUAD damage, SPEED boost, or grab the BERSERK pack to delete bosses with a single tesla discharge. Public global leaderboard. Submit your initials on death and your run lands on chernobyl.ximg.app/scores.html alongside an input replay anyone can watch back at full fidelity. No ads, no in-app purchase, no tracking. Built by one developer.

About

Cairn

This app serves as a player for classic text adventures, allowing you to bring your own story files. It features automatic mapping, integrated reference materials, and iCloud syncing across devices for a seamless experience.

Highlights
  • Automatic live mapping
  • Visual room and connection tracking
  • Support for Z3, Z4, Z5, Z7, and Z8 story files
  • Attach custom PDFs and images
  • User-supplied hint file support
  • Inventory bar
  • Customizable themes
Features
Read full description

Cairn is a player for classic text adventures. It does not include any games — you bring your own story files. Many classic and modern titles are available free from the Interactive Fiction Database and community archives. If you own Infocom games, Cairn plays those too. One app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, included with a single purchase. Your stories, saved games, materials, and the maps Cairn draws all travel with you through iCloud — begin an adventure on your Mac, continue it on your iPad, and check a hint on your phone. Unlike traditional interpreters, Cairn automatically builds a visual map of the world as you explore, so you can focus on puzzles and discovery instead of keeping graph-paper maps by hand. Cairn is a rich play desk for classic adventures. Attach your own PDFs and images to each story — manuals, maps, feelies, and other reference materials — then read them beside the game. PDFs include page navigation, single- and two-page layouts, and fit and zoom controls. Cairn also supports user-supplied InvisiClues hint files in a compatible JSON format. Hints appear in their own tab, grouped into booklet-style sections, and reveal one clue at a time. Every playthrough carries a notebook. Write down door codes, maze mappings, and the thing to come back to once you find the lamp, in a tab beside the story rather than on paper. A button drops in where you are, what you are carrying, your score, the move count, or the last thing you typed. Notes travel in the saved game, so restoring a save brings back what you knew at the time along with the map and the transcript. An at-a-glance inventory bar shows what you are carrying below the transcript, without typing an inventory command and without costing you a turn. The live map is flexible too: rooms take custom shapes, and you can hide or restore any of them. On iPhone and iPad the story takes the whole screen, and the map, your notes, and every attached document are one tap away. Readable themes include IBM PC Color and DEC VT241-inspired options. Cairn supports the complete classic Infocom Z3, Z4, and Z5 catalog, including Beyond Zork with its original on-screen map, stat bars, and character setup, and also plays Z-machine version 7 and version 8 stories, opening the door to modern Inform 6 and Inform 7 interactive fiction beyond the Infocom era. Version 6 graphical stories are not supported. Compatible adventures include classics such as Zork, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Planetfall, Enchanter, Trinity, Bureaucracy, Suspended, Deadline, Wishbringer, Spellbreaker, and many more. Features - A session notebook saved with each game - Automatic live mapping as you explore - Support for Z3, Z4, Z5, Z7, and Z8 story files - Beyond Zork's original screen, or a classic status line, at the flick of a switch - Attached PDF and image materials - PDF page navigation, layouts, fit, and zoom controls - Image zooming and scrolling - InvisiClues hint browsing from compatible JSON files - Spoiler-safe clue reveal controls - At-a-glance inventory bar - Adaptive side-panel tabs for maps, notes, PDFs, images, and hints - Custom room shapes, hidden rooms, and per-connection line routing, stroke, and labels - Separate map and text presentation options - Library management for your adventures - Tag your stories, then filter and search by tag, and group by tag or date - Add several stories at once, with covers and descriptions from the Interactive Fiction Database - One app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with a single purchase - Stories, saved games, and materials synced across your devices with iCloud - Native menus and keyboard shortcuts on Mac and iPad - Layouts that adapt from iPhone to ultrawide displays IMPORTANT! Cairn does not include any game files, manuals, maps, images, or hint files. You supply your own from your personal collection or other legal distribution channels.

Screenshots

Chernobyl 3D4 screens
Cairn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Chernobyl 3D at Free against Cairn's $19.99. Chernobyl 3D also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.2). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Chernobyl 3D is free to download; Cairn costs $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Chernobyl 3D against 5.0 for Cairn. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 9 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chernobyl 3D ships an update every 3 days, Cairn every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Chernobyl 3D versus Cairn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChernobyl 3DCairn
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating5.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (9 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings49 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.2
Further details — not scored
Size67 MB9 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperRichard BlundellDaniel Ducat

Customer experience

Chernobyl 3D

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Cairn

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Chernobyl 3D

No in-app purchases

None

Cairn

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chernobyl 3D free?
Chernobyl 3D is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cairn free?
Cairn costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Chernobyl 3D or Cairn?
Chernobyl 3D and Cairn are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4 and 9 ratings respectively.
Do Chernobyl 3D or Cairn have ads?
Neither Chernobyl 3D nor Cairn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chernobyl 3D or Cairn?
Chernobyl 3D ships an update every 3 days, and Cairn every 5 days. Most recently, Chernobyl 3D was updated on October 31, 2026 and Cairn on October 31, 2026.

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