S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

excellent
key review info
  • Game: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: N/a
  • Reviewed on:

I was deceived a lot of times in this matter. I hoped for a long time that I'll finally be able to touch the keyboard while S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was running on my computer. I held my breath with every announcement and I was disappointed every time I heard the infamous words: NO S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for you, young man.

I've been watching this game ever since it was announced back in 2001. The initial release date was set for 2003 and even if it was delayed for a little while I ran through rain and thunder and bought a graphic card capable of delivering a smooth experience (an Nvidia 6600 at that time). I went a home a happy man (or boy) and waited for the magic announcement: It's GOLD! Time passed by me, my back started to develop a small hump until I finally retired in a small corner with the box from the video card held tightly in my arms. No food or water, I went in my own little strike. At first, the only thing that kept me going was the sporadic trailers and screenshots, but I was hurt by the insensibility of the producers who kept postponing it year after year. I managed to get back on my feet but this old scar ran deep and from time to time, the financial report of THQ which failed to mention this title was like a knife shoved again and again. The final blow was delivered by a fact-rumor which stated that THQ even offered GSC, the producers, an incentive numbering hundreds of thousands of dollars just to finish the damn game. I threw the old card away and made my peace: I would never see S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in my lifetime and even if it were to be launched some time I vowed not to play it.

A few months ago I saw a small trailer, not through any fault of my own and as I was still upset (even though I grew up a little in all those years of development), I've noticed with the corner of my eye a small date: March 2007. I immediately forgot any vows and consulted the financial report of THQ for the first quarter; there was nothing mentioned. Even though I went ahead on my business I still retained a small hope and then, all of a sudden, I got hit with a freight train: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is out. I freaked out and my universe collapsed on itself. I'm going to stop here before you call 911; I'm not all that crazy about this game but I have to admit that I felt some kind of warmth inside when I found out that they actually managed to finish and ship it onto the market. As we'll see further on, the game presents itself as a definite winner but with its weaker spots. I will try to restrain myself as much as possible from praising it too much as it wouldn't be fair.

Concept The concept of STALKER (I will write it like this from now on, the punctuations is killing me) is not entirely new but takes it to the next level. These kinds of open spaces have only been done at this scale only in Far Cry, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and Gothic 3. Their single difference and maybe its biggest flaw is that this huge area is divided in several territories and requires a moderate loading time to pass from one to another and most missions will require it.

I do believe this is the first attempt to a new blend of genres, first person shooter and role playing games. For most of it, this new concept respects both with great accuracy so you'll find the kind of thrills from FEAR and Doom as well as an intricate story that you have to put together from bits and pieces scattered all over the ZONE (as we STALKERS like to call it) with the possibility of failing most of the tasks.

I have to say this is the least expected move from GSC and I'm almost sure that they hadn't begun on this road six years ago. This kind of work and planning took a lot of guts because the RPG genre is very restrictive with its fans so they have sugar coated it with a shiny FPS look. Personally, I have nothing against it and to be honest, I like more this way than being just mindless hunt of mutants.

Story They haven't made any public announcements of great SF writers working on the project of some illustrious mind set to blow us away with a beautiful story but this is exactly the case here, and it's the perfect example that we can see interesting plot without any orcs or strange other-worldly realms. Although it might look rather simple at the beginning, the smart people at GSC, I'm sure they know who they are, inserted small legends and folk tales, PDA's and small talk that complete the entire experience. After the first hours, if you manage not to go just through the story and actually follow the side missions, you'll start to get a more comprehensive picture of the entire ZONE and a more detailed look on its mechanisms and folklore.

As advertised many years before the actual launch, we were served the frame for the background story, in an alternative future. In 2006, a second explosion made the Chernobyl area uninhabitable and the local government (Ukrainian I suppose) was forced to enclose the massive radioactive area and post military patrols to guard it. In time, different individuals made it past the patrols and begun collecting strange artifacts which were suddenly in high demand. More and more people entered and the ZONE became a hunting ground for these STALKERS.

Unfortunately for them, the Zone is not empty but occupied with strange creatures that have mutated and procreated over time. The story begins with a truck that is trying to escape from the heart of the zone, hauling a bunch of dead bodies. Something happened and the truck is destroyed. Your body, which for some reason is not quite dead, is found by another STALKER and sold for the right price. After waking up, you find yourself with some memories and with one clear objective on the PDA: to kill another STALKER. Being the only lead, the hunt begins to regain your past.

This might not be as easy as it seems as The Zone is controlled by a few factions with their own agenda: The Military, which is there only by name, Duty and Freedom, just to name the important ones. Each of them will play an important part in revealing your true purpose.

The story has been very cleverly enhanced with folk tales and legends which are slowly composing the big picture and that insinuate a small thread of mystery in what could have been a dull shooter. The biggest surprise will come to the ones that have read "The Sphere" by Michael Crichton and I'm not sure if they have taken some ideas from it but I honestly don't believe it was a bad thing to do.

Gameplay We have hinted a long time before the release the true nature of the gameplay within STALKER, mainly because everyone was desperate to gather any available detail and the producers even gave us this opportunity by delaying the release with a couple of years. Even so, there was some mystery on how will the world of STALKER (The Zone) work and how interactive will everything be.

Right from the start, I had the impression I'm playing a mix of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Gothic 3 with machine guns. This first impression took some time to sink in but, after a while, it got a life of its own and eventually matured into its own genre. Even with all the inventory screens and maps, artifacts (rings and amulets in other elfish games) and quest trees, the game remains a full blown shooter with the capability of being one of the best so far.

Just like in any other game we know, the player is thrown into battle with merely a gun and a few bullets. The first major NPC is the same one that will give you the first clues and the first one to take advantage of your convenient amnesia. "Go kill that pack of wild mutant boars" he said. He obviously forgot to mention that the boars are quite territorial and my gun is only good at annoying them. This is the general structure of quests and their direct resolve.

One of the most interesting features I found was the fact I was practically free to roam anywhere, being blocked only by the lack of military hardware and suitable radiation protection; so instead of forcing me from level to level, the developers chose a longer and more realistic approach. Sure you could get the GOD command and go directly to the end of the game, but where's the fun in that? This feature allows any player to fully experience the environments and the local wild life. Very soon I found myself to be quite fond of some safe havens and I started to hate the remote places and the grazing grounds of the blind dogs (I don't have the slightest idea why they had to be blind).

As I was saying before, the game starts with a simple pistol, which is rather flimsy but, fear not, as the game will soon presents itself with more powerful weapons like sub machine-guns and all variants of AKM's imaginable. The inventory system is restricted by a weight limit and every item that you gather will slowly start to have an effect on the player stamina. This makes it impossible for anyone to carry more than two large weapons at a time and separate ammo for everyone, making the adventure a little more realistic and forthcoming.

The Zone is divided in several smaller areas that have usually one central point of interest and some that are hidden from the main path. The quests, either main or secondary will eventually push the player in most interesting areas, but the game leaves the impression that there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Unfortunately the games haven't advanced enough to permit such a large environment to be loaded just one time (although we have seen similar cases in the games I mentioned before) but in this case the scripting involved and the dynamics of the life forms are simply too complicated to be managed by an average processor and a simple hard drive.

There aren't too many plot characters along the way and the ones that matter are always situated in the same spot. This and the fact that most quests are marked on the map make for a smooth gameplay, without the hassle of searching and other methods. This has been a turn-off for me in many games, like in Gothic 3, where you have to find your own way without any visual aids or help of any kind.

The gameplay has two strong attributes that really stand out from the rest: one is the fighting mechanics and the second one is the item (and inventory) system which can surprise you in any moment. These points distinguish STALKER from any other known titles and it's enough to spot one of these aspects on a monitor screen to know what is playing.

I don't have any recollection of another game that compelled me to find certain items or to search any dead body in sight and if it weren't enough it also gives an unhealthy desire to kill every living organism that even looks in my direction. All these beautiful items and weapons that can be pick-up up are stacked up quite cozy in a nice inventory with contextual menus and details on everything. I can't say for sure how many things can be found but I'm guessing they are about 300-400 and if you think just for a second that they might not be enough, rest assured, there are more than plenty to satisfy anyone. And if that wasn't enough, the player can occasionally find certain artifacts that act just like amulets and enhance or diminishes some attributes like health, radiation resistance, bleeding, endurance and a few others. This feature alone can be enticing enough for hack and slash lovers to give this shooter a chance.

The second attribute I was mentioning is the AI and the "war composition" as I like to call it. I have to say I was surprised to see such a performant AI and by this I mean it's more intelligent than most games that come to mind. The closest one could be Far Cry, but this one is too far ahead. The enemies are well distinguished by aggression, territoriality and their love toward you. It's not difficult to imagine that The Marked One is not the most loved person in The Zone and in best case they are rather neutral. The ones that aren't neutral are exhibiting that evolved behavior I was talking about, with the pattern of a wolf pack, flanking, taking cover and most tactics you would use. I had many times the possibility of experiencing this first hand: I was trying to flank a group of heavily armed men only to find myself face to face with one that was thinking the same. Too bad I couldn't see the expression on his face behind the mask; I'm sure he was just as surprised as me, right before I borrowed him some led. On a more serious tone, I'm sure that it will pass some time until we'll see something at least at the same level.

I haven't seen the perfect game just yet and STALKER is no exception. Even if I wasn't struck by some horrible bugs like others have been, I had my share. The most annoying one I could find didn't let me finish a quest, probably because of some script that wasn't triggering the way it was supposed. I had a couple crashes to the desktop, but giving the complexity I wasn't surprised at all.

Graphics GSC has taunted us with their engine for quite some time and with the weather system and with the AI and I could go on like this for some paragraphs. In the end, the X-ray Engine has managed to incorporate the latest 3.0 shader and most of hardware killing technologies like parallax mapping, HDR and soft shadows. Needles to say, all these don't come cheap and you'll need at least a 7900 from Nvidia (or their ATI/AMD equivalent, whatever there is these days) and 2 GB of RAM if you want to have a smooth experience.

Unlike other games that require huge amounts of power just to have a light bulb moving, the graphic engine in STALKER shows what it's capable of, even if it's not as pretty as other games. I personally believe the game shows its value in-doors; I haven't been this scared since Alone in the Dark 4. The visual expression is immense and I couldn't stop saying: "This is the s**t I'm talking about, this is how games should look like". I think that alone says it all.

Sound Oscar worthy. Not the voices, which are normal and uninteresting as performance. The sounds from weapons, dogs, boars or a mutant that is feeding on your mind will haunt me for some time. Whenever I'll be playing a game I will always come back to this game for reference. Just as simple as that.

Multiplayer This could have easily have been transformed into a small MMO with this huge playable area. I could have imagined myself playing as a rogue sniper or a ruthless mercenary, but I guess they haven't had the time or the patience to implement such a feat. GSC only squeezed the simplest deathmatch and some form to capture the flag into it. This is not the selling point and it's reducing the final impression.

Conclusion I've really enjoyed playing Shadow of Chernobyl and it left me with a great feeling and on top of that I have this impulse of starting it all over again. I know for certain this kind of replayability is the mark of winner. STALKER will most probably become the FPS of the year and there is no doubt it will have some kind of an add-on in the future. I can only hope that my children will be able to play it because if they follow the current development rhythm, I'm not putting my hopes up.

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story 9
gameplay 9
concept 10
graphics 8
audio 10
multiplayer 7
final rating 9.3
Editor's review
excellent