S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:Shadow of Chernobyl is the latest game from the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World. Stalker has been in development for 6 years, and it could have benefited from another 6 months.
Although the game was released almost nine months ago, it was very unstable, and had various bugs and glitches. Recently, there have been several patches released to fix those problems, making it a much more entertaining game, instead of a constant annoyance. I waited for these patches to be released before I reviewed this game, because otherwise I would have given it a very poor rating.
Stalker is set in an alternate time line, where the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster caused massive amounts of damage and mutations. Various anomalies start showing up, and rare artifacts appear in “The Zone”: the area around the reactor. The game makes you take the role of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: the name that is given to the treasure hunters in Chernobyl. You wake up with no memories, and you have to figure out who you are.
The game is mainly open ended, but it still has very linear and tedious sequences in old military bases and laboratories. The game is different from most shooters because it offers you an inventory management system that lets you hold a limited amount of items. You have to carry guns, ammo, armor, food, medicine, and artifacts. Artifacts are items you find in anomalies, such as mini tornadoes, and grant you both benefits and drawbacks.
One item lets you run for longer amounts of time, but you take more damage from electricity. If you try to carry 5 different guns, and balance ammo for them, you end up not having any room for other items. You are able to take the guns and items from defeated enemies, and then sell them to traders, making it so that you have to always leave room for things you steal.
The game consists mainly of finding animals and bandits, taking things you find, and then selling them for better guns. You are able to explore the world, and the game rewards you buy placing rare artifacts and dangerous enemies everywhere you go. It took me around 15 hours to beat the game, and it was well worth it to play another 2 times.
The game has several different endings, although only two of the endings feature a “conclusion” to the game. The atmosphere of the Zone makes for a great story, and it’s great to just go exploring and seeing what things are around. Weapons are more realistic than in other games, with recoil and gravity being taken into consideration.
Aim is more realistic also, making it so that bullets will have a greater chance of missing when you shot from far away. Weapons and armor wear out with use, and become less effective the longer you have them. The game has incredibly smart AI when you play on the harder difficulty settings, but the easy setting causes enemies to be incredibly stupid.
On hard, I had an enemy hide behind a crate when I wasn’t look, and then jump out 2 minutes later, when I had thought everything was dead. Enemies sometimes fire in turns, making it so you have to take cover. When you try to hide behind an object, enemies are capable of flanking you on the other side, making it sometimes frustrating, but still fun. The biggest problem though, is that enemies are able to receive massive amounts of shotgun blasts, smg bursts, and pistol shots at point blank range and still keep running towards you, without even falling.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn’t for the faint of heart, so I wouldn’t recommend you play it unless you are really into shooters. If you’ve played games like Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Deus Ex and Fallout, then you’re going to love S.T.A.L.K.E.R. And if you do get it, also be sure to visit the game’s website, and download the patch. Otherwise, you’ll end up spending more time looking at bugs and glitches than playing the actual game.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gets a B-
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