Nowadays Post-Apocalyptic Survival Horror games tend to be multiplayer zombie fests, the sort where you are just as likely to get killed by human nature than you are by the denizens that inhabit those games. Now a select few of these games actually pull of what they attempt to do, while the rest fail horribly; but for those that want a more refined experience akin to DayZ or Rust there’s the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl comes from GSC Game World in the Ukraine, home country of the Chernobyl incident and with post soviet style and estranged horror, GSC does a tremendous job at creating a truly riveting shooter.


Story:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R takes place within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a roughly 30 square kilometre area that contains a plethora of locations inhabited by either stalkers, military, bandits, mutants or worse. Within the zones lies anomalies that the player must avoid; some conduct immense amounts of electricity, while others simply crush you in a vortex of force. Fortunately and unfortunately for the player there lies artifacts near anomalies that can be used to significantly increase your abilities or sell for a decent price.

You play the role of the “Marked One”, an amnesiac who just happened to find himself in The Zone. Armed with several guns and protective gear you set out to face the dangers of The Zone and hopefully gain back your memory. And that ladies and gentlemen is pretty much the story.

Now while the actual story is a little lacking, it’s the individual experiences in The Zone that I remember the most. Stories of trekking through the underground tunnels of Agroprom hearing the horrid sound of mutants lurking in the dark or wandering the wastes at night to hear distant gunshots and screams of mutants and men; this is stuff the sticks with you long after the game is done. So in that sense the story the setting has to tell is rather interesting and saves the game from being a bore to experience.

8.0/10

Design:

The bulk of S.T.A.L.K.E.R takes place within a large non-linear sandbox with varying locations with a plethora of enemies to kill. All the A.I programmed in the game is done expertly, with pack animals hunting for food while bandits and other Stalkers scout the land looking for artifacts to plunder or people to rob. The best part of the A.I is that it doesn’t stop when you enter another area of The Zone, the mutants, bandits, military and Stalkers all remain, all interacting and surviving against each other.

My only gripe with the design of the game is that it does take a little too long to load the level, nothing drastic but the self-reflection drags a bit too long.

Now the original release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R was known to be rather buggy and I’ve played the 1.0 version back in the day and I can say it was pretty buggy; thing is I’m not going to constitute the buggyness into the final score for this review because this is a review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R’s current state and the bugs are nearly gone with both official support and modding.

8.7/10

Gameplay:

The gun play in the game is more of a simulation than arcade-y feel when compared to the run of the mill shooter; while the other games you can get pumped full of bullets before you die, a stray bullet to head means you’ll hit the bucket in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Though you might think it seems like a huge detriment to the player it only really enhances the feeling of vulnerability as it is the perfect way to completely change the mood in an instant.

One such story was in the area of The Zone known as The Garbage which is the place where the Ukrainian SSR government dumped all the radioactive debris from vehicles, buildings and bodies. I was sitting with a bunch of friendly stalkers in a large garage, just passing the time in the campfire listening to one of them play the guitar while the other tells a story; the story was is Russian so I have no idea what it was about or if it even was a story but by god does it create good atmosphere. In an instant the camp was being raided by bandits and the only way everyone knew what was going on was when the crack of an SVD (Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova, Dragunov Sniper Rifle) sliced through the air and hit the guitarist in the head, killing him in an instant. After a tense firefight the bandits were dead and the garage safely secure again, unfortunately the guitarist had to die but someone eventually picked up the guitar and started playing it.
And that’s what makes S.T.A.L.K.E.R so great, the never ending feeling of dread; whether in broad daylight or in the deepest, darkest tunnels of Pripyat, the feeling danger is always near.

9.4/10


Presentation:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R came out in 2007 so it’s not that old but the visuals sure look a bit dated, in a sort of lower budget Ukrainian developer sense. Ever since its release there have been numerous mods that improve the visuals significantly and some even improve the mechanics.

The bulk of the visuals consist of Soviet era architecture, muddy wasteland, swamps, abandoned labs and tunnels. It’s all rather interesting to someone who is accustomed to more “american/western european” architecture, all the soviet stuff is incredibly utilitarian and bland but it just enhances the mood of dread in a sort of “even the world doesn’t care what happens to you” sort of way.

8.6/10

Overall S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of those gems that you might of missed amongst bigger 2007 titles like Halo 3, Gears of War, Mass Effect and Bioshock. If you have a PC that can run S.T.A.L.K.E.R (which should be any PC these days) I would highly recommend it, especially if you can last through punishing gameplay.

Overall Score:

8.7/10