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


And now for something completely different...

ign

By: Charles Onyett

The idea of fusing first-person shooter mechanics with an open world is a tantalizing one. In GSC Game World's long awaited S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, such an experiment in genre cooking has produced some great results. The game offers significantly more content than any other FPS out there, but struggles a little when it comes to the open world. What remains consistent throughout the experience is the compelling atmosphere. The gnarled trees, bleak skies, and rumbling thunderstorms of The Zone grab you firmly by the ears and yank you across irradiated wastelands. In your first hours expect to be filled with an intrepid glee as you acclimate to the game world. A little while later, you'll likely realize the environment's limitations and yearn for more. Events kick off with your character, known only as the Marked One, tumbling off a death truck on the outskirts of The Zone. You soon meet up with a man named Sidorovich, who hands out your first tasks and introduces the fiction of the environment. As the journey progresses, you'll move through the game's various self-contained zones that together make up The Zone, from the relatively placid Cordon to the war-wracked Army Warehouses, Pripyat, and finally the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant itself, from which all things sinister seem to emanate.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s main story missions provide the most engaging experience, as completing the challenges sometimes bestows useful rewards, opens up new territory to explore, and advances the mysterious plot. It turns out the Zone's NPCs aren't the best storytellers, so to more accurately understand what's happening you'll need to regularly check your PDA; the Marked One turns out to be quite the diligent note taker. Though some of the story's twists and turns are interesting, the pacing and storytelling methods could have used some refinement. Be sure to get one of the two true endings to fill in all the plot holes. The five false ones explain very little.

In a strange twist, several of the main story missions take place underground or indoors, shifting the aspects of gameplay toward that of a traditional corridor shooter. If you really want to test out how S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s open world elements work, you'll need to embark on the many side quests The Zone's NPCs offer. Sadly only a handful of them are truly interesting. They mostly offer simple tasks such as kill a single target, wipe out a camp, or retrieve an object. The more involving ones toss you into battle with A.I. companions, though there are too few.

The game's zones, which take a minute or two to sprint across, are separated by load times, meaning you can't pass from one end of The Zone to the other uninterrupted. Upon your first footsteps in the early areas, it's an undeniably compelling prospect to trek across the dreary fields pocked with anomaly clusters to question the inhabitants and root out secrets. Though a few side quests offer valuable rewards (one particular quest in Yantar nets you an excellent armor piece), the majority give you money and bullets, both of which can be easily obtained through other means. Large quantities of ammunition for each of the game's rifles, shotguns, and pistols are available at any major vendor. Money is never really an issue in the game, since the artifacts you find lying around The Zone's fields sell for substantial sums. Aside from satisfying an explorer's curiosity and snatching the occasional artifact or suit of armor, the prizes for peeking around every corner in the Zone turn out to be somewhat lacking.

In a full-fledged RPG, you'd be rewarded with experience for beating up random baddies, or given skill points, or granted some other way of augmenting your abilities and furthering character development. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. starts out this way, as you rapidly discover more and more powerful weapons, some of which are even "+1" variations of base weapon models, but flatlines far too early. Engaging in non-essential combat is handy for picking up bandages and first aid kits, maintaining ammunition levels, and accumulating random items like bottles of precious vodka. Occasionally you'll come upon a useful artifact, and that's when exploring is most worthwhile. If you follow the storyline for about ten hours or so, you'll find you already have some of the best weapons and armor in the game, significantly diminishing the allure of perusing the open terrain. While some may think it's unfair to criticize the game for trimming features of a genre in which it only dabbles, we couldn't ignore the persistent desire for more character customization and a stronger incentive to explore.

A few other features, a fighting arena in a zone called The Bar and the ability to join up with either Duty or Freedom factions, have been implemented to divert your attention from the main quest, but there isn't a particularly forceful reason to involve yourself since the rewards aren't all that interesting. By the time you reach the Army Warehouses zone, where you'll get the opportunity to start questing with either faction to build reputation, the rewards will likely be dwarfed by the power of the arsenal and protection you already have. If you'd prefer to join up with the Freedom faction, a group whose outlook embraces hippie ideals as much as The Zone permits, you must not complete any Duty quests in the Army Warehouses zone. We mention this because the game doesn't.

What does remain interesting is the A-Life environmental A.I. system, triggered after you exit one zone for the next. Many of the side quests require you to walk back through to previous areas, ensuring you'll encounter the packs of roaming pseudodogs, bloodsuckers, and fleshes running amok across the countryside. If you take a minute to sit back and observe, you'll see the monsters attack bandits and drag around, even chew on downed bodies. You'll hear gunfire in the distance and know somewhere close by, enemy factions got too close to each other. You might even chuckle maniacally as you fire into an advancing pack of dogs, kill a few, then reload in peace as the survivors whimper, wheel, and flee in fear. Combined with the game's haunting atmosphere, these kinds of events do a great service to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s immersion factor and believability.

Another big plus for this game are the shooting mechanics, which have a touch of authenticity rarely felt in a video game. Early weapons are wildly inaccurate, for instance. Don't expect to hit enemies with the starting pistol from anywhere outside a few feet. As a contrast, the game's more sophisticated firearms feel and sound remarkably different, which works to generate genuine excitement upon discovering a new weapon. Even the strongest scoped rifles, outside of the sniper variety, are somewhat inaccurate at longer ranges, making the gameplay more engaging since it forces you to close range on the enemy. It was a worry of ours that because of the many wide open battlefields you'd be able to take down most foes before they even see you. As a result of each weapon's more spastic accuracy, this isn't the case at all.

It also helps that enemies are really weak in only one spot: their heads. Unload a full clip from a few feet away at the torso and legs of the game's heavily armored foes and they'll likely be returning fire as you attempt to reload. Take the time to line up a shot and pop one or two into an enemy's face, however, and he'll slam to the ground in seconds. The game also delivers a distinct sense of increasing personal power as you accumulate better armor, weapons, and artifacts. When revisiting some of the early zones, you'll be able to utterly shred the opposition that was earlier such a chore to dispatch, like in many RPGs.

Enemy A.I. furthers the entertainment derived from firefights, when it's working properly. Foes stay on the move once alerted to your presence, often switching between cover spots and sometimes flanking your position. For the most part, you'll find The Zone's humanoid inhabitants aren't the type to blindly charge, and generally resist the all-too-common A.I. urge to pursue through doorways and find certain death at the mouth of your waiting gun barrel.

As our adventures progressed, we unfortunately ran into many instances where the A.I. clearly screwed up. In sprawling games like this, A.I. bugs are to be expected, but it happened with a heightened regularity in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. For instance, you'll witness enemies perform the classic endless-charge-into-a-corner routine, attempt to shoot through walls, or become entirely confused and stand still during battle. When these quirks occur, in addition to a few quest-breaking bugs and other inconsistencies, it detracts from the otherwise powerful sense of immersion S.T.A.L.K.E.R. conjures.

These technical flaws are largely compensated for with persuasive intangibles, specifically mood. The graphics, though dated in places, coalesce into a stunning amalgam of unfamiliarity. Very rarely do we see games exude such a repulsive yet enchanting mystique as with GSC's title. Eerily realistic sunrises, rainstorms, and NPC battles occurring outside the sphere of player involvement produce a disarming atmospheric cohesiveness. Attention to detail in all the game's cityscapes and fields triggers a subtle sense of familiarity, even while assaulting you with the wholly alien. The game deftly slides from post-apocalyptic science fiction sensibilities to nerve-singing survival horror, keeping you constantly in a state of hesitant wonder. With such strong environmental character, it's too bad S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lacks any persuasive NPC characters. Even Sidorovich, one of the game's strongest personalities, fits snugly into a stereotypical mold.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s sounds are quite good, particularly the piercing ambient howls the float across The Zone and the startling cries of the various mutants. Weapon sounds do a great job of immersing you in the environment, effectively conveying a sense of the firearms' power. You'll find unexpected extras packed in as well, most notably a surprising amount of guitar riffs triggered when NPCs decide to park themselves in front of a flaming barrel and start to strum. There seems to be a sizable amount of voice acting in the game, but we unfortunately couldn't understand a majority of it since most ambient NPCs comments aren't spoken in English.

If you decide to head online, multiplayer deathmatch, team deathmatch, and a capture the flag-type mode called Artifact Hunt are available. Before heading out to each match, which take place on maps based on areas of the single player game, you're given a wide selection of weaponry, armor, and items to bring with you. Like in Counter-Strike, getting kills nets you cash which you can then use to buy more powerful weapons the next time around. In deathmatch and team deathmatch, you'll rank up as you wipe out more opponents, unlocking deadlier weaponry and protective armor. Though you're not going to spend a majority of your time here, it's still an entertaining diversion from the single player, and certainly adds to this game's appeal.

So what kind of hardware power are you going to need to run this thing? It may not show off all the latest graphical effects, but this game is rather demanding. While it's by no means a top of the line rig, our Pentium 4 3.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM, and 512 MB Radeon X1900 system had problems at maximum settings. The game also tended to stutter quite often, sometimes pausing for three or four seconds at regular intervals, which occurred on two different Windows XP rigs at maximum visual quality. Though that isn't the best of news, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does support widescreen resolutions, which should please many.

©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved


STALKER finally emerges from the shadow that lay over its development. Should it have stayed hidden?

yahoo

By: Mike Smith

Forget everything you know about STALKER. Over the six-odd years of its development, this FPS/RPG hybrid suffered delay after delay and setback after setback, leading many to doubt whether it would ever see the light of day. To considerable surprise, it's in stores now -- and to even more considerable surprise, it's actually good.

Set in and around the ruined nuclear power plant at Chernobyl , where a second nuclear disaster has awakened strange new phenomena, STALKER doesn't exactly have a cheerful theme. You play a scavenger -- one of the eponymous "Stalkers" -- who was attracted to the reactor area in search of valuable artifacts created by these anomalous energy formations.

Think of it as a realistic first-person shooter with a survival horror-esque motif and a ton of open-ended, Deus Ex-like levels. You don't develop your character or improve your skills as in most RPGs, but you can equip various combinations of objects that tweak your defenses or resistances to damage, offering some opportunity to tweak your stats.

STALKER's levels are huge and sprawling, each big enough for many large buildings and plenty of countryside between them. You'll visit ruined cities, factories, military bases, radiation-bathed garbage dumps, and mysterious research labs. Oh, and the power plant itself, lurking at the northern end of the map like some hulking, malevolent reminder of humanity's arrogance. Friendlier zones hold towns (or fortresses) of Stalkers, complete with bars, traders and services.

Shifting from level to level, in contrast to most supposedly non-linear games, is interrupted by a loading pause. If you're expecting Oblivion-like openness, you're in for a disappointment. STALKER is way more traditional about the way it handles level boundaries and transitions, and there's a very definite (and well-managed) progression from easier ones to harder.

They're all packed, to greater or lesser degrees, with mysterious anomalies. Some are relatively harmless, but others will shred you into a fine red mist quicker than a Ukrainian can down a bottle of vodka. Some create useful artifacts over time, so if you come back later you might find valuable goodies where once there was flesh-crushing horribleness.

STALKER's story isn't especially interesting nor particularly well told. Where it succeeds, though, is how well it handles its contemporary sci-fi situation. Though it has its share of strange, pseudo-supernatural goings-on, they're woven so carefully into the game's fabric you barely notice when it crosses the line from the believable to the outlandish. When it does drop you into Crazytown, which it only does occasionally, it does it thoroughly and with terrifying effect.

While its situations may be unusual, its weapon selection will be familiar to most players: pistols, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, grenade launchers. Chunky and heavy-feeling, the weapon models exude a pleasant air of stocky Soviet practicality. Equip an assault rifle with a scope, and you'll find the gun takes up most of the right side of the screen.

Speaking of Communist engineering, abandoned vehicles litter the game's landscape. STALKER's developers originally intended them to be drivable, and as you traipse back and forth through the game's large levels, you'll wish they hadn't taken them out. You'll usually have to head back to a quest-giver to collect your reward, and as giver and objective can sometimes be separated by several levels that can lead to some decent treks.

All that radiation seems to have affected the mental faculties of the other Stalkers. They mix moments of almost prescient smartness with episodes of dismal dumbness. At times, they'll use pincer movements to trap you or surprise you from dark areas. Equally, they'll sometimes mooch around in the open when under fire, or ignore your shots altogether in favor of studying some particularly interesting patch of wall.

Everything about STALKER's graphics emphasizes the realism of the world -- even the game's less realistic objects, like the anomalies, are subtle and often hard to spot. The Chernobyl plant and its surroundings, abandoned immediately after the meltdown, are disheveled, ruined, and overgrown. It's not a cheerful place -- but then, why would it be? It's the site of the world's largest nuclear accident, not a holiday camp, and it looks the part. It's not here to wow you with its technical prowess.

Keeping most of the voiceovers in Russian, whether it was done for atmosphere or to save money, was a smart move. Having much of the game take place in a language you don't understand takes surprisingly little away from the action, and piles on the atmosphere. Unless you speak Russian, of course, in which case you're on your own.

In fact, the game's whole sound design drips class. It's equally adept at crafting quiet interior scenes where every little tap and muttering is as vital as recreating the chaos and clamor of a military assault. The eerie crackle of your Geiger counter underlines the danger of the more radioactive zones, and the subtle noises made by the anomalies are just as important to localizing them as the visuals.

Single-player has obviously been the focus of STALKER's development, but nevertheless it includes a comprehensive set of multiplayer options. It doesn't go to places most realistic multiplayer shooters haven't gone before, but the post-apocalyptic maps are well designed and decently varied. There's talk that some of the features removed by the developers still lurk in the game's code, so perhaps motivated fans will be able to unlock some extra features that'll better differentiate it from other shooters. All the same, as a second string to STALKER's bow it's more than adequate.

When Chernobyl melted down, it spewed a cloud of radioactive dust all over Europe. A similarly menacing cloud hung over STALKER's development, and given all its troubles we're fortunate to have a game at all, let alone one this good. Its setting is superb, its gameplay tense and convincing, and it boasts what are definitely the best fill-your-pants moments in a PC game for quite some time. It's hard to see how it could have turned out better.

This grandly ambitious shooter is hindered by some poor design choices and rough edges.

gamespy

By: Li C. Kuo

We always applaud ambition and creativity in gaming. Nowadays we see far too little of either and when someone tries to break out of the mold it tends to catch our attention. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl definitely caught our attention. Yes, it took some time to finally reach our hands, but now that we've played the game it's easy to understand what took so long. S:SoC is a wildly ambitious title. Unfortunately, ambition alone does not make a game great.

It's very tempting to say S:SoC is "Oblivion with guns," but that wouldn't be accurate. GSC Gameworld's offering does feature an open expanse of land for you to explore, but it's not nearly as vast as what a true roleplaying game like Oblivion offers. Still, it's huge when compared to other more traditional shooters that feature linear paths. What we found the most appealing about the overall design of S:SoC is how effectively it ties into the storyline.


Welcome to the Wasteland

We all know about the disaster in Chernobyl, but in the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., that disastrous event was only the beginning. As the story goes, a second meltdown occurs in 2006 and a 30-kilometer area around the reactor is evacuated and quarantined, leaving behind a virtual ghost town. Not long after this reports of wondrous artifacts surface, and where do these artifacts come from? Take a guess. As a result all sorts of folks descend upon the nuclear wasteland in search of these mysterious and valuable baubles. These scavengers are known as stalkers.

Your character steps into this world six years after the second meltdown. Not only are you in the middle of a radioactive killing field, but you've also got amnesia. Fortunately, there are a handful of people willing to help you get back on your feet and find out who you really are. Unfortunately, these aren't the kind of people who give away something for nothing. Thus you set off on a journey, the length of which will easily rival the playtime of many role-playing games.

A trader is your first contact. You'll start far away from the Chernobyl reactor in Pripyat. It's here where you'll get a first-hand taste of how hostile the environment you're in really is. Strange anomalies are scattered throughout the landscape. These radioactive phenomenon are definitely bad for your health. Some will appear as distortions in the air, others will look like spinning vortexes of wind, while others will look like puddles of sludge or a concentration of lightening. They will all hurt you in their own unique way so you'll want to steer clear.

Getting to Know the Locals

You'll also need to keep an eye out for mutants. These range from infected dogs to other, stranger creatures. As you delve deeper into the game you'll find stranger and deadlier mutants, such as the deadly Bloodsucker or the creepy Poltergeist. Some of these mutants will have special powers, such as invisibility or the ability to hurl objects at you via telekinesis. Other mutants, such as the dogs, will travel in packs that can tear you to bits in seconds.

As if radioactive anomalies and mutants weren't enough, you'll also have to deal with other stalkers, the Russian military, bandits, mercenaries, and various other factions that have all established themselves within the quarantined zone. Fortunately, you can make allies of your own, and not all NPCs will attack you on sight. You'll also be able to trade with anyone you meet, but really only dedicated traders in bars and other locations will be worth trading with.


Self-defense

The developers at GSC Gameworld certainly know their guns. All of the weapons in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. have made-up names, but they look and work just like real-world analogues. This means you'll find an AK-74, only it'll be called something else, but it'll still be an AK and still take 5.45x39mm ammo. This little detail is important because there are many different ammo types in the game. You'll have to pay attention to what ammo you're picking up or purchasing, otherwise you'll find yourself stuck with a gun and no compatible ammo to load it with.

For gun nuts, this won't be a problem and may even be a perk as it adds to the sense of realism in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. But other folks may have some difficulty, especially when so many ammo types look similar. For example, it's easy to accidentally buy 9x18mm ammo when you actually need 9x19mm ammo.

While you don't actually level-up like you do in an RPG, you will eventually get bigger and better guns and gear. When you start off you'll often find yourself outgunned; eventually you'll get your hands on something better, but then you'll move to another zone and find yourself outclassed again. Thankfully, this goes the other way as well. When you backtrack from a later zone to one of the earlier zones you'll make short work of any fools who happen to stand in your way.

The sheer number of weapons available will please any military buff. Shotguns, pistols, and even RPGs can be found, taken, or purchased. The biggest difference between weapons is how accurate they are. When you start off, trying to hit anything more than 50 feet away is a crap shoot. However, once you start getting your hands on better weaponry, you'll find that more bullets will go where you point them.

Staying Alive

Just keep in mind that the bad guys have the same arms you do. At long ranges you'll get hit occasionally, but if someone gets right in your face, you'll die in a second. You do have bandages and first-aid kits, and these are bound to quick keys so you can heal yourself as quickly as possible.

.

When you get wounded you run the chance of bleeding out. You'll need bandages to stop the bleeding. These will also recover a little health, but medical kits are what you really need when your health is low. Unfortunately, bullets and mutants aren't all that will snuff the life out of you. Radiation is a constant hazard and a bar in your inventory screen will tell you how exposed you are. If you start taking too much radiation you'll start losing health. Once that bar fills up, you're toast. The crispy kind.


When you're near radiation the screen will start to go fuzzy and you'll hear a Geiger counter ticking madly. A radiation symbol will also appear on your HUD. We just wish that the bar indicating how much of a dose you're getting would appear on the HUD as well. Instead, you have to go to your inventory screen to see it.

There are two ways to keep the effects of radiation exposure at bay. The first is vodka. Drinking a bottle of this stuff will reduce the effects of radiation on your body, but if you drink too much of it you'll get drunk. You'll weave and be much less effective in combat. Ideally you'll want to use anti-radiation drugs. These wonder-shots will eliminate all effects of radiation and reduce your radiation bar to zero.

Your suit will also protect you from exposure. Some suits are better-suited for protection from bullets while others are better for protection for radiation. Eventually you'll be able to find more advanced suits that can do both and even exo-skeleton suits that will give you the ability to carry a heavier load. Unassisted, you're limited to about 50Kg, if you carry too much you won't be able to sprint very far, carry even more and you won't even be able to move. This ensures that you're not a walking arms shop and forces you to make careful decisions about what to bring with you on a long trip.

The Long Walk

30 kilometers is a lot of distance to travel, and you'll find yourself doing a lot of walking. It's practically impossible to go anywhere without having to defend yourself from someone or something at least once. Plus, you'll need food on a regular basis to restore your stamina and to stay alive.

As you explore the quarantined area you'll visit underground factories, abandoned military bases, ghost towns, and other eerie places. The developers have done a fantastic job of conveying a sense of desolation and destruction. Everywhere you go you see signs of decay. S:SoC makes you really feel like you're alone wandering in a very strange and hostile land.

During your travels you'll accomplish tasks for people. You'll do mundane things like help a man find a lost family rifle, as well as participate in great raids with different factions as they combat each other for what little there is left to fight over. Accomplishing missions will net you rewards, cash, and information.

There is a main storyline and if you wish you can only do missions related to it. But we wouldn't recommend this. All the best gear and weaponry is obtained through optional side-quests, and if you skip these you'll have it that much harder during the endgame when you'll need every advantage you can get.

A Worthy Challenge

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is by no means an easy game. You'll die often, travel great distances, and face incredible odds. The AI is slightly inconsistent, but ultimately challenging. Sometimes they'll get stuck or shoot at walls, but when they get it together they'll rush you, flank you, or force you out of your cover with a well-placed grenade. Mutants have their own unique behavior patterns and will require different tactics to take down. At one point you'll even have to fend off hordes of zombies, and evade a helicopter gunship.

Sometimes you'll have the aid of other stalkers or factions, but most of the time you'll be alone. You'll also have a few missions that will require you to escort people. Fortunately, the story is always gripping. Piecing together what's going on is a great incentive to keep playing and resulted in us doing some massive marathon sessions. There are seven endings in all, and each reflects your approach to the game. We won't give away any other details here.


The Ugly Truth

Unfortunately, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has a number of rough edges. If you're one of the early adopters who made the jump to Windows Vista, you're in for a rough ride; we ended up using an older XP system for our review. There is a patch out now that fixes 65 different bugs, creates save game incompatibilities, and still leaves many problems unaddressed.

Sometimes the weapon models for NPCs will appear inside their arms instead of in their hands; the result is a bunch of guys who have rifles embedded into their flesh. Also, there would be times when the game would pause for a few seconds as we're just walking around. This would be after a separate load screen had appeared so we don't think it's loading anything. It's just a pause where nothing seems to be going on.

Finding a multiplayer game isn't too fun either. Every time we went online we found plenty of servers, but few that actually had anyone in them, much less enough people for an actual game. There are three multiplayer modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Artifact Hunt. The first two are self-explanatory, the third has the two teams racing to collect an artifacts that appear randomly on the map. Once a team secures an artifact they must take it back to their base.

All three modes feature a cash system similar to Counter-strike. As you score more kills and wins you'll get more cash to buy better weapons. You can also pick up weapons from fallen comrades and enemies. Multiplayer combat is quick and brutal, but straightforward and really nothing to get too excited about. It's really the single-player mode that shines here.

Ambition is Good

GSC Gameworld tried to expand the dimensions of the first-person shooter, and to some extent, it succeeded. The open game world and the great environment are all worth getting excited about, although there is a bit too much backtracking and walking for our tastes. We longed for a fast travel option or better yet, a vehicle to get us from point A to point B.

The game's also still too buggy even after being patched, as well as being filled with small problems. Typos are commonplace in NPC text, the interface for managing your inventory is annoying and clunky. It's easy to see why the game was delayed so many times, and hard to fathom how some of these kinks weren't worked out in the process.

Despite all these issues, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is an effective open-ended first-person shooter with a gripping story and a fantastic setting. The graphics look a little dated (except for the great lighting effects from the flashlights at night) and the overall feel of the game is a bit rough, but it's still worth checking out. If it's given another chance, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has the potential to eventually become a franchise to be reckoned with.

©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved