Written by Jeff Buckland, 4/5/2007
Played on:
Windows
Pentium M 2GHz CPU
2GB DDR2 RAM
Geforce GO 7800 GTX
Minimum:
AMD 2200+ CPU or
Intel 2GHz P4
512MB RAM
Geforce 5700 or
Radeon 9600 video
It's been over five years in the making and it's gotten pretty close to the top of a lot of lists of software that might never be released, but here it is: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. This first person shooter, from Eastern European developer GSC Game World, promises a new kind of open-ended FPS gameplay where there are many different ways you can progress and lots of non-critical quests and tasks you can do before getting to the end of the game.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. takes place in the future in the Zone, an area surrounding the melted down nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in Russia. You play a character who showed up with no memory and only a single clue: the words "Kill Strelok" on his PDA. You'll get a little bit of help getting started again but soon will be on your own and solving the mystery - and trying to reach that goal of killing some guy named Strelok, too.
You'll quickly find out that the Chernobyl meltdown, which did happen in real life in 1986 and delivered lethal (or mutation-causing) radiation for many miles, has been augmented in the story forS.T.A.L.K.E.R. The game takes place in the future and a new sci-fi element has been added - mutations are way more deadly for the inhabitants, and mysterious laboratories and underground structures hold quite a few horrors inside. Still, people are drawn to the zone either for profit in the form of radioactive artifacts, or for research. Some are just murderous and can still manage a living here in the Zone, or on the outskirts, avoid the authorities, and still do all kinds of illegal stuff.
You, however, have one mission to start and only add on new, optional ones as you see fit. You'll of course find plenty of opposition as you venture out from the first major area in the game, the Cordon, and move in a general northerly direction towards the center of the Zone. On the way you'll find bandits, mutants, wildlife which may or may not attack you depending on their mood or how hungry they seem to be, and several organized factions - some of which allow you to side with or against them. You won't be forced to side with anyone in particular to beat the game, but there really isn't a whole lot that's absolutely required in order to beat S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
This doesn't mean there's not much to do. As you kill enemies you'll get notices of their secret item stashes which you can go raid, and there are plenty of weapons for you to choose from. You'll have to manage your ammo, and most guns do have multiple types of ammo that are better suited for armored or unarmored opponents. Items like grenades will add a bit of tactical flavor, but for the most part you'll be shooting people.
The combat in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. comes often and it is brutal - if you usually play FPS games on Normal difficulty, put it on Novice here. It's a tough game and combat moves quickly. You can easily get surrounded and taken out if you're not careful, and your aim is going to have to be impeccable - you will require an order of magnitude more ammo if you're not getting headshots more than half the time. This is because most of your enemies are wearing very protective body armor, and with the built-in inaccuracy for most of the game's guns (even the higher-end rifles), you're going to need to exploit the system to its fullest in order to spend more time in game and less time staring at the "Loading" screen.
You can augment your own abilities with artifacts. You've got five slots for these, and you can equip any combination of artifacts you want. Most of them have some kind of downside along with the perk; some of them will add to the radiation you're taking in, forcing you to drink vodka (yes, vodka) or take anti-radiation meds every once in a while to stay alive. Others will reduce your resilience to bullets, explosions, or various other hazards but give you a good boost on other stats. It's up to you how you want to configure your artifacts, but as you go through the game you'll find a ton of them on vendors, people you have to kill, or just lying around in the world.
