Often compared with Far Cry in the years of developing, the game was meant to be very promising. The Ukrainian developer GSC Game World was promising the largest environment and the best A.I. on the market. With a mixture of FPS and RPG (you can talk and trade with NPC's, you have an inventory, and can use different artifacts for some abilities boosts), the developer thought that he can create a masterpiece. But working in an east-European-rhythm, the game became a joke just like Duke Nukem Forever. In the beginning it was meant to be a much more futuristic game, but GSC decided that a more post apocalyptic approach would be much interesting. And Chernobyl with its recent but dark history, was the perfect location. The story uses as a background the fiction book Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky which had a big success in Eastern Europe countries back in the seventies. Terms like "Stalker", "The Zone" and the idea of anomalies are directly imported from the book .

Who am I?

In the game you play as an amnesic Stalker (a bounty and artifact hunter) who is the only survivor of a Death Truck (a truck which is transporting brainwashed Stalkers out of the C-Consciousness lab area) accident. You are found by a tribe of free artifact hunters who are located in the south of The Zone. Here is where you take contact with the first inhabitants of The Zone and learn the basic things about surviving in this region. The story is very blurry at the beginning challenging you to start your journey of discovering your true identity. What is C-Consciousness lab and what is your true identity I let you discover alone.

The Zone

The Zone is a fictive 30 km square area around the Chernobyl Power Plant and is the "playground" for every Stalker consisting in human settlements, several military bases and wilderness.

But the real playing area is not a continuous one, but a package of several huge maps connected through loading screens. Because of their huge dimensions, the game gives you the impression of unlimited environment, but if you begin to explore the whole map you will realize that you are limited by fences or other natural obstacles. The transitions between areas can be made only through specific passageways. In the game The Zone suffered a second nuclear explosion, after the one we all know back in 1986. This explosion was much more powerful than the first one and caused radical changes in fauna, flora, and in the laws of physics.

Anomalies

Those changes in the laws of physics are called anomalies and are present randomly across the region. An anomaly measures a few meters, and entering in this area can be dangerous for every living creature. These places can be detected by different signs such as floating leaves, heat, winds or by discharges of electricity or by dead creatures around it.

In the middle of every anomaly there is an artifact. These artifacts are used by Stalkers as currency objects, but also for boosting several abilities (radiation resistance, low bleeding, agility, etc). Every ability boost comes with a price. You can take an artifact that is boosting your radiation resistance, but can increase every damage taken by your body from bullets. Radiation is another factor that can kill any living being and can be detected by your Geiger counter. You can avoid it by using artifacts, anti-radiation serum or anti-radiation suit.

Transport

The game was initially designed to support also controllable vehicles, but the hurry of ending the game made the GSC team to give up this ability. Your trusted foot is the only transport meaning. If you really need to run, a stamina bar will let do this for a short while. Unfortunately you cannot shoot while you are sprinting and if your inventory is too heavy your stamina will be over very soon. The game let's you carry up to 50 kilo of weapons, artifacts, armors and different other objects. You can exceed this weight with 9 kilo, but every kilo will represent an impediment in your movement. Over 60 kilo you cannot move anymore, so you need to drop something from your inventory.

{pagebreak}

Weapons

Every weapon is categorized by accuracy, handling, damage, and rate of fire. Each feature influences the handling of the weapon, and the way you have to use it to be as efficient as possible. In the first missions you have to destroy the enemy with just a pistol and eventually an old AK-47, making the first steps in the game to be quite frustrating for a newbie. If you play the game without any patch installed, the balance of the game is very fluctuate (from very easy missions, where you can eliminate a whole garrison, to hard missions where you will use the quickload button more frequently than the shooting button), making the gameplay more and more frustrating. The enemy has an extreme precise aiming ability, while you always have to look for the headshot. In every FPS game, the physics of the bullets are very important. The game was thought from the beginning to be as realistic as possible from this point of view. So the bullet trajectory is influenced by natural factors such as speed and direction of wind and distance. Used with common FPS games, you will encounter difficulties even in shooting an enemy from a very short range. From the second half of the game the enemy begins to be more and more powerful by using more precise weapons and wearing big armors. I found myself several times in difficult situations where I was forced to reload the game more than 20 times, just because I was unable to cross a room full of soldiers. You will always have the feeling that you shoot the enemy with matchsticks.

Cycle of life

Besides the huge environment, the game increases its complexity by introducing a full life cycle. Every NPC and virtual animal in the game is ruled by a life cycle governed by feeding, sleep, combat, and task. Especially the monsters' behavior is ruled by the need to feed. While you wander the woods, you can be attacked by a dozen of hungry animals, while sometimes in the same region, the animals will just flee from you. Time seems to influence everybody in the game. The day-night cycle will change different aspects of the game. You can see in the night groups of NPC's standing around a fire and playing the guitar, or just lying down. At daylight, the NPC's are far more active. Your own character is governed by all the game's life cycle. Besides health and stamina you have to control also your hunger. As the hunger increases you have to eat from your provisions. Otherwise your health will decrease after a while. Unfortunately sleep will not affect your character. On a way to a quest you can meet members of different factions that are fighting. You can decide if you want to interfere or not. This is a very good aspect, giving you the feeling of freedom in your actions.

Inventory

The inventory is very well implemented, but needs a continuously management due to its limitations. Like in a real RPG, you can trade or sell any object from your inventory. I admit that I didn't bought too many objects from the traders, due to the big prices and the lack of diversity. Every secondary quest completed gives you a new useful item. But if you follow only the main quests, then it's necessary to trade items with the NPC's in order to acquire better weapons and bigger armors. The usage of the inventory is simple, almost every action being controlled with a simple or double-click.

PDA

The PDA, a tool already common in some games, makes its presence in the Stalker's pocket. It can show you the active missions, the completed and the missed missions. It can be used also as an encyclopedia for all the new mutants, artifacts, and factions.

The PDA includes also a map where every active objective will be highlighted, and where you can sign every ammo deposit found.

{pagebreak}
Gameplay: 88

It's hard to comment in a few words the gameplay of this masterpiece. Sometimes is full of bugs, and the A.I. is really aggressive, while sometimes every creature of the game will just ignore you. Though if you think of the vast territory where the action takes place, the physics of the weapons and the life cycle which governs every creature in the game, you can ignore all the negative factors of it. The story is original, although is inspired by the Roadside Picnic book. But what's really astonishing is the Eastern-Europe atmosphere with a deep accent of Communism.

For someone who visited an Eastern-Europe country, buildings like storehouses, depots, factories and farms will remind him of the Communism Era which marked for about 50 years these countries. Mixed with a post-apocalyptic future, the game really looks like the Fallout universe, but is not so complex.

Graphics: 93

"X-Ray engine" is responsible for the graphics of the game. Because of the developing process started five years ago, the engine has its old roots. Thought to run on GeForce FX video cards, the game is compatible also with DirectX 8, and can be played in this regime too. A thumb up for this feature, taking in consideration that the latest games need high technical requirements. The environmental graphics are amazing, displaying photo-realistic images, with high detailed textures. The day-night cycle, the meteorological effects (visible sun, wind, rain, storm), the dynamic lighting (lightning, lantern beam, explosions, shining effects), are all present to improve the game atmosphere.