PC: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl

Apparently this game has been in development hell for the last decade or something like that. I somehow managed to miss this but for those who have been waiting was it worth it?

It's set in the near future 2012 in the surrounding wasteland of Chernobyl, I'm disturbed that some of you might be young enough not to remember there was a nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 which created this wasteland, anyway for game purposes there was a second explosion in 2006, which has now caused strange things to happen in "the zone". Cue your entrance to the game on a dead truck, luckily you’re not actually dead but you do have amnesia. You'll spend the rest of this FPS unfolding the story of who you are and what’s actually happening so I won't spoil that for you as it's a major driving force in the game.

Game play wise this is a lot like Oblivion with AK's and Russian accents. From oblivion we borrow the free roaming environment, though it is split into zones which have load times between but they are rather large. We also get quests in the form of missions, a core set and side/random missions. You can complete the story without doing any side missions but then you'd probably miss a fair bit of fun along the way much the same as oblivion. I also found myself feeling rather uneasy at times when it comes to the missions as they aren’t always very clean cut you have moral decisions to make at times, ok so it's usually do I kill this bloke or not, but with multiple endings these have an impact. Unfortunately some of the side quests are bugged which is a letdown but with luck these will be patched soon and they don't break the game. You'd think though after this long another month or two fixing these issues wouldn't be noticed. Different fractions some of which you can chose to work with and lastly a inventory system.

The inventory actually has more impact than you'd think and is done well. You can't carry every gun in the game and you'll find yourself picking and choosing what you need, should you carry an extra clip of ammo or an extra couple of bandages?, it's refreshing compared with Half Lifes, one of everything and a set level of ammo for each. You'll end up checking every corpse for what he has left on him ammo wise and you won't spray and pray too often for fear of running out of ammo. It never quite hampers you but it does make things that little more interesting. Oh and unlike every other game your flash light just works, none of this 30 seconds of light turn off and re-charge rubbish.

Weapons you've a fair range of modern weapons and no fancy lasers and other new fangled tech this is dirty projectile weapons and true to form they jam at the most in opportune moments and also degrade with use, making them more likely to jam. You can also find custom weapons on some people you kill which you'll hang on to as long as possible.

Talking of people to kill you don't actually have a huge variety in the game, a couple of packs of wild dogs, the odd boar and humans be they soldiers, bandits, other scavengers (stalkers) like yourself. What’s nice is you'll often find the bandits in a shoot out with soldiers or the other fractions. You'll get support from other stalkers in fights and wild dogs won't only attack you but anyone they see. The AI is excellent, with dogs running away if wounded or if you surprise them with a few shots. The humans use cover and try to out flank you which is sometimes far too easy in the open environments which again add to the realism. There are a few other mutations I've not mentioned but again half the fun is discovering them for yourself.

Graphics wise it doesn't let you down either with some nice weather effects, blowing grass, lightning storms. The lighting is just beautiful at times and the scenery is just right, burnt out vehicles, rundown buildings, you'll never be fully blown away by anything but you'll also never think anything is totally out of place. All the zones keep the same feel of realism nothing is overly futuristic like in Half Life 2. The sound also keeps it real it's nothing major to write home about because it sets the mood but never goes overboard. It all adds to the atmosphere and that’s what this game has immersion and atmosphere by the bucket load.

Multiplayer doesn't add much and I doubt I'll give it another shot, it's your basic Death match, Team Death Match and capture the artifact (flag). It's an added bonus but like so many of these things that all it is. It won't compare with Battlefield 2142, Counter strike or other such things.

Finally some people might compared Stalker to Half Life 2 and I did like Half Life 2 but I loved Stalker, I never felt out of place in Stalker like I did at times in Half Life, I never felt bored of a section in Stalker even if I was retracing steps because I'd missed something but at times I did in Half Life 2. For me Stalker is the better game and I would recommend it to Half Life 2 players but I personally can't think of much they have in common other than both being FPS all I can say is if you like FPS this should be in your collection.

[JZY]

The whole storyline of a mysterious 'zone' where something is happened, and has become desolate & dangerous with only people called 'stalkers' venturing into salvage items etc originally comes from a book called 'Roadside picnic' by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky.

Im a big fan of the book, and the film that came out based on it ('Stalker' by Andrei Tarkovsky [1979]) so might be tempted to check out this game just to see how many elements of both the book & film they might have encorporated.

For anyone that plays the game first and likes the idea of the story, i strongly suggest you check out the above mentioned book & film. (the real reason for the zone being created is an alien visitation in the original story, not cherynobl)

[Sgt Craig]

Yep, I ran through the game the first time i played it and missed a huge amount, i just started it again the other night and i'm really enjoying doing all the side missions and getting all the cool kit.

It certainly has a few quirks, the most annoying being the way that sometimes the mission status won't update even if you complete it. but they are all minor niggles in a game that is very rewarding on the whole.

[Shannow]

I quite fancy this, been contemplating pickig it up, jst wonderig how it'll run on my machine.

[GoddamnElectric]

The editors are clearly getting a bit lazy with the spellchecker
I fancy this, but I'm concerned it'll be a let down after being in production for all of time.

[Zooropa]

What platform?

[Sgt Craig]

meh, it was a bit of a dissapointment for me to start with as i had been following it since the day it first appeared in the mags and built up huge expectations, it turns out to be a fairly average RPG that isn't too hard to pick up and play, most of the enjoyment for me comes from the behaviour of the NPCs and the way they interact with stuff. On that note i thought that the AI was pretty good and although the graphics aren't spectactular the weather effects and lighting are great.

plus its only £17 in most places so there are few reasons not to give a shot.

[TheCastrator]

Bought it when it came out.
Played it for two days.
It's been sitting on the floor since.


It's really not that good. Voice actors? Anyone? Please? I honestly don't mind reading a backstory, but it'd be nice if it wasn't just "TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT" followed by "TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT".
In fact, it reminds me of Morrowind and why I stopped playing that after two days. It's set in its own little fantasy world where you have to go to Yugbarr in order to get the Grimshan from Kropnikov, who is the brother of Krapnikov, Klopnikov and the father of Gropnikov, and in order to understand it you have to sit there reading and re-reading fucking miles of text just so you can go "Oh, right, you want me to go over to that place five minutes along the road and shoot some bastard?".

Which brings me to my second gripe.
The guns are realistic. Yep. Yep they are. Really. Someone told me about how Gun A's(I'm not a gun-person(Outside of a "Should the zombies attack, I will require... situation"), I can't remember the names) sights are slightly wonky so you should aim slightly to the left and up and Gun B needs this, and and and...
Realistic? Probably. From what I know and have been told. Modelled on real guns? Sure thing!
Fun? No chance.

The enemy, incidentally, have no problem with this. They can hit you with a shotgun from a mile away, can see you through walls(Which they regularly shoot, what with me being on the other side of them. Top AI, there), and are actually Agents from The Matrix, able to somehow dodge headshots at point blank range.

"Oh look!" I cry, "Bandits!", then proceed to die twenty times before I realise that the only way to survive the encounter is to run away. Which is effective because instead of legs, you seem to have a Harley Davidson motorcycle attached to your hips.

The point I gave up was outside a train station. What was I doing there? Fuck knows, I was just going North, I suspect some guy told me to go that way because...lord, some sort of thing was there or something I don't know.
There were two big doors, slightly open. And I was as quiet as a little mouse...
I am not exaggerating when I say fifty thousand bullets flew into my Goddamned face.

It's not fun, it looks like it was made three years ago and the twist can be seen coming by people who have only been told the basic plot of the game.

So a bit crap, then.

[Dyno]

Originally Posted by Sgt Craig

meh, it was a bit of a dissapointment for me to start with as i had been following it since the day it first appeared in the mags and built up huge expectations, it turns out to be a fairly average RPG that isn't too hard to pick up and play, most of the enjoyment for me comes from the behaviour of the NPCs and the way they interact with stuff. On that note i thought that the AI was pretty good and although the graphics aren't spectactular the weather effects and lighting are great.

plus its only £17 in most places so there are few reasons not to give a shot.

Same. I had been following this for years and bought it the day it came out. I haven't gone back to it since. It's a major disappointment in the fact that it's totally un-optimised and runs like utter shit on most PC's, regardless of specs.
Once they patch it so it runs better on mid-high range rigs, i won't be playing this again.

Originally Posted by TheCastrator

The guns are realistic. Yep. Yep they are. Really. Someone told me about how Gun A's(I'm not a gun-person(Outside of a "Should the zombies attack, I will require... situation"), I can't remember the names) sights are slightly wonky so you should aim slightly to the left and up and Gun B needs this, and and and...
Realistic? Probably. From what I know and have been told. Modelled on real guns? Sure thing!
Fun? No chance.

The enemy, incidentally, have no problem with this. They can hit you with a shotgun from a mile away, can see you through walls(Which they regularly shoot, what with me being on the other side of them. Top AI, there), and are actually Agents from The Matrix, able to somehow dodge headshots at point blank range.

Aye, the guns are a pain in the arse. Apparently they have realistic ballistics and gun physics which make the bullets drop etc. AKA, not fun, and I sincerely doubt that these physics work for the NPC's.

[Ghostsuit]

Originally Posted by GoddamnElectric

The editors are clearly getting a bit lazy with the spellchecker
I fancy this, but I'm concerned it'll be a let down after being in production for all of time.

I ran spell check on that before submitting to the editors .

Originally Posted by Dyno

Aye, the guns are a pain in the arse. Apparently they have realistic ballistics and gun physics which make the bullets drop etc. AKA, not fun, and I sincerely doubt that these physics work for the NPC's.

You guys must just be really shite shots or not used to "short controlled bursts".

Originally Posted by Zooropa

What platform?

PC

[GoddamnElectric]

Originally Posted by Ghostsuit

I ran spell check on that before submitting to the editors

I meant that the spellchecker has clearly auto-corrected words into the wrong words, albeit spelled correctly, which proof reading hasn't caught.

[Ghostsuit]

Originally Posted by GoddamnElectric

I meant that the spellchecker has clearly auto-corrected words into the wrong words, albeit spelled correctly, which proof reading hasn't caught.

Ahh I'll remember to doble check in future.

[endless psych]

Got this today. By the lateness of the hour I think its save to say a mild addiction maybe forming.

Whether its cos the game is really good or really frustrating is yet to be decided.

Originally Posted by Dyno

Same. I had been following this for years and bought it the day it came out. I haven't gone back to it since. It's a major disappointment in the fact that it's totally un-optimised and runs like utter shit on most PC's, regardless of specs.
Once they patch it so it runs better on mid-high range rigs, i won't be playing this again.

It runs ok on mine - which aint that far off the min spec...

[Hammer]

A few first impression type thoughs:

Very nice graphics - I especially like the graininess in the cut-scene at the start, it sets the tone well, as does the steampunk design of the loading menus.

Hellish load times - It must have taken nearly 5 minutes for this to load on my machine. It's been a while since I've seen a load time that long.

The PDA looks like a Nokia N95.

The cursor response when your in the menus is piss poor, yet it's fine in the actual game.

And finally, it runs pretty poorly on my machine. I think it might be time to put my nVidia 6800 card out to pasture and invest in a pair of these shiny new 8800 series cards and obviously an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, motherboard and cooling system to go with them.
Now all I need to do is get a job so I can afford a grand and a half worth of computer innards.

[Ghostsuit]

Saw this for £5 in Zavvi today, damn fine price.