Game: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Shadows of Chernobyl
Year (s): 2007
Company: dev. GSC Game World
pub. THQ
Engine: X-Ray Engine 1.0
Type: FPS RPG
What I Paid: NA
Game Time: 19 hours first time (few side quests completed)
Plot
You have amnesia. STALKER is tattooed on your arm, which must be a pretty cool acronym, but I never found out what it stood for in the game (luckily, Wikipedia filled me in just now. Hurray). All you know is that your PDA says, "Kill Streelok." You work as a bounty hunter/mercenary while trying to find Streelok. There are occasional flashback cutscenes that explain nothing.
The setting for the game is an alternate reality in "The Zone" (the 30 km zone affected by the Chernobyl disaster) that has become even more hazardous from secret mad science projects.
So... What's Going On?
The game has eight endings, depending on what you do in the game. Six of these show a short cutscene where you die in some creative way. TWO of them explain what the hell the story was (I got one of the ones that did not). I only played this game through in hopes it would have some cool... something at the end. Even after looking up the "good" endings on Youtbue, I was still left very unimpressed.
Graphics
This came out before Fallout 3, and the graphics show that. Landscape and objects look ok, but people are under-par. Also, there are only a few different character models. I shot a friendly by accident and their entire faction was hostile to me for the rest of the game. Whoops.
Seriously?
Unlike similar FPS RPG's by Bethesda Softworks, weapons and armor cannot be repaired (they still degrade with use). I found only four or five characters throughout the game that would buy and sell weapons, armor, and ammo (medkits were also hard to come by). Having my armor in rags all the time meant I spent the last half of the game running from bullets, and then dying from all the damn radiation my armor was also no longer protecting me from.
Injuries cause bleeding (further loss of life). You have to eat, or die from starvation. It's really easy to get radiation sickness, too. For all of these realistic touches, you can't/don't sleep.
THERE ARE NO VEHICLES. THERE IS NO FAST-TRAVEL.
Do You Like Bugs?
As a main quest, I stole a briefcase of intel from a military base. This allowed me to advance to the next area. When I asked for more missions, I was told to steal the briefcase from the military base...
Quest completion and repeat were definetely buggy, but otherwise the game was stable.
Combat
Enemies are always accurate, regardless of cover or light-levels. There are some standard weapon types, like assault rifles, shotguns, and grenades. There are also equipable artifacts. These generally give you a boost in one area and a deficiency in another. A low weight limit allows you to carry only few weapons. Everything, including ammo, has weight.
Just to suck a little more, the mouse wheel does nothing; you have to hit number keys to select/change weapons. I got killed by the same dog several times before I asked Ben why the attack button did nothing.
Expansions / DLC
Clear Sky, a prequel, was made after. Even later, the sequel Call of Pripyat was released. I have only played Pripyat for an hour or so, but can happily report they added (DUH!) a fast-travel feature, and improved the graphics a little bit. Other than that, I just can't bring myself to play it. These games have no redeeming quality.
Final Thoughts
They had a bunch of Russians working on the game for realism? Wow! Maybe they should have gotten some play testers. Difficult, buggy, plotless (aka pointless), unsatisfying piece of crap. If you don't have it, get Fallout 3. It's better in every way possible.
I'll do a Crysis review next (after I play the expansion). It will be a MUCH happier post. They can't all be winners, I guess.
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