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

An awesome classic for fans of hardcore RPGs

i remember getting this from my dad around its release. its story is strange, but good. its universe was awesome and mysterious. AI was great too for its time. this game and its series is hands down my favorite in the FPS world because it doesn't rely on multiplayer PVP. it has a well crafted yet mysterious story, and really makes the player driven to get to the end by any means. unlike the 2 sequals that followed this is the only one that has many endings, 2 of which are damn hard to get to, but well worth it. on a side note this game is based on a russian book series that as far as i know is not going to be translated to english sadly. looks like ill have to learn to read russian in order to get a deeper understanding of the back story of the game and lore of this universe.

The best version of the STALKER series and better then the STEAM version!

I remember first turning on a computer I built around early 2008. I had been interested in open world games since Far Cry 1 on PC, and when I booted this up it didn't disappoint. I started in a bunker, emerged, and ruins of a small series of buildings are in front of me with an encampment. A dead tree was off to my left and I turned in time to see crows fly over a field with lightning strikes in the far distance. I dearly love this game, and mods make it sooo much better. A lot of features were cut from the game, like "blowouts" (waves of radiation and psionic energy emissions from Soviet experiments under Chernobyl, no more spoilers), and mods that add them in really raise immersion: there's nothing like crawling into the attic of an abandoned cottage and eating canned food during a lightning storm, while listening to invisible Bloodsucker mutations move about in the dark and counting your bullets to determine if you can kill it for its precious body parts (for ammo and food) or if you'd be better off sleeping and healing, then running for your life the next morning if the monsters are still around. I did get sick of the difficulty and played most of it with a trainer. The levels aren't huge like Far Cry 1's, but there are so many ways to die (especially instakills by invisible Anomalies) that you MUST move slowly in a lot of areas, and larger maps might be a burden instead of a blessing. Still, if ever a game needed a remake and expansion, this would be it! Heck, what about a game where the Zone never stopped and has expanded to encompass most of northern Ukraine and southern Belarus? Make a HUGE game like Just Cause 3 or something like that! Just one tip: if you find a way to kill the Duty Faction guy who says "Get out of here, Stalker", DO IT. I must have heard that around two thousand time, and I may be undercounting... or, you know, mod it out. Shooting him was a lot more fun, though... you'll see...