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

This is the kind of game that thinks dying alot and reloading is fun. You will be spamming quick save. This is not as open world as is claimed. You are often times funneled in a certain direction or down a certain path. There are no alternate ways of completing objectives. It is at its core a "cover" shooter. You can't just walk into a room with a shotgun and mow everyone down. The problem is the only "cover" mechanic they put in the game is the ability to lean around corners and shoot, or crouch behind something. Thats okay, but the enemy bullets often just go right through the walls, or cement block, or tire you are hiding behind, or they shoot you the second you pop your head out .They can see you in the dark from a mile away. They can see you when you try to hide in bushes. They will hit you alot with inaccurate weapons from a ridiculous distance. When helping friendlies defend or take a position, you are invisible to them. They will push you out of cover to take cover themselves. There is hardly any dialog, it is mostly text based conversation. It also has the most nauseating head bobbing mechanic of any game I have ever played. No one walks like that. I never had a feeling of accomplishment or achievement. There was no character progression or growth. I did finish it, but there will be no more playthroughs, once was enough. The poorly implemented combat mechanics and overly accurate enemies kinda took the fun out of it for me.

The STALKER games (the original trilogy) are masterpieces. Simple as that. Yes, the budgets were not that high, and bugs were present, but the soul of these games are just incredible, and the bugs/issues have been resolved by the incredibly passionate community. The STALKER games are the most atmospheric games that I have ever played (and I have played many games) with such incredible world design and environmental story telling. To understand the STALKER games, think of Fallout meets Deus Ex meets Far Cry set in the Chernobyl area of Ukraine with subtle supernatural elements made by actual Ukraine developers for extra authenticity and heavily inspired by the movie STALKER (which is in turn inspired by the novel "A Roadside Picnic"). There are just no other games like the STALKER games. The games are so unique: melancholic, philosophical, noir, artistic, fun, exploratory, action-packed, RPG, just everything in one that "just works". The games are ridiculously addictive and engrossing with tight gameplay and perfect pacing/scope. The trilogy is in my top five games of all time (having played close to 35 years of many many games). The passion of the communities for these games is also astronomical and totally rightfully so. STALKER - Anomaly and many other STALKER mods are always pretty much the most popular mods on ModDB and there are such incredible communities built around these games. It is extremely difficult to put into words what experiencing STALKER (especially the original Shadow Of Chernobyl for the first time) is like, it is magical and something so unique. Just pure masterpieces born from passionate developers and so different from traditional "western games" so to speak. Like so different, but still familiar...difficult to put into words. Those other fellow STALKERS that "get it" know that once the Zone has you...it never lets you go, and few other games ever make you feel and have an experience like the STALKER trilogy.

This is one of the few games I've played more than once... The story really drew me in, so rich and mysterious it is! On your journey you'll meet welcoming, friendly S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, dangerous bandits and soldiers, mutated animals and (former) humans, poltergeists, & apparitions... But these aren't the only characters. In Shadows of Chernobyl, the very land and environment seem to come alive, too, with mysterious energetic anomalies and dangerous radiation! There are several elements that make S.o.C. a unique and engrossing experience. First the atmosphere: There is just something perfect about the way GSC's developers orchestrated the perfect visual artistry with world sounds (animals, creatures, anomalies, Geiger clicks...), and subtle music that seep into your unconscious and stir an aire of dream and mystery within you and transport you into the surreal world of The Zone... Another unique facet is the amazing A.I. The way the NPCs, human and otherwise, move around, interact with each other, and interact with, or avoid, you, really brings them (and the Zone) to life in a way no other game has really captured. This, too, adds to the atmosphere and immersion... Finally, while there are definite events that shake things up and challenge you beyond general game play, there are no arbitrary "Bosses". Everything in the game play contributes to the story and experience onn the whole. Taken together, The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games are wholly an experience unto themselves, and I highly recommend them!!! Even as old as they are, the art of the graphics and the elements described above generally, leave this game NOT feeling dated. Even now in August of 2022 these games hold their own.

Remember when this came out, everyone was talking about it. Finally 16 years later, thanks to GOG's discount I'm able to play it. And oh boy... is it something unique. Thought it was just FPS, but it is so much more. Best way for me to describe is mix of Half-Life and Fallout. So player does play from first person perspective, but like Fallout you can change suits, manage what you carry, money, artifacts that have pros and cons and so on. Action in real-time not turn base like Fallout, that is the part borrowed from Half-Life. No key cards to progress to next level, but huge map for player to explore, divided in locations. Story is quite addictive, set around nuclear power plant in Chernobyl some time after second disaster, now called "The Zone". Crawling with mutants, bandits, army, anomalies and of course Stalkers. Protagonist is Stalker with amnesia with task to kill another fellow Stalker. So wondering through Zone doing quests and trying to discover what happened to him. Gameplay is good, but you will have to do lot of backtracking. So this can be annoying quite a lot, but it just a way to progress in game and story line. RNG can be sometimes really, really tough. Giving you zero seconds to reacts. But than again, game is not easy. Ok, so now for bad parts of game. Every game has bugs and glitches, and that all adds to charme of game. But, you'll soon get annoyed when you save game and enemies that were in other room spawn right behind you, when they shot you trough wall, you aim straight into enemy head and it just keeps walking or killing you, shortcut key doesn't response and so and so on... If you accept that game is way far from glitches and bug free, and don't break keyboard in this process . You will enjoy game.

An amazingly atmospheric game. What always captured me the most about it, was how, despite the dreadful atmosphere, the violent clashes and the struggle for survival, there's always a tender humanity at this games core. Additionally, I did like the mysterious story turning philosophical towards the end.