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

The game is not for terminators who are used to killing everyone in games while chewing a sandwich, for them this game is pain and destruction of all the usual canons ))

The game as supplied by GOG (v1.006) is not very good. I don't know where all these rave reviews are coming from, but these people cannot have been playing v1.006! Installed direct from GOG the game is a frustrating, over difficult, festival of 1000 bugs! With typical Russian pisspoor language translations from it's native Russian. One of the worst aspects is the constantly respawning enemies..... especially right at map transition points. You enter into an old map which you've already cleared - and there is 1000 enemies right up your arse..... unless you've saved clever. You're game is now over! Permanently! And the weapons, they are obviously meant to be real world AK-74s, L85's, SVDs etc..... why then give them dumb fictional names?!!!! Idiotic! I can see 10000 disgruntled Russian fanbois already reaching for the "Is this helpful to you? NO!" button! But before you do, there IS salvation - the Stalker Complete 1.4.4 mod:- http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009/downloads This improves the game a 1000 fold! 90% of the bugs, gone! Graphics, improved. Sounds, improved. NPC AI, improved. Ambient effects, massively improved - even has a proper DARK nighttime now - I hate how so many games these day have nights as bright as day, "Skyrim" for example! Real weapon names instead of the dumb fictional ones, you got 'em! But the respawning enemies are still there..... but this mod adds a teleport feature, you can just instantly zap away from such bad spots, and it cirumnavigates these Far Cry 2 groundhog day constantly respawing maps! But if you need to collect loads more gear - the respawning enemies will keep giving it out. So you can avoid, or tackle the respawners however you wish! Hey, even the English has improved a little!!!!! With this mod the game is now 4 stars. Still not good enough (ie PERFECT) to be 5 though! I only hope the same person has made "Complete" mods for "Clear Sky" and "Call of Pripyat"!!!!!

As a neurotic obsessive of Andrei Tarkovsky's films, particularly the one this trilogy of FPS games was built in homage to, I have spent reticent years combing through endless reviews and 'tubing' the mod sites to only meet my own skepticism from it's immediate dissonance from the film. When I finally allowed myself to just shut up and enjoy something without too much expectation, I was completely enraptured. Taken as it's own piece of interactive art, 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl' goes to great lengths to note some of the most subtle aesthetic and subtextual emotional moments Tarkovsky conjured in us almost fourty years ago. It departs entirely from his cinematic masterpiece by becoming an action-oriented story equally drowned in atmosphere. It belies even that by forcing you into a miasmatic and baffling gauntlet of increasing urgency, so briefly relieved by respite. The scripting for the enemy AI is some of the very best I have ever, EVER experienced in my 37 years of gaming to this very day. The graphics and sound for their time and place are equally immersive, pushing the perceivable into the inconceivable. Despite countless bugs and fan-made attempts to bandage those issues, they become entirely forgivable by a haunting and strange ambience rivaled only by the early groundbreaking best like 'Half Life', 'Thief' or other Eastern titles like the 'Witcher' series. Truly loud and terrifying gun play raises the pulse and becomes some of the most rewarding gameplay after it's harrowing, resource exhausting decison making and real-feeling ballistic physics that become reminiscent of other shining celluloid diamonds such as 'Heat', or 'Black Hawk Down'. I broke a nervous sweat more than a few times. While much of the voice acting (English in my playthrough) falls short of the benchmark most of the game sets, it is more than adequate to propel a virtually story-free plot that yet remains engaging. Another echo of the primarily philosphical film. The perfectly reproduced sections of Pripyat itself are breathtaking and yet too frantic to be truly absorbed. Upon Googling images of the ghost city I found near exact replicas of the Eastern block tenemants that were built almost as quickly as they were abandoned. The rust-frozen ferris wheel that was to open the very week of the worst nuclear disaster in history, never once enjoyed by anyone; an iconic symbol of the socio-political decay that has beleaguered Ukranian and Russian people since utilitarian time immemorial. A truly suffering civilization haunted by corrupt and irresponsible leadership and hasty, cavalier decisions. All this while binding you to resource management and conservation of expensive and rarely afforded supplies like food, medical aid, radiation meds, a sleeping bag... Burdensome but welcoming desperate survival on the brink of human disintegration. The psuedo open-world requires points of travel with brief loading times that don't become noticable as you are distracted with increasingly intelligent and difficult enemies. They almost all carry different weapon types, so scavenging their ammo and swapping your hard won weapons with less functional ones will leave you angry but determined, another veritable description of Eastern European culture. I cannot truly praise this game enough. The countless flaws aside, it soars as one of the most satisfying and memorable gaming experiences of my life. Four stars only due to the issues that were never dealt with despite a long time 'baking'. A little polish could very well have made this a perfect game.

Played with the ZRP mode (Zone Reclamation Project) and is a simple drag and drop. The Zone is a fascinating and etheral place, it's captivating to wander, but incredibly dangerous. Everytime I loaded up SoC I was drawn in by the soundscapes and horror that's felt throughout. I was really taken aback by how gorgeous the lighting is and how it establish such a feeling of haunted beauty. It's a PC Classic that absolutely should be experience by those that enjoy their campaigns and modding. Especially for those that can enjoy RP in their games. Had a lot of fun with this one, good luck in the zone Stalker!

Never under estimate a bandit with a double barrel shotgun.