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

Please do not play this masterpiece with Complete 2009/2012. In addition to being outdated and riddled with bugs, it makes the game far too easy. You should rather play it with Zone Reclamation Project and some graphic mods such as Absolute Nature/Absolute Structures if you think it looks dated. Now, all of my favorite games are more or less from 1994 to 2000, with a few exceptions in the recent years. Shadow of Chernobyl is one of these exceptions. The atmosphere is extremely thick, the Zone is very dangerous and almost everything out there is out to kill you, even the environment itself with various anomalies and radiation pockets, as you can imagine. Gunplay is very good, the exploration feels rewarding and the sheer amount of caches around will make you search places from top to bottom. You can gather artifacts in anomaly fields you can either equip or sell, these usually give you boosts but you can get irradiated in the process. STALKER is not an RPG even if it has very light RPG systems; quests, dialogue trees and some stats. You do not level up and you'll be constantly looking for better weapons and armor. Explore lush, radioactive areas, visit underground and secret soviet laboratories, scared of something that might jump out of the shadows to get you, scavenge weapons and equipment, run around the vast wilderness, hunt mutant creatures, discover the secret of the Chernobyl NPP and more importantly: kill Strelok.

In this review I want to highlight three important things that you need to know/do to make your S.T.A.L.K.E.R playthrough perfect first time. In fact my lack of knowledge of my third point left my dissapointed with the game. Firstly the game barely autosaves and you will to use F6 TO QUICKSAVE you'll learn this pretty quickly. Secondly THE GAME IS BROKEN WITHOUT THE ZRP MOD make sure to go to their website, download and follow the simple instructions to install, and I also strongly advice not using any other mods (especially complete) to keep the game feeling vanilla. Thirdly the games plot isnt presented very well, while it is good, if you dont pay intention to the seemingly insignificant text on the HUD you will be dissapointed so pay close attiention to dialouge and make sure to read the personal note in the Diary Section if you're confused with the story. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL "MAKE SURE TO MEET WITH GUIDE" AFTER X16 this might not make sense now but once you play the game it will and you must do all missions linked to this to properly finish the game. Lastly I want to say that i do absolutely love this game. The concept and environment of the post-apocolyptic zone is so enticing and the game perfectly capitlizes on that atmosphere especially when underground and the looter-shooter gameplay is so addicting that even with the high ttk you cant stop playing.

Inmidst the rising mediocrity of single-player FPS came STALKER, a game that took me by storm with its unique atmosphere and environment. It is an RPG-like FPS but with no XP: equipment, skill and ammunition replace that. The progression comes from the player, how good he can react to threats, knowledge of the game and what equipment he managed to get on the way, not that some skill he unlocked after 1000 zombie kills. The maps are big, the NPC and monster AI make every venture out into the wild an adventure, ripe with stories to tell later at the fire. A sprawling, dedicated mod community lets you tweak the experience to your liking.

Прекрасная игра созданая на постсовецком пространстве, потягается с её известностью может разве что тетрис))), обладает своей непревзайдёной атмосферой, прекрасным сюжетом и локациями. Если брать в расчёт всю серию то она покарило миллионы сердец, и мы живущие на развалах союза как ни кто другие чуствуем и понимаем родные места: деревени, уголки природы и конечно техника, разбитые ржавеющие УАЗы разных моделей, ЗиЛы. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ты лучший!!!

I am completely new to this series but I will say I am now a huge fan! I've been gaming for 20+ years and this is one of the most unique experiences I have had, thus far. If you like FPS, a very tense atmosphere and enjoy exploring an environment where death could literally be around the next corner, you will love this game. This is NOT run& gun. Anything above the easiest level you are required to think "what keeps me alive". Use cover, listen for footsteps, aim for the head and hope there isn't another creature about to flank you. Without spoilers, at one point in the game I literally crouched in a corner, between 2 buildings and just kept moving my gun sights back and forth to scan the area because I was scared to go any further. If you have a fairly good graphics card, I highly recommend getting some of the aesthetic mods that add more trees, grass, higher quality textures, etc. (I.E. Absolute nature, structure... there's TONS of mods out there to choose from). Crank up the in-game graphics, turn off the lights, get you some surround sound and/or quality headphones and get ready for an amazing ride!