The game has a simple premise. Youre stuck in the Zone, only way is deeper in. For the most perceptive, the setting itself immediately starts to break the 4th wall, by showing you the Zone as a marker of progression for the most of people attempting to play this game. A lot of people give up in the Cordon, never making it past the military checkpoint at railroad bridge, an area not too hostile, but still a challenge, if played on the only difficulty this game should be played in, STALKER. Why dont they? Some arent resourceful enough to just kill the soldiers with what theyve got. Some dont figure out the timing of electrical anomaly scouring the tunnel not 200 feet west of the checkpoint. Some fail to find the money for bribes. Youll see them represented as the NPCs sitting around fires, scared to ever wander out the village, others dead. Others give up in the Garbage, a fitting metaphor for them. Youll see a lot of bandits grouping up close to roads and structures, but few wandering further out than that. If you make it past Cordon and Garbage... Thats where STALKERS are made. Thats where the Zone takes you and never lets you go. To lethal effect. I first played the game 10 years ago, and never knew there was a 6th, real ending. Only once I got used to the Zone (playing it about 5 years ago), I figured out to think for myself, and found one of the most intriguing endings to a videogame, if you can call it an ending. Today, I decided to buy the trilogy again. Because the Zone calls, and will never stop calling. Trust me.
