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

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series will always have a place in my heart and especially Shadow of Chernobyl. I found about this game back in 2014 because I was never interested in survival shooters. However my neighbor had the collector's edition and I was like "Hey! Isn't that the survival shooter in Chernobyl?" He replied "Oh, believe me, it's more than just that". And so this is how I got my copy. Story: As I said the game is a survival-horror FPS set in Ukraine, Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster. The story (no spoilers) is simple. After the disaster a bunch of artifact collectors called "The Stalkers" came in to take the artifacts and become rich. You play the role of a Stalker named "The Marked One" who had an amnesia and is trying to remember his past. The story itself is amazing and it sounds like one of those stories from your friends when you're camping and they are telling stories at night. Gameplay: The first thing that I noticed is how difficult the game is from the start, it is definitely not friendly to newcomers. I started the first mission and died twice before I realized two very important things: quicksaving and tactics. This is no Call of Duty where you can run around shooting people in without punishment. Here, you are just as fragile as the enemies (if not more), so you need to think through what you are doing. Shooting however isn't everything. You will need to look out for deadly anomalies and mutants because they can rip you to shreds in seconds. There is a weight system which is very unnecessary but it wants to be as realistic as possible so I'll let it slide by. Unfortunately there are no upgrades for weapons and armor, but that comes in later games. Don't forget to stock up on bandages and first aid kits. Soundtrack: Ah yes, what would be a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game without the phenomenal soundtrack. Even though it is only 1 and a half hours long, it will make you feel like you are part of the game. It will make the atmosphere intense and scary. Verdict: If you like horror shooters with good story and don't mind difficulty, then S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SOC is for you.

Before I say anything else, know that Stalker stories are some of my very favourites across all mediums so I'm going to be heavily biased. Besides the already mentioned strong points, gameplay itself I found terrifically fun and the 'survival mechanics' were done very sensibly to instill urgency and constant unease in the player without being overbering. The side quests are not a terribly important part of the game, nor are the dialogs and the NPC's in my estimation but all of that is easily forgiven when it's completely dwarfed by the incredible way the game looks and plays. It seems incredibly alive despite the apparent lack of polish in certain aspects. When you hunker down with a vodka and a sausage in your backpack and your firearm in your hands trained into the dark, the outer world just fades away. Survive or perish, the Zone takes its toll.

Spent about 40 plus hours reading Gamespot's walkthrough, watching The Salt Factory, a GVMERS documentary while learning to play the game but the rest of the 100 plus hours was just a blast of a journey through this pc exclusive classic. Ingereld wasn't lying when he said it's one of the top 5 best pc games of 2007. Yeah this game confirms that making PC my gaming platform of choice was a wise decision.

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.

Played this for the first time in 2024 with the Zone Reclamation Project. First off, this game gave me crazy motion sickness. If you do too, turn off head bobbing and change FOV. Unfortunately, the game still loves to distort your screen/wiggle the camera, so I had to take frequent breaks. I can definitely see why this is a cult classic: the atmosphere is great, gameplay is fun and the world is far more reactive than most games of this era. I enjoyed the first 70% of the game, but the end of the game really takes a nosedive. Tense exploration turns to endless waves of dudes, you spend more time looting than actually playing the game, NPCs and quests started breaking left and right... ZRP has tools to help with some of these, but it's so complicated and poorly documented. It feels like there is a fantastic game in here somewhere, but it just doesn't come quite together in the end. Still worth playing, but don't hesitate to switch to a youtube video about the story once the game becomes frustrating. I'm curious to see if Stalker 2 can deliver on the promises of this game (although I doubt my PC will be able to run it)