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

9.1
Excellent

Gameplay	9.0	"Difficult and buggy, but very rewarding. "
Graphics	8.5
Sound	9.5
Value	9.0

By Sam Waldron

There’s a special frustration in waiting for a great game: waiting through seemingly endless delays and rescheduled launch dates that only let you down time and again. At times it looked like Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl (sorry: I refuse to type ‘Stalker’ in capitals with all the full stops; it’s my form of protest against stupid and meaningless acronyms) was simply going to vanish into a black hole of dashed hopes and what might have been. Who could have thought that playing the game would be even more frustrating than waiting for it?

Admittedly, my expectations were high. Long waits will do that – it’s often a problem in these situations. But it isn’t even so much that Stalker doesn’t live up to its reputation. It is good – but it’s also a pain in the backside.

Before I explain, I should step back and make proper, formal introductions. Stalker is a first-person shooter crossed with a role-playing game: an open-ended tactical shooter that lets you explore and adventure as if you were playing an Elder Scrolls game – and in a game world that aims at the same kind of intelligent self-sufficiency.

You take on the role of the ‘Marked One’, a conveniently amnesiac man of mystery, and, along with fellow ‘stalkers’, explore the exclusion zone around Chernobyl Power Station, making a living from looting, hunting creatures mutated by radiation, and, most importantly, collecting strange and powerful (not to mention valuable) artefacts. Though based on the real-life disaster area in the Ukraine, Stalker’s dangerous wasteland is an alternate science fiction reality in which Chernobyl has experienced a repeat meltdown, and has recently begun acting very strangely…

The whole game takes place in and around (and beneath) this 30km cordoned-off area, guarded by hostile authorities, filled with mutants, and brimming with so-called ‘anomalies’: strange phenomena which are the apparent source of the artefacts mentioned earlier, but which also have a tendency to inflict massive amounts of damage on you. (Exploring the site of a nuclear catastrophe, as it turns out, is not exactly a safe pastime.)

From the word go, I’m impressed. The intro movie is exciting, and has me hooked. Then, the game proper begins, and I’m in an underground bunker conversing with a somewhat sleazy seeming, but otherwise decent, guy with a Russian accent (granted: it might actually be a genuine Ukrainian accent, but I’m not qualified to spot the difference; at any rate, the voice-acting sounds pretty good). The game intro necessary for beginners is handled well – the Merchant simply asks you if you want to be treated like a proper stalker, or if you want the ‘rookie brainwashing’. I for one appreciate the honesty.

And it’s important that you can skip all the introductory nonsense, for two reasons. (That’s right: here we go…) First of all, the game is bloody hard. So if, like me, you wander around a bit before following instructions like a sensible little stalker, you run the risk of being killed before you have so much as a knife to fight back with (you have bolts, but unfortunately these aren’t exactly heavy weaponry – in fact, to my annoyance, they don’t even connect with enemies, let alone inflict damage). Secondly, even if you do manage to not get yourself killed immediately, there is the problem of the game’s stability – the fact that it crashes, and rather a lot on some systems (Vista is even more problematic than XP, apparently, and that’s saying something). Enter the frustration.

I would like to offer advice to those purchasing Stalker: get the patch immediately. Don’t wait to see whether it crashes on your computer, because if it does, you’re going to lose your saved game when you do patch. It’s nice that they managed to fix things so fast (and the patch seems to be a silver bullet, at least for the crashes I experienced), but very disappointing – and, of course, very frustrating – that they make you start all over again.

Given the immense difficulty (number of times I got killed) and instability (number of times I succeeded, only to be thwarted by the game locking up), it’s a damn good thing that the game is so much fun. I must have entered Stalker’s first fire-fight (a rescue operation in which you and the stalkers you’re with are outnumbered about two-to-one) a good dozen times. But I enjoyed the hell out of it every time. If you’re up for the challenge, and willing to put up with its flaws, this is an amazing title.

Stalker doesn’t just reward tactical play – it demands it. Try to be gung-ho and you will get yourself killed. The AI is smart: astonishingly smart; annoyingly smart; easily more cunning than any FPS computer opponents I’ve come up against before. These guys will use cover, not just to hide, but to actively and effectively perform flanking manoeuvres. I don’t think I can adequately convey how impressed I am. Even the mutant dogs are smart, using their numbers and fighting as a pack with a hit and fade strategy.

It’s not just a smart shooter, either; it’s also tense, and atmospheric. There’s a strong streak of horror movie about this game, and not just because it’s full of scary mutants: the game just keeps you on a knife-edge. Leaning towards more realistic damage from weapons (think Counter-strike rather than Doom) makes you keenly aware of your mortality, and of the danger around every corner.

The graphics aren’t spectacular (a side effect of long delays), but I think Stalker generally punches above its weight in the visuals department: the creepy, desolate look of the game more than makes up for last year’s graphics. The engine isn’t top notch, but they’ve done great things with it. Unfortunately, the great effect of Stalker’s visuals is occasionally marred by buggy lighting effects and clipping. It’s not too bothersome, but I hate to see such a great game letting itself down like that.

Aurally, there is nothing to complain about. The closest thing to a complaint that I can muster is that the Merchant seems always to be listening very quietly to what seems to be Evanescence (though I can’t confirm this). A gunshot is a gunshot is a gunshot as far as I’m concerned, but the other sounds are done very well too: the bestial howls of the dogs manage to consistently scare consistently the crap out of me – especially when I’m on low health and I just know I’m being followed. Best of all, though, is hearing the guitar played beside the fire in the first camp. It’s wonderful hearing something so relatively unimportant to the game captured so well. And, as previously mentioned, the voice acting is great.

Returning again to the AI, one of the most ambitious aspects of Stalker is its continuous world – and world which doesn’t need you, the player. It almost feels like playing Oblivion in that respect. Except that, while Stalker incorporates RPG features, there are no experience points to be gained, and no levels. There is, however, an inventory which you must manage. And, while the weight and size allowances aren’t too restrictive, there is no way you can wander round with the usual full FPS quota of big guns. Managing inventory, though, is probably one of the more annoying aspects of the game; it’s good from realism standpoint, but a little jarring all the same, as it isn’t ideally suited to the game’s pace.

The storyline of the game revolves around your attempt to unravel the mystery at the zone’s core. It’s intriguing, and there’s a lot of great gameplay to be found along the way, but the story itself is perhaps not delivered as well as it could be. Be prepared to be confused. But, equally, be prepared to play through Stalker again: there are multiple endings, and many paths to take, many side quests (even if these are, in the absence of a need to level up your character, somewhat pointless at times). Multiplayer also adds replay value, even though it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

My appraisal of Stalker to this point has been somewhat unbalanced. That’s not an accident. I think it’s important to show how aggravating it was to try and play at first, because in the end, I think the fact that it was worth persevering with (and, indeed, enjoyable even while it was annoying the crap out of me) says even more for it than all my positive comments.

This may not be the most polished game, or the most stable. And, at times, it may seem like a bit of a chore. But it’s also one of the most exciting games I’ve played in a long time, on any platform. Whatever its flaws, Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl is intelligent, innovative, and absorbing. It is what we’ve been waiting for. And it’s a ‘must play’, even for those who wouldn’t normally get excited about a first-person shooter.

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