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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Review (continued)
More User Submitted S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Reviews
Date: 2008-08-04
excellent fps/rpg combo
excellent fps/rpg combo
The game play pleases the average FPS, but gives a different twist that is very addicting.
Date: 2008-07-19
The Big Crash
I have had games in the past that crash now and then but I have never had a game as worse than this. I have tried all the patches and follow numerous advise from discussion forums yet it still crashes. It is a pity as I do enjoy playing it 'when it works' but saving it every few minutes does become a chore.S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Date: 2008-06-27
Great game ruined by significant bugs
Stalker has the potential to be a great game. Unfortunately it is ruined by several significant bugs that make it difficult to finish the game. Even with the latest patch (1.06) the game seems unfinished. The graphics are beautiful, some of the best of any game. I normally turn off the music in games, but I kept it on in Stalker because it was not obtrusive and lent to the atmosphere. They did a great job of making the world feel realistic, including changing weather and day/night cycles (among other things people sleep and more monsters come out at night). The mood of the game is genuinely desolate and creepy. Getting into big gunfights was a lot of fun, especially because the AI opponents are probably the best I've seen in a shooter. If you attack a group, they all scatter and hide behind cover. Then some will move around while shooting at you to flush you out from behind your cover while others move to flank you. Many times I was picking off bad guys at a distance when I got shot in the back of the head by one of their group who silently got behind me! The big problem that killed the fun is that bad quest management system. Stalker has many RPG qualities, including non-linear quests. But to finish the game you need to complete certain quests. There are multiple endings to the game, and which ending you get depends on which quests you complete and how. But the game gives you no information to help you decided which choices to make in order to get the most satisfying ending. I did every quest I could, but could not complete some because of bugs in the game. And because I could not complete those quests I was not allowed to try to attempt others that were dependent. So when I got to the end of the game, there were many objectives that I had not completed, so my character just died. This was very frustrating and I'm not willing to replay the entire game just to get around the bugs.
Date: 2008-06-10
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Two decades after the infamous Chernobyl accident, there was a further disaster. Witnesses - those that survived - added to a scramble of unreliable versions of events. All that is known for sure is that the Zone is real, and that it is expanding.
Years later, a man is nearly killed when an explosion tips his truck. The unconscious man, marked with the word S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on his forearm, is taken to a Stalker camp. One of many ambitious scavengers who attempt to penetrate the radioactive Zone, the player as the Marked One must dodge inexplicable anomalies caused by the blow-out at Chernobyl, snatch powerful artefacts out of deadly irradiated areas, and perhaps uncover the truth about the disaster, the Zone itself, the mutated life forms that inhabit it.
The game was the forerunner in the "free-form" first-person shooter genre, creating vast expanses of highly-detailed landscapes for the player to wander as he or she chooses. The Marked One travels wherever he wishes, perhaps accomplishing small jobs as a Stalker and making some money on the side, or perhaps pushing deeper into the mystery of his own life, which he remembers only in fragments. There is only a single clue in his belongings: a note saying "Kill Strelok". Who Strelok is, and how he is connected to the Zone, if at all, is the question that drives the first few primary missions that the Marked One must undertake to progress the story.
This is how the game unfolds: the Marked One journeys further into the Zone, passing through the camps of Ukrainian vagrants or thugs, who have lost their way after the destruction of their homes and the deaths of their families. Various groups have come together to combat the monstrous entities that emerge from the more deeply irradiated areas: mutated wildlife and corrupted human bodies. The group called "Duty" and a task force called "Freedom" struggle for supremacy amongst the ruined remains of military warehouses and old, overgrown train stations. This close to the centre of the Zone, the precious artefacts are in abundance and sometimes grant great powers. And, where the world seems to bleach the Marked One's mind with static sound and whispered voices, there are rumours of legendary Stalkers who have braved the worst that the Zone has to offer, and found at the core of the Zone the entity known as the "Wish Maker" ...
The story of the game is the story of its world, which appears to go about its business whether you are present or not. Factions war and, if the Stalker is patient enough, the Marked One may simply walk amongst the remains and collect his bounty from the bodies of the recently deceased. But what would be the fun in that?
There are no fantastical weapons as in other FPSs like "Half-Life" and "Prey". "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl" is firmly rooted in the real world, albeit one that has been corrupted by its fictional blow-out and the resulting wash of dangerous waves and particles. Weapons range from a knife, with which the Marked One may silently dispatch friends and enemies, to the usual pistols and rifles. Grenade launchers are available for those willing to risk life and limb in territories controlled by violent groups or the remnants of the Russian military. The trick lies not with picking up the next in a sequence of increasingly-larger guns, but with the conservation of ammo, strategic storage of goods and items, and the masterment of a clever system that allows your Stalker to carry only so much weight. This system is very similar to the one used in the sci-fi FPS "Deus Ex" and its sequel, forcing the player to think carefully about what to take and what to abandon, and where to store the choicest of the bunch for later.
The huge areas, which change over distance from brown fields to derelict houses and military bases, include multiple hidey holes and "stashes" that can be found by pillaging clues from dead or wounded enemies. An intuitive map and PDA system reveals these as the Marked One uncovers more hints. Some acquaintances, who may become fast friends if you find them wounded and spare a rare med-kit to save their life, or if you help them with a job they just can't accomplish alone, will give you tips that lead to the best of the stashes that have been abandoned or left to rust up following the death of their owners.
The far-reaching world of "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." offers a lot for a player to uncover or investigate, with entire villages or townships displayed on the map that the player might not even pass through should he or she chose to simply follow the main plot and progress to the end of the game as quickly as possible.
Or should that be ends? "S.T.A.L.K.E.R."'s only real flaw is that its choice of multiple endings, which can be divided into "True" endings and "False" endings, could easily disappoint the unwary gamer. Without knowing that some final cut-scenes, which are immediately followed by the closing credits, were not really the end of the game, a player could easy come away feeling cheated and unsatisfied. However perhaps this review can serve to warn those who haven't yet had the delight of playing this deeply atmospheric game: if you think you've seen all there is, read up on an online walkthrough and see if there's anything you missed. Leave no job abandoned. Leave no anomaly investigated.
Upgradeable suits and weapons make the "unnecessary" portions of the game much more worthwhile. Those with a hankering for the fictional history of the world, when not entirely satiated by the game's well-thought out and absorbing game manual, can discover more about the Zone and its inhabitants by exploring. Lone Stalkers and terminally sick wanderers might provide clues to the Marked One's past, or the identities of Strelok and those who are complicit in his actions. If that isn't enough, there's always the option of going just for the thrill of it, of creeping through valleys of windswept garbage to eliminate that last group of gun-toting thugs, or travelling to the corners of the twisted woodland to take out the rogue Stalker who's stealing all your work. The world is full of things to do, and can increase the gameplay time by several hours. It never feels like something you wish you hadn't wasted time on.
The story and the comprehensive user interface serve the game the best, helping to create a package that fairly has won awards and a right to a sequel/prequel, which is due out later this year. People with a strong dislike for first-person shooters should obviously steer clear - keep an eye out for "Fallout 3" (coming soon) instead - but it's difficult to believe that anybody would fail to be engaged by the profoundly atmospheric journey the player takes.
Date: 2008-05-28
Interesting first person shooter game.
Its different and fun. Save the game alot because you don't know when you will get radiation.
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