Welcome to the Zone!
However, in 2005, the reactor exploded again. And this time the s*** REALLY hit the fan. Strange and dangerous anomalies started to occur in the zone of alienation, making it even more dangerous then before, and wild beasts and mutants poured from the center of the zone into the surrounding lands. However, those anomalies also brought some mysterious artifacts. Considered immensely valuable by scientific community, those artifacts were bought for a high price. And very soon a new breed of opportunists and adventurers appeared near Chernobyl - Stalkers. Men who would dare the perils of the Zone in order to gain wealth and fame. Welcome to the shadow of Chernobyl...
The first time I played this game, I hated it. Seriously, despite fanatically loyal fan base, STALKER is a game which gives an extremely bad first impression. Just a few hours into the game, I wondered how the heck can this game be such a classic, with all it's bugs, punishing difficulty and really boring first level. But if you manage to get past that (and you should), you'll quickly realize this game has a lot to offer.
You start your journey on the outskirts of the Zone. You wake up with no memory in a small rookie camp, with only one thing that connects you with your past - a small PDA device with words "KILL STRELOK" written on it's screen. Just who is this Strelok, and why you're supposed to kill him is something you'll need to discover for yourself. The whole games takes place on a certain number of huge levels that are connected to each other by roads. You can explore them as much as you like, if you think you've got the right stuff in order to survive. It's quite clear, from the very beginning, that this is a sandbox game. It creates a gigantic environment, with it's own ecosystem, and drops you right in the middle of it. You can see packs of wild animals, mutants, bandits and all kinds of different factions roaming the countryside, mostly minding their own business.
Depending on your actions, some of them will attack you on sight, while some may ignore you, or even greet you. Animals also act the way you would expect the animals to act. They often travel in packs, they will run away if you scare them or wound them, and will attack only if they have the upper hand. It truely makes the environment more believable. Sometimes you'll see humans travelling alongside you, fighting, patrolling, or simply resting by the campfire. It's a shame you don't see more humans getting on with their business outside of camps and towns, but hey... it's the Zone, after all. The good thing is, the world keeps on going regardless of your actions. For example, if you see a group of Stalkers fighting bandits, you can give them a hand, or simply walk away. They'll keep on fighting regardless of what you do. If you fail a certain mission, even the mandatory one, there's no need to load a previous save. You'll just have to find another way to get your answers. Everything happens at random, and often has nothing to do with you, which is great. This way you can choose wether you'll try to accomplish a mission, or simply ignore it and keep on exploring the area. There is no "experience" here, or leveling up, so it doesn't really matter. You only have to worry about getting better equipment.
Which you can do in a number of ways. You can loot the dead. You can search for hidden stashes. You can get some money and buy it from the merchants. Or join a faction, and get some of their unique weapons and armor. Just use your imagination... Of course, you'll have to keep in mind that the Zone is a dangerous place, even without all the crazy trigger-happy factions and raiders. All kinds of anomalies, as well as a handsome dose of radiation at certain spots are there to make your life significantly shorter. So you always have to tread carefully and think about "risk versus reward" aspect of every step. But hey, at least you have a HUGE amount of real-world weapons at your disposal to help you. From crummy but reliable AK to high-tech G36 and God-knows-what, you're never short of toys to play with. Which brings me to one of the biggest issues I have with this game...
All the weapons are modeled kind of realistically. Everything about a weapon, from accuracy, handling, to reliability, is an issue here. For example, an AK-74 might be inaccurate, but it can withstand even the worst conditions. Rain, dust, extended use, even a long full auto bursts will not damage it very much. And it will never jam (well, it did jam once, while it was still brand new, but it was more of a bug then a gameplay feature). But for some reason, it has a ridiculously low damage, compared to other weapons. Which is simply stupid. I understand that the game tries to create a certain sense of "progress" by giving you more powerful weapons gradually (they had to choose SOME weapon to be your starting tool, AK or not), but come on! I used AKs in real life, for Christ's sake! I know what I'm talking about! The weapon's stopping power and armor penetration is influenced mostly by the type of ammo it uses. And 5.45 mm AK-74 round is at least as equally effective as 5.56 mm round used by M4 and G36. Not to mention the fact that the muzzle compensator of an AK-74 is considered one of the best in the world, making the rifle more stable and accurate during full auto firing. So it's not as inaccurate as the game wants you to believe either. You don't have to take my word for it. Just look for some AK-74 test firing videos on YouTube.
But OK, it would be kind of unfair to make AK rifles both reliable AND accurate, with great damage. This is a game after all, and it must offer some kind of challenge. And force you to think about which weapon you'll bring, and force you to compromise. At least the game tries to bulls**t it's way around it by saying that the new versions of the AK rifles used in the Zone are cheap, mass-produced knock-offs, rather then state-of-the-art Spetsnaz stuff. Hey, don't look at me like that! I'm an AK fan! This stuff is important to me! Hehe...
But seriously, it's amazing just how much attention to details you can see here. For example, after I finally managed to get my hands on an M4 knock-off, I tought I had a jackpot. It's fairly accurate, effective up to 300 meters, and deals a good damage. I put some rifle optics on it, and after scoring a few headshots, I was pleased. However, as the game warned me, it's a very unreliable rifle, not really fit for the conditions in the Zone. And it's true. After carrying it in the rain for a while, even tough I fired single shots only, and never tried to "torture" it with prolonged burst fire, it quickly started to show signs of decay. It was only a matter of time before it would jam in the middle of a fight. Amazing!
As for the graphics, don't expect anything special. This is a game that was released in 2007, after all, and even then it was far behind it's schedule when it came to release dates. Don't expect fancy special effects, or cartoonish amount of glow and details (Crytek, anyone?), but rather a bleak, grey and scary portrayal of the zone. Which creates a perfect atmosphere, come to think of it. The whole world around you truely looks like an abandoned radioactive wasteland, with weather that's constantly changing, from heavy rain, strong wind, clear sky, to day and night. It can even affect your bullet trajectory. Firing shots in the middle of a storm can't give you a great chance for a headshot, after all. You'll often come across abandoned buildings, warehouses, factories... all portrayed wonderfully gloomy and depressing. It's a shame you can't see bullet holes, nor can you destroy your environment, but hey... this is a game based on depth and immersiveness, not cool graphics. But thankfully, the sound effects are great! From gunshots, to animal sounds and characters' voices. Occasionally someone will grab a guitar and play a melodic tune near the fireplace. Or you'll hear a song from somebody's radio. Or an atmospheric music that will play in your mind. And I enjoyed ALL of it.
The gameplay varies from slow and casual to frantic and wild. Sometimes you'll spend hours exploring the countryside and talking to other fellow Stalkers. While on other occasions you'll spend an entire hour blasting your way through an entire garrison of gun-happy soldiers or mutants. It truely offers a welcome change of pace, and makes sure you never get bored. It completely feels and works like a standard FPS game. You can run, jump, crouch, aim down your sight, and sprint. Simple. It's a bit strange how you can sprint at breakneck speed, but then again, they probably did it on purpose. After all, the levels are huge, and you will need all the speed you can get, since there are no vehicles you can use. Which, again, makes perfect sense. Thanks to all the dangerous anomalies and radiation, it would be pretty reckless to speed away in your fancy SUV. Because you never know just when could some strange anomaly explode right into your face, in the middle of the road.
So far so good, right? So what's the problem?
Well, the problem is, bugs. Tons of bugs. From mildly inconvenient, to gameplay crippling, the game is riddled with bugs. I had to download a great deal of patches just to get this thing going properly. Even after all those patches, it's stil buggy, but at least it works properly and doesn't cripple the game. The next big issue is the A.I. Your human opponents aren't really retarded, but they're not very smart either, and show very little concern for their own safety. After all the patches, they act a bit smarter, but their main tactic still consists of walking sideways and spraying bullets like crazy. Sometimes they'll disappear behind cover, but that's more of a glitch, rather then an attempt to outsmart me. They can take a rediculous amount of damage (and so can you, come to think of it), and are often extremely accurate, even with crappy weapons. Which can be frustrating at the times.
Also, the game starts pretty badly, dumping you in the middle of a boring level with nothing but trees, a few houses and some wild animals. And an incredibly annoying military roadblock which suck your money away in order to let you pass. You don't get any even half-decent equipment until later on, and there's not much to explore at first. This creates a really bad first impression. It takes a long time for STALKER to get it's steam going. But after a while, it gets better and better. You learn more about the story, you meet more interesting people and factions, and you find yourself immersed into this incredibly live and believable world. You even have to bring food with you, but that's barely worth mentioning, since you can just click on a can of meat when you get hungry and be done with it, even in the middle of a fight. Barely a gameplay feature. As you progress, the game gets easier and less frustrating, since you get your hands on more weapons and items which boost your abilities to maximum.
All in all, this is a truely special game, something that no hardcore gamer should miss.
May the Zone take me if I'm not telling the truth!