Stalker has some great ideas, but due to a myriad of little problems the whole experience ends up being frustrating.

User Rating: 6.5 | S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl PC
By kemicon | Review Date:
Stalker isn't all bad, and it even does some things well. Such as setting up an interesting environment and having wide open level design that looks convincing enough. Comparisons to Oblivion wouldn't be totally off the mark. To some extent Stalker plays a bit like Oblivion with guns, just a lot worse and without the deep RPG aspects.

Unfortunately the shooting mechanic is basically backwards as the handgun you start with will take out an enemy faster and more accurately than an AK47 or some of the heavier and according to the game, more accurate weapons. Que? Basically this renders all of the cool hardware you get later on, somewhat pointless, except of course the sniper rifle.

Running around on foot is also a long and tedious chore. The developers should have included the vehicles like they originally intended.

In the end it seems like the best programmers at GSC left pretty early on in development as there are so many areas of the game that come off as half baked. Oddly enough even with all the problems the game is still compelling, even if it is just to keep saying "wouldn't it be cool if you could ..."

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