Reviewer S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Published 2007-03-11
By Martini Forsslund
I had given up hope. After two hours I wanted to vomit all over what Ukrainian developers stand for. Now I am sitting solid in the Zone, and it is not completely easy to get out
The journey has undeniably been long and tough. For many long years, GSC Gameworld has toiled with Stalker. Many of us who have followed developments from the beginning had since long stopped hoping that the Ukrainian miracle was ever to emerge from the Eastern Bloc. As the THQ announced that the game really would be released, it felt instead as if the risk of an artificial and sloppy work was impending. Has it been necessary to cut down on scale? Did they not have the experience required to understand that it was impossible to go through with the project in its original form? These were things that were beginning to cause premonitions.
For those of you who have not followed the story of Stalker, a summary of the story line: In 2006, what never ought to happen occurred. A second and much worse disaster in Chernobyl caused the previous meltdown to resemble a darling treat. Now is year 2012 and six years have passed. Six difficult years, where the area, called the Zone, which developed during the catastrophe, is threatening to spread further, not only within a confined space but over the entire planet. The Zone is a place with both high radioactivity and a place where the normal laws of physics are distorted and have become wildly different.
I shall be honest and say that suspicion was the strongest sensation experienced as I finally, after years of anticipation and slowly downloaded movies that showed ever more dated graphics, held the game in my hands. A feeling of suspicion which soon turned into disgust, and the idea of having wasted several hours became considerable. I loudly declared for the rest of the editors how disappointed I was.
Stalker certainly does not begin well and the introduction is horrible to say the least. The game starts with that the player, called "The Marked One" is found out in the wilderness and brought to a local salesman. The only clue of who you are and what has happened before your loss of memory is the PDA that you convulsively hold in your hand. On the screen shows only a single notice: "Kill Stralok."
After this you receive a really simple, and boring in how basic it is, lesson in elementary game controls. The first mission takes place in a factory which is ugly as sin, and everything is draped in a brown-grey and very grotty film. You are starting to get the picture? Stalker is a game that is very demanding of you as player. Fortunately, it does get better. Even if the story does not get nearly as absorbing as that of for example Half-Life 2 or Deus EX, it is different, which must be commended. Yet it is distinctly noticeable that Stalker is a product from another continent, another world (and unfortunately another era). The tone is raw and harsh. You are assumed to get on by your own, purely structurally there has been a good deal of carelessness and the degree of difficulty is often dumber than is tolerable.
One should neither declare victory over nor brush off an FPS from Ukraine in advance. That I have learned after many hours in the Zone. For although the beginning and the introduction in the radiated world in which Stalker is enacted leaves much to desire otherwise, the story kicks off after a couple of hours. Sure I could buy it. It often happens that good games start off bad, and it is after all quite seldom that I am hooked from the very start. The problem here is that that there are evident ambitions towards a The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and with an RPG emphasising action, with all which that implies of hours of playing and exploration, you need to feel motivated to have the élan to continue.
When the game was exhibited for the first time, the graphics were nothing short of incredible. But that was more than four years ago and since then a great deal has happened… Unfortunately, the visual experience of Stalker therefore seems old and from time to time almost ancient. The vast, outdoor environments in particular are ugly and very monotone, while the indoor environments and those areas marked by industrial decay are considerably better. GSC Gameworld has really caught the atmosphere of dereliction and the level of detail impresses continually, although neither models, effects nor textures do. The monsters and the mutants one fights against throughout the game are the ugliest objects in it, and appear mostly as balls of liver paste rendered in low resolution.
The Zone and surrounding areas are inhabited by various kinds of characters. Naturally there are other stalkers, vagrants who get by through casual missions for more or less well-paying employers and on the occasional object found in the Zone. There are scientists who desperately are attempting to halt the Zone’s spread and with the help of science save the world. The military and its subdepartments are always present. These are just some of the factions you can either fight or help during the journey.
The game is also based on an excellent physics engine. The feel and weight of items found in the game is realistic and not so overcautiously uncluttered as in certain other games. They have also spent time on the physics model governing ballistics, and the bullets from your weapons take time to arrive, so it is important to lead a running enemy. The projectile trajectory also rounds down the further it travels. To hit someone far away, you thus have to aim above your target. There are lots of weapons, both simpler varieties such as sawed-off shotguns and hypermodern superweapons of composite materials. The trick here is to bring along the right weapon as well as enough ammunition. In the end you stand there with knife in hand and your pants down. The reminder "next time I shall pack my pockets full with bullets" is the last that passes through your head before “Game Over� shows in exasperating red print on screen.
The sound effects are excellent from time to time. Unfortunately the mechanics behind them are not completely OK. You often hear enemies on the other side of two concrete walls as loudly and clearly as one in the middle of the room you stand in yourself. This means that you cannot really find your tormentors with your senses but simply have to rely on guess and opportunity.
I shall return to the introduction, the atmosphere that is supposed to push the game forth and the story line. They are not good. What drives one forward is first and foremost the will to explore and carry out the missions that land in the PDA which all Stalkers uses for navigation and for keeping track on their assignments. The interaction between yourself and the other characters in the game is however more comprehensive and far more free and dynamic than in many other games emphasising action. At the same time it does not reach up to the class we are accustomed to in RPGs, which is where Stalker with its set-up keeps its ambitions.
Nor is there any character development worth mention. Instead it is the equipment that motivates. Weapons are to be found in large numbers. Many of the weapons can also be upgraded with scopes and similar delights. Artefacts, items affected by the supernatural forces of the Zone, can either be sold to an interested party or used to alter the character’s abilities. It may concern gaining stamina or improving one’s resistance to radiation. The artefacts are also the primary way to make money. They bring a high price with the more or less suspect merchants found at some locations in the game world. By selling artefacts you can buy more powerful weapons and better protective clothing and so be able to delve deeper into the mysteries of the Zone.
I do not want to spoil anything astonishing here, but the game takes some unexpected twists and one is drawn more and more into the myth that has been created around the second Chernobyl disaster. The game protagonist had as said a sizeable amnesia, but is regularly struck with flashbacks which make sure that the background slowly but surely unfolds.
The greatest yield of the game is the feeling of really exploring the enormous area as affected by the great ecologic catastrophe that the game circles around, and that sensation is tangible. To with an unsteady torch search through a peeled old research complex three levels below ground at the same time as the laws of physics have collapsed is oddly claustrophobic. I can not find the way out and the sounds make me want to turn the lights on in the game I play in. Then, Stalker is really good. Brilliant is also the atmosphere of apocalyptic post-Soviet decay that pervades great parts of game. At those times I forgive much, but not all.
The multiplayer part is rather standard in its design other than that the maps often are large, open and extremely sniper-friendly. The only real novelty would be the game mode Artifact Hunt where the own team is to find as many artefacts as possible and bring them back to its own base. A few Capture the Flag-warnings, but yet with a different argue.
This, my friends, is an uneven game. One might suspect that this is because the developers had been working with the project for so long that it finally became hard to finish it. Some parts are terrible. The game’s introduction is one of them (I know I’m nagging about that again). Other sections are wonderfully suggestive and beautifully detailed. I can not understand how GSC Gameworld have thought it out, but again the size of the project and the failing patience amongst those who payed the bill could have something to do with it. This is a shame as it in essence is a somewhat varied game that deserves to be played, if not else to see what really went on as we were tempted during all those years of development.
Stalker is an ambitious and clearly different FPS with strong RPG ambitions. I might feel that the ambitions unfortunately were not allowed to bloom properly and that it stayed not really knowing which leg to stand on. Despite my criticism there are great assets in Stalker and I can still recommend this for the patient explorer sick of shooters cast under the weary industry standard.
---
Perhaps this could go in the news section. I want some kind of recognition for all my hard work!!