Review: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl - Watch that Geiger counter

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 01 April 2007 10:42

Opinion and Analysis

Ambition realised?  Well we don't have the freedom to explore as much as originally anticipated.  There is some funnelling of the player, by the landscape itself, long fences etc as well as the Radiation patches that ingeniously keep earlier ill-equipped Stalkers away from their hidden treasures.

STALKER is a rare game that captures the imagination from minute one.  The world of STALKER feels alive, with events happening throughout the Zone that occur without direct intervention from the player.  If you die, restart you will notice that more often than not, events will play out differently from your previous attempt.  This coding keeps you on your toes at all times.

Perhaps because of this world complexity, there are bugs with STALKER even after five years of development.  Sometimes quests will be disrupted by events occurring outside of player control, clogging up your PDA with impossible objectives or other strange events.  There are also some AI breakdowns with some of the NPC's in the game.

There is a patch that fixes 68 complaints (although funnily enough number 68 is listed as "various other issues", meaning the complaint list is larger than the 68 specified).  But beware; installing the patch INVALIDATES YOUR PREVIOUS SAVES.  Meaning you will need to start the game again, so either patch as soon as you install, or bite the bullet and start again, because of the ever-changing world, replay-ability is high in STALKER.

See you in the Zone   8.5/10