I’m almost back to Rostok when I hear the dogs. Well, what used to be dogs. The Zone has changed these into, well something much worse. Crap!
Make a run for it? No, I’m carrying too much stuff. Plus they’re faster than me anyway.
I look around frantically for something to climb up on. Nothing.
I guess I’m going to have to fight it out.
Damn! I’ve never seen that many of them at one time! They’re practically fighting with each other over which one gets me first!
I start squeezing off 3-round bursts with my assault rifle. “Braaap!” “Braaap!” “Braaap!”
I drop a few but there’s too many of them. Pretty soon they’re attacking me from all sides. My body armor stops the first couple attacks but after about 30 seconds I’m dog food.
Welcome to The Zone.
(Reload last saved game)
OK, I guess I won’t go that way this time!
When you spend literally half your life in hotel rooms, you start looking for ways to keep busy.
Since I’d just as soon not spend the day watching television I do a lot of gaming. Beats watching the news and screaming at the TV. I shared a crash-pad with a guy who used to do that. Fun times.
I’d played the heck out of Fallout 4 and was looking for something new or at least different. I picked up the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series for ten bucks on sale.
So what is STALKER? It’s a slightly different spin on the post-apocalyptic “shooter” genre. A team of Ukrainian developers published Shadow of Chernobyl in 2008 and quickly followed with a prequel, Clear Sky and a sequel, Call of Pripyat.
For a relatively old game, it still has a pretty devoted following. There is talk of a much awaited reboot in 2021.
Unlike your typical post-apocalyptic game like Fallout, there hasn’t really been an apocalypse in STALKER. No global nuclear war has taken place. A pandemic hasn’t turned everybody into flesh eating zombies. An alien invasion hasn’t enslaved the planet.
In this game, the “apocalypse” was a very localized event.
The game takes place in “The Zone”, which is a 60km area around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
In this alternate timeline, following the Chernobyl disaster, strange things started happening in the area surrounding the doomed reactor. The military set up an exclusion zone, but determined people called “Stalkers” (of course) sneak into the zone in search of valuable artifacts.
This explains the ready availability of guns, ammunition, food and vodka in the game. They’re still being produced and are easily smuggled into the zone.
(In the Fallout games I figure the pre-war world must have been like an NRA wet-dream since 200 years after a nuclear war you’re still finding cases of cartridges in perfect working condition.)
The zone is not for the faint of heart. Some areas are highly radioactive, others are polluted with toxic chemicals.
Fortunately for the player, vodka cures radiation poisoning. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given where the game was developed.
In addition to the “normal” hazards there are “anomalies”. Places where the very laws of physics have been messed with. Step into one (you will) and face being burned to death, electrocuted or torn to pieces by a miniature tornado. Wheeee!
Fortunately they’re relatively localized and you have a detector that will start beeping if you get close to one.
Unfortunately the valuable artifacts tend to be found in or near anomalies, so good luck.
Then of course there are the mutants. Can’t have a post-apocalyptic shooter without mutants. They can be pretty nasty. Making my way through a forest at night I could tell something was hunting me. Something that had a better than even chance of killing me. It was genuinely frightening.
Fortunately the mutants aren’t that common.
Except for the damn dogs. They’re everywhere and they’re “bullet sponges”. You waste ammunition on them but don’t get any reward for killing them, except that you get to keep on living.
Just like real life, other people are the greatest threat. Bandits roam the zone, and will probably try to kill or rob you. Individually they’re not that tough but they like to attack in numbers.
You may also draw the ire of a rival stalker faction, and they’re generally tougher adversaries.
There are three main factions. One wants to destroy the zone, one wants to study it, and one is being controlled by it. You have the option to join the first two but the third always tries to kill you.
When you run into the military, they will try to shoot you on sight since you’re not supposed to be there in the first place. Early on you’re warned “Don’t go near the Army. They’ll put ten bullets in you and then check your ID.”
The regular troops are plenty tough but the elite troops are very well equipped and attack very aggressively. I don’t know what they’re shouting at me in Russian but I think it involves using my entrails for dental floss. A typical mission for Spetsnaz is apparently “Kill everyone who isn’t you, with extreme prejudice.”
If that isn’t enough to ruin your day, sometimes they’re supported by attack helicopters.
But wait, there’s more! You also get zombies — with guns! Who’s bright idea was it to give zombies guns? I didn’t realize Ukraine had an NRA.
These aren’t your normal undead zombies. They’re people who’ve had their brains fried. Kind of like Fox News viewers. They mostly shamble around aimlessly, mumbling incoherently and shooting at things. So definitely Fox viewers.
Much of the plot involves trying to find out how they got that way.
The Good Parts
(or at least interesting)
Overall I found it pretty challenging. I get killed, a lot.
“I wonder what’s around this corner? Oh, I’m dead.”
Unlike most games of this type, you don’t “level up”. In a game like Fallout or Skyrim you start out as a weakling and end up as basically a superhero.
In STALKER you will get better equipment as the game progresses, but otherwise you can die just as easily at the end as at the beginning.
A head-shot will kill most things in the game, including you.
Even the best body armor only helps so much. You can still get killed pretty easily.
Your character has to eat and sleep.
Wounds are as unrealistic as any game in this genre, but it at least takes bleeding into account. You will bleed until you apply a bandage (carry lots of those). After one particularly rough battle I think I looked like this guy:
The guns are pretty realistic and all but one are based on real-world weapons. There is only one futuristic weapon (an electromagnetic rail-gun) and you won’t see it until the very end of the game.
The amount of gear you can carry is somewhat realistic. Unlike my Fallout 4 character who walks around with an entire arsenal.
My normal “kit” is some flavor of assault rifle, a handgun and a few grenades. Plus maybe a shotgun for dealing with those pesky dogs. I hate those damn things. Food, ammunition and medical supplies all have a weight penalty. Plus vodka of course.
Cover and concealment are not the same thing. That wooden fence you’re hiding behind won’t stop bullets. Neither will that thin sheet-metal wall.
Grenades are effective, and your enemies will use them.
The AI is surprisingly good for when this game was developed. Enemies will spread out and try to flank you. They will fire in your general direction even if they can’t see you and they will try to shoot through whatever you’re hiding behind. Some will try to sneak up behind you.
The Not So Good
Graphics are what you’d expect from 2008-2010. Think Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas. It’s a rather drab looking world of grays and browns mostly. Kind of like Ohio this time of year. Plus it rains a lot, so definitely Ohio.
The map isn’t quite as large as it appears. There are strategically placed fences that keep you out of certain areas. In real life I think I could climb over a three-foot barb wire fence even if I wasn’t wearing body armor. I mean, it’s not like it’s a wall or anything.
NPC’s (Non Player Characters) will use English when speaking directly to you but speak Russian to each other. That group of Stalkers I just passed could be saying “Whoa dude! Nice gas mask!” or “Let’s kill this guy and take all his stuff!” for all I know. I don’t mind so much. I think it adds to the atmosphere.
A lot of the NPC’s have exactly one canned phrase that they repeat every time you walk near them. One guard says “Get out of here stalker!” so frequently that it’s become a meme.
There are no companions like in Fallout or Skyrim. Occasionally you will team up with other Stalkers but it’s usually just for a specific mission. Mostly you’re on your own.
You don’t even get a dog. Except the ones that try to eat you of course.
There are no female characters at all. Presumably most women have enough sense not to go running around a radioactive wasteland being chased by mutant dogs. Nobody even mentions having a wife or girlfriend outside the zone.
The only female voice you will even hear is a song that’s usually playing when you walk past a radio.
Dancing on the ashes of the world
I behold the stars
Heavy gale is blowing to my face
Rising up the dust
Barren lands are desperate to blossom
Dark stars strive to shine
Still remember blue ocean
In this dying world
The version in the game is an acoustic cover of a death-metal song. The vocals are so bad it took me a while to figure out they were singing in English. I like it in spite of that. I think it adds to the post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
You can’t really customize or even name your character. Each game gives you a specific character to play and that’s who have to play.
Sometimes your actions feel scripted. The game will at times force you to go down a certain path and sometimes artificially imposes a time limit on you. “If you don’t get through that door in 30 seconds something really bad will happen! Oh, and there’s a bunch of nasties between you and the door. Good luck.”
I usually prefer to make the bad-guys come to me rather than having to charge in like Rambo.
I thought Clear Sky felt especially linear in its plot. The game kept driving me forward without giving me much of a “sandbox” to explore. There is a point-of-no-return in the plot after which there is no going back. Once you hit that point you have no other option but to play through to the end.
They fixed this with Call of Pripyat, which gives you the option to keep playing after you’ve achieved the ending.
I found the story lines sometimes confusing. At times I found myself asking “So why exactly is my character doing this?”
I didn’t find myself really caring that much about any of the characters. None of them seem to like you particularly either. Most interactions are of the “you do something for me and I’ll do something for you” variety.
Your equipment wears out, which is a nice touch, but I think it’s excessive. I found myself having to pay someone to repair my rifle after firing maybe 100 rounds through it. One dog bite and I’m spending 1,000 rubles to have my very expensive body armor repaired.
You spend a lot of your time just going back and forth from Point A to Point B. With some exceptions, there is no way to “fast travel” like in Fallout. Try to carry to much loot (you will at some point) and you’ll be moving at a snail’s pace. Easy meat for whatever’s roaming the zone.
Still I think the pluses far outweigh the minuses.
Overall I’ve been pretty impressed with it. I would anxiously await a reboot if they’re serious about it.
Without giving away any spoilers, the plot sometimes messes with your head. Shadow of Chernobyl has two “real” endings but also has several “false” endings. The false endings are based on the kind of person you’ve been.
Even the real endings left me scratching my head and going “WTF just happened?” In this case the reward is the journey and not the destination.
I got one of the false endings on the first play through. All I can say is: be careful what you wish for.