S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Impressions

GSC Gameworld was on hand at this year's E3, giving demonstrations of its upcoming first-person shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Oblivion Lost. The game is set in the Ukraine, in and around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The developers at GSC Gameworld have carefully reconstructed 30 square kilometers of area (called "the zone") around the power plant for players to explore, using video tapes and photographs of the derelict plant and the structures around the area. We marveled as we watched a run-through of the Chernobyl plant and the surrounding area. The entire facility is in the game, from the main reactor building, which you can enter to explore the control rooms and reactor chamber, down to the small storage sheds outside. Everything from the position of cranes and trees to the rust patterns on the steel walls has been carefully modeled, and all the buildings are open for players to explore. The re-creation has been so close to the real thing that GSC Gameworld actually received an inquiry from the Ukrainian equivalent of the Secret Service to make sure that state secrets weren't being compromised. As you can see from our screenshots, the graphics in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are extremely detailed, featuring some of the best sky, foliage, and weapon renderings you'll see in a game today.

The game's plot is most comparable to that of Morrowind in its open-endedness. In the game, you play as a stalker, a mercenary exploring the restricted area around the zone, looking for artifacts. After the meltdown at the plant, strange anomalies have been recorded in the surrounding area. Mutant animals prowl the wilderness, and mysterious pockets of energy have been detected, all of which can kill in strange and gruesome fashion. Your job as the player is to explore the world, investigating the zone to ascertain the origin of these anomalies and devise a way to stop them. You'll also be up against military patrols, as the government has designated the zone a restricted area where intruders will be shot on site. Other NPC stalkers--about 100, according to the developers--will be living in the zone, going about their own lives with a sophisticated AI that will allow them to explore the huge area of the world, create their own alliances, trade with other stalkers, and even carry out quests for the NPC scientists outside the area who are contracting stalkers to bring them artifacts from inside the zone. Very few events in the game are scripted, and it is GSC Gameworld's intention that the game play quite differently for each player. Some stalkers may ignore your presence, some will view you as a threat and attack you, and some may even choose to assist you. With so much open-endedness in the game, the developers are currently planning eight different possible endings, depending on what information you're able to uncover.

Unfortunately, the developers were unable to demonstrate the player taking on a quest and carrying it to completion, so we were unable to see how the world evolves with your actions. To be fair, it's next to impossible to really demonstrate those aspects within the space of a short E3 demo. What we did get to see at the show was a team of three AI stalkers fighting a battle against three other AI stalkers in a small area in and around a warehouse building. All the stalkers were armed with light pistols, so we could see the AI work over a longer period of time (heavier weapons would let them kill too quickly for us to observe anything). The fight played out in an interesting fashion, with the stalkers intelligent enough to come to the aid of nearby comrades engaged in gun battles. We watched as one stalker took up a hidden position behind a bush before taking potshots at a pair of enemy stalkers. The pair couldn't immediately get a bead on the position of the hidden stalker, but the pair's last teammate joined the battle quickly, finding the sniper. After that, the trio advanced on the position of the hidden stalker, who then appeared to realize he was hopelessly outnumbered. The predator-turned-prey tried to get up and run, only to be killed by the three-man team he'd hoped to ambush.

During the rest of our visit with GSC Gameworld, we saw some general tech demos, such as the game's rag-doll physics. We watched as some soldiers stationed around a couple of rusting car frames got blown several meters away by an RPG blast, some of them somersaulting through the air, and others being blown across the ground by the force of the explosion. At the same time, the car frames and nearby steel crates showed appropriate mass by only being tossed a couple of feet. GSC also demonstrated some grenades and their effect on different materials. The fragmentation grenades in the game really do shower the immediate area in metal, meaning that damage is calculated by actual collisions, not just proximity to the blast. These fragments can penetrate material like wood, but hiding behind metal objects like cars kept us safe. After that, we were shown a special level rendered with DirectX 9 lighting features, showing true real-time lighting and shadows that might be comparable to those seen in other games with advanced engines like Doom 3 or Far Cry.

As of now, GSC Gameworld plans on finishing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. by the end of the year, but it will be up to THQ to decide on a shipping date. Again, the technologies demonstrated have been quite impressive, but it remains to be seen how well this will all be tied together in the actual gameplay. Considering the ambitious design parameters of the game, and how much autonomy the AI stalkers will have, it might be impossible to really gauge how the gameplay in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will turn out without getting some serious playtime in a near-finished product. We'll definitely keep our eyes on this game and bring you more information as it becomes available.