S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Updated Q&A - Anomalies and Artifacts
GSC Game World's Oleg Yavorsky tells us what to expect when this ambitious first-person survival game ships next week.
Check out S.T.A.L.K.E.R. one last time before it ships in this exclusive movie.
After years of development and delays, THQ and GSC Game World's ambitious first-person survival game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl finally ships to stores next week. This isn't a traditional first-person shooter in which your only job is to run along a very narrow, linear path and blow away everything in sight; instead, you'll be dropped into a dynamic, evolving virtual world, one set around the melted-down reactor at Chernobyl. Your job: explore, survive, and uncover the mystery of the exclusion zone, which is inhabited by mutants, strange energy anomalies, bandits, army groups, and stalkers, which are basically heavily armed scavengers. For more, we turned to Oleg Yavorsky, senior PR manager at Ukraine's GSC Game World.
GameSpot: How is the artificial intelligence of monsters and other enemy characters being designed to provide a realistic challenge? Will some characters have daily routines that cause them to patrol certain areas at certain times of day, for instance? What are some of the cunning tricks that enemies will use to try to get an edge against players?
Oleg Yavorsky: We gave our non-player characters a number of abilities to make them interesting, realistic enemies in combat. The general combat AI system is quite versatile and allows NPCs to be responsive to the dynamic situations in the game. Thus, monsters and human characters are able to evaluate their chances in battle based on comparing themselves to enemies with regards to current condition, weapon type, physical strength, ammunition available, and more, and react accordingly. If they consider the enemy weak enough, they are likely to attack him more vigorously, and if they find the enemy too strong, the NPCs might panic and run away.
Aside from pure physical strength and abilities, some monsters have been enabled with abnormal powers, such as invisibility, telekinesis, and telepathy. The poltergeist, for example, is a very unusual and interesting monster. While remaining invisible, he prefers to attack the player from a distance by levitating physical objects and throwing them at the player. The controller is extremely dangerous owing to his psi-control powers. Watch out, lest your brain should be captivated by his mental waves.
Diligent attention was paid to the stalkers' combat AI. Stalkers choose the best positions for attacking enemies, and they use cover to reload and change cover in case the enemy starts advancing toward them. Making use of the virtual hearing and sight functions, NPCs will determine whether the enemy can see them. If not, the NPC will sneak silently behind the target to shoot them in the back. Human characters are skilled at outflanking enemies. They use group tactics (one will try advancing while the others cover him). Stalkers are designed to finish off wounded enemies; they run away from grenades that are thrown, and they may panic in tough moments, like when they run out of ammunition.
On top of that, we worked out an elaborate precombat system. For example, if the player snipes a guard on a watch tower, enemies that heard the shot or ricochet will go to "aware" condition and find cover or look around.
More interestingly, the whole system is universal and applies to all combat in the game. Guided by the A-life system, NPCs live their daily lives: monsters roam the zone in search of food; stalkers go around collecting artifacts, fighting enemies, doing their daily jobs; camps and army posts go through their routine lives with members patrolling or sitting at the campfire playing songs on the guitar.
GS: Tell us about the role-playing gamelike elements in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Will players gain actual experience levels as they complete missions and defeat monsters? How will inventory management be handled?
OY: From the outset of development, we decided to have players develop their own skills and not go for the traditional role-playing levels. For example, we implemented realistic ballistics in the game, and we want players to feel and master each gun in combat themselves. At the same time, the concept of role-playing in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. primarily means giving players the possibility to play the role that they want in the game: Some might be friendly and helpful to NPCs, other might be evil and try to kill everyone in the way, while other might want to explore. The role you play in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will cause the world around you to respond accordingly and ultimately lead you to one of the seven different endings in the game.
With that said, the inventory system in the game will not have a separate skills section but will rather be focused on a stalker's bare necessities. There are active weapons slots, belt slots for activating artifacts and gear, a backpack containing all of your possessions, and some other important sections and indicators, such as the health bar, radioactivity bar, and hunger bar. The player's inventory is intuitive and easy to operate.
- GameSpot Score8.5great
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Game Guide
What secrets lie within the mysterious radioactive area known as The Zone? We'll help you find out in GameSpot's Game Guide to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
- Mar 20, 2007
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- Release: Mar 20, 2007 »
- ESRB: Mature
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