A superb and innovative game, that is a must for an experienced player.
The game begins revealing a truck making its way through the night. Apparently, the driver transports dead bodies. The truck is then struck by lightning and crashes. The next day, what appears to be a bounty hunter searches the place of the accident and finds out that one guy survived (that's the main character, obviously). He then takes him to a local "business man", who is willing to pay a nice sum for the guy. But then the character awakes and reveals a tattoo on his right arm: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. You are then introduced to the game. So you are now referred to as Marked One because of your tattoo and you have no idea who you are. Your PDA reveals your main objective throughout the whole game: find and kill Strelok. Later on, you'll receive new tasks that will answer some of your questions and make you ask yourself new ones. But probably the most outstanding part of the story is when you find out that you are Strelok. So you were assigned to kill yourself... It can't get more mysterious than that! In the end of the game, you'll find out incredible things about yourself and the mistake that led to the birth of The Zone. The game's story is amazingly good, leaving you to tie up most of its parts. Although the end will leave you even more buzzed than the beginning, there is absolutely no doubt that this is one of the best stories in the history of gaming.
The Zone is the result of the Chernobyl disaster and the mistake made by a group of scientists willing to eradicate human anger and hate. An admirable project gone terribly wrong. A natural and peaceful place is now turned into an inhospitable and extremely dangerous territory, which takes the lives of many. The radiation has left its mark on everything and everyone. The natural wildlife has evolved into grotesque beasts, with boosted power, energy and aggression. There are also horrible human like mutants, with incredible abilities and a very powerful taste for meat.
Other bad consequences of the radiation are the so called anomalies. They are lethal energetic disorders with natural origins, such as: wind, electricity, fire and so on. They appear at random and always have bad effects, including death.
Perhaps the only good things which resulted from radiation are the artifacts. They are a combination of natural components, combining into something that is just not normal. The artifacts have different effects on the human body, most of them being vital for survival in The Zone. Still, all that comes with a price. While enhancing some abilities, it will lower others, many of the artifacts being dangerous for long usage. Artifacts are the result of anomalies, most of them reducing the effects of the anomaly that created them.
Although The Zone was supposed to be inaccessible for people, human nature prevailed. Many came to get artifacts and make money with them. The military was assigned to guard The Zone and keep it sealed. However, the true guardians of The Zone are Stalkers. They are the ones who protect the rest of the world from The Zone. They divide in to two main factions: Duty and Freedom. There are also loners, just like the protagonist, Strelok.
As a Stalker, your job is to maintain order in The Zone, keep it clear of bandits and prevent any interference with the rest of the world.
The main course of the game shouldn't take more than 10 hours to complete, but this game is very open to explorations and optional missions. So most likely, you'll find yourself doing optional quests too, not only because they are interesting, but you will also get cool stuff as a reward.
Another consequence of the open minded gameplay is the diversity of endings you can get. There are 7 of them, but only two are considered to be "true" endings. The ending you get depends on your reputation and some of them require specific quests to be done in order to get them. Nevertheless, all of them are very interesting.
In order to survive in this God forsaken place, a Stalker must rely on powerful weapons and excellent armor. So the game has a very wide arsenal of weapons to show, such as pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, snipers, grenades, RPGs and so on. The weapons are all real life models, but many of them have been given different names. Anyway, they are all very well designed and have a status meter for accuracy, damage, handling and rate of fire. Choose the weapons you like, but pay attention to the status meter as well.
Armor is imperative for survival in The Zone. Since there are different types of armor, you might want to choose the right one for appropriate situations. For instance, you might choose a military type vest for heavy encounters or a scientific suit for hazardous trips.
Medkits and bandages are also available to heal yourself and you must also eat regularly. Stuff like vodka, energy drinks and anti radiation drugs are very useful as well.
Like I said, artifacts are very important and many of them are a must if you want to accomplish your objectives. Their effects may vary from endurance and life boost to increased protection from bullets or anomaly effects.
All of thess weapons and items are kept in your inventory and you can't carry a ton of stuff. When you are to heavily loaded, you won't be able to move. This RPG like inventory is definitely a very interesting thing, considering the fact that this game is a FPS.
The graphics of the game are virtually astonishing, with tons of real life effects. The enemies, weapons and the whole world are very well designed. So you'll need a sharp system to run this game at top details. But it is definitely worth it. The sound and atmosphere are also incredibly well done, with appropriate music for every action you make. Also, the dark corners of the underground labs and bone chilling mutant sounds, makes this game very scary on many occasions.
The AI is a very important part of the game because it is remarkably well put together. Enemies will take quite intelligent decisions while in a shooting sequence. Some of them can be a real challenge. Also, the animals and mutants are incredibly life-like, showing natural habits and acting like a normal animal should. A very nice touch is seeing a wolf dragging its prey. It's really priceless!
A minor drawback may be the bugs, although they are not extremely frequent. Still, that's not enough to drag this game down.
So in the end, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl is an astonishing game, with amazing graphics and atmosphere, very well designed world with real-life characteristics and one of the best stories in the history of video games. All things considered, this game is absolutely superb and should be tried by all experienced players.