Welcome to the Zone.
The military's job was to keep people from entering the zone. But the market for the zone rare artifacts had a lot of money in it for scavengers. These "Stalkers" as they were known soon outnumbered the military. Therefore, the military couldn't effectively control the human part of The Zone's population. So they stayed in The Cordon, preying on Stalkers, collecting "tolls" and (in some cases unofficially) helping Stalker with artifacts getting them to clients for a cut of the profits. But as small in number that they are, the military still manned the checkpoint to stop (or toll) incoming Stalkers. Big mistake.
You pick a suitable location and check you PDAs' contact list. There are five soldiers in total: 4 Privates and a Sergeant. You pull out your binoculars and survey the checkpoint. There is one facing at your direction as you are going south, down The Cordon. One is facing south, and the last three are sitting round a fire, drinking vodka and laughing, probably at some story.
Lighting flashes and thunder booms, reminding you that it is night time and that visibility will be poor. For them anyway. You activate you suits' night vision. It hums to life and everything turns blue. You pull out your Dragunov SVD and aim at the guard closest to you. You check that your clip is full, raising your SVD slightly, but slightly enough to be aimed exactly at the soldiers head. You pull the trigger and the SVD lets out a large Bang! The guard suddenly flew backwards, head first into some wreckage behind his previous position. You did the same to the rearguard, in the space of 2 seconds.
The remaining three got up and ran over to the first guard, the one that was facing you. Two stand in front of their dead comrade, guns raised, pointing them around, searching for you. Third, Probably the Sergeant was inspecting the body. He had his flashlight on, as did the other two, meaning that hiding wouldn't be a problem. You shoot and off one of the Privates, prompting the Sergeant to run for cover and the last Private to spray the area around you with bullets. He suddenly realized two things: 1. He was out of bullets in his clip and 2. He hadn't hurt you at all. Those realizations were his last thoughts as the SVD hit its mark. The Sergeant tried to run away, but in doing so, had only run into your field of view. He dropped like a rock.
You went down and scavenged a few 5.45mm rounds, but the guns were shot. The soldiers had a few meds on them: Some bandages, an army medkit and some antiradiation drugs. Somebody moaned. You check your PDAs' contact list incase its bandits or mutants. The Sergeant survived the shot. He was trying to get up. Can't have that. You put out your modified Desert Eagle, a Black Kite. You walk up to the Sergeant and shoot him in the head without hesitation. The rain stops. A blind dog howls. You decide to leave the blind dog pack to their feast.
Its life as usual in The Zone. And you wouldn't have it any other way.
The Zone is a dangerous place. The mutants, bandits, warring factions, military, radiation and dangerous anomalies make surviving a hard thing to do. But with a good gun and some bullets, nothing can't be stopped.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl had a large pre-release and post-release following. GSC Game World made a lot of promises toward what Stalker: SoC (Then called Oblivion Lost) would be. They promised a lot: An AI system where life would move and continue with or without the player and be highly realistic. They implemented those to some extent but not enough for everyone's liking. The game was originally announced in 2001 for release in 2003, but after many delays it was released in 2007. It would have been great… were it not for all of the bugs. You probably have heard about how bad it was. I personally haven't played unpatched Stalker: SoC, (due to Steam) but I have heard that it was pretty bad. But I am here to tell you that it is been fixed and (minor glitches aside) is amazing in its current form.
So, you'll help me but first I need to do what?
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, after a fictional second accident at Chernobyl in 2006 expanded the zone's radius. The Zone is full of anomalies, mutants and radiation. The story is certainly a strong point of the game: Its original, well communicated and puts you in various places and situations. It starts with a main objective and makes a point of its importance and it then grows into the main story. It takes you all over the zone (see The (Chernobyl Exclusion) Zone), while it repeats an objective or two, it doesn't use for the same effect as it changes the setting, enemies and other factors. The only really unfortunate part is there is a point near the end where you can either keep doing non-story free roam or march off to the end in linear fashion, which can't be helped. The cutscenes are very cinematic and beautifully crafted. There is one plot twist which is (kind of) easy to see coming after you learn your main objective and the basic premise (You can probably spot it now that I've drawn attention to it, sorry). The only other problem is the side-quests. The games' side-quests fit into two categories: Ones from traders and ones from everyone else. Traders' missions can either be fetch-X or kill-X, but the real problem is the time limit. You get a 24 hour time limit (game time to real time is about around 6 game minutes to 1 real one) which includes coming back for a reward. What makes it worse as most of the tasks have you travelling quite far to complete the task (in the kill quests) and fetch quest aren't specific to where you have to go. Non-traders' side quests tell you exactly where you have to go for the mission. Thankfully side quests aren't hard to complete and reward well, but they really detract from the game.
The (Chernobyl Exclusion) Zone
Bleak, desolate, radiated, destroyed and the home of many mutants and anomalies, The Zone is not a place that one might want to visit. While it is not exactly post-apocalyptic, it is post-apocalypse done right. The Zone is (supposedly, it seems much bigger) a 30-kilometer zone centered around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The parts of The Zone in which Shadow of Chernobyl are set to the South (South-West and South-East as well) of the CNPP (The CNPP itself is included). It is divided into ten areas. The way this works is it is divided into ten separate maps with one (or more) change point(s) to go to another map. While it was done most probably due to technology constants, it eliminates the deadzone between maps (if they had made it full open world there would have been a lot of time spent walking through the space in between maps). Unfortunately, each maps' change point is a specific point so there is a barbed wire fence outlining each area until that point. Each area has sub areas, but those are mainly used once or twice for the story and disposed of. There are eighteen areas altogether, (as defined by loading screens between them). The areas vary greatly from each other; they are excellently designed and were designed with the intention that you can guess what happen to the areas to change them and what they were for before. Some of the areas you will return to again and again to hunt or scavenge or search for artifacts. Others are really just there for the story and have little incentive to go back to. They are all non linear and populated with mutants Stalkers and anomalies. The only exception is Pripyat and the CNPP. Background: Pripyat was the city built for workers of the Power Plant. Apparently, GSC Game World did try to recreate the actual Pripyat (For the most part; they had to ruin it because of the second accident.) The problem is that it is used in a wholly linear context, with not much room for exploration. You can't use the Pripyat Ferris wheel either. Mashes, the nuclear power plant, a military base and research institute, a village, a dump, a valley, a forest and more make up the rest of the zone.
You want guns? We've got so much you can overcompensate!
One of the parts of the focus on realism that GSC had was on firearms. There are quite a few but what stands out the most is the ballistic system. Stalker's Ballistic system is nigh on uncanny. The twenty nine (Variants not counted) firearms all have bullet drop over long range (in varying degrees, shotguns have bullet spread). They all have iron sights/scopes and can have silencers, and grenade launchers. Iron sights makes for more accurate aiming than the crosshair, but still isn't 100%. Most have the ability to switch firing modes to single shot from automatic (some have three round burst and one gun has a two round burst firing mode). There are nine Pistols, three Shotguns, one Submachine gun, ten Assault rifles, one grenade launcher, an RPG and four Sniper Rifles. Recoil also varies from weapon to weapon, as well as rate of fire. Guns use the appropriate ammunition cartridges (as well as armor piercing variants), which means that you will have to adapt your use of weapons to your location and enemies. An experienced Stalker will have an assault rifle and another weapon either a shotgun or a sniper plus a decent pistol. Bullets are hard keep in huge amount as: A) The general inaccuracy of weapons or B) Their carry weight. This means that if you need bullets, you'll either buy some from traders for a huge mark up or you'll have to scavenge from your fallen enemies. Checking their inventory isn't enough; you'll have to pick up their weapon unload it then dispose of it. Weapons have a condition bar: the worse it is, the more frequently they will jam. Since in vanilla (non-modded) STALKER there is no repairing, you will have to dispose of your weapon for one in better condition.
When RPG doesn't stand for a rocket propelled grenade
Remember the realism thing that I mentioned? The way this is implemented is by an RPG-lite system. This includes a food and hunger system, which means that you can die from hunger if you haven't in a long time (it occurs in three stages, marked by the color of the food symbol. But it does nothing until it goes red where you must eat or die), a bleeding system where if you get shot you might start bleeding and losing health (like hunger it occurs in three stages; green is only a little bit of health lost every interval and can disappear over time, while yellow is more health lost every interval but can get better and turn green and red is a lot of health loss and must be immediately bandaged). Bleeding is stopped by bandages, which also restore small amounts of health. Bandages are plentiful so how badly you are bleeding is often inconsequential. Radiation is also implemented the same way, but any radiation at all is bad and radiation also has three stages. Radiation can be cleansed by either antiradiation drugs (which are represented by a syringe in your inventory but isn't actually taken; you just use it and they disappear) or vodka, which induces an intoxicated state where you stagger based on the amount taken. Weapons and armor degrade, guns start jamming and armor becomes less protective. Guns and Armor have certain characteristics that separate each set. There are traders who sell different items for different costs, (usually about four time value) and buy items for different cost. Finally, Inventory is limited by carrying weight. It is normally fifty pounds but can increase because of the exoskeleton suit (but the suit weighs a lot so it only helps a little). Near traders there is usually a box with is empty and can be used to store stuff in, if you feel the need to. (On my first play through, although I am ashamed to admit it, it didn't occur to me to do; I just made with what I had. It is wise, especially late game, to have stashes for weapons and armor in good repair, excess ammunition, food and medical supplies as well as extra weapons and weapon attachments).
Random mutations=Bad!
The second accident didn't just expand the Zone; it mutated animals and created anomalies and artifacts. Anomalies are oddities that defy the laws of nature. Most are dangerous and eventually fatal. Usually they are in clusters in certain points in the zone. They are invisible and can only be noticed by small disturbances or by throwing a metal bolt into it (you strangely have an infinite amount) as they react to metal. Artifacts are items created by anomalies in certain situations. They can either be sold or equipped in one of five artifact slots. Artifacts have positive properties and negative properties, (sometimes only positive) such as adding 3% bulletproof cap to your armor but adding five radiation per second (you would use an artifact which removed radiation to counter it). Artifacts vary in price, rarity and abilities. Artifacts are the main reason the people come to the zone; their rarity fetches quite a price for the rest of world. Mutants also came from the second accident. Some are mutated animals that still live like a normal animal; Blind dogs (Blind dogs literally have no eyes) hunt in packs and feed on whatever they can. Other mutants such as the Bloodsucker are mutated for who knows what and can turn invisible. The mutant wildlife certainly adds to the atmosphere and the other mutants really add to the gameplay aspect and do produce some scares. Stalker is very atmospheric. Atmosphere in the context of the game feels really real. People fight each other, animals roam and hunt and feed, day passes into night, and it just feels like you are contributing to the world and living in it.
Pretty
Stalkers' graphics have their highs and lows. The environment looks convincing and realistic (Well, as real as it would under its circumstances). The weather cycle is amazing except for night, which isn't as dark as it should be, as it can be navigated without a flashlight or nightvision. Character models are a low as each group has only about four or five (at most). On the bright side, each NPC has a name (either a specific name if they are important in the story or a randomized one) so you could actually get sad when Vanya Brick dies. The graphics are a little dated but can't be called anything bellow very good.
Give me a chance!
STALKER:SoC is pretty difficult. Just do yourself a favor and stick through it. The first firefight is hard if you do it by yourself. This is due to the fact that everyone is armed just as well as you or better. The next firefight (kind of optional, against the Military under the bridge) is far harder as they have far better weapons and armor. But stick through that and STALKER becomes easier through still challenging.
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl is certainly a great game and a worthy addition to any (true) PC gamers' collection.