S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a revolutionary, yet successful and addictive game.

User Rating: 10 | S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl PC
By Forte2610 | Review Date:
The game was very long-awaited before its release. When it came out, millions of copies was sold almost instantly. It was very successful because of its own goodness. I first played the game at the beginning of this year and had it fully patched. With no bugs, the game is even better!

Graphics: The X-ray engine took 6 years to be completed, and it had a great performance. Every model has high number of polygons. Textures are also quite good. The skies look realistic, and highly-detailed terrain, plus wonderful shadow and lighting system make the game as close to real life as it can. However, the weapon models are poorly textured and bumb-mapped, the character models also lack emotional face animations. But it is acceptable since the game generates a huge open world, in which not everything can be polished.

Gameplay: A great combination of adventure, RPG and action. The RPG aspect is done well as an addiction to the main aspect of the game, FPS.
Weapons handling is very good and close to real life. You can't just aim the crosshair at the enemy's head and kill him in one shot like other FPS games.
That's why the game puts in iron sights. Tasks system is a little buggy if not patched. In an open world, the player can explore everywhere, do almost everything in any order he wants, and that's one of the aspects that made the game revolutionary.

Atmosphere: Natural, scary, spooky, full of action and fear. The graphics and sounds combined make the game's atmosphere very enjoyable.

Sounds: Great music and sounds, but voice acting of the English version is a little disappointing, however the game's sounds are still good.

Performance: The original release is very buggy, which brought the game many poor ratings. The game crashed constantly and drove the players crazy. However, after being fully patched, the game is very stable, allowing the player to enjoy it better. So I recommend players to patch the game to version 1.005 (I heard that version 1.006 had been officially recalled) before playing or probably rating it on GameSpot.

Indeed, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was, is, and will be an eternal masterpiece of the gaming industry. Everyone that hasn't played it should try it and its sequel, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat as well (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky takes place before S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, so it is optional) .

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