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

[Ned]

I just wanted to take a minute to acquaint you folks with a game that's been around since 2007 but is still a favorite of mine, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:Shadow of Chernobyl (hereafter referred to as SShoC). S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stands for "Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber". Since its release, a prequel has been published, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, and a sequel is due for release in late 2009, entitled S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

SShoC is a first-person shooter with some role-playing elements thrown in. Its setting is the Zone of Exclusion around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, created after reactor #4 exploded following an ill-planned safety test. In SShoC, a second disaster occurs in the mid-90s and the "Zone" becomes filled with strange field anamolies and mutated, horrible creatures. The anamolies create a number of new objects, called Artifacts, which have unique properties never seen by humans, and are of great interest to everyone, including the scientists, the military, and anyone else brave enough to face the dangers of navigating the Zone to find them.  Loners who go to the Zone to find them, so they can be sold later on the Black Market, are called Stalkers. It is now the near-future (2012), and everyone has been trying to get closer to the center of the Zone, the power plant itself. But the close one gets, the more dangerous it becomes. But one person has apparently been to the center of the Zone and come back alive, a Stalker named Strelok. You play the role of a Stalker sent into the Zone in an attempt to kill Strelok, but an accident has left you unable to remember anything about yourself or why you are supposed to kill him. In the process of finding Strelok you must also figure out how to get to the center of the Zone. This is the main challenge of the game. On your way you will encounter a variety of nasty creatures, hostile bandits and mercenaries, and collect artifacts and parts of mutated creatures for profit. The artifacts can also be useful by giving you a boost in one of your stats, like health regeneration or resistance to small arms fire. They often have a downside, however, like increasing blood loss if you are wounded, or slowly radiating you.

You will also encounter members of the various factions working in the Zone. The Military are there to keep everything contained and further their own interests. Other factions at work in the Zone include the loner Stalkers, the Duty faction, the Freedom faction, the Bandits, and the Scientists. Each faction has different ideas on how the Zone should be used and controlled, if at all. A faction can assume a friendly, neutral, or enemy attitude toward you, based on your role-playing decisions and alignment with other factions. Of course anyone that you attack will become an enemy automatically.

Here's a trailer I found on YouTube (WARNING: Graphic Violence):



Further, I should mention that there is a modding community for SShoC, which mainly can be found at these two forum sites:

http://gsc-game.com/index.php?t=community&s=forums&s_game_type=xr&offset=240

http://forums.filefront.com/s-t-l-k-e-r-shadow-chernobyl-1530/

Downloads can most often be found at FileFront:

http://stalker.filefront.com/

I highly recommend the Oblivion Lost 2.2 mod. It adds a real intensity to the game, enables vehicles, adds monsters that were not included in the final game, changes the behavior of anamolies, and all sorts of other small improvements which make the game just a little more strange and bone-chilling. It also allows "free-play" when you reach the end of the story. Link:

http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Oblivion_Lost_22_for_1005;93039

It might be of interest to some of you to know that SShoC was also based on a novel and a film. The novel is Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, published in 1972. The film, loosely based on the novel, is simply entitled Stalker and was made in 1979. It was directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.

Links to further information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(film)