STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
The Story
The world’s worst nuclear disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl power facility in the Ukraine. The area slowly recovered until 2006 when an unforeseen second explosion rocked the landscape, leaving a vast "Exclusion Zone" plagued with deadly energy disturbances in its wake. The quarantined Exclusion Zone expanded over time, and by 2012, specially equipped poachers, known as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, venture into the Zone to claim radioactive artifacts for the black market. You are a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. battling for survival among rivals, soldiers and mutant creatures while trying to discover the true nature of Chernobyl’s dark past and horrific future.
The Deal
STALKER is a PC game that takes place in 2012 in Russia. It is a very different Russia where Chernobyl was not contained and is now part of a militant war zone. The character that you play is a loner, like everyone else, who is just trying to make it day to day. You basically go on missions of different sorts to earn stuff, that you can use or trade. Your overall goal is to get better gear, so you can travel closer to the main facility. The main facility is visited by a rare few because the fallout is very heavy. This has also caused the nearby lifeforms to become heavily mutated. These mutants would love nothing more than to eat your character.
The Bottom Line
First off, I worked in the PC software field for a few years. Here is some advice: Never buy a PC game at release. Always wait until it is about $20. By then, there are enough patches and mods out there to make it worthwhile.
Now the low down – This is a great game! If you love first person shooters, then it is a definite BUY for you. I typically stick to the mainstream FPS (Halo, Battlefront, etc) but I have enjoyed the heck out of this. What can I say, you go around on a massive map (20 miles of terrain) and shoot, loot, and explore. The AI is pretty good too. Nobody sticks around and lets you shoot him or her, they will duck and hide and even flank you sometimes. And there are a ton of mods to download for free. I even found one that turned it into a “horror” game by auto adjusting the lighting and gore. Lots of fun!
Best Quote
“Find him dead or alive, I don’t give a sh!t, just bring back the thumbdrive.”
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