Title: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Platform: PC
Publisher: THQ
Developer: GSC Game World

Review Summary: I should have liked this game. It’s gorgeous. It’s detailed. It’s, at times, downright frightening. For some reason, it is also boring as hell.

On paper, STALKER is a game I should love. It has everything I normally look for: High concept storyline, open-ended design, first-person POV, stunning environments, a high degree of interactivity, and an AI that is actually intelligent. Usually, in a single game I can find 3 of these items, sometimes 4. To have them all, or at least to attempt to have them all, is ambitious indeed. And yet perhaps that is where my issues with STALKER begin. On paper, all of these elements are present. In production, however, there are things that hold back the game from being something that I lose my self in for hours at a time. Before I go any further, I need to mention right up front that I didn’t finish the game. I tried twice to force myself through it, but couldn’t bring myself to. I fully intend on going back and trying again, but not for a while. I need a break from the boredom.

The story itself is wonderful in concept. It’s a kind of alternate history dystopia that focuses on the effects of the Chernobyl reactor explosion of 1986. The concept itself has the potential to be entrancing, and the possibilities for design and conflict appear nearly limitless. The problem comes when the story is being presented. It is clumsy, vague, and, in the end, quite linear in its construction. There are a limited number of diversions, but for the most part it’s all about following directions and moving from point A to point B when you are told to do so. The interface itself is rather clunky, and the use of the PDA for communication and data storage is pedestrian at best. There are numerous bugs in the PDA display mode, and the vast amount of information that gets gathered becomes particularly unwieldy as a direct result of these bugs.

The world is broken into zones which load separately as you pass from one area to another. The main storyline takes you back and forth through these zones several times, and while they don’t reset themselves, they will sometimes repopulate with new bandits and wildlife. This is actually one of the more impressive features of STALKER which will be discussed more in depth later. The potential for an impressively expansive gameworld is defeated by, once again, the linear nature of the main quest. There are simply not enough substantial side-quests and diversions to take advantage of the tremendous effort GSC put into developing their world.

The environments are the true strengths of STALKER. The world-building is some of the best I have seen, bar none, and the AI tied to wildlife and random encounters is top notch. Creeping along a path through the woods, it isn’t uncommon to hear the pop of distant gunfire as opposing factions wander too close to each other. Wound a wild animal, and it may well attempt to scurry away in fear rather than just continue to charge or fight. And if it does scurry away, the noise it makes changes to reflect its fear and pain. The attention to detail in the environmentals allow for an unusually immersive experience and is the primary reason I’ll be giving STALKER at least one more try before I put it away for good.

When it comes down to actual encounters, I have heard complaints about a buggy AI. I didn’t experience any bugs myself, but I do think that it is fairly uninspired AI at best. Enemy targets don’t seem to try and find cover, but rather stand and shoot, then wander a bit and shoot some more. More annoying than anything else, they tend to stay at maximum distance unless their event script or the quest has them moving to a specific area. Again, nothing inherently wrong with this type of AI, but it becomes predictable very quickly and really limits gameplay, especially early in the game when weaponry and ammunition are so limited in effectiveness.

Overall, I think STALKER has a ton of potential that it just didn’t live up to. It isn’t a bad game by any means, but there is just so much that is so close to being so good! It tries very hard to be both a FPS and an RPG and it almost makes it. I played it primarily the way I would an FPS. Hopefully, when I have more time to sit down and really play the game, focusing as much on the RPG elements as on the FPS elements, I’ll find the game I thought I was sitting down to. Twice.