From Russia (more or less) With Love

While my last few blogs may make it appear that I am some sort of curmudgeon who just wants all those damn kids to stay off his LAN, I actually have been having some gaming fun. I'm currently playing several games that I am enjoying, both of which are from eastern European developers. Both came out last year so many of you may already have seen them, but I thought I would throw out my impressions anyway.


The first game occupying my time at the moment is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadows of Chernobyl by Ukrainian developer GSC Games. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a first-person shooter set in the area around the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in an alternate time line in which a second, larger explosion at the plant has had a strange effect on the surrounding area, an area now known as "The Zone". In addition to the expected radiation, areas known as "Anomalies" have appeared where the laws of physics have been changed in strange ways. These Anomalies have created "Artifacts", objects that have been changed to have strange and unique properties.

Various groups wander the Zone. The military tries to keep the area cordoned off but may also be running some kind of strange experiments within it. Two rival groups also struggle within the area; Duty, who feel that the Zone poses a threat and that the world needs to be protected from it, and Freedom, which feels that the Zone contains discoveries that should be made available to all of mankind. There is also a group of Scientists within the Zone who are studying it.

Then, there are rumors of a group known as Monolith, who worship an alien artifact at the center of the zone.


Finally, there are individuals such as yourself known as Stalkers. Stalkers travel through the Zone looking for Artifacts to sell for profit. The Stalkers often work with or are opposed by one or more of the above groups. Additionally, they are threatened by Bandits, individuals who also want to collect Artifacts but who would rather not find them themselves but instead want to take them from the bodies of the Stalkers who found them.

You are a Stalker with no name. You were found in a wrecked vehicle; a vehicle that was carrying dead bodies from somewhere deep in the Zone. You do not know who you are or why you were in the Zone. All you know is that you were carrying a PDA that said you were on a mission to kill someone named Strelok. You must find your way though the Zone, learn how to survive, try to remember who you were and, possibly, who Strelok is and why you must kill him.

In the past I have talked about some of the problems I have with many FPS games and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. manages to avoid most of them. First, the environments are quite large and quite open. You are constrained to a certain area, but within that area you have almost total freedom of movement; there is no feeling that you are being forced along a certain path. Additionally, the areas are quite varied and interesting. There is an extremely good sense of atmosphere and there are enough places to visit and see that you do feel as if you are exploring ruins in the aftermath of a disaster.


Additionally, the game really never really forces you to follow the plot; you can follow it or ignore it as you please. There are a large number of NPCs around that you can interact with and talk to who will offer y0u side quests and the like. Or, you can just wander around and explore on your own, shooting bandits and mutant pigs to your hearts content.

The number and variety of inhabitants in the Zone is also worth mentioning. Unlike many FPS games, where it seems as if your opponents are just sitting around waiting on you, in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the various NPCs all seem to be living their own lives. For example, at once point while playing I heard gunfire off to one side of the road. Heading in that direction, I saw a gunbattle proceeding between a Stalker encampment and a group of bandits. I was free to join in or ignore it as I saw fit. Later, a military patrol coming down the road saw me and started shooting. I was returning fire when a wild dog pack suddenly burst out of the bushes on one side of the road and attacked the patrol. The patrol promptly forgot about me and started attacking the dogs. One of the patrol members broke off and ran while another was torn apart by the dogs. With the distraction I was able to finish off the patrol. Incidents like this are common and really make it feel as if you are part of an actual, living world.


Combat itself is quite simple and quite deadly. However, unlike many similar games where the difficulty comes from either wave upon wave of enemies or from enemies that are impossibly accurate shots from impossible distances, the difficulty here comes from more realistic combat. Two or three shots are enough to kill almost anyone and many encounters are over in just a few seconds. The enemy AI is fairly smart; opponents will almost always attempt to take advantage of cover and I have had cases where they (or their colleagues) would attempt to flank me and catch me in crossfire. Despite the difficulty I like this more than many games with similar difficulty curves in that it feels to me as if the game is "fair"; I don't think it is artificially making things difficult for me just to make it harder.

So, if you are an FPS fan and have not played this one yet, I would suggest that you check it out. It has been out for a while so you can probably find in fairly cheap. Plus, GSC Games is releasing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Clear Skies, the prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl later this year and you may want to play this one before it comes out. That's why I'm trying to finish it anyway.