Customer Reviews
Huge game - lots of fun for a long time 
2008-04-24
Good graphics, excellent game play, good sound and Huge levels. VERY atmospheric. Definately well worth the money. Download the recent patches though. The 1.0 version of the game was unstable, and the patches break your save games, so apply the patches before you start the game.
Look out behind you! 2008-04-07
Wow, this is one of the most extreme games I have ever played. Exelent graphics help set the stage in a future post Chernobyl landscape where few rules exist and danger is everywhere around you. The game has a creepy feel that will make you look behind yourself as you sit at the computer. The strange ambiant sounds and growling creatures created by the radiation will keep you on your toes, not to mention the ruthless enemy. This game is a combination of many other types of games. It has enough gunplay to satisfy any first person shooter fan, and an open ended style that can change every time you play the game. I have played this game over and over and it never seems to go the same way twice. This game is truely groundbreaking, and the most fun game I have played in years. It will take some time to get used to, but be patient, you WILL be rewarded with a excelent plot and plenty of exciting gameplay with endless ammounts of weapons. Buy this game and enjoy, you wont regret it!
Pretty realistic 
2008-04-05
It's a pretty good game - good sound, graphics, effects, music - you name it. It's not the easiest game to play - I am somewhere in the middle of game and getting kind of tired (or bored). But it is still very serious title that really deserves gamers' attention.
Don't pass this game up, it's worth every penny. 2008-04-04
S.t.a.l.k.e.r. is the hidden jewel of the year. If you have somehow overlooked this game, may I suggest that you go and purchase it right now. Download the patches and install before playing. Then prepare to leave the real world for a few weeks while you figure out how to get yourself through the depths of S.t.a.l.k.e.r. After about an hours worth of learning curve at the beginning, it will begin to draw you into this land of nuclear disaster and all the high weirdness that comes with it. You will hunt for food, weapons and a seemingly endless assortment of items as you wind your way through this ghostly world. Don't expect to just rush through this game with guns ablaze-ing, as you won't last long. You have to think and fight your way through the madness. The game does have a few bugs from time to time as you progress, but this is easily forgiven as you discover the large wide openness and depth of the story. In my humble opinion, S.t.a.l.k.e.r. will grab and twist your imagination with it's unique storyline in a way that Bioshock or Crysis just can't touch. Don't let this jewel of a game pass you by.
don't waste your money 
2008-03-31
I looked forward to this game and waited thru all the delays. they should have delayed another year. aside from the bug problems, the game just sucks all by itself. when a game thinks it's being challenging by bringing NPCs up behind you to attack from an area you just spent a lot of time and ammo clearing, that tells me how weak the game play is. so I spent $50 for a game that is selling for $20 6 months later now that everyone knows how much it sucks. THQ has gotten their last dollar out of me. FOAD
The Big Crash 2008-07-19
I have had games in the past that crash now and then but I have never had a game as worse than this. I have tried all the patches and follow numerous advise from discussion forums yet it still crashes. It is a pity as I do enjoy playing it 'when it works' but saving it every few minutes does become a chore.S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Great game ruined by significant bugs 
2008-06-27
Stalker has the potential to be a great game. Unfortunately it is ruined by several significant bugs that make it difficult to finish the game. Even with the latest patch (1.06) the game seems unfinished. The graphics are beautiful, some of the best of any game. I normally turn off the music in games, but I kept it on in Stalker because it was not obtrusive and lent to the atmosphere. They did a great job of making the world feel realistic, including changing weather and day/night cycles (among other things people sleep and more monsters come out at night). The mood of the game is genuinely desolate and creepy. Getting into big gunfights was a lot of fun, especially because the AI opponents are probably the best I've seen in a shooter. If you attack a group, they all scatter and hide behind cover. Then some will move around while shooting at you to flush you out from behind your cover while others move to flank you. Many times I was picking off bad guys at a distance when I got shot in the back of the head by one of their group who silently got behind me! The big problem that killed the fun is that bad quest management system. Stalker has many RPG qualities, including non-linear quests. But to finish the game you need to complete certain quests. There are multiple endings to the game, and which ending you get depends on which quests you complete and how. But the game gives you no information to help you decided which choices to make in order to get the most satisfying ending. I did ever quest I could, but could not complete some quests because of bugs in the game. And because I could not complete those quests I was not allowed to try to attempt others that were dependent. So when I got to the end of the game, there were many objectives that I had not completed, so my character just died. This was very frustrating and I'm not willing to replay the entire game just to get around the bugs.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl 2008-06-10
Two decades after the infamous Chernobyl accident, there was a further disaster. Witnesses - those that survived - added to a scramble of unreliable versions of events. All that is known for sure is that the Zone is real, and that it is expanding.
Years later, a man is nearly killed when an explosion tips his truck. The unconscious man, marked with the word S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on his forearm, is taken to a Stalker camp. One of many ambitious scavengers who attempt to penetrate the radioactive Zone, the player as the Marked One must dodge inexplicable anomalies caused by the blow-out at Chernobyl, snatch powerful artefacts out of deadly irradiated areas, and perhaps uncover the truth about the disaster, the Zone itself, the mutated life forms that inhabit it.
The game was the forerunner in the "free-form" first-person shooter genre, creating vast expanses of highly-detailed landscapes for the player to wander as he or she chooses. The Marked One travels wherever he wishes, perhaps accomplishing small jobs as a Stalker and making some money on the side, or perhaps pushing deeper into the mystery of his own life, which he remembers only in fragments. There is only a single clue in his belongings: a note saying "Kill Strelok". Who Strelok is, and how he is connected to the Zone, if at all, is the question that drives the first few primary missions that the Marked One must undertake to progress the story.
This is how the game unfolds: the Marked One journeys further into the Zone, passing through the camps of Ukrainian vagrants or thugs, who have lost their way after the destruction of their homes and the deaths of their families. Various groups have come together to combat the monstrous entities that emerge from the more deeply irradiated areas: mutated wildlife and corrupted human bodies. The group called "Duty" and a task force called "Freedom" struggle for supremacy amongst the ruined remains of military warehouses and old, overgrown train stations. This close to the centre of the Zone, the precious artefacts are in abundance and sometimes grant great powers. And, where the world seems to bleach the Marked One's mind with static sound and whispered voices, there are rumours of legendary Stalkers who have braved the worst that the Zone has to offer, and found at the core of the Zone the entity known as the "Wish Maker" ...
The story of the game is the story of its world, which appears to go about its business whether you are present or not. Factions war and, if the Stalker is patient enough, the Marked One may simply walk amongst the remains and collect his bounty from the bodies of the recently deceased. But what would be the fun in that?
There are no fantastical weapons as in other FPSs like "Half-Life" and "Prey". "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl" is firmly rooted in the real world, albeit one that has been corrupted by its fictional blow-out and the resulting wash of dangerous waves and particles. Weapons range from a knife, with which the Marked One may silently dispatch friends and enemies, to the usual pistols and rifles. Grenade launchers are available for those willing to risk life and limb in territories controlled by violent groups or the remnants of the Russian military. The trick lies not with picking up the next in a sequence of increasingly-larger guns, but with the conservation of ammo, strategic storage of goods and items, and the masterment of a clever system that allows your Stalker to carry only so much weight. This system is very similar to the one used in the sci-fi FPS "Deus Ex" and its sequel, forcing the player to think carefully about what to take and what to abandon, and where to store the choicest of the bunch for later.
The huge areas, which change over distance from brown fields to derelict houses and military bases, include multiple hidey holes and "stashes" that can be found by pillaging clues from dead or wounded enemies. An intuitive map and PDA system reveals these as the Marked One uncovers more hints. Some acquaintances, who may become fast friends if you find them wounded and spare a rare med-kit to save their life, or if you help them with a job they just can't accomplish alone, will give you tips that lead to the best of the stashes that have been abandoned or left to rust up following the death of their owners.
The far-reaching world of "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." offers a lot for a player to uncover or investigate, with entire villages or townships displayed on the map that the player might not even pass through should he or she chose to simply follow the main plot and progress to the end of the game as quickly as possible.
Or should that be ends? "S.T.A.L.K.E.R."'s only real flaw is that its choice of multiple endings, which can be divided into "True" endings and "False" endings, could easily disappoint the unwary gamer. Without knowing that some final cut-scenes, which are immediately followed by the closing credits, were not really the end of the game, a player could easy come away feeling cheated and unsatisfied. However perhaps this review can serve to warn those who haven't yet had the delight of playing this deeply atmospheric game: if you think you've seen all there is, read up on an online walkthrough and see if there's anything you missed. Leave no job abandoned. Leave no anomaly investigated.
Upgradeable suits and weapons make the "unnecessary" portions of the game much more worthwhile. Those with a hankering for the fictional history of the world, when not entirely satiated by the game's well-thought out and absorbing game manual, can discover more about the Zone and its inhabitants by exploring. Lone Stalkers and terminally sick wanderers might provide clues to the Marked One's past, or the identities of Strelok and those who are complicit in his actions. If that isn't enough, there's always the option of going just for the thrill of it, of creeping through valleys of windswept garbage to eliminate that last group of gun-toting thugs, or travelling to the corners of the twisted woodland to take out the rogue Stalker who's stealing all your work. The world is full of things to do, and can increase the gameplay time by several hours. It never feels like something you wish you hadn't wasted time on.
The story and the comprehensive user interface serve the game the best, helping to create a package that fairly has won awards and a right to a sequel/prequel, which is due out later this year. People with a strong dislike for first-person shooters should obviously steer clear - keep an eye out for "Fallout 3" (coming soon) instead - but it's difficult to believe that anybody would fail to be engaged by the profoundly atmospheric journey the player takes.
Interesting first person shooter game. 2008-05-28
Its different and fun. Save the game alot because you don't know when you will get radiation.
Stalking the great shooter 2008-05-01
This game is different enough from common shooter like 'Timeshift' to make it enjoyable even for old players like me who wet their teeth on 'Blood and Duke Nukem". The visuals are very good and definately lend to the atmosphere of the game. The story is intersting and plays a little like an RPG but your character never levels. Gameplay is difficult so save often. It all takes place in a depressing environment but that just makes it more realistic. There are few minor glitches but overall the game is well worth the time and money.
