STALKER: Reviewed

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for the PC has finally been released. Some people on the message boards I visit have been waiting for six years, ever since the game was first announced back in ‘01.

Lots of people have pirated the game, but if you’re going to support the game industry and give them money for a few hours of entertainment, then you’ll probably be interested in some of the critical reviews the game has recieved.

Yahoo Games was super impressed, giving the game a 4.5/5.

“STALKER’s levels are huge and sprawling, each big enough for many large buildings and plenty of countryside between them. You’ll visit ruined cities, factories, military bases, radiation-bathed garbage dumps, and mysterious research labs. Oh, and the power plant itself, lurking at the northern end of the map like some hulking, malevolent reminder of humanity’s arrogance.”

Meanwhile, Gamespot gave the game an 8.5, praising the spooky atmosphere and the AI but shunning the game for the bugs that ruined their stalking adventures.

“The game’s artificial intelligence is impressive, both in and out of combat. In combat, enemies are cunning when given enough room to move around. Human enemies hunt you intelligently, using cover and the terrain to their advantage. Meanwhile, creatures such as packs of mutant dogs behave like you’d expect wild animals to. They attack when they feel they have the advantage but flee if given a painful lesson. It’s this kind of behavior that makes the zone feel alive, with these different factions and animals all trying to go about their daily tasks.”

And finally, IGN was also impressed, but  gave the game a lower-80’s score because of the terrible technicalities and the average side-quests.

“In a strange twist, several of the main story missions take place underground or indoors, shifting the aspects of gameplay toward that of a traditional corridor shooter. If you really want to test out how S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s open world elements work, you’ll need to embark on the many side quests The Zone’s NPCs offer. Sadly only a handful of them are truly interesting. They mostly offer simple tasks such as kill a single target, wipe out a camp, or retrieve an object. The more involving ones toss you into battle with A.I. companions, though there are too few.”

I’m not too convinced on whether I should pick the game up yet. In my opinion, the best way to determine those kinds of things are the fans themselves. We’ll just have to wait and see.