Post Apocalypse - Part 4

I've played Shadow of Chernobyl once before, but stopped half way through the start. Time to give it another whirl...

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:
Shadow of Chernobyl
and
Clear Sky
Official Site

And yet again I've got stuck half way through the start. Not only on Shadow of Chernobyl, but also on Clear Sky. This game is HARD beyond belief. Now I'm not one to give up easily on a game. I usually tend to keep on trying at least for an hour or 2 before I go "fuck this shit". However with this game its hard not to go FTS on it.

First of all there's no auto-save and if there is I haven't noticed. Every single time you die you'll have to start from the beginning of the game OR be so lucky to have Quick-Saved just before starting the next encounter. Second of all when my mission guy was killed on my way over to him the game crashed.

I tried to patch the game, but then my save games didn't work anymore plus my mini-map stopped working. That might be cause I used patch 1.0006 instead of the last official one was 1.0005 on STALKERS own website, but thats besides the point. Anyways, thats just game mechanics and I'm here to review it, so here's a review as best as I can give it. Its about PA games afterall and not really anything else.

Look and feel:

This game actually looks good. Now understand that its Chernobyl you're running around in and not total world destruction. So if you look at it that way the game feels pretty real to its source. At least ... to me ... I've been to Czechoslovakia in its poverty age and this game looks a bit like that with added destroyed property.

Now the sad thing is I can't say much else after the first quest, cause I couldn't get there, but if it'd all work this game is on the same level as Fallout 3 when it comes to look and feel.

The story is a bit weird though and I can't say much of it. Mostly cause there's not much to go on. In both games you get a small movie that doesn't explain a lot and then you wake up. Here's the story on YouTube

Combat:

This is what should make most of the game and which actually breaks it. Combat in STALKER is so damn hard its beyond human capabilities. You'll have to take your time aiming straight, Cause without practice you won't even hit a cow if it was right in front of you.

Besides that, your targets have an auto-aim, cause they'll always hit you and you better be sure you hit them before they hit you or you're dead. Even on Novice (the easiest of easy play) the guys who shoot at you will have an aim like Robocop and you'll feel like you're shooting a bb gun with side-wind.

Area's and Questing:

It takes a LOT of reading before you get to the point where you can actually start on your quest. At first everything is supported by audio speech, but later on this is removed and you're left with only lots and lots of text to read. In Clear Sky more is done with audio, but I'm not sure how far into the game.

This would probably give me a better idea to the story, but STALKER doesn't really feel like a game that should have such great deals of text in the beginning. The characters don't know you and there's not a lot of reason for them to tell you their life story.

So I skipped through most of them just to get to actually playing the game. However you can practically talk to EVERYONE in the game so it becomes a big drag to actually get passed it all. I can't imagine making all these characters have a story to tell. Why? It doesn't add anything and it feels obsolete.

Character development:

I'm not sure if there is any. I can't get far enough to actually know if there is. I know you get better gear along the road. Better weapons and outfits can be found and bought, but other then that I don't really see a lot of char. dev. in the game.

Professions:

There aren't any. Then again STALKER feels more like a shooter then a RPG. So there isn't much use for it.

Conclusion:

There's 3 things to say about this game.

1. If you want to play it ... Patch it
2. If you want to finish it ... Cheat
3. If you're a sadist ... don't do the first 2

The only way this game can be fun to you is if you either are REALLY good at it or if you don't mind cheating or dieing a lot.

I'm really pulled to the story in this one and will return to it with the proper patch and cheats just to finish the story. That will probably indicate that they did do something right. Yet STALKER is far from perfect and I'd really not advise it. Neither of them.