I walk through the thick grass, careful to avoid the pulsing anomalies that wait in the foliage. A hard rain is falling from a dark, sullen sky. I'm short on ammunition now; the zombie pack I was asked to wipe out used the last of my assault rifle rounds, I'm down to two shells. I'm hungry, thirsty and need to find shelter. A blowout is coming; a fire storm that will clean me of my flesh like the wrath of god. I run as the warning goes out, but I'm getting tired so quickly. The sirens howl as I reach the dilapidated warehouse with seconds to spare, and hunker down with the other stalkers by the fire, and wait for the cacophonous storm to play out outside. This is the world of Stalker. Welcome to Chernobyl.
It's not very often that an original game does get totally overlooked, especially not in the days of Steam and Desura where indie games thrive and get discovered with surprising ease. Stalker was one of those games that everybody knew about before release but totally ignored when it finally came out. To this day, I haven't met anybody who has played it. If I say 'post apocalyptic shooter with role playing elements', people immediately say 'Fallout 3'.
In fairness, I will admit Fallout 3 is a great RPG shooter with a great open world to explore, but for some reason it has always left me rather cold. Probably because it doesn't feel much like an apocalypse. Fallout 3's wasteland is a wasteland only in name. The gaming world of Fallout 3 is infinitely larger of course, but in a world desperate to remind us that we walk through the ruins of human civilisation, the surprisingly fantastical array of lasers, giant scorpions, cyborg implants and other similar technologies jar my sense of immersion. While its retro fifty stylings do give it an undeniable charm, this artistic choice does result in making the future look more awesome than it probably would be. It's the truth of Stalker that resonates with me. Stalker feels more real to me than any of the Fallout games, and although I know Fallout 3 is probably the better game by direct comparison, Stalker is the game that feels more real.
Fallout 3 might seem pessimistic, it having taken place after a nuclear catastrophe, but try out Stalker's apocalypse for size. Scavenging for food and bandages in a partly irradiated and utterly lethal wasteland that never ceases trying to kill you, the pessimism and general nihilism of the game feels infinitely more sad. Stalker sees you playing a soldier of fortune with no memory (okay hardly a new one, but bear with me) who ends up in the extensive fallout area of Pripyat - where the rather notorious Chernobyl power plant is located.
The game plays with the idea that the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 did more than just irradiate the grasslands of the Ukraine, but also mutate the creatures and create anomalies of astounding value and supernatural quality. This world was first created in 'Roadside Picnic', the legendary science fiction work by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and which found its world utilised by Andre Tarkovsky for his film 'Stalker'. It is the title of the latter and the world of the former that set the scene for 'Stalker: The Shadow of Chernobyl'. The men who hunt the dessicated forests and fields looking for artefacts are the 'Stalkers' of the title. The world of Stalker is based on the actual environs of Pripyat, which gives it a disturbingly authentic edge. Cracked roadways, overturned vehicles and abandoned buildings abound. Worse still are the houses, with rotting children's art trodden into the floors and rusting bicycles in the grass. It is a poisoned, brutal world.
Now there are technically three Stalker games, but I will be treating them as one since 'Clear Sky' and 'Call of Pripyat' were actually add-ons rather than sequels, even if they are practically stand alone games themselves. it expanded the world of the original Stalker it was notoriously broken on release and the real leaps and bounds came in Call of Pripyat. Upgradeable weapons made an appearance in Call of Pripyat, for example, and the arrival of emissions, terrifying radioactive storms that force you to run for cover . There may have not been a myriad system of perks and skills that Fallout did, but to be honest such things have absolutely no place in Stalker's world. It is more shooter than RPG to be sure, but the world still has its own economy - that is to say, money is still a useful object, but only for getting food and weapons. It may not have the scope for quests in the manner Fallout 3 does, but it is an incredibly lean and intense open-world experience. Out in the wilderness finding an artefact when you hear the alert for an emission coming? Tough luck. Run like hell and find somewhere close to hide or be irradiated to death in seconds.
The game's graphics were a touch basic even when it was released, but with numerous graphical upgrade mods available for it now, it competes easily with the big boys. It is also unfortunate that the best new weapon upgrade and gameplay systems only arrived with 'Call of Pripyat', by which time GSC Gameworld had begun to collapse and would soon close...only to reopen again a few years later and carry on making Cossack games but leave the Stalker label dead. Thank god for the modding community however, as a lot of these have been grafted back on to the first games (even the ability to drive vehicles, a system not even available in Call of Pripyat, has been reintroduced). Its amazing people have the determination to do such work because the game engine for Stalker is really a gigantic piece of doggy doo - prone to endless crashes and with bugs oozing from every crack - but somehow they take this as a challenge rather than just a barrier and make it work.
The fact it has such a dedicated following says so much about Stalker's compelling power. Rotten hulking buildings, abandoned streets and overgrown homes surround you as you walk through this ruined world alone. It is a real survival game, and demands your commitment. If you ignore your thirst meter, you will drop dead of dehydration. Forget to eat? Starvation. Food does not fully restore your health either, that is an entirely separate series of stats you have to look after. Ammunition is incredibly scarce; very often, your enemies do not carry the same weaponry or ammunition as you so your best bet is to scavenge their equipment and sell it at the nearest trading post for the equipment you do need. This game does not mess around.
If you want a great experience in a post-apocalyptic world, I don't think you could find a better one than Stalker. And since you can get all three for the same approximate price as 'Fallout: New Vegas', I would suggest you try them out and mod all of them. You will not experience anything quite as ghostly or beautiful in any other game.
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