S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Introduction

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is one of my favorites in all of video games. From the original trilogy to the not-yet-released sequel, from the reclamation mods to the complete overhauls, from Call of Chernobyl to Anomaly, from the minor addons to the massive modpacks I love it all… and it all started here, with Shadow of Chernobyl (SoC). After years of really just replaying Call of Pripyat (CoP) Gunslinger mod and too many variations of Anomaly, I finally returned to the first of its kind.

To quickly introduce newcomers unfamiliar with the series, Stalker takes place in the Zone, or more specifically, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster exclusion zone. In a game that mixes the FPS, horror, survival, and RPG genres, the calling card of the series can be simply conveyed with the following video:

Gameplay

I’m not sure what drove me to play Shadow of Chernobyl again, but I immediately began enjoying the stripped-down nature of the gameplay mechanics. I think my brain was overjoyed with not having to process the excessive amounts inventory clutter present in so many mods and overhauls (yes, I’m absolutely referring to GAMMA). Here’s your inventory at any given time in SoC: two guns, artifacts, ammo, medkits, vodka, and bread. If I tried that list my GAMMA inventory that would be just blatant word count padding and that’s assuming I knew what half the shit was. This is a slight diss on GAMMA, but don’t worry I think that modpack is quite good too.

Stripped down is not always a good thing, because in SoC the gunplay is, at times, dreadful. The stock animations and textures for SoC’s guns are the definition of chunky and stiff. To be more specific, it’s not necessarily the animations or textures that truly bother me, but the accuracy. In SoC, it can take a whole magazine of whatever ammunition you have to take down an enemy. Yet, the enemy are not bullet sponges. What is going on here?

Many veteran Stalkers will know this screenshot well. It’s one of the first missions you get in the game where you’re tasked with rescuing Nimble from a squad of Bandits at the vehicle depot in the Cordon. I love this sequence so much. It captures everything I love about Stalker. Meeting up with some Loners posted up on a hillside, running up on a bunch of Bandits camping out around a fire, a chaotic firefight ensues, it doesn’t get much better. What could get better though is the gunplay…

At this point early in the game you’ll most likely only have a Makarov pistol. A soviet era classic but get ready to spend all eight rounds of your magazine on a single bandit. You’ll lean out from behind a rusted pickup truck, crouched to steady your aim, and have a Bandit’s center of mass filling your iron sight, yet six bullets will enter an unseen black hole, while one shot will stagger him and the last will head-shot him, dropping him for good. If you don’t take him out, good luck repositioning and shooting. You might as well open your inventory, right-click your ammo, and select “drop all”, because the bullet spread while moving is huge.

At least the playing field is equal as it seems the AI suffer from the same weapon inconsistencies, leading to protracted firefights that last longer than they should. The ineptitude of both sides leads to these awkward and tense dances that, when in the early game, happen at a ridiculously close range. Get used to poking your head around a door only to see a close-up of a Bandit's leather jacket texture, then yelling “oh shit!” and running back behind that rusted out pickup from earlier while the Bandit whiffs on two point-blank shotgun blasts. Wow, and maybe I just talked myself into liking SoC’s gunplay…

Fortunately, the problem lessens as you acquire better, more high-powered weaponry, but only because your bullets do more damage, and your magazines are bigger. A redeeming quality is that when your bullets do connect, I’ve always enjoyed the weightiness of enemy stagger and death animations. It’s a nice touch of immersion when you clip a Bandit with some SMG fire and he doubles over, grabbing his stomach.

Overall though, I definitely had trouble getting used to the feel of SoC’s gunplay again and this is where CoP’s Gunslinger mod is so appreciated. I haven’t heard of any mod out there like that for SoC, but next time around, I will be looking for one.

Presentation

In the introduction, I embedded a video of SoC’s main menu, why? To succinctly demonstrate the tone of the game and the series as a whole. Okay, so what more can be said about the presentation then? Well words, especially mine, do not do the Zone justice and that was the exact inspiration for creating the following article. Even though it’s an article, it’s really just some sugar-coating for a YouTube video series I put together on Stalker’s atmosphere. Check it out:

A Love Letter to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s Iconic Atmosphere

Plus, my beginners guide to the series!

Sevastromo StationSevastromo

For Shadow of Chernobyl specific examples, look to these sections: Cordon | Rookie Village, Garbage | Flea Market, and Agroprom | Northern Factory Outskirts. Plus, check out my beginner's guide to the series at the end of the article!

Story

Rarely am I drawn into a video game world purely because of the story and SoC isn’t an exception. In Stalker I rely on immersive gameplay to drive my investment in the world and its characters. How the story is told should just avoid breaking me away from that immersion.

SoC does all the right things in telling its story: short CGI cut scenes to bookend the game, brief in-game voice-acted or text-based dialogue to keep the plot moving, and in-game, scripted events that the player character can be involved in. There are these great, emergent gameplay sequences that pop up from time to time that pull you into an area and draw you into the story. I’m thinking of the Military raid on the Loners in Agroprom or helping that Duty guy free his friends from Bandits in the Dark Valley. One of my favorites is the Duty raid on the Freedom base in Army Warehouses where you blow a hole in the west wall and charge through. It’s all planned by the developers of course, but in the moment these encounters feel spur of the moment. The story and the accompanying set pieces are so fun and atmospheric, they give you a true sense that you’re a part of a bigger event.

This method works best when the player has exploration options. When there’s many points of interest and areas to explore, the spontaneity is enhanced. The back half of the campaign slows down a bit and the stakes get more extreme. In particular, the final level is just a brutal onslaught of enemy Monolith soldiers and never-ending radiation. In my opinion, Stalker’s strengths are with the atmosphere of the Zone, the exploration, and spur of the moment gunfights for survival. The linear, action-packed levels at and leading up to the CNPP finale are the games weak point. The funneling takes away from the scripted moments making the player feel more on-rails.

Verdict

★★★1/2

I highly recommend the entire S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series and many of its mods. Weirdly enough, Shadow of Chernobyl might be my least favorite to play out of the main-line trilogy. Many believe it is the best game out of the bunch. I do not necessarily disagree, but to me the campaign feels a little too long and the gameplay mechanics are a bit thin. However, those comments do not stop SoC from being an absolutely essential experience. Anyone who can withstand some endearing jank and is interested in the origins of modern titles like Metro, DayZ, and Escape From Tarkov should take a look at S.T.A.L.K.E.R., starting with Shadow of Chernobyl. The Zone simply provides an experience unlike any other in gaming. I was glad to be back with the first of the series and I know it won’t be long until I return again.

Bonus Section: My Crazy Journey with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Just for some context and my own sanity, I want to retread the steps that got me to where I’m at with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. today. It’s one of my favorite video game series, up there with the likes of Resident Evil and Dark Souls. CoP is probably a top ten game of all time for me. The mods and the modding community are also unmatched. So how did I get here?

Well, I bought the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy bundle back in 2016 on sale for probably $10. Since then, I’ve played so many variations of trilogy and its mods. It all started with playing Shadow of Chernobyl to about 97% completion and uninstalling out of frustration with the Sarcophagus level. I messed around with Call of Chernobyl a bunch but never was able to really get into a run. I skipped Clear Sky (CS) because I heard it wasn’t great (that was a lie) and I think just burnt out on series after getting 5ish hours into Call of Pripyat (COP).

A couple years passed, and I was searching for something to replace Escape From Tarkov which had become too stressful, repetitive, and irritating to play. Anomaly kept popping up and I gave it a try, it was ok. But that got me back into Stalker mods and that’s when I found Gunslinger for CoP. I fell in love with the game and mod. I played that one too absolute death and then tried Autumn Aurora for SoC, it was good but stopped a quarter of the way through. I tried CS finally but couldn’t get into it.

Then the next year, GAMMA took off. GAMMA is a very cool experience but definitely not for me, I never really made it passed the Brain Scorcher. This spurred my interest again in the original trilogy and that’s when I ended up played through SoC again for this review. I followed that up with a couple ill-fated runs in CS where the game kept crashing. I actually ended up beating CS using the Last Fallout Overhaul mod, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. Lastly, I replayed CoP Gunslinger. It was spectacular. Then I got back into Anomaly, this time doing ironman run in the Old World Addon. I made it all the way to Outskirts once! And most recently I tried the most recent GAMMA update, incredible stuff, still hard for me to fully enjoy though.

Well sheesh, wonder what’s next… hopefully S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2???