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

The 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl has proved to be an inspiring subject for the sci-fi and horror genre for the past two decades. While this tragic event served as a direct inspiration for the Ukrainian-based developer GSC Game World and their new title, the events that take place in this survival FPS have almost nothing in common with the actual events. The story of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl takes place in the near future, sometime after the year 2012, as Chernobyl has become a place of horror once again.

I don't know what you've been doing here, kids, but this place needs some wallpainting.

I've searched through the entire area, but those toilet brushes are nowhere to be seen. Are you sure you found them in the woods?

The premise in the game is this - you assume the role of an unlucky individual who was brought to the Zone and left there amid a pile of bodies, with no recollection of his previous life and no way of tying the events of the present with his past (something you'll desperately want to do throughout the game). After being nursed back to health by a character referring to himself as "the Dealer," you begin your survival and the search for your lost identity in the Zone by assuming the role of one of the "stalkers." To survive in the zone you have to retrieve artifacts. Artifacts are items that have absorbed radiation and so-called anomalous energy (hmm, I can easily imagine toilet brushes glowing green in the dark). They are, of course, scattered all around the Zone, which refers to the area around the accident site of Chernobyl. The Zone is full of those anomalous Artifacts which are the stalkers' primary source of income and you're after them, but the thing is - other stalkers are after them too. Apart from your fellow stalkers, other unfriendly creatures also roam the Zone, so you'll not only have to collect Artifacts, but try to avoid being killed by mutants and other such abominations.

Senior PR manager from GSC Game World, Oleg Yavorsky, says: "The idea to create a game set in Chernobyl came to us long ago. Our office is located just 100 kilometers away from the site of the biggest man-made catastrophe of all time - the explosion at the Chernobyl atomic power plant. Apart from literally being close to home, the accident in Chernobyl is something we all here remember pretty well from childhood. Indeed, some of our team members' parents were actually in Chernobyl to help clear up the aftermath of the accident." Well, this certainly makes them well suited for the job.

GSC was also inspired by the gigantic antenna in Chernobyl, which supposedly emitted psychoactive waves that could influence people's thoughts. They decided to create S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as a way to speculate about the possible cause of the tragedy and its more pessimistic outcomes. While your goals will be quite clear in the game, GSC has tried to create a number of side-quests and missions that would provide the player with a more non-linear game play. You will have to decide about the course of your actions and the possible ways of solving the problems you'll face. Not all missions will need to be completed in order to finish the game, so you will have a lot of freedom to explore the large levels of the Zone and find your own way of dealing with things.

Of course, other stalkers will often get in your way, so although they will be unfriendly most of the time, they are all bound to behave differently. In that sense, it will even be possible to trade, make alliances or team up with other stalkers and fight together against the mutated creatures that inhabit the Zone. GSC promises a wide range of creatures and monsters that you'll get to fight off as you search for the precious Artifacts. Yuri Besarab, the writer at GSC, claims that the monsters should prove a challenge for anyone, as they have a superb AI which, in combination with their specific skills and abilities, has to be seriously reckoned with. If the developer stays true to their promise, we are supposed to get a fabulous-looking game with tons of cunning critters (hopefully not in Baldric of Black Adder style) with great AI that are a part of a highly non-linear game play. According to GSC, the game won't be generic so you won't always stumble into the same creatures and get the same assignments. Well, that's what I call "replay value".

Besarab called S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a "simulation of real life," not only because of the previously mentioned game features, but also because Stalkers will have to learn how to adapt to the Zone and play by its rules. As the government has sealed off the area after the second meltdown in 2006, the Zone is a world by itself, governed by its own factions and rules. As a stalker, you get a chance to influence the huge world of the Zone by the way you play, as all that happens depends for the big part on your own reactions. One must admit this FPS/RPG hybrid - as this game's often referred to - does have a lot of appeal, and if it gets to look half as good as GSC has promised us, we're going to be one happy lot. Although you cannot develop your character or level up, this game does have RPG elements, such as interaction with NPC characters and assuming the role you want, which should make an interesting combination with other FPS elements in the desolate but dangerous post-nuclear meltdown setting.

A lot of attention was devoted not only to monsters, but to the Zone itself. It is not easy to create a world which depicts the location of a nuclear meltdown, as it is very difficult to present it as colorful and diverse. In the words of Alexei Sytyanov, designer at GSC, "Accuracy was our key goal in creating S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The world of the Zone represents a highly detailed reconstruction of Chernobyl and its surroundings. An area of more than 30 square kilometers was authentically reproduced from extensive photographic and video surveys. Sixty percent of what you will see in the game is physically faithful in virtually every detail." This 3D image of a "dead city" is presented in exact detail and with a lot of realism - "For us, detail was everything if we were to succeed in establishing a believable game environment." The attention to detail was necessary in order to create the authentic feel of the site and envelop the player with the right kind of atmosphere. This dead world with its radioactive red forests and marshlands, underground labs and post-soc architecture is not a pleasant place to visit, so the environment should add to the tension in the game.

As your surroundings are interactive and destructible, you will be able to use the objects in the Zone to your advantage (such as use many object in the environment as cover or shelter). However, your opponents will be able to do the same, so you can expect different types of behavior and different sorts of attacks from the Zone creatures. Every opponent will require a different approach, so this could possibly mean you'll be forced to use some brains in order to survive. (I eat brains. - Ed.)

The monsters, apart from being created with a superb AI, should also be governed by virtual instincts that should allow them to develop some sort of "emotions". That means they should be able to display "panic, fear, elation, and the ability to think - we hope that the enemies don't disappoint anyone". So in case you've been wondering about the frame of mind of a typical beast that inhabits a radioactive wasteland, here is your chance to find out.