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

GSC Game World has a long way to go before it finishes its upcoming first-person shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. In the past few months, the Ukrainian development team refused to reveal too much about the game or any specific release dates. Although we do know that the game is still on schedule for a release on September 14, 2004, there's clearly plenty of work to be done. The demo running at this year's E3 show, showed some serious potential though.

I wouldn’t mind taking that chopper for a quick spin.

Under the bridge downtown...

Okay I'm sure there are some of you out that are clueless as to what this game's all about, so I'll just give you the details. You start your journey in Chernobyl and it is the year 2010; that's approximately twenty five years after the nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl power plant (located roughly 70 miles north of Kiev). The huge blast instigated a massive evacuation across 110,000 square miles of land. Now, the entire area is crawling with so-called stalkers, soldiers sent into radioactive zones to recover certain valuable artifacts. You are one of them...

Perhaps the first thing you ought to know about this game is that it features freeform gameplay and a commendable mix of FPS and RPG elements. Approximately 30 kilometers of land (depicting the surroundings of Chernobyl) is accessible throughout the whole game. This open-ended style of play feels much like the unrestricted approach taken in games like Bethesda's Morrowind. When I saw the game in action, there appeared to be a well-balanced gameplay at work, ensuring a sufficient amount of RPG elements as well as enough action to keep you on your toes all the time. The demo running revealed the main character as he communicated with a dealer whose basic purpose is to give you various assignments and supply you with weapon and armor upgrades. Trading was revealed as a frequent component of gameplay. It's even possible to exchange useful goods and vital information with other rivaling stalkers.

Next to opposing stalkers, gamers will run into all sorts of monstrosities scattered across radioactive territory of Chernobyl. Each of these has a method of its own when in search of prey. Gruesome mutated dogs, for example, hunt and attack in packs and that definitely makes them challenging opponents. Other creatures strike individually, relying on more complex AI routines. The ones I've seen in action used powerful psychokinetic abilities to manipulate objects in the environment and tossed them towards the main character. Then again, some enemies use invisibility when they attack. It's advisable not to end up in their clutches or they will throw you several feet into the air or simply burn you with acid - these delightful little creatures are called the "bloodsuckers." In any case, you're not looking at a pleasant death whichever one of these comes your way.

The vehicles players run into along the way will be easy to maneuver. Still, getting a truck, car or an APC to work, requires you to locate fuel. On top of that, you'll also have to repair certain vehicles before you can drive off. As the developers pointed out, you won't be able to race throughout the entire game, since fuel supplies are pretty scarce. This way, the game should be evened out between driving and classic on-foot first-person action.

The lads at GSC Game World obviously know their business when it comes to visuals. We only hope they tweak everything to run smoothly before the final version hits stores. At this point, everything appeared to work okay, but I shudder to think what the system requirements are gonna be, given the impressive amount of detail incorporated into the game's beautifully rendered indoor and outdoor levels. Weapon models are unlike any I have ever seen. Almost every detail has been conveyed to make the guns, rifles and other weapons, look realistic. Rag-doll physics weren't omitted, so once you gun down enemies you'll see their bodies react naturally to the surroundings.

Ah, the good old neighborhood never looked better!

Whatever that thing is, I’m not getting near it.

I just thought I'd also mention that the developers have invested a lot of time and effort into creating excellent lighting and shadow effects. These effects are all in real-time which certainly explains the incredibly realistic ambiance. Sometimes you'll be able to discern huge shadows of massive creatures that sneak up behind you... a most scary sensation I'll tell ya that much. There's only one thing that worries me at this point. The game seems to be a bit of a hardware hog, and given its huge levels I couldn't help but wonder if the lads at GSC will polish it in time for the release.

Much like the single-player portion of the game, the multiplayer features the same range of visual effects to make the game a lot more enjoyable. This encompasses day/night cycles and weather effects such as fog, rainstorms, etc. The atmosphere is therefore considerably more convincing that in other multiplayer titles. Before a match begins, players won't have to choose or buy weapons, they can simply pick it up from fallen characters. The arsenal mostly consists of Russian firearms such as the Kalishnikov, SVG, etc. Anyhow, the MP portion of the game looks fine, but we've yet to determine whether it holds enough replayability and goodness to match up with the extreme competition.

Like I've said at the beginning, although the release date is seemingly close, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl looks far from finished. If you're wondering what the hell is taking them so long to wrap things up, you can stop wasting your time. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a very complex game and the entire team at GSC Game World appears to be working patiently on every last detail. In all honesty, we wouldn't want to see this one flop.