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

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Developer(s)	GSC Game World
Publisher(s)	THQ GSC Game Publishing (CIS)
Engine	X-ray
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, role-playing, survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, previously known as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Oblivion Lost, is a first-person shooter computer game by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, published in 2007.

It features an alternate reality theme, where a second nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the near future and causes strange changes in the area around it. The game has a non-linear storyline and features gameplay elements such as trading and two-way communication with NPCs. The game includes elements of role-playing and business simulation games.

The background and some terminology of the game ("The Zone", "Stalker") is borrowed from the popular science fiction novella Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky and the 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky film Stalker that was loosely based on it, as well as Stalker, the film's subsequent novelization by the original authors.

In Stalker, the player assumes the identity of an amnesiac "Stalker", an illegal explorer/artifact scavenger in "The Zone", named "The Marked One". "The Zone" is the location of an alternate reality version of the Chernobyl Power Plant after a second, fictitious explosion, which contaminated the surrounding area with radiation and caused strange otherworldly changes in local fauna, flora and the laws of physics. "Stalker" in its original film context roughly meant "explorer" or "guide", as the stalker's goal was to bring people into the Zone.

On July 11 2007, GSC Game World announced a prequel, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, which was released on 5 September 2008. On April 30 2009, GSC Game World announced a sequel, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, which is to be released in autumn 2009.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stands for "Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber".

Setting

Location

Stalker takes place in an area called "The Zone", which is based on the real-life Zone of Alienation and partly on the settings of the source novel and film. It encompasses roughly 30 square kilometers and features a slice of Chernobyl extending south from Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant; geographical changes for artistic license include moving the city of Prypiat into this area (it is actually to the north-west of the power station), although the city itself is directly modeled on its real-life counterpart, albeit smaller in size.

History

After the initial Chernobyl Disaster, attempts were made to repopulate the area, primarily with scientists and military personnel. However, in 2006, almost 20 years after the first incident, a second disaster occurred, caused by the C-consciousness program, killing or mutating most of the inhabitants.

Shadow of Chernobyl begins years later, after people have begun coming to the zone in search of money, valuable artifacts and scientific information.

Mutants

In keeping with the post-nuclear decay within The Zone, extreme radiation has caused mutations among animals and plants in the area, which were not formed through the natural process of evolution. As such, creatures within The Zone are vastly different from their real-world counterparts (which include dogs, boar, crow and many others). Additionally, some areas of The Zone contain mutated humans, the majority of whom were caught in the second nuclear disaster. Several creatures which are present in the game cannot be enabled without game modification.

Artificial Intelligence of wildlife is highly developed and presents many realistic behaviors, such as fights over food and pack mentality, which can be observed in non-scripted events. The game engine was designed so that animal behavior is calculated even if the player is in a different part of the world.

Anomalies, Artifacts and Radiation

As a result of the second Chernobyl disaster, The Zone is littered with small areas of altered physics, known as anomalies. There are several different variations, each one having a unique impact upon those who cross its path. They can be potentially deadly to the player and other NPCs, delivering electric shocks, or pulling them into the air and crushing them. Most anomalies produce visible air or light distortions and their extent can be determined by throwing bolts (of which the player carries an infinite supply) to trigger them. Some Stalkers also possess an anomaly detector, which emits warning beeps of a varying frequency depending on their proximity to an anomaly. The guide in the film Stalker, and his predecessors in the Strugatsky brothers' book Roadside Picnic, test various routes before proceeding. In the film, metal nuts tied with strips of cloth are used.

Anomalies produce Artifacts, the valuable scientific curiosities that make the Zone worth exploring monetarily. As well as being traded for money, a number of Artifacts can be worn so that they provide certain benefits and detriments (for example, increasing a Stalker's resistance to gunfire while also contaminating him with small amounts of radiation). Artifacts are found scattered throughout the Zone, often near clusters of anomalies.

Radiation caused by the nuclear incidents at Chernobyl occurs in specific invisible patches throughout The Zone. Although most areas in The Zone have no radiation, areas near abandoned construction equipment that was used in the post-accident clean-up, certain military wrecked vehicles, and a variety of other locations create small to large fields of radiation, some of which cannot be passed through without the proper equipment.

Gameplay

Stalker is a non-linear sandbox game. Players have a relatively free rein to explore the world and have many opportunities to interact with other characters.

Stalker is primarily an FPS, but also features many RPG elements. The player does not gain additional abilities or statistics like most RPGs, but is instead allowed to use various types of equipment that is either purchased or found throughout the game world. There are a large number of items in the game, so the player has customization choices which are constrained primarily by how much exploring they do.

The game also attempts to blend the story and character interaction which are commonly associated with RPGs. However, unlike RPGs such as Fallout, conversation branches are extremely limited and do not significantly influence the course of the game, aside from accepting or declining missions.

Playing area and travel

The Zone is a large and varied area, consisting of wilderness, human settlements, and several heavily-guarded military bases. However, the game world is not a true contiguous world, but rather 18 different maps separated by loading screens. Transfer from one area of the Zone to another can only be accomplished at certain specific passageways; a wire fence border blocks players from attempting to cross the map in any other area.

The game does not feature controllable vehicles (although vehicles are programmed in the game code, they are not available without the use of a third party modification [1], [2]), and thus players are required to go from place to place on foot. A sprint option using a limited stamina bar can be used to temporarily increase the player's rate of movement, though this is reduced by the weight of objects the player is carrying, and weapons cannot be fired while sprinting. It is possible to sprint indefinitely by using artifacts and keeping below a certain weight limit (50 kg).

Radiation

When the player enters a highly irradiated area, they will begin to receive radiation poisoning. During this time, a radiation icon appears on the screen and fades through from green to yellow to red, signifying the strength of the poisoning, which grows the longer the player remains present in the affected areas. The stronger the poisoning, the faster the player's health decreases. Unless the player dies from damage caused by radiation poisoning, there are no permanent effects from contracting it other than health loss. However, radiation will persist and continue to drain health until either radiation medication or a substantial amount of vodka is consumed.

Plot

In the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet Union decides to use the Exclusion Zone, often referred to in-game as "The Zone", for special research into the human mind. Results include enhanced ESP, psychic weapons, and the eventual formation of a hive mind known as the C-Consciousness.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the self-aware C-Consciousness takes control of the Zone and autonomously continues its research. It attempts several times to bring about world peace using global mind control. However, these attempts result in the unintentional twisting of the physical terrain around Chernobyl as well as the mutation of resident life forms.

In an attempt to hide its existence from the outside world, the C-Consciousness erects a Monolith in the center of the Zone which it uses to brainwash any Stalkers lucky enough to reach it into serving the C-Consciousness. In a further attempt to insulate itself, it constructs a device, known as the "Brain Scorcher", that effectively destroys the mind of anyone who gets too close. As reports of valuable "artifacts" disseminate from explorers who venture into the zone, whispered rumors of a Wish Granter housed in the Sarcophagus of the Chernobyl NPP begin to spread.

A group of four Stalkers, named Strelok, Ghost, Fang, and Doc, travel to the center of the Zone in an effort to reach the Wish Granter. After encountering the fanatical Monolith faction, they are forced to retreat. Strelok is knocked unconscious during a "blowout" and loses his memory. The others are able to escape the Zone, though on the way back they get in a trap and Fang is killed by a sniper; some time later Ghost is killed during the mission by a Controller in the vaults of a secret X16 Laboratory under the factory near Yantar.

The unconscious Strelok is discovered by the C-Consciousness, who, unaware of his identity, mistakenly assigns him the task of killing the Stalker known as Strelok and his allies. On the way out of the Zone, the truck carrying the still unconscious Strelok is destroyed, and he is discovered by another passing Stalker.

Later in the game, Strelok is reunited with Doc who helps him piece together his past, prompting Strelok to return to the Zone and the Monolith. When Strelok eventually confronts the C-Consciousness, he is faced with a choice of merging with it and attempting to repair the Zone and bring about world peace, or trying to stop the C-Consciousness from continuing its experiments. If the player chooses not to join the C-Consciousness, he is forced to battle heavily armed members of the Monolith faction. When they are defeated, he destroys the equipment that sustains the C-Consciousness. Strelok is then seen standing in a grassy field, the Zone seemingly gone.

Alternative endings

If the player decides not to piece together his past, he will receive one of five alternate endings. Actions taken by the player during the game decide what ending the player will receive. The Wish Granter endings are universally negative.

• If the player kills both the Duty and Freedom leaders, Strelok wishes to rule the world. The Monolith then absorbs Strelok, leaving only his clothes in a pile on the floor.

• If the player collects enough money, Strelok wishes to be rich. The Monolith generates an illusion of gold coins falling from the sky; in actuality, the roof collapses on Strelok's head, crushing him to death.

• If the player has a terrible reputation, Strelok states that "Humanity is corrupt, mankind must be controlled." Strelok then has a vision of the end of the world, and awakens alone in a dark void. In the original Russian version, he wishes for humanity to be destroyed.

• If the player has an excellent reputation, Strelok says "I want the Zone to disappear." He soon witnesses a clean Chernobyl. However, the player notices that Strelok's pupils have vanished. As he is blind, the Zone has disappeared, but only for him.

• If the player meets none of the other requirements, Strelok wishes to become immortal, he is seen transforming into a metal statue after this.

Technical features

X-ray graphics engine

A screenshot of Stalker

The X-ray Engine is a DirectX 8.1/9 Shader Model 3.0 graphics engine. Up to a million polygons can be on-screen at any one time. The engine features HDR rendering, parallax and normal mapping, soft shadows, motion blur, widescreen support, weather effects and day/night cycles. As with other engines that use deferred shading, the X-ray Engine does not support anti-aliasing with dynamic lighting enabled. However, a "fake" form of anti-aliasing can be enabled with the static lighting option; this format utilizes a technique to blur the image to give the false impression of anti-aliasing. The game takes place in a thirty square kilometer area, and both the outside and inside of this area are rendered to the same amount of detail. Some textures in the game were photographs of the walls in the developers' studio.

As of patch 1.0003 the X-ray engine supports "surround screen" monitor setups, including a 16:9 native resolution ratio. A community developed patch also enables setting a custom field of view and aspect ratio combination.

AI

A screenshot demonstrating the abilities of Stalker's rendering engine after enabling anti-aliasing and tone mapping.

The X-ray engine uses GSC Game World's proprietary ALife artificial intelligence engine. ALife supports more than one thousand characters inhabiting the Zone. These characters are non-scripted, meaning that AI life can be developed even when not in contact with the player.

The NPCs have a full life cycle (task accomplishment, combat, rest, feeding and sleep) and the same applies to the many monsters living in the Zone (hunting, attacking Stalkers and other monsters, resting, eating, sleeping). These monsters migrate in large groups. The non-scripted nature of the characters means that there are an unlimited number of random quests. For instance, rescuing Stalkers from danger, destroying Stalker renegades, protecting or attacking Stalker camps or searching for treasure. The AI characters travel around the entire zone as they see fit.

Numerous tactics can be employed to complete the game, such as rushing or using stealth and sniping. The NPCs will react in a different way to each of them. Stalker's NPCs plan ahead by "Goal-Oriented Action Planning" to achieve this.

Physics

Stalker uses a heavily modified version of the ODE physics engine. Ragdoll physics, destructible objects, realistic bullet ballistics and skeletal animation can all be found in the game.

The game's use of bullet physics is similar in nature to tactical shooters such as Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter or Operation Flashpoint. Bullets are affected by gravity, bounced against solid surfaces at oblique angles, and firearms are highly inaccurate when fired without aiming. To score consistent hits at medium or long range, players must aim using the iron sights on their guns. Additionally, hit damage is pseudo-realistic, and the player can die after only being shot a few times (although later in the game various armor suits and artifacts can be acquired that increase the player's resistance to damage). Late-game depends heavily on scoped weaponry due to the well-armed and armored enemies that keep their distance from the player.

Weather

A weather system is integrated into various parts of the landscape and allows a variety of weather effects, such as sunshine, storms and showers. The weapons available, behavior of the AI, game tactics and ranking systems depend on the weather. Unlike most dynamic weather systems, the game features complete dynamic wet surfaces.

Soundtrack

The game features ambient music by Frey Vladimir aka "MoozE", but also has couple of songs from the Ukrainian band Firelake.

Development delay, leak and release

The game was first announced in November 2001 and had its release date, originally in 2003, pushed back several times. Meanwhile hundreds of screenshots of the game had been released, as well as dozen preview video clips, accompanied by other forms of promotion by GSC, such as inviting fans to their offices in Kiev to play the current build of the game. However, due to the delays some considered Stalker to be vaporware.

In late December 2003, a pre-alpha build of the game was leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks. This build, marked as version 1096, inadvertently acted as a fully-functional tech demo of Stalker's engine, despite its lack of NPC enemies and fauna.

At the end of April 2009, due to popular demand GSC Game World released "xrCore" build 1935, dated October 18 2004. It uses a completely different physics engine with many cut monsters, levels, and vehicles. It was also significantly larger than Shadow of Chernobyl. It is however somewhat unstable, but features the full game along with a "fully functional ALife system". It is currently available for free download from the GSC servers and mirrors.

In February 2005, THQ expressed desire to see the game released toward the end of its 2006 fiscal year (March 31, 2006) but maintained that no release date had been set. In October, 2005, THQ confirmed that Stalker would not be out "until the second half of THQ's 2007 fiscal year - October 2006 at the earliest." In February 2006, THQ revised this possible release window, saying the game would not be in stores until the first quarter of 2007.

In an interview at the Russian Gameland Awards, PR Manager Oleg Yavorsky indicated that release was planned for September 2006.

In 2006, the game came 9th in Wired's Vaporware '06 award.

THQ ran a competition in January 2007 offering the lucky winners the chance to play the beta version of Stalker, in a 24 hour marathon session. The event, scheduled to take place on January 24, 2007, was subsequently changed to a 12 hour session days before it was supposed to occur. On the morning of the event, the winners were met at the venue by the THQ staff that had organized the event, who were embarrassed to report that they had been unable to get any copies of the game. In late February GSC managed to release a public beta. A multiplayer demo was released to the public on March 15, 2007.

On March 2, 2007, it was announced that the game went gold.

Reception

Reviews

Publication	Score
Eurogamer	8/10
GameSpot	8.5/10
Game Informer	8.25/10
IGN	8.2/10
PC Gamer	85/100
PC Zone	85/100
Compilation review site	Aggregate score
Game Rankings	83% (51 reviews)
Metacritic	82/100 (44 reviews)

Upon the game's release, Stalker received generally favorable reviews, with an average critic rating of 83% at Game Rankings. While the game was praised for its style and depth, other reviewers addressed certain technical issues, mentioning the number of bugs present.

The game design of the Zone was one of the most favored aspects. GameSpot praised the style and level design, stating "This is a bleak game, but in a good way, as it captures its post apocalyptic setting perfectly", while Eurogamer called it "one of the scariest games on the PC" going on to say "Like the mythological Chernobyl zone it is based upon, this game is a treacherous, darkly beautiful terrain."

Game Informer didn't find the gameplay particularly innovative, but still complimented the basic FPS design, saying, "Stalker isn’t the revolution that we all hoped it would be. It is, however, a respectable and sometimes excellent first-person adventure" where as GameSpot called it "one of the best ballistics models ever seen in a game, and as a result, firefights feel authentic as you try and hit someone with what can be a wildly inaccurate rifle".

Upon release, Stalker was said to have numerous bugs, especially when used with the then-recently released Windows Vista. IGN found the game "tended to stutter quite often, sometimes pausing for three or four seconds at regular intervals, which occurred on two different Windows XP rigs at maximum visual quality", with even some cases of complete game crashing glitches.

Another criticized aspect was the story, which to some reviewers was "incoherent" and which PC Gamer stated "fails in the specific story of your character".

Awards

In December, Stalker won the Special Achievement award for Best Atmosphere in GameSpot's Best and Worst 2007, that "Stalker captures the "ghost town" nature of the zone, from the abandoned cities to the overgrown wilderness. Then, the game adds its own paranormal elements, which help make a spooky environment almost terrifying at times".

Sales

As of September 2008, Stalker has sold 2 million copies worldwide. GSC Game World CEO Sergiy Grygorovych has said "We are very pleased that Stalker became so popular among players from all over the world. Financial success will allow us to develop Stalker in different directions as a brand."

Legacy

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Main article: Stalker: Clear Sky

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is a prequel set a year before Shadow of Chernobyl. The game world consists of a mix of 50% old, redesigned areas, and 50% completely new levels. The updated engine supports the Inverse Kinematics animation system, allowing more and better animations. New effects such as volumetric lighting are also included. In general, the developers seek to take the basics of everything in Shadow of Chernobyl and enhance them in several ways. Better AI, graphics and new game-play additions, such as faction wars, are some new features.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Main article: Stalker: Call of Pripyat

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is a sequel set after the events in Shadow of Chernobyl. The game will feature brand new areas recreated by their true-to-life prototypes such as Pripyat town, Yanov railway station, Jupiter factory, Kopachi Village (Ukraine) and more. Other features includes: improved A-Life system, a new player interface, a brand new story and a number of unique characters, 2 new monsters and behaviour and abilities, an extended system of side quests, a sleep function and a free play mode.

See also

• Stalker: Clear Sky
• Stalker: Call of Pripyat

External links

• Official website
• THQ's Official S.T.A.L.K.E.R website
• GSC Game World's official website