S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl

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Last updated: Review @ TrustedReviews (added on 23/03/7)

Stalker: Shadow Of Chernobyl takes you into a near future where nuclear disaster has taken place. When a strange second explosion at the old Chernobyl site rocks the landscape, it leaves a vast “Exclusion Zone” plagued with deadly energy disturbances in its wake. The quarantined Exclusion Zone expanded over time, and by 2012, specially equipped poachers, known as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, venture into the Zone to claim radioactive artifacts for the black market. You are a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. battling for survival among rivals, soldiers and mutant creatures while trying to discover the true nature of Chernobyl’s dark past and horrific future.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl Review

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl Latest Price Info

+ REVIEWS (last updated: 21/03/07)

TrustedReviews reviews the S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl (rating: 8./10) and writes;

“It’s been a long time coming, but for the most part it has been worth the wait. S.T.A.L.K.E.R may not be quite the revolution it was once heralded as and it has its fair share of problems, but there’s a great deal to like about the gameplay and the wonderfully realised environment in which it is set. It’s a game that could well divide opinion for a great deal of time. Some may consider it an instant classic, but the reality is it’s a very good game that just falls short of bringing all its constituent parts together. I’d heartily recommend playing it, if only because it’s a fresh take on an often stagnating genre, but it narrowly misses out on greater glory.
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GameSpot reviews the S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl (rating: 8.5/10) and writes;

“The game’s artificial intelligence is impressive, both in and out of combat. In combat, enemies are cunning when given enough room to move around. Human enemies hunt you intelligently, using cover and the terrain to their advantage. Meanwhile, creatures such as packs of mutant dogs behave like you’d expect wild animals to. They attack when they feel they have the advantage but flee if given a painful lesson. It’s this kind of behavior that makes the zone feel alive, with these different factions and animals all trying to go about their daily tasks. The AI does take a hit when placed in tight interiors, though, as the lack of maneuvering options makes it turn a bit predictable, but you’ll likely appreciate this fact early in the game, as hiding inside a building and picking off the grunts as they come through the doorway is the only way that you’ll survive some of the early battles. “

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl Video Review by GameSpot

Eurogamer has a preview of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl;

“Will S.T.A.L.K.E.R. be able to evoke the same reaction? There are a lot of ifs, but as I said, the answer’s nowhere near as cut and dry as some would like to believe. The code we saw wasn’t finished. There were obvious frame-rate issues and it crashed on us twice in 40 minutes. But S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is not an average first-person shooter. It’s a massive, open-ended first-person RPG with extensive non-scripted elements. The question is whether or not the whole thing will actually work. We saw it for so little time that it’s impossible to tell. If the scripted levels are strung together coherently, if the combat AI proves to be ultimately challenging and intelligent, if the A-Life system really does make the game-world feel full and vibrant, then yes, potentially S.T.A.L.K.E.R. could be a real winner.”

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl Video Review by IGN.com

Firingsguad has a hands-on preview of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl;

“While S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a first person shooter, the presentation of the game looks and feels more like a role playing game a la Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Your first task is to chat with a merchant who offers you a job in exchange for paying the merchant back for some unnamed obligation to him. The user interface gives the player a choice of responses to certain questions much like a role playing game and of course the idea of assigning certain tasks to your character has a lot of RPG similarites. The first task is seemingly a simple one; get some kind of data device from another stalker in the zone.”

+ TRAILERS

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow Of Chernobyl Cinematic Trailer