There are so many first person shooters hitting the shelves nowadays that it can sometimes be hard to make a difference between them. But this is not the case with S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl for PC.

The game takes places in a nuclear disaster area called “the zone”. You start off as a character simply known as the “marked one” trying to figure out what is going on after he fell off the side of a death truck on the outskirts of “the zone”. The characters you encounter during your quest give you pointers as to what actually happened and you uncover the plot as you go through your quest.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl for PC is a mix between a classical first person shooter and Grand Theft Auto. The first thing you will notice while playing the game are the incredible sceneries, the bleak atmosphere and all the small details that contribute to the game’s apocalyptic feel.

The best thing about S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is the incredible environmental artificial intelligence. The developers added some details such as distant battle sounds between factions to which you have no affiliation and realistic reactions from killed animals and creatures. If you sit back and watch, you can see all the skillfully choreographed interactions between elements. But the AI of your enemies is sometimes less then stellar. Sometimes, they will just freeze up or run into corners desperately trying to go through the wall as if they didn’t see it and that can take away from the immersion factor of the game.

One problem I had with SSC is that the many sub-quests are mostly useless. Even if some sub-quests will earn you valuable items, some will give you useless items such as bullets and money, which can all be easily found on the battlefield. Even if the explorer inside of us might get excited when he finds a hidden artifact or a rare piece of armor, the benefits of side quests are somewhat lacking in this game.

Another great thing about SSC are the realistic shooting mechanics. The early weapons, such as the starting pistol, are wildly inaccurate while the more advanced weapons are much more sophisticated. This ads excitement to the discovery of new weapons and forces you to choose the right weapon at the right time. Per example, even the best sniper rifle will be totally inefficient at close range. This makes the gameplay more engaging since it forces you to close range on the enemy. Enemies will also react differently depending on where you shoot them; if you shoot an enemy in the head, chances are he will go down immediately, but you can shoot several rounds to the chest or arms of heavily armored opponents and they will most likely return fire as soon as you reload. These small details affect the realism factor of the game a great deal and add to the sense of immersion.

The game’s score and sound effects are pretty good, especially the firearm sounds and the incessant howling coming from the mutant creatures populating “the zone”. There is also an online multi-player mode which allows you to fight players from around the world a la Counter-Strike. Even though it’s not as immersing as the single player mode, it’s still a nice diversion and adds to the game’s appeal.

So besides a few technical glitches here and there, SSC is still a great game for people who are into dark first person shooters and are tired of the same old formula. So if you are one of these people, you should definitely check out S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl for PC.

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Mary Murtha
www.gamedome4u.com

Last update: 09-04-2008 02:14