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

Lore & Background

The game features a non-linear storyline with 7 different endings and includes role-playing gameplay elements such as trading and two-way communication with non-player characters. In the game, the player assumes the identity of the Marked One, an amnesiac man trying to find and kill the mysterious Strelok within the exclusion zone, a forbidden territory surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The Zone encompasses roughly 30 square kilometers and features a slice of the Chernobyl area extending south from Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant; geographical changes for artistic license include moving the city of Pripyat 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, and features in-game recreations of many actual locations from the city.

In the game's backstory, 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 mysterious second disaster occurred, killing or mutating most of the inhabitants. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. begins years later, after people have begun coming to the Zone in search of money, valuable artifacts, and scientific information. In keeping with the post-nuclear decay within the Zone, extreme radiation has caused mutations among animals and plants in the area.

As a result of the second disaster, the Zone is also littered with dangerous small areas of altered physics, known as anomalies. Explorers and scavengers operating within the Zone, known as Stalkers, possess an anomaly detector, which emits warning beeps of a varying frequency depending on their proximity to an anomaly.

Reader's Guide

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is primarily a first-person shooter video game. 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, conversation branches are extremely limited and do not significantly influence the course of the game, aside from accepting or declining missions.

The Zone itself 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 to another can only be accomplished at certain specific passageways; wire fences and extreme radiation levels block the player from attempting to cross the map in any other area. Creatures within The Zone are vastly different from their real-world counterparts: dogs, boars, crows, and many more.

Additionally, some areas contain mutated humans who have become affected by the so-called Brain Scorcher. 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 Zone. There are several different variations of anomaly, each one having a unique impact upon those who cross its path.

They can be potentially deadly to the player and the 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. Artifacts are found scattered throughout the Zone, often near clusters of anomalies. 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) although certain rarer artifacts provide benefits without any negative effects.

Did You Know?

• The game was met with praise for the atmosphere, style and depth, as well as the level design, but was criticized for numerous bugs.
• It was a commercial success, selling over 2 million copies by September of 2008.
• A prequel, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, was released in 2008. A sequel, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, followed in 2009. A second sequel, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, was released in 2024.
• There are multiple fan remakes trying to restore the cut content from the original version of the game.
• The term Stalkers was also used for the scientists and engineers who explored the interior of the Chernobyl sarcophagus after its hasty construction in 1986.