Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
Studio	GSC Game World
Publisher	THQ Deep Silver (Complete Edition) GSC Game World ( Steam )
Erstveröffent- lichung	March 23, 2007
platform	PC ( Windows )
genre	First-person shooter with role-playing elements
Subject	End time
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer
control	Mouse and keyboard
system advantages preconditions	Windows 2000 (SP4) or newer, 2 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 128 MB graphics card, 10 GB storage space, DirectX 9.0c
medium	1 DVD-ROM , download
language	German, English, Russian
Current version	1.0006 (March 13, 2008) 1.0007 (2013) unofficial patch
copy protection	v1.0: SecuROM 7.31.0010 v1.0001: SecuROM v7.32.0009 StarForce 4.70.6.8 (Russian game version)
Age rating	USK PEGI
information	Windows Vista or newer from version 1.0004 can run

Screenshot of Stalker's Shadow of Chernobyl

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (usually just called Stalker for short ) is a computer game by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World , which is set in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant . The story of the reactor catastrophe of 1986 continues in the game through an imaginary event; another explosion and the establishment of a restricted area in which anomalies arise.

The game belongs to the genre of first-person shooters , but also has role-playing elements . It was announced in 2001, but did not appear until March 2007 - as “one of the most anticipated titles in gaming history”.

The story is inspired by the novel Picnic by the wayside by Arkadi and Boris Strugazki , which was filmed in 1979 by Andrei Tarkowski under the title Stalker .

In mid-August 2010, GSC Game World announced that it would publish a sequel in 2012 under the name STALKER 2 . The developments were paused in April 2012 and have been continued since 2018.

Action and gameplay

In the game, the player embodies a STALKER, an abbreviation for Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer and Robber , which translates as looter, intruder, adventurer, loner, murderer, explorer and robber . In the game, stalkers scour the contaminated zone around the accident , whereupon it is cordoned off by the military. Similar to the early gold diggers, the player is there, following the original book, in search of legendary artifacts that are new and interesting for science and that are highly paid for. However, it is itself threatened by radiation, new types of natural phenomena and - here now in an extension of the template - animal and human mutants .

At the beginning of the game, in 2012, the player lost his memory. It is only by interlocutors Lined ( marked one called) and he finds only a hint of his previous life, a certain Strelok (Russian for "Sagittarius") to kill.

Now he takes on tasks to get money for better equipment and weapons, but also clues to the secret of the "zone" and his own identity. In addition to the main quests that advance the story, there are also numerous side quests to solve.

Various factions have formed in the "zone", some of which are hostile to the player, others are neutral. In the course of the plot he can make pacts with one or the other faction, or win individual friends, which influences the later fate of the hero. Over time, he moves further and further into the "zone" and approaches the reactor itself, inside of which - here again following the original novel - a legendary power, the wish-patron , is supposed to fulfill every wish.

The bilingual nature of the story is striking: conversations or songs around the campfire are in Russian - in contrast, only the conversations are in German or English, but with a Russian accent - as if the player had traveled to Chernobyl like a tourist . In addition to the language, other peculiarities of Slavic culture are also staged in great detail, such as the meaning of vodka, the attitude towards the military or even to the ordinary Germans.

One of five different endings is possible depending on the behavior of the player. Two more can arrive - if the player bypasses the other five - in which the player has to choose one. In the self-determination of fate there is again a philosophical reference to books and films, for which alternative outcomes were not possible due to the linear medium. The closings as well as the essential steps in the course of the action are visualized by film sequences cut like a video clip .

Game elements

The game features:

• Seven different outcomes of the story, based on how the player behaves and what puzzles he has solved.
• A detailed replica of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, based on aerial photographs and the developers' own photos.
• Detailed industrial ruins that convey a post-apocalyptic mood. Man's defeat in relation to the zone and nature, which has fallen out of joint, cannot be overlooked.
• Collecting and selling artifacts . These offer advantages or disadvantages when you wear them on your body.
• Mostly deadly radioactive anomalies encountered everywhere.
• Permanent feeling of threat, elements of horror from the mutants, visual hallucinations and dream sequences.
• Gun fights against bandits, other stalkers, fanatics and the military, but also clashes between them without the participation of the player. Race to the reactor and its secret with these factions.

The depictions of violence in the game illustrate fights, horror effects such as attacks by mutants or the disfigured corpses of failed stalkers. Because of these scenes of violence, the game received the USK rating “No youth release” (“18+”).

A variety of weapons can be found in the game, divided into pistols , submachine guns , assault rifles , shotguns and sniper rifles . There is also a knife, a grenade launcher and a rocket launcher . Many models are replicas of Soviet designs and real weapons. There are also grenades and there are several types of ammunition available for many weapons (normal and specialized).

development

STALKER was announced in November 2001 and should therefore appear in 2003, initially with the title STALKER: Oblivion Lost . However, this date and a few others were not kept, after which the game was sometimes referred to as vaporware , similar to Duke Nukem Forever . In contrast to this, however, there were always screenshots and videos as well as previews of the software. At the end of 2005 the game made a name for itself again when an illegal beta version appeared on the Internet (" Leak "). At this point the release date was planned for the end of 2006. In the two years before, three more alpha versions found their way onto the Internet.

In 2005, STALKER received the IGN game portal's award for “Biggest PC Surprise” for its absence from E3 . In 2006, the game was the vaporware Award from Wired "excellent".

At the beginning of 2007 there were increasing signs of an imminent appearance of STALKER. In fact, what they say was the first test of the game worldwide appeared in the early March issue of the German magazine GameStar . March 23, 2007 was given as the release date. This date was confirmed by the publisher THQ and finally kept. On March 17th the first demo appeared in Russian.

Real background

In addition to the story of the reactor disaster, not only the visual environment of the power plant, but also the stalker motif of the aimlessly searching visitor have been authentically adopted into the game. A number of travel reports from the area around the nuclear power plant have appeared in recent years. Because of the radiation exposure and the looting, you can only visit them after registering in Kiev in the form of a supervised tour guide. The zone itself is not fully monitored, so that groups continue to roam illegally through the region, partly as a game of hide and seek with the security forces, partly as a well-founded scientific excursion. This also includes research into the animal and plant world, some of which have increased mutation rates.

technology

STALKER uses the X-Ray graphics engine developed by GSC , which supports DX -9 graphics cards. Although it was developed more than 6 years ago, the engine already supports the Shader Model 3.0 as standard, thanks to improvements that have been added over and over again , features such as FP16 - High Dynamic Range Rendering and a dynamic day-night and weather system. A special feature is the deferred shading , which has not been used in this genre before , which is also used in Epic's Unreal Engine 3 , among other things . With this technology, the lighting calculation is carried out in a separate operation, which means that each surface can be illuminated by a theoretically unlimited number of light sources. The game has an artificial intelligence engine called ALife . Lua is used as the scripting language for programming . A modified Open Dynamics Engine is used for physics effects.

On the one hand, the high memory requirement of the graphics engine was criticized, so that frequent swapping into a swap file on the hard disk and thus jerky movement do not occur until 1.5 GB RAM or more. It was also found that the graphics card's anti-aliasing settings are barely effective, so that the high computing power of the latest hardware is not fully utilized. With six updates so far, the manufacturer has optimized the reliability and (with version 1.0005) also the performance.

Modifications and corrections

The structure of the software allows third party modifications to be incorporated without recompilation. Essentially, however, mods try to implement the promises made by the developers that have not been kept, so some of them can be considered fan patches . Some fan patches were later even incorporated into official patches. And even after the last official patch, we continued to work on fan patches.

As an example of modifications for STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl , the “Complete Mods” by the Toronto-based modder Pavel Dolgov can be used. These are available for all three parts of the STALKER series and represent the most extensive modifications for the games at the moment. In addition to very elaborate graphic revisions that significantly enhance the game graphics, the modifications also include improvements in terms of AI, sound, user interface and many more Aspects. Numerous new features have also been added, such as a night vision option and the ability to shoot lightbulbs.

Trivia

By entering the serial number of the DVD version, it is possible to purchase the game for free from GOG.com .

reception

With a few sarcastic and cynical, but also thoughtful and spiritual elements, with its subtle criticism of civilization, a sophisticated narrative construction and its unusually dense, realistic image and sound atmosphere, in the opinion of many critics , STALKER defines a new quality in computer games, primarily for adults.

“The developers [...] created an oppressive, playable memorial of human hubris . [...] If you want to save yourself tinkering and driver experiments .., you should wait for a few game upgrades [...]. But then an unconditional recommendation for 'STALKER' applies. With its dense atmosphere, this raw masterpiece turns every sunny day into an ice-cold trip into the contaminated zone. "

- Felix Knoke : "Chernobyl as a computer game - hubris in the death zone" in Spiegel Online on April 5, 2007 

The Gamestar reviewed STALKER with 90% and called the game as the "atmosphärischten [sic] shooter ever" . The PC Games gave the same rating and praised the shooter as a "masterpiece" . The metascore is 82.

Novels

In German language

• Claudia Kern , Bernd Frenz : STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl: death zone. (The official history of the game). Volume 1, Dino Verlag , 2005, ISBN 3-8332-1310-8 .
• Bernd Frenz: STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl: Inferno. (The official novel for the game). Volume 2, Panini Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8332-1311-3 .
• Bernd Frenz: STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl: Apocalypse. Volume 3, Panini Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8332-1740-1 .
• Wasilij Orechow : STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl: Zone of the Damned. Volume 4, Panini Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8332-1786-9 .
• Aleksey Stepanow : STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl: Deserter. Volume 5, Panini Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8332-1872-9 .
• Aleksey Kalugin : STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl: Deadly Swamps. Volume 6, Panini Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8332-1928-3 .
• Wasilij Orechow: STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl: In the crossfire. Volume 7, Panini Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8332-2056-2 .
• Aleksej Kalugin: STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl: Until the bitter end. Volume 8, Panini Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8332-2057-9 .

Not translated

• John Mason: STALKER - Southern Comfort. CreateSpace Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4662-2072-0 .
• Balász Pataki: STALKER - Northern Passage. CreateSpace Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4664-7339-3 .

Sequels

Clear Sky

→ Main article : STALKER: Clear Sky

With STALKER: Clear Sky , a follow-up product was released on September 5, 2008, which, as a prequel , deals with the development before the story told here and takes place a year before Shadow of Chernobyl . The zone is just as big as in STALKER but many new places have been added and the already known ones are still in a different state. The long walking distances that were partly criticized in the predecessor were shortened by a fast travel system. Finally, the AI ​​of the factions and the variants of the process have been expanded, including the possibility of the player joining a faction and participating in the fate of the same. A new addition to the old factions is the faction that gives it its name, "Clear Sky", a stalker association that acts in the background and primarily aims to conduct scientific research in the zone. Technically, DirectX 10.1 is now also used with small graphics extensions, but it can also run under Windows XP, but then operates in DirectX 9 mode.

Call of Pripyat

→ Main article : STALKER: Call of Pripyat

Call of Pripyat is the third STALKER title first announced by GSC Game World in April 2009. The Russian version was published at the end of October 2009 and the German version on November 9th. The plot now runs into the future again, so it starts after the first part. The player roams the zone in the role of a special agent of the Ukrainian military who is supposed to investigate the crash of helicopters in different parts of the zone after the military failed to recapture the area. While the game world has again been expanded with a multitude of new, authentic locations, the protagonists - the factions of the stalkers and also the mutants - are largely retained, but have been refined in detail. The graphics engine has been optimized without showing any significant visual changes and is now supposed to use DirectX 11 as well.

STALKER 2

On August 13, 2011, GSC Game World announced STALKER 2, the official successor to the first part. On November 11th it was announced that the development of STALKER 2 had started. It should appear in 2012 for various platforms based on a new dedicated engine. In addition, there should now also be female stalkers. GSC Gameworld answered some user questions on its official Facebook fansite. In addition to a new main story, there should also be new monsters and characters. There will be no faction battles like in Clear Sky . The effects of artifacts on the human organism are expanded to include additional properties. The action will u. a. take place in new cities around Chernobyl. This also includes the huge Chernobyl 2 antenna system . New underground facilities are also planned. Which these are is still open. According to GSC, the PC version of STALKER 2 should be implemented graphically without compromise, and the engine should also be DirectX 11 compatible. The console versions will then be implemented.

On December 9, 2011, however, it was reported that the development of STALKER 2 was stopped and the development studio GSC Gameworld was closed. The reasons given were that, especially for the planned console version of STALKER 2, no western publisher could be found and GSC did not have the necessary funds for its own publication.

Developer GSC confirmed in April 2012 that Stalker 2 has been discontinued, instead the previous developers are to work on the new Free2Play role-playing game Survarium , which is largely based on Stalker.

On May 16, 2012, among others, gamestar.de and pcgames.de reported that the development of STALKER 2 should be resumed, but with a new development team around Sergei Grigorovich.

STALKER: Lost Alpha

Since April 2014, a restored, graphically improved and modernized alpha version that has been expanded to include cut scenes can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet. This should be based on the early look of the game, which was seen in the first representations, but was changed until the finished version in 2007. There are various changes to the well-known game, for example vehicles can be driven and you can also find money with the dead. The game can be played alone without the previous games, but should still have stability problems.

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Web links

Commons : STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (English / Russian)
• German-language wiki about the game ( Memento from September 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Brief recap of the plot of Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky

Individual evidence

1. ↑ GameStar , issue 04/2007, p. 26.
2. ↑ de.ign.com
3. ↑ gamestar.de
4. ↑ gamestar.de
5. ↑ STALKER 2 announced, scheduled for 2021 release . In: polygon. May 15, 2018, accessed August 1, 2018
6. ↑ Gamezone: STALKER: Multiplayer Leak on the Internet?
7. ↑ IGN: PC Best of E3 2005 Awards
8. ↑ Wired News: Vaporware '06: Return of the King
9. ↑ englishrussia.com Travel reports from Chernobyl
10. ↑ Kieron Gillen: Officially Unofficial Patch. rock, paper, shotgun, August 14, 2007, accessed on December 22, 2012 (English): “ See also the guy who made the improved Shaders for STALKER which just made the game much better… which was then worked into the next patch. " 
11. ↑ STALKER Multiplayer Unofficial Patch (7.02) (May 17, 2009)
12. ↑ artistpavel.blogspot.com
13. ↑ pcgameshardware.de
14. ↑ https://www.gog.com/reclaim
15. ^ Spiegel Online , accessed on May 11, 2007.
16. ↑ gamestar.de
17. ↑ pcgames.de
18. ↑ metacritic.com
19. ↑ Announcement from STALKER: Clear Sky at PC Games
20. ^ Announcement from STALKER: Call of Pripyat at PC Games
21. ^ Message on the official GSC website
22. ↑ Stalker 2 comes with female stalkers and a new zone on www.pcgames.de, accessed on November 16, 2010.
23. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: GSC Gameworld answered some user questions on its official Facebook fansite
24. ↑ Stalker 2 - GSC Gameworld will be closed and the game will be discontinued
25. ↑ Blog entry about the closure of GSC Game World ( memento of the original from February 29, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Russian / English 
26. ↑ Stalker 2: GSC Gameworld not closed - shooter sequel is to come
27. ↑ STALKER- SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL - Lost Alpha-Mod- A report from the zone