S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
THQ | PC | $39.99
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl delves into the feasible near-future world of the radioactive hot spots of Chernobyl and the attendant weird phenomena. Your impoverished Russian character is sent into the geographically accurate 200-mile dead zone around the plant to scavenge a way to bigger guns, canned food, and a better life, radiation be dammed. Penniless, broke, and ever more radioactive, your character has little to live for but a lot to gain. Maybe your character can change life’s equations using his newfound radioactive tricks, weapons, and souvenirs for the outsiders.
The Ukrainian-produced game came out of nowhere to become a European phenomenon. Sometimes the new U.S. version has bad lip-synching, but that only complements the error messages in Polish and the Russian deadheads camping out in the hot zone. Many gamers love the tongue-in-cheek realism of the small-time game companies. So many of us PC-game fans can no longer get off on dancing around in dwarven jumpsuits.
The open-ended game decisions are relevant to the real outcome. Add to all this realism a brand-new physics engine that shows off the radioactive anomalies and an artificial intelligence that plays with itself when off of your screen, and you have a new and exciting game every time. With its DIY feel and anarchic culture, this game promises to provide a gold mine of downloadable user-created mods, games, content, wars, characters, and geography. So if you are experienced in PC gaming, get in on the ground floor. Due to the Cyrillic, Ukrainian, and possibly Polish help files, this game is not for those inexperienced in optimizing PC games. – Ed Baker
This article appears in April 27 • 2007.