S.T.A.L.K.E.R (First Impressions)

IT’S BEEN A GOOD WEEK for PC gamers; first up was the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R (Shadow Of Chernobyl) amidst high expectations and hype concerning the A-life system and now I find in my inbox this morning confirmation that Play.com has just posted out my copy of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars… so my weekends are taken care of for a while

I did the usual thing of admiring the special edition packaging and documentation for approximately 0.3 seconds and then slung the DVD into the drive and started the installation, and I haven’t looked back since. I’m sure there are plenty of useful bits of information and context contained in the documentation, but I prefer to just stumble along and around the game mechanics and levels, seeing how it feels and how it plays; it’s just my way.

So then – what can you expect from my first impressions of the game? Well, I’ve got a bunch of cool screenshots from the game, a lot of observations on the performance, mechanics, graphics, design, interactions, AI and just about everything else… so if you are considering this PC game as an addition to your existing collection then I hope this review will give you some food for thought.

The good news is this is not your average game; the really good news is that whatever your expectations for this game, whatever hype you have heard about in advance – it still delivers enough bang for your [insert appropriate currency] to make it worth your time, as long as you know just what type of game play you are in for because this one is a breed apart from the usual FPS gunfests. It may not live up to all the aforementioned hype, but it does deliver more than enough to keep your interest.

This is a new direction for a PC game and I’m getting so much enjoyment from it that it reminds me of my first play through of Thief. Back then the gaming industry ended up coining the phrase First Person Sneaker for Thief, because so much of the game was focused upon sound and stealth. I’ve no idea yet what to use as an acronym for this game because it just keeps surprising me with new and innovative touches.

Right so – where to start? Let’s go straight to the eye candy, the graphics…

Eye Candy

Shiny new widescreen in hand (well on desk actually) I set about installing and testing out S.T.A.L.K.E.R and ran into my first problem – the graphics. This game is not using state-of-the-art graphics (say in comparison to HL2, UT2K7 or even Crysis) but it’s still putting out enough oomph that you will need a decent graphics card to get real value from it. My current graphic card is an ATI X800XT which has been pretty decent up to now for all my games, but it is a few generations behind at this point. I’m playing this game on a widescreen at 1680 x 1050 resolution and of course out of the box I cranked all the goodies to the max to see what it looked like, and my card pretty much melted in the process. This puppy (even a generation behind on graphics) looks fantastic, but – for me – was completely unplayable when I had all the eye candy switched on, using dynamic rendering and shadows etc.

So unfortunately I had to do two things straight away. First I slapped down the graphics settings to static rendering – which does have a serious impact on the quality of the visuals, but also gives you the performance you need to actually play the game. Second I went online and ordered up a nice shiny new ATI X1950XT 512MB beastie

Even at the reduced quality the game looks pretty good, and the landscapes, sunsets, explosions, water, clouds etc. look stunning. I know for a fact that a colleague of mine (you know who you are!) is also using an ATI X1950XT with all the settings cranked up the max, and he has been waxing lyrical about how good this game looks so as long as you have the card to handle it, you are in for a treat.

And speaking of beasties, just look at that puppy on the right there. That is what is commonly referred to in-game as a bloodsucker. I ran in to one of these last night in a tunnel system and the fucker caused me endless problems before I figured out how to take him out; giving me pure delight in the process, but more on that later. For now though let’s just say the eye candy is more than good enough for a game in 2007, even though it’s not current generation amazing, it’s bloody good enough.

Game Mechanics

OK, so this is at it’s heart an FPS (First Person Shooter) but it’s also got some RPG (Role Playing Game) mixed in too. I think the most appropriate predecessor I can mention which comes close is Deus Ex, which pretty much became a genre on it’s own. Stalking around a radioactive wasteland has it’s perils and requires more than just a shoot-first-ask-questions-later kind of attitude or approach. Interactions with other characters in the game affect how the world around you conducts itself. Your actions, and the actions of the so-called A-Life characters (in-game Artificial Intelligence) continually changes the outcomes of things as you progress through various geographic zones. On several occasions I’ve even noticed differences in returning to previous savegames – that’s how good this is.

So what? Well, this greatly adds to the replay value of the game, and it also enhances your experiences within the single player missions because things keep changing on you. Nothing can be taken for granted. So, yes there are lots of weapons, lots of opponents (human and monster) and plenty of opportunities to choose between stealth or firepower, however there is also a trading element to the game. Hard currency is required to keep yourself alive. Food, vodka, bullets, equipment – it all costs money. Said money can be earned via missions or trading (more on this later) or even by entering into arena style combat challenges against tougher and tougher opponents. In addition, you can of course also steal what you need, either from the bodies of those you kill or likewise the bodies of those you find on your travels – remember the A-Life is happening all around you, it’s not waiting for you to show up first… so frequently firefights and other events will take place whether you are there or not, depending on all the ‘other’ interactions.

Then there is the trading element of the game too. There are certain locations in the game where you can buy/sell equipment, so it’s a great opportunity to trade in any bits and pieces you may have come across. Alternatively, when out and about you can also trade with other characters. This is of vital importance because you will frequently run out of ammo or equipment or worse still medical aid and food – all of which you need to stay alive. Interactions with other characters can yield valuable information, can form alliances or make new enemies… all of which will come back to aid or haunt you one way or another at some point, which is what makes this a really cool thing. The only down side is the text-based implementation of the interactions between characters, but you get used to it after a while. You can also recover PDAs and items which can be interrogated too.

As for equipment – this is one of the best pieces of innovation in the game for me. All equipment gets old with use and time, meaning it looses accuracy and (in the case of guns for example) will jam more often, which is of course the last thing you want in a firefight. This adds a touch of realism which really makes you evaluate your usage of each and every piece of equipment, from the protective suits you wear to the bullets you load up.

More than that, you can only carry a certain loadout, which means you can’t just pick up everything you see. Then it gets even more complex because you can only switch between weapons you are currently ‘carrying’ versus those in your backpack… so if you don’t think your way out of a situation, you can’t always shoot your way out because at a crucial point in the proceedings you will go for a weapon or item and find you didn’t take it out of the damn backpack in advance, or worse still you forgot to load it with ammo

Atmospheric

This sounds messy; it sounds like it’s too complicated but actually it’s not. It’s perfect. It not only adds realism, but it forces you to really think about how you will handle each situation. Do you sneak around or go in full guns blazing. Have you enough medical supplies to survive the engagement? Should you drop all your goods and hide them – to be picked up later after the battle – or drag them around with you and hope they don’t slow you down. Why not bribe your way out? All these decisions count, because remember – you are not the only one stalking around in the game, the A-Life is also doing it’s thing, trying to survive, trying to outwit you and every other A-Life character too.

The implementation of this is not perfect of course; there are some pathing problems evident at times and the odd glitch here and there, but overall the atmosphere of the game and the situations keep you fully immersed and it’s good enough to let you enjoy what’s happening, marvel at what you don’t understand around you and every now and then make you jump out of your skin.

The atmosphere is so good in this game, the landscapes and weird anomalies so well integrated into the every day creepy aspects of the ‘game world’ that you will frequently find yourself staring off into a crazy warped radioactive field or admiring a sunset or a rainstorm or even just looking for shelter when a storm hits… only to suddenly realise that the growling or moaning sounds you should have been paying attention to have decided they are hungry, and you’re dinner. It’s very immersive and very well done, from the sprawling wastelands to the complex ruins or small towns and even into the dark and forbidding tunnel systems… I can only look forward to when my ATI X1950XT card arrives and I get to crank it back up to max settings!

Choose Your Weapon

Constantly I’ve found myself having to choose the right tools for the job. Do I go up close and personal with a shotgun? Sneak around with a knife and go for the quiet kill? These are all pretty standard decisions for most FPS based games, however it gets better than that. You also have to choose the right ammo. Some bad guys may require an armour piercing round or two. Some monsters don’t go down easy. It’s all about figuring out how to get in, get the job done and get out in one piece. Sometimes running away like a mad thing is actually the smart answer! Although if you’re injured, or carrying too much weight or… well you get the idea

As a perfect example this little bugger on the left here is what I encountered last night in a tunnel system. I knew it was there, kind of, because I could hear the bastard moving about, but I couldn’t see him. Eventually when it made a run at me I could see the shimmering reflection, but by then it was too late and I was clawed to pieces. I reloaded a saved game and went at it again, as you do, and got creamed many times until it finally dawned on me.

I’d tried different ammo, different weapons and different tactics – all to no avail. This resilient bastard kept coming and kept clawing me into little chunks – and not even in the same way each time – until I realised that the torso of this chap was capable of taking huge punishment (I emptied 3 clips into him at one point), so I knew I had to focus on the head shot, but for that I had to let him get close, close enough for me to see where the head was at, and maybe get two or three shots off before he got his claws into me. Eventually I did it, and the sense of achievement was brilliant.

Then around the corner I ran into some kind of mad mindfuck monster, some psyionic nightmare which basically made mince meat out of me no matter what I did. So what to do about this guy? Yup – you guessed it – run like fuck and recover somewhere else, grab what loot I could and get the hell out. I just didn’t have enough firepower to take care of it so it was time to get out of dodge.

This is what I mean by saying the game is in a genre of it’s own. You are constantly on edge, always looking for an angle, always trying to decide which course of action will not only suit you in the present, but which will also serve you in the future. I know I’m going to have to go down there again, I know that mindfuck lad is going to be there too, somewhere, not where I expect but somewhere… and I also know that next time I won’t be so lucky; next time I will need another option. Right now though I don’t know if that’s a better gun, better explosives or something else completely – and that’s what makes this so enticing.

Wrap Up

From a first impressions perspective I’m really happy with this game. I think it will have immense replay value and I love the way it pushes me to think before acting. I also love the realism, the fact that every action has a consequence and the constantly changing world and A-Life implementation. I have no idea what’s waiting for me around the next corner, but I know it will be fun finding out. I’d guess I’ve been playing for approximately 3 or 4 hours so far and I know I’ve only seen a fraction of the goodies, characters, monsters and situations which will keep me up at night trying to figure them out.

So – my advice to you based on these first impressions? Make sure your rig has the power and the graphics oomph to get the best from this game, then crank it up and allow yourself to be immersed in a crazy radioactive wasteland where you will find yourself enjoying many many hours of FPS / RPG fun. Allow this game to grow on you and I think you will really enjoy it in return.