STALKER, an overview of "SI&quot

Author: Alexander Trifonov
Source: Country Games № June 2007	30.03.2007

Not to pardon executed. Word stresses the green words, but put a comma in the right place devilishly difficult. Embark on a long argument about what are fraught with long-term construction - could be just what? It is better to imagine that there are people who have never heard of "Stalker". This is no exaggeration - when we Razumkinym returned by train from Kiev, a fellow traveler interested in our conversation, we started talking and he mentioned: that the play itself a bit, mostly to buy her son, but I believe this game did not really hear. What is it for? Here we pause. But really: what is the "Stalker" now? After so many years already, and not distinguish dreams of fans (which, despite everything, an incredible number on both sides of the ocean - and it does not have published the game), promises to developers - four, say, a year ago, and shortly before the release, and then that really is. And you know, it's easier to give up on it all by hand and write with a clean slate. Just as the pro game. Prehistory When from the Chernobyl area were evacuated, the area around became deserted and quiet. Cities and towns quickly overgrown with trees and shrubs, which punches way through the concrete and asphalt. Wildlife quickly grabbed the empty territory. Reports of strange creatures, mutilated disaster, have become commonplace. In 2006, another misfortune happened. Bright light over a nuclear power station lit up the countryside. People have suggested that there was a second explosion. All units are dispatched to the accident site, disappeared without a trace or were killed in unclear circumstances. The military surrounded the area security perimeter and armed checkpoints, protecting people from the ill-advised attempts to get inside. But human nature has prevailed over fear. Curiosity and greed, the desire to take risks and pull to a mysterious - that's what moved first to stalkers. What they found inside the perimeter, it was beyond imagination. They brought strange and frightening things. These strange objects, with their unique and unexplained physical properties, called artifacts - so they dropped out of the ordinary human understanding. The value of these things for science was another reason for going to the Zone - the artifacts were excavated on the purpose of selling them on the black market. As its explanatory dictionary of education, catharsis - emotional discharge experienced by the viewer in the process of empathy when watching their tragedy.At the sight of these letters she comes. Curious antenna, visible not some photos taken during a trip to Chernobyl and related rumors, developers have applied the idea for the game's plot. In our eyes Look at the first screenshot. There is a desire to say: "And what is the level of 2007?" We used to look for flaws, and now it is particularly irrepressible desire - what, six years of fooling us. But when you get to that mark in the game, the last thing you think about the schedule. The fixed image does not convey gloom swirling clouds, ominous whistle of the wind, a sense of covering the player's silhouette zavidevshego Chernobyl, darkening of the fog. Place, covered with legends, the center of the zone, none of whom had not yet returned. It is rumored, is a mysterious Wishmaster. What's ahead? Answers to all questions, the death from radiation or from the hands of the fanatical sects, guarding the sanctity of aliens, alien artifact, or simply a crumbling concrete sarcophagus over the reactor - the eternal monument to human carelessness? And equally important, what's behind? Is it any kind of covered with rusty stains letters killed hundreds, left on our bloody way? Arena - fun for the strong spirit. All the powerful weapons and artifacts will have to take only pistol, a little ammo and a little luck. "Nese Galya water koromislo oppression, for her, Ivanko, yak barvinok v'etsya. Watch for yourself, be careful Zone does not forgive mistakes. One wrong move, over-priced power undetected mutant - and again GAME OVER on the screen. Before you take the game to know how to survive in it. An interesting thing - in the ordinary, in fact, shooter, pumping hero feels stronger than in any CRPG. Perhaps because the experience itself is typed, rather than filling an abstract stripe to the next notch. At the beginning of each anomaly and fear packs of dogs, ammunition for the pistol is not forever, and clash with gunmen in an open space in the best case ends with the fact that you're half dead, licking his wounds in a matter of some bushes. A few hours in the hands there is a "quest" AK-74 with an increased rate of fire on his body - decent armor, and are adorned with artifacts. Not listening desperately squeaked PDA, confidently bypass swirl of space, to avoid abandoned cars and junk iron simply because they are always near the high background radiation, and the dogs playfully cracking a knife. However, the sense of impunity passes quickly, is to appear enemies with armor-piercing bullets and in the exoskeleton or encounter in a deserted laboratory with a "controller". At each change of gear, whether artifact "400% of health" instead of "200%" or "storm" instead of "Abakan", immediately feel the difference. Not to mention the fact that without a fashionable suit tailoring Kiev chemical plant there is nothing to be put in populated zombie infested catacombs. Faithful Assistant PDA - a wonderful device, far more believable than the wonderful recorders diaries fantasy RPG. It reflects all the current job, and maps with overlays, personal notes of the hero, the rating of twenty of the most experienced stalkers, a detailed encyclopedia of all encountered mutants, anomalies, artifacts. When a number is the owner of the computer, they are immediately connected to each other - useful during the fight to find the remaining number of nearby enemies. And then, when stripping the corpses, all records from foreign PDA is automatically downloaded to us - so you can find important information, if plot NPC was killed in a shootout, or to find out the location of nest egg with valuable items. In addition, the device warns of the dangerous approach to anomalies. Strange color pictures - a consequence of the psi-emission and high radioactivity. Snork naprygnul missed and went straight to the "lighter". There he and the road. We will continue to operate The game surprisingly diverse. Initially, when just starting to learn the Zone and to understand the intricacies of the plot, we have clean water to the Chornobyl Elder Scrolls colors: several groups, freedom of movement, lots of side quests and a compass indicating the direction and distance to the goal. Each village abandoned or unfinished factory can be anything: from the lair of the mutants to an army checkpoint. If you are lucky to find a TV, you will see one of the earliest movies. And most importantly, what for so long telling developers, and we do not believe: the system did not froze once and for all, she is in constant motion. In all thirty square miles every minute there are small tragedies: stalkers looking for artifacts and perform tasks, the bandits attacked their camp, the soldiers suit stripping all and sundry beasts devour one another, and unlucky travelers, the anomalies appear and disappear, the factions are never-ending war. Even the plot NPC protected only so long until it will be given the right information, after talking inexorable laws of the Zone shall take effect and developments are no longer on the script. Even load the last saved, it is impossible to predict whether there will be all in the same sequence. The behavior of a pair of what any wild boars can be seen for hours, sitting on a hill with binoculars, if they survive so much - is another matter. Returning to familiar places, you never know what's find him: a peaceful picnic by the fire of old friends, or mountains of corpses, indicating a recent hot slaughter. Very often it happens that when he heard shots near clatter, we get a request for help by radio, we can intervene and change the preponderance of forces. Or wait for the battle to kill the survivors and to rob the victims. And then just skip the call to march past the ears and on about his business. The town can ponabrat randomly generated quests in a bar fight in the arena for the money. Theoretically, any settlement can be cut at the roots, but long vacant area does not: through the cordon seep new group of stalkers and looters, maintaining the balance of power. The most interesting thing, of course, watching a group of NPC to a halt around the campfire. Someone complains about the hard life and chewed sausage, someone poisons bikes (they recorded more than a hundred, and all are extremely dirty), and sometimes would get a guitar and give something from "Movie". All this assumes no sense, but worth it once to hide from the rain under the canopy stop, to which will never arrive buses, and listen to strum the strings upset - and some of you will forever remain in the zone. Artifacts In the Zone there is a great variety of artifacts - some lying on the road give meager benefits and are worth a dime. Some need to be in remote places, to buy from merchants, withdraw from the corpses of particularly dangerous enemies. And some are formed only under special conditions - for example, after the death of caught in the anomaly "meat grinder" of a person. Each artifact as it improves certain characteristics - such as protection from radiation, or electricity, answering rebuked bleeding and worsens others - resistance to bullets or shock claws, burns from the fire and acid. Given that the seats on the belt for hanging a total of five, to pick the right combination would be long. Bar - a meeting place and information exchange, a place of rest in which no anomalies and mutants, for which value the inhabitants of the zone. Barrels - one of the few interactive objects. Those that explode, good for the destruction of enemy concentrations. Good morning, the last hero In another guise game appears when the decide to follow the main storyline. On this account went to all kinds of rumors, to the point that the "Stalker" did MMOFPS, but we hasten to assure you: the scenario in the game all right, and the single player campaign will give 20-30 hours, full of puzzles and deadly. In the truck, exporting the corpses of the Zone during a thunderstorm hits the lightning, and scatter around the body with rubble. Stumbling on the scene stalker discovers that one of the "passengers" are still alive, and pulls a lucky friend the merchant. No memories, no clues - only a PDA with a single task "Kill Arrow" and STALKER tattoo on his forearm. Solid questions - and answers will have a good search, and only one of several possible endings to learn the truth behind the events. Narrative videos, play at the end of each key stage are impressive from a technical point of view, but rather unclear and confusing even stronger. Psychotropic radiation secret service plot - in the collected pieces of the puzzle for us all find a place. The protagonist, nicknamed the "labeled", the English version of the Marked One, combines traits of two characters with similar names - the immortal amneziaka from Planescape: Torment and a villager from Fallout 2, left alone with a huge hostile world, and in addition to games from the Black Isle brainchild GSC kinship bleak hopelessness of the narrative. ER, an overview of "SI» "class =" center2 last png "/> One of the few references to the novel Strugatskikh "Roadside Picnic" - the bolts are hurled to test the boundaries of the anomaly. Attack helicopters - the only movable equipment in the game. And well, if you have not noticed. Mama, we're all crazy Paintings abandoned in the middle of a field of rusty "Ural" and destroyed a lot of pig farms contribute to this, but only in the local underground, they are also secret laboratory complexes, begins living hell. Frightening sounds, the clatter of steps in the middle of an empty room, broken appliances of unknown destination and tangled reinforcement in the wrong light of the lantern, the dense steel door, recoil blows inside. And yet - throughout the blood and the body to varying degrees of decomposition, from skeletons to quite fresh stiffs. Who are these people, as they finished their way and why here? When you meet the actual monster, you feel even some relief, although the first meeting with a transparent, like the Predator, bloodsucking long haunting. During the descent to the lower level attracts the attention of a couple slowly circling in the air drums. While trying to understand what this prodigy, drums suddenly fly at you. Corner of your eye you notice removed at the corridor a little noticeable glow. Meet poltergeist, incredibly vile creature, which owns the telekinesis. To complete the picture, lacking only an evil chuckle. However, it would be overkill. Later, when confronted with a zombie, fear is replaced, rather, disgust - shuffled, slowly, but surely they get out of the fog in a swamp or in the corridors of the underground base, something incoherently mumbling, fall down under our fire, writhing on the ground, as devoid of yarn puppets, and attached to their heads lights randomly draws the darkness. "Dolgovtsy" jokes do not like. And what a joke, when one side - the Valley of Darkness, swarming mutants, on the other - base "Freedom". "Easter egg" from developers in one of the laboratories. How many years have passed since the removal of this photograph? Wish me luck in the battle At the same open spaces in urban areas (and most importantly - with people as opposed to) fight and the game itself is transformed as if by magic. Computer opponents, just as we rely on sight and hearing, talking among themselves, not climb on the rampage and run away from who had flown under the feet of a grenade. If there are more - are trying to surround and skillfully using the shelter, losing - are hiding, then to plant all who approached nearer to the careless player. It also happens that fascinated the shooting soldier falls into the "meat grinder" or something worse, from the rear suitable group of friendly stalkers or, conversely, Gopnik, and even a pack of dogs, attracted by the firing - because life around, as you recall is ongoing. All of this changes the environment every second and makes battles a refreshing unpredictability. Although there is also a weapon with a silencer, and varying degrees of secrecy, which depend not only on time of day, but even the rustle of bushes, through which we wade, and even the ability to pull off and hide dead bodies - to sneak the whole game from beginning to end will come - the enemies, as a rule, do not walk alone, and after the first killing of confusion begins. Where are the health benefits and nerves to get a sniper rifle and pereschelkat them from afar. Choice stems very impressive: dozens of samples of the production of both domestic and foreign voenproma (the latter, for lack of a license, are the most fun name), but more a couple with a not unesesh - already at a load greater than 40 kg of character begins to fizzle out, and after 60 kg and not able to move.But we must also haul ammunition, medical supplies, food ... How many times have reluctantly had to throw out a brand new assault rifle for an extra pair of grenades, do not count. Toward the end, though, there is armor, exoskeleton and payload increases, and the question "of what to shoot?" No longer stands. Ran out of charges for "Vintorez" - he is thrown from the corpses quickly recruited a handful of NATO rounds and go on with the FN-2000. Groups Know the enemy in the face - it is useful, the more that people - the most dangerous of adversaries. The population of the zone is divided into several warring factions, and their differences can be used to their advantage: Stalkers. Stalkers exploring the Zone on their own. Such a majority, as membership in grouping takes valuable time, thereby reducing earnings, in addition, some of them just by nature prone to isolation and independence. Bandits. Representatives of the criminal world who came into the Zone for different reasons: earn from selling artefacts, hide from the law, to buy or sell weapons. In the Zone many such rabble rabble to the level of hardened criminals. Most of them joined gangs. While no single gang organization in the Zone is still not much bother the ordinary stalker. Scientists. Researchers at the nature of the Zone and its creatures, which bombarded the perimeter directly with the research station. With a good attitude on their part to a lucky stalker can sell the loot found in the Zone to scientists without the dealer-broker. Military stalkers. Soldiers suzhivshie in the Zone, or stalkers, have signed a contract with the Army. Well armed and equipped. They are mostly used to study the causes and consequences of the disaster, and also engaged in mapping the zone. Can go both singly or in groups of up to five people. Normal stalkers are not allowed to own - immediately opened fire. Freedom.Anarchists and daredevils who declare themselves as freedom fighters in the zone and therefore in constant conflict with army units, military stalkers, and grouping of Duty. " "Svobodovtsy" believe that information about what's happening in the area can not hide from humanity, challenging the monopoly of government ownership of local mysteries and miracles. Monolith. Group, rather reminiscent of a religious sect. Its members believe that in the center of the band rests evolutionary crystal extraterrestrial origin - Monolith. Most stalkers despise adherents of "Monolith", considering them as lunatics. Since its formation the group prevents the promotion of stalkers in the Zone center, citing the ill intentions of the latter in respect of the monolith. Debt. Militant group, characterized by strict discipline: its members live under the statute. Only representatives of "duty" not to trade unique items from the Zone with the outside world: according to rumors, all the artifacts found by scientists to give up. Each "dolgovets considers primarily to protect the world from the impact zone. Long and fierce enmity with the group "Freedom". Mercenaries. The most mysterious and secretive group in the zone, the existence of which many do not even believe it. Some people constantly use the services of mercenaries: professionals in their field, they quickly deal with any stalker, and can even completely liquidate a small group. For their services seems to take considerable sums of money or artifacts. Bloodsucker - a very nasty cross between a Predator and Cthulhu, dangerous even for experienced and well-armed stalkers. Icons indicate that, firstly, the hero hungry, and secondly, bleeding. Save Bank of stew and a pack of bandages. On the burning city falls the shadow After the incident with the alteration of the engine with DirectX eighth to the ninth, we really have begun to fear that all again, but the game still decided to release this century. What can we hide - quality models of people and especially the mutants do not always live up to modern Merauke. In the heat of battle on a not particularly pay attention - when the couple Snork tries to cling to the throat, somehow not up to their animations. And in the invention of the designers can not refuse - each creature has a memorable look and feel. And let the inhabitants of the Zone is not handsome, but all 18 huge levels set with such thoroughness and attention to detail that the illusion of staying on that side of the monitor does not leave any minute.All of these forests, fields and marshes, graveyards technology, military bases and half-ruined villages are so real that the inability to get over some rotten fence or knock down its blast is perceived quite differently, as in other shooters, where the convention is happening makes it possible to accept such restrictions . But should simply stand still and look around, everything comes back to normal again: floating clouds, the wind rustles the grass, and driving clouds of dust and foliage, dark, from somewhere came the shrill cry of the cat's. Another day ended and we are still alive. Yes, there is a powered armor and the Gauss rifle. Bethesda Softworks will generally try hard to make Fallout 3 at least not worse. Coloring exoskeletons depends on belonging to a group. Handy during major battles with dozens of participants. Corridor hotel in Pripyat covered with scraps of newspapers, from the broken window on the Ferris wheel in a park, sparking the anomalies, somewhere on the horizon is a thunderstorm and the gray sky lights up with flashes of lightning - for these pictures to forgive and not the most advanced graphics, and lack of vehicles, and everything else that was once promised, but for the prescription of forgotten or failed to embody. Not to mention quite untypical of the national project stability and almost total absence of bugs. Fairy tale with a happy ending, game-puzzle game for the study, containing more innovations than any FPS in the last couple of years. Exit STALKER - a milestone not only because he finally took place, it's a real line that divides the history of the genre and gaming in general in the "before" and "after." And there is still a very interesting multiplayer, but it is - a topic for another article. Executed can not be pardoned. Expert opinion Michael Razumkin: Wildlife exclusion zone with its mysteries and hazards, which anyone can explore, as he pleases. Seven game endings - this on the PC was not long ago. "Stalker" was practically the as originally thought. Is that the complete absence of female characters is depressing. Michael Buzenkov: In STALKER fall in love at first sight. Stern soldier, playing the guitar, a couple stalkers, telling each other jokes, bearded, and many other funny scenes, which you can not write, but really want to ... Still wondering what made the game in his native homeland, not somewhere overseas. Maxim «McSim» Don: The "Stalker" stuffed so many things that would be enough for 10 games easier, and yes even with addons. Much - is unique, a lot - just well. And yet grown together! But the main thing is not even that. Bribe the little details, like the guitar to a halt, random replica sneakers for stalkers Gopnik. Made with love. Alexander Trifonov: issued after a regular corridor shooter - sign in creative impotence. Another thing is that such development time and patience of the publisher can only afford to monsters like id, Valve, Epic or Crytek. And yes, the "Stalker" on equal looked any game from the listed firms. In an early trailer used the following effect: first shots were recorded is Chernobyl, and then the picture gradually turned into a game. And the way it looks in reality. According to the developers, people who lived and worked in Pripyat, the game is very strong deja vu.