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

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a 2007 first-person shooter survival horror game developed by Ukrainian game developer GSC Game World and published by THQ. The game takes place in an alternate universe where a second disaster occurred in the ill-fated Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) at the "Exclusion Zone", where numerous bizarre changes have happened to the local fauna and flora while becoming a very hostile place crawling with mutants, bandits and other threats.

The game earned a prequel and a sequel: Clear Sky (released in 2008) and Call of Pripyat (released in 2010). In May 15th, 2018, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl was announced and have a planned release of year 2021 while being powered by Unreal Engine 4.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It takes place in the "Chernobyl Exclusion Zone" and allows you to reach the eponymous power plant and the RBMK reactor 4's remains for the first time in a first-person shooter.
 * 2) Great graphics for a 2007 title, thanks to the X-Ray Engine as it features HDR, dynamic lighting, parallax/normal mapping, soft shadows and etc.
 * 3) Good soundtrack composed by MoozE and Firelake such as "Dirge for the Planet" and "S.A.D".
 * 4) A good number of weapons such as the Makarov PMM, TOZ-66 sawed-off shotgun, AKM-74/2 assault rifle, VSS Vintorez (or "Vintar BC" in-game), FN F2000 (or "FT-200M" in-game) and Gauss Rifle (based off from a Fallout 2 weapon with the same name).
 * 5) Decent voice acting. Also, the bandits' "А ну чики брики и в дамки!" (A nu, cheeki breeki iv damke!) taunt and Duty guard's "Get out of here Stalker!" quote have become one of most memorable internet memes within the game.
 * 6) Tons of mods to play with while having a very strong modding community such as Autumn Aurora 2, Starter Pack (which features Zone Reclamation Project as well a couple of bugfixes while retaining the vanilla aspect of the game), Oblivion Lost Remake (a mod that aims to recreate the original "Oblivion Lost" build) and Lost Alpha: Director's Cut (similar to Oblivion Lost Remake albeit being more of a standalone, expanded version of the vanilla game aside from fan-fictiony directions of the new plot if it's not your taste).

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some of the landmarks are inaccurate such as Pripyat being located in south of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and north of Red Forest/Duga radar even though in real-life, it's located in the south-east of CNPP.
 * 2) The game's difficulty even on "Novice" can be rough for inexperienced players.
 * 3) It suffers from a large number of bugs and the game can sometimes crash (some of them can provide you an advantage or worse, break the game). Thankfully, they can be mitigated via mods such as Zone Reclamation Project (ZRP).
 * 4) You cannot repair your gear without mods (as the feature only made its debut in Clear Sky), as you'll have to obtain four "Battery" artifacts and stand still within a "Electro" anomaly while waiting for few minutes.
 * 5) Several mutants and zombies were cut during development or unused in the released game, though some of them can be brought back in with mods.

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