Why the S.T.A.L.K.E.R trilogy is still worth playing in 2024

GCS Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R trilogy (released from 2007 to 2010), inspired by both the 1979 film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky of the same name and the 1972 novel Roadside Picnic, represents perhaps one of the most significant gaming releases to emerge from Ukraine, and Eastern Europe more broadly. It is set within the brutal wasteland of the Zone, a fictitious post-apocalyptic area that surrounds the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, having been created following a second incident in 2006. These games were long recommended to me by friends; however they remained sitting in my Steam library for close to a decade until I finally gave them a fair chance.  So here I am, fresh from a recent playthrough of all three games, and highly excited to return to this world in a matter of months with the long-anticipated release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chernobyl on 5th September. I thought now is the perfect time to review this culture classic trilogy. 

In my view, the game world of Chernobyl and the surrounding apocalyptic Zone offers some of the most unique environments to be found in a modern shooter game

Story  

These games follow the stories of the eponymous ‘Stalkers’, the name given to people who seek to traverse the Zone in search of artifacts hidden on the dangerous terrain or, if they are very daring, seek to find the fabled ‘Wish Granter’ hidden in the heart of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Whilst each of the three games follow different protagonists, each of their stories are rooted in this highly compelling backdrop. 

Shadow of Chernobyl (game #1) sees the player following the story of the so-called ‘Marked One’ who is discovered at the beginning of the game on a death truck suffering from amnesia. The game follows the story of him rediscovering his identity, with a shocking twist in the middle, and the potential to be greeted with six unique endings once you finally make it to Chernobyl. 

Clear Sky (game #2), arguably the worst in the series and a prequel to the original, follows a mercenary Stalker named ‘Scar’, as he seeks to prevent our character from the first game from reaching the centre of the Zone in Chernobyl. The Zone starts behaving like a living creature, feeling under attack by the ‘Marked One’s’ incursions into its heart, sending out catastrophic emissions threatening to destroy everything in its path. The player must prevent this from happening. 

As you’ve probably noticed, the plots of these last games appear very complex and lore heavy even in my rather limited summaries. Game #3, Call of Pripyat is comparably easy to follow. You assume command of Major Alexander Degtyarev, a Ukrainian Secret Service agent sent into the Zone to establish the fate of six helicopters that mysteriously disappeared following the events of the first game. 

Game World 

In my view, the game world of Chernobyl and the surrounding apocalyptic Zone offers some of the most unique environments to be found in a modern shooter. For many of you, you may be thinking right now that what I’ve described sounds very derivative of games like Fallout or Half-Life 2, I wouldn’t agree with this. The video game setting of Ukraine is wholly unique in mainstream gaming, wanting to explore environments beyond the typical modern urban settings, with more emphasis on the threat lurking in warped nature is a great reason to play this. 

The environments you traverse are each distinctive, both visually and mechanically. Each game contains several varying locations, from towns like Pripyat, to swamps and abandoned research facilities. Each with its own ambience, soundscape and threats to encounter. 

As a result of the radiation from NPP and the mysterious effects of the Zone, many strange threats have emerged. From mutated dogs to creatures that can grab your weapons from your very hands. Many are initially frustrating to fight, but after a while the player becomes familiar with the combat patterns of each. 

Perhaps the most notable threat and feature of the Zone are ‘anomalies’. These are dangerous energy phenomena that are often unnoticed besides a fluctuation of the air. They come in fire or electricity variants, to name a few. Within are contained artifacts, the principal object of any stalker entering the zone, they are highly valued by the outside world due to their beneficial properties. For the player they offer a risky but effective method of making money. 

Gameplay 

Easily the most controversial aspect of playing these games, the gameplay is renowned for its clunkiness, unfair non-playable character (NPC) AI and strange shooting mechanics. For most, this demands a host of mods to make them an enjoyable experience. Particularly in #1, crashes are frequent. Weapons are initially awful, for example, a well-placed close-range crosshair will still frequently see the bullet completely missing its target. This is not irredeemable, as the games have a comprehensive weapon upgrade system that can quite easily see a shotgun turned into a sniper rifle, but at first new players will be frustrated. Clear Sky is particularly infamous for the way that enemy grenades lock onto you as if they’re heat seeking, however this was luckily fixed for #3. I played these games without any mods and still had a great time with the gameplay once I had figured out everything, but at I was still left frustrated by the unfairness of the enemy AI many times, particularly in Clear Sky. 

Are they still worth playing today? 

At times the story may become convoluted and leave you resorting to a Wiki to explain what’s going on (as I did a few times), but once you get into it, once you see the way the three games interlock, I assure you that you won’t be bored. The game world here offers something you won’t get anywhere else. Whilst many recent games have sought to cash in on the popularity of the Chernobyl TV series (2019) by concocting seemingly any excuse to get the player to explore the area, this game was certainly one of the first, offering a plethora of both real and fictitious environments for the player to explore which will not leave you bored. The gameplay is undoubtedly dated, and will leave many players used to the broad fast-paced nature of modern games frustrated, but you can have fun with it regardless, and worst-comes-to-worse you can always mod it to fix these issues. Whilst these games have certainly aged poorly, they remain worth playing. If, for nothing else, play it to get up to date on the story ahead of the anticipated release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chernobyl, which appears to remedy all the previously cited issues and bring us game that can truly stand shoulder to shoulder with any contemporary triple-A game.