STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Spoiler Alert: DON'T attack bands of slavering dogs. DON'T run into radioactive anomalies. DON'T try and loot dead bodies in the middle of a firefight. And, whatever you do, DOUBLE DON'T attack the military. In fact, as a S.T.A.L.K.E.R., you need to be very, very cautious indeed. Otherwise you will die. We've just spent the last hour getting hands-on with developer GSC Game World's long-awaited shooter - for shooter it is, more so than RPG - and we're dusting off our hoodie and returning from » Read Full STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl preview

We know right away that it's incredibly important to take STALKER at your own pace and playing-style. A game this large and open-ended is all about the choices you make. You'll begin the game in a village populated by mutated, high-tech poachers, known as STALKERs. From here you can explore the area, admire the "A-Life" system (as STALKER's AI is known) in action and pick up other missions. The missions received here form loose plot points designed for you to discover your origins » Read Full STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl preview

You are an outlaw among outlaws, a high-tech poacher known as a STALKER. In 2012, twenty years after the world's worst atomic disaster, a second mysterious explosion rocked the Ukraine. The Chernobyl site became uninhabitable for humans with even the most advanced protective gear. Six years later you reenter the area, known as the “Exclusion Zone,” to bring back valuable artifacts formed by the strange anomalies there. You are not alone. Mutated creatures and other trigger-happy » Read Full STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl preview

Back in 1999 an American wildlife survey team visited the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to assess the impact of the accident on local flora and fauna. They were astonished by what they saw. They expected to find blackened scrubland, sick with radiation poisoning. What they actually found was a full-blown wildlife preserve. A thriving ecosystem populated by wolves, eagles, black storks, rodents, wild boar and deer. That idea, of a hostile place that teems with life, is coming to the » Read Full STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl preview