Beasts with brains...

Striding out into the wilderness of an irradiated landscape infested with mutated flesh-beasts shouldn't be a walk in the park. By rights, you should be constantly nervous, always looking over your shoulder, and jittery like a newborn kitten. In this, Stalker excels. You rarely run into a single, easy-to-kill creature - instead you're regularly pursued by packs of ravenous nasties, and there's always the chance of something gruesome or dangerous hiding around the corner.

At one point, we wandered inquisitively into an abandoned structure, whipped out our torch and rooted around. Concealed in the dark building, we assumed we were safe - only for our torchlight to pass over the grotesque features of a hidden boar-thing that squealed and charged at us.Our last thought, as we attempted to whip out our gun in a petrified frenzy before the monstrosity barrelled into us tusk-first, was that Stalker isn't merely a shooter. It's a survival horror adventure, too.