As I approached the end of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s campaign, I wanted to take break to wait on patches that might resolve some bugged side quests. Given how many locations and characters return from the original trilogy, I figured I’d use the time to sample the console port of STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl to see how well it played and just how well my memory held up. Over 15 stressful hours later, I watched the canon ending play out and was just as entertained and frustrated as the first time I played it. Even 17-years on, GSC Game World’s post-apocalyptic “Zone” remains a mysterious, unpredictable, and terrifying setting, with a survival-shooter core that rewards preparation, caution, and tactics, while swiftly punishing the reckless.
It’s a weird sensation playing the 2007 original given how narrative-heavy and character-driven the numbered sequel turned out. In comparison, STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl almost feels like a total replacement mod of another game, built using a toolset – the infamous X-Ray Engine – that feels poorly suited to reams of expository dialogue and cinematic set-pieces.
Outside of a handful of still stylish CG cutscenes, the storytelling is mostly handled by radio messages or working through dense menu-driven dialogue, much of which has no voice acting. The crude in-game cinematics and set-pieces reminded me of my early PC years trying to use mission editors with basic scripting, like those found in 2001’s Arma: Cold War Assault (née Operation Flashpoint) or 2002’s Neverwinter Nights. Spawned units are given faction tags, loadouts, and waypoints, then the basic pathfinding and engagement rules send them towards a central point to battle over. It’s dated, sure, but also weirdly exciting and dynamic to watch in an age of rigidly scripted, motion-captured cutscenes.
That loose scripting and the uncertain outcomes of any engagement are also integral to makes STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl so compelling: unexpected chaos that can work for or against you at any given moment – even if it sometimes breaks immersion.
Your character, the “Marked One”, awakens with fragmented memories in a region near the edge of the Zone. They have a STALKER tattoo, a PDA with the objective “Kill Strelok”, and a knack for survival that suggests they’re no stranger to the Zone. They’re also stuck with a trader who’ll only provide information for a price, usually dangerous work rather than credits. It’s the perfect setup that syncs narrative progression with gameplay progression, as the Marked One pushes towards the Chornobyl NPP in the centre of the Zone and discovers more about their former identity and past events. At the same time, the player slowly improves their gear and gameplay skills, becoming more durable and deadly as the challenge ramps up significantly.
And make no mistake, STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl remains an unforgiving game that can fluctuate between borderline unfair and power-fantasy. It plays as a tactical first-person shooter in which you can crouch, lean, and minimise detection, but on top of that you have inventory management, a myriad of gear attributes to consider, weapon and armour degradation, and even survival elements like hunger, bleeding, radiation exposure, and accumulating psychic damage. In addition to armed humans, you’ll go up against packs of mutated dogs, pigs, and boars; Bloodsuckers that cloak themselves before striking; Pseudo-dogs that summon spectral clones; and brain-melting Controllers surrounded by zombified stalkers. If that wasn’t enough, the environment is littered with radiation hotspots and bizarre anomalies that can crush, burn, dissolve, and electrocute you.
Survival is no easy feat and the gunplay quickly highlights the wildly inaccurate and easy-to-jam firearms. It’s annoying and inconsistent at first, but encourages you to line up headshots while engaging from the longest range possible. From an early encounter wielding a shotgun against mutant boars, to dashing through Pripyat tackling exoskeleton-wearing Monolith soldiers with a Gauss rifle, encounters can be terrifyingly lethal. Thankfully, player progression is a standout element of STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl as it feels consistent with the setting and premise. You never miraculously gain health, stamina, resistances, or carrying capacity through an experience and level system. Instead, it’s the quality of your gear and artefacts that define your playstyle.
Early pistol and shotgun battles can feel too random and scrappy but, several hours down the line, as you head out with a silenced rifle, armour piercing rounds, military-grade armour, and radiation-consuming artefacts, your preparation and tactics are rewarded with a succession of lethal headshots as your enemies’ scamper between cover unable to identify your position. It can be thrilling, but you’re never invulnerable, as getting hit in the head, flanked at close range, or cornered by a mutant in the dark can still result in a quick death on even the lowest difficulty. As the game constantly shifts between surface zones with nowhere to hide, and dark claustrophobic interiors with nowhere to run, a diverse loadout of quality gear is essential – especially as the entire end-game sequence is a gruelling gauntlet with little respite and no traders in sight.
Finding powerful artifacts – which typically offer a trade-off between resistances and radiation – involve weaving through anomaly fields to find them, but the most powerful gear can be acquired through several means. You could just follow the core quests to get a decent selection of armour and firearms, but the end game feels like a substantial difficulty spike. To bolster your chances, you could complete dynamic quests for cash to spend at traders that, as a bonus, can spontaneously complete if a pack of mutants or opposing faction does your job for you. There are also hundreds of Stalker stashes to raid, though mostly for consumables and ammo rather than gear. More often than not, you’ll find the best stuff by looting the corpses of whoever is most efficient at killing you.
This leads me back to the game’s propensity for unexpected chaos. While a combination of tactics and some luck can see you drop tougher foes and claim their gear, the sandbox-like design caters to opportunists. Playing cautiously and staying as neutral as possible let me exploit the aftermath of battles between different factions and mutants. On many occasions, I significantly improved my gear by simply staying on the sidelines of a battle, or leading an enraged pack of mutants towards a human outpost, followed by picking off any hostile survivors. This resulted in no shortage corpses with high-end gear and plenty of trade fodder I could turn into more consumables and ammo.
That said, you can never grow too attached to your gear in STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl, as the repair and upgrade mechanics from the later games are absent, forcing you to scavenge and adapt during longer missions in the depths of old laboratories or towards the centre of the Zone.
Now for the longest time, STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl – and the rest of the “Legends of The Zone” trilogy, Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat – where only available on PC. If you value a well-established modding scene that offers everything from simple quality-of-life fixes to major visual and gameplay overhauls, it remains the best platform to play on. That said, the recent console ports, despite the notoriety of the X-Ray Engine, are in great shape, play well enough with a gameped (even if inventory management is a little slower) and offer a mostly stable vanilla experience.
It’s a vanilla experience I’d still recommend to first-time players if the recently released sequel has caught your attention. Despite its age, STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl still stands up surprisingly well and lays the foundation for events you’ll witness in the sequel. You’ve got tough, occassionaly frustrating, but also excitingly and unpredictable gameplay, coupled with an aging engine that does a surprisingly competant job generating an oppressive and unsettling atmosphere , complemented by eerie ambience and an understated soundtrack. I’d even argue it does some things better than the sequel (for now at least) such as how it uses more dynamic light sources, creating incredible firefights in the dark, as muzzle flash and flashlights cast wild shadows around you.
Given the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and STALKER 2’s protracted and turbulent development, I’m just glad both the developers and modders have preserved this classic trilogy. It’s clunky but fun, and often as exhilirating as it is frustrating, but without it, we might not have had Call of Duty 4‘s “All Ghillied Up” mission, the brilliant Metro games, Chernobylite, or the recent Pacific Drive.
STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl was played on Xbox Series S|X. It is also available on PC, Xbox One, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch
