"A very large disappointment."

I was first handed this game by a friend of mine. He claimed it was an amazing shooter which he is playing again and again. I was looking forward to a great first person shooter roll playing game. What I got was a bland shooter with no aspects of an RPG, say for an inventory. Not 30 minutes in and I was disappointed. The more I played the more I grew tired of it...

Gameplay: 5.
The whole game engine works fairly well. Not the best of shooters and definitely not the best of RPGs. But it is in no way bad. The controls are simple and easy to get used to. Easy to pick up. What docks a LOT of points here is that the game developers didn't seem to understand the term "difficulty curve." I am by no means a bad gamer or a bad shooter. So do not go blaming my failure of the second fight in the game at my bad playing. Even the first fight gave me trouble. I was not playing on the extreme difficulty also. The second gun fight in the game spanked me. It is ok to have one of those insane fights in the game, but usually you would think they would be nearer to the end of the game. It is a real pain to load your safe file, die 15 seconds later and then spend another 45 seconds loading again. I suppose that is another point that takes points off. The load times take an eternity.
As for the RPG elements, well, there were not really any. It was basically a first person shooter with an inventory. Did not have an RPG feel at all.

Story: 2
If there even is a story to this game, good luck trying to find it. You start off finding out that you have amnesia. You do not know who or where you are. If the whole idea was to make the player as confused as the character, very well done. But I would like to have something explained sometime! Nothing is ever explained. You follow a jumble of confusion all the way up to an even more confusing end. That is, if you can even make it to the end. You never know where to go. I spent the entire game wandering around until I finally found someone who would have something important to say. I was so confused by it all that I just stopped caring about the story and instead started worrying about how I was going to make it past the next encounter.

Graphics: 7
Do not get fooled by the opening cut scene. The graphics there look very nice and smooth while the ones in gameplay seem above average at best. It also seems to require the best of computers to run properly. If you were to check the back of the box you would see the requirements at the bottom. In order to run the game to its full experience you will need well over the "recommended requirements." I do not understand why, the game looks and runs like a game made a good 4 years ago. The graphics could have been better, but they were not bad. Above average.

Sound: 8
The sounds in this game are actually pretty good. There is not too much music that goes on, but when it is there it sounds nice. Some NPCs play guitar every now and then and I thought that was a nice little addition. The sounds the guns make we good. The sounds the enemies make were good also. Something I thought was really awesome were the NPC voices. Russian is such a cool language.

Replay Value: 7
Whenever you leave a certain area and then come back, all the things you have killed before have now respawned. So you can go back and forth between places killing all the things you like. Not that you would want to do that seeing as every bit of combat in the game is so incredibly hard. But if you would like, there's that option. Also, I hear that there are multiple endings. I am not sure how to obtain a different ending and I highly doubt I will try and get another. Feel free to try yourself, though.

Final Words.
If you have not bought this game already, do not go rushing to your nearest store. If a friend of yours owns it, maybe borrow it from them. It does not require a disc to play, so install it and give it back. Maybe you'll like it. I'm honestly surprised I even finished it. On several occasions I found myself taking breaks from the game to do something fun. That's right, I had to entertain myself from doing something that is meant for entertainment. The just wasn't fun. Hopefully you will have a better experience.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/08

Game Release: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (US, 03/20/07)