S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
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| S.T.A.L.K.E.R Mobile

Chernobyl didn't go into meltdown just once. After the first disaster, it went off again, laying waste to the surrounding terrain, scorching earth, twisting DNA, and bringing about a ragged hinterland of vicious mutants. So goes the premise of S.T.A.L.K.E.R, an acclaimed first-person-shooter-cum-role-playing-game for the PC that has made the unlikely journey from the top of the technology ladder to the bottom.

The fact that S.T.A.L.K.E.R has been ported to mobile isn't especially surprising. The fact that it tries so hard to recreate its progenitor's 3D world, however, raised eyebrows when screenshots were first released last year. It was a 3D first-person shooter, and in Java, too. Surely there had to be a catch, we felt.

And there was. Rather than letting you move around the gameworld in the manner of a true first-person shooter, it roots you to the spot, plonking you down at the entrance to each area and letting you move the crosshair and pull the trigger, but nothing else. No taking cover, no circle-strafing. Nada.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R is both disappointing and gratifying, a 3D spectacular whose real charm lies in the quality of its writing (if not its English translation) in the exchanges between you and the various NPCs who populate its bleak little world.

Take these phrases from the opening monologue: "People and trash are all in one heap… pilot's mug flitted… sun shines through smoke… sand, impregnated with blood, crunch through the teeth." We're not sure what the scribe intended to say about the pilot's mug, but even with the sloppy translation this is fine, atmospheric stuff.

The opening screen of the actual gameplay is less inspiring. You spawn amid wreckage and corpses, and can't do anything other than move to the next screen by hovering the crosshairs over the break in the trees that marks the exit.

In the next screen, you meet opposition: a couple of mutants, who take turns emerging from cover to shoot at you. To shoot back, you have to push your crosshairs roughly in the direction of a target until a loose auto-aim swims into effect. With minor variations, this is exactly how every single piece of S.T.A.L.K.E.R's shooting action plays out.

So, using a PDA map screen that you access with the right soft-key, you navigate to the next waypoint and things become interesting. Another rural scene, this time with dilapidated buildings and a fire in a barrel, the international symbol of dire straits.

The NPCs you find here aren't shooting at you, but lounging around in combat gear, and when you hover the crosshairs over them their names appear: a soldier called Fence cowers on the grass, while another, Rusty, forces you to risk your life in exchange for a radio by going off to kill a few mutants, and then, when he reneges, by searching for his friend.

A third soldier, Galosh, bleakly explains that natural selection is the only relevant force in 'the Zone', and encourages you to load up on health packs. If you press him, he'll even give the location of some supplies, adding waypoints to your PDA map. A fourth will sell you equipment and guns if you can scrape the cash together.

The cowardice and mercenary behaviour of this opening scene set the tone for S.T.A.L.K.E.R, and tone isn't too strong a word. While most people don't associate atmosphere with mobile games, S.T.A.L.K.E.R convincingly depicts a grim situation, and while it's extremely wordy, the words are worth reading.

You come across missions by speaking with the apathetic soldiers who litter the gameworld, performing errands in exchange for information that might help you find your big, bearded, battle-scarred friend. Along with the option to buy and sell commodities, equip protective clothing, and collect performance-enhancing artefacts, this makes for an admirably open game.

Unfortunately, the combat is simply too repetitive to do everything else justice. You can collect more powerful weapons, and sometimes it's necessary to equip an anti-radiation complex to protect you from puddles of luminous green gunk, but these don't do much to relieve the jack-in-a-box drudgery of waiting for enemies to pop their heads over the various boxes and upturned tables they're hiding behind.

The fact that you can't take cover also wounds S.T.A.L.K.E.R. It's literally impossible to avoid taking hits, so much of the combat entails memorising the order in which enemies pop up and gulping down medikits to stave off death, which is hardly satisfying. Or sophisticated.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a hugely ambitious game, but its gameplay lets it down. Clearly we can't recommend it unreservedly, but it's also too interesting to overlook. We want you to play it, in other words, as long as you don't blame us when you don't have very much fun.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl

S.T.A.L.K.E.R is an ambitious mobile conversion that succeeds in capturing much of the atmosphere and look of the original, but doesn't quite have the gameplay to back up these small successes
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Rob Hearn
Rob Hearn
Having obtained a distinguished education, Rob became Steel Media's managing editor, now he's no longer here though.